I feel obliged to follow up my last post with an example of my reason for requesting addition information when it comes to complaints about an outfitter.
Several years ago a buddy and I were hunting the KD1 area of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana. We shared camp with another hunter and his companion who was a non hunter. My buddy and I had a great time each and every day and we had no difficulty punching the ticket on every animal on our respective wish lists. The other hunter we shared camp with was not having a good time. At the end of each day this hunter and his friend would return to camp empty handed and he would begin grumbling and groaning about what a crappy day he’d had.
We came to learn that for whatever reason this hunter simply couldn’t hit his ass with both hands. He had a variety of excuses that ranged from poor ammunition, sights being knocked off, a sticky trigger assembly and the PH’s inability to locate game and position him within a proper shooting range (whatever he felt that was). Day after day this hunter had no success and he would continue returning to camp each evening in a progressively worse mood than the day before.
I’m sure his inability to hit what he aimed at wasn’t the only reason for his terrible mood. The overall situation must have been heightened because his audience to all those missed shots was the non hunting companion he was obviously trying to impress. In any event this guy became an insufferable jerk that my buddy and I along with the entire camp staff would avoid at all cost. I must add that by the end of the ten day hunt this hunter had still not connected and dropped a single animal.
A few weeks after that hunt my buddy and I were both contacted by the outfitter. We were asked about the conditions of camp, the staff, the food and the abundance of game we had encountered. We both assured the outfitter that we found everything to be great other than the presence of the other hunter and his loud and incessant grumbling each evening. We further told the outfitter that we most especially enjoyed the abundance of game and the opportunity to successfully complete our respective wish lists days before our hunt ended.
The outfitter then went on to tell us that his reason for inquiring was a letter he’d received from the other hunter. This hunter was demanding a full refund for the hunt due to poor camp conditions, poor food, a poor PH, and the absence of game in the area. We found the last allegation to be particularly absurd. But having been around this hunter I would imagine he also complained about sand in his shoes, boogers in his nose and itchy hemorrhoids, all of which were due to the outfitter. But there certainly was no absence of game in the area. With our wish lists completed my buddy and I spent our final couple of days shooting 12 additional ‘freebie’ animals as foodstuff for the local village. Game was obviously abundant.
However, this hunter went on to threaten the outfitter by saying that if a refund was not received he was going to report his overall 'poor hunting experience' to his local SCI chapter, SCI International and to various internet hunting sites.
Although long winded that's why I personally take general accusations with a grain of salt. Without a few details or specifics the accusation remains hollow. . . Besides, without details I could never really be sure that the accuser wasn’t that same obnoxious and insufferable guy I shared camp with in Botswana years ago. LOL. But I’ll wager that to this day he still can’t hit his ass with both hands as I believe his impatience and anger won’t allow him to master a proper shooting technique
