SOUTH AFRICA: BOWHUNT: Pawprint Safaris

bowfishoholic

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We went to PawPrint Safaris in August of 2014.
We had a bowhunter's dream planned. Our plans included a bushbuck, nyala and eland to complete our spiral slam. We also had a nighttime bushpig hunt and springbok and black wildebeast at the Free State planned. We also had plans for a zebra. Pieter was to be our guide.

August 10, We arrived in Johannesburg and Pieter was waiting for us at the arrival gate and kindly helped get our bags and take us to our first destination.
On the way, Pieter explained that his children were home and school was about to start. He would like to spend some time with them, since we would be close to his home for part of the trip. He had a reliable PH, John who would be our guide for most of our 13 day hunt.
We met John, sighted in our bows and got settled in a lovely cottage.
We had dinner which was decent, with one of our requested deserts, mint crisp, which was delicious. That night was cold and the little heater was not near enough to keep us warm. We looked forward to a hot shower, but only had cold water.

August 11 started downhill. It was cold and windy. Tried to spot and stalk a nyala. Helped Sammy put up some blinds.
It turned out that John was a pretty good rifle guide, but had no concept about bowhunting. He had us on the back of his truck chasing nyala, hartebeast and zebra. The concession had only been hunted once in recent times and the animals were quite calm. Until-- the driving through the open areas chasing the animals educated them quite quickly. Instead of getting ahead of the herd and waiting for them, he would try to chase and have you take a bowshot from a moving, bouncing vehicle. When he stopped, it would be a 60+yard shot. He would not listen to a woman about bowhunting, and actually I was made to feel disrespected. By the third day, I was ready to leave.
When Pieter wasn't present for meals, our cook became a 3rd rate cook. Somehow she was pretty decent when Pieter was around. We never got mint crisp again, even though the second day is better than the first and there was almost a full pan left over. John loved dirt pudding/pie and we got lots of it, and it wasn't near as good. Our lunches were white bread, buttered and a slice of processed meat wrapped in tinfoil, with chips and sugar wafers, again wrapped in tinfoil, not the best thing for eating in a blind.

August 12, we shot a warthog. I shot a nyala. John insisted that I take the frontal shot. After arguing for about 5 minutes and the nyala is still standing there looking at us, I gave in and took the shot. Whack-hit him in the shoulder. Our tracker searched for a while, then we had to get Pieter and his dog. We found it and finally Pieter finished it off with the rifle.

August 13, we shot a hartebeast, which turned out to be a long track, but Sammy found him in the bushes.

August 14 we drove to Alldays, where we finally had a decent night's sleep and a hot shower in a beautiful lodge with good food. Pieter was our guide there.

August 15, we sat in a raised blind. We saw gemsbok, kudu, impala, duikers, zebra and monkeys. We could not shoot zebra on this property.

August 16, hunted eland, saw a nice impala, took a walk and almost got run over by a waterbuck. Took our shower, and cold water again. We tried a night time eland hunt and only saw wildebeast.

August 17, our tracker, Sammy sat with us, we tried to shoot some guinneas and had a troop of baboons run up the blind and over the roof.
We went to the National Park and saw an elephant on the way and crocks in the river along Botswana and Zimbabwe on the other side.
We hunted that night with Pieter for eland. We saw a nice gemsbok, then the eland came in and the red light spooked them.
There was an unusual amount of rain for August and our bushpig hunt was cancelled, due to slippery muddy roads. The wildebeast were not coming in to feed and water.

August 18 we drove back to Magaliesburg. John was back and had us chasing zebra from the back of the truck. The shots were long and we had no time to range them and get the shot off.

August 19- another cold shower. John drove us to the Free State to hunt eland, black wildebeast, and springbok.
Sammy sat with us and I took a perfect shot on a springbok. We got to see it spring up and out, we found it just over the hill.
Sammy sat with us in the afternoon and we got a shot on an eland. We tracked it for 2 days. Never found it.
Pieter went with us the 2nd day and we searched as a group.
When we returned the hot water was fixed!!!

August 21- back to Magaliesburg, took a shot on a baboon, but missed. We finally saw some big eland and a zebra at dark, but now it was time to go back home.
We met the taxidermist. Had a very nice dinner and lots of shots, since it was the bartender's birthday.

August 22, We woke up and found the dining room full of dirty dishes, cold leftovers and no coffee. I started a pot of coffee and got my bags ready to leave. Pieter picked us up and John loaded up the truck.
We stopped for lunch and signed final papers, paid for our taxidermy and shipping to the states, since we had so much money left from not shooting all the animals. Pieter told us since We had paid for the taxidermy upfront that we should get our trophies quickly. We went to the market and The Pieter paid for our souveniers.
The consession at Magliesburg was a perfect setup for bowhunting. It was very nicely laid out. It even had an old camp which could be fixed up for hunters. If the animals had not been pushed so hard, they would have been fairly easy to hunt. We had discussed ideas on how to make this a bowhunting only concession.

The whole hunt, the only wild game we had was warthog, which was not cooked very well and springbok which was cooked on the bbq by John, quite tasty. I kept asking for nyala, but we never had any nyala or hartebeast.

July 2016, we finally got word that the shipper had our trophies. We gave him our information and everyone made contact.
We had a trip planned for Alaska for August/September 2016 and asked that the trophies would arrive when we returned. We came home and the trophies' documentation was not ready, a piece of paperwork was missing. The landowner's document was supposedly filed around October 1, 2016.

January 2017, I posted a comment on AH, but left out the outfitter. I had several other stories that I learned about. That day we heard from Pieter who offered us a hunt if we returned. At least things got in action again.

The end of March 2017, we finally got another email and the information was exchanged again, everyone made contact and the documentation was almost in hand.

April 6, 2017, we got an email and found out that the NW Province had lost some paperwork. The middle of April the paperwork was supposed to be in our taxidermist's possession.

Here it us May 11, 2017, and still no sign of our trophies being shipped. We asked what is going on and received a picture of a crate and was told it was safe and ready to ship when all documentation was obtained.
Perhaps, we will get our trophies from our trip to Limcroma in 2018 before we ever see these.
We showed the pictures of our animals to Guillaume, who guided our first hunt at Limcroma. He told us that the springbok and eland we shot were not quite mature, which he was right. Pretty decent hartebeast and warthog.
Can't wait to have a decent hunt at Limcroma next year.
I will post if and when we ever get our trophies as to the taxidermy work and condition. We have our first trophies from TrophyPro to compare our African taxidermy work. Hopefully they will be as nice.
 
The above is true. I did apologise for the inconvenience, regarding the delay with the export which is not acceptable. I did offer a free hunt.
Unfortunately I used an experienced PH who advertised on the weekly PHASA newsletter. He had his own chef, everything seemed good in the interview. It turned out not to be.
As Murphy would have it the conservation authorities lost the paperwork.
This week the export permit was finally issued.
As you can see I often visited camp and no complaints ever were made.
As mentioned when I was in camp the food was always good.
The PH was dismissed after this complaint. I did apologise, I did sort out the export and I did offer a free hunt to compensate.
I never distanced myself from the problem.
My offer still stands.
 
Hats off to you Pieter for trying to make it right by these folks...Hopefully all turns out for the better on the trophy shipment.
 
Pieter maybe you should stop by and look at the trophies before they are shipped so the story doesn't just get longer.
It is only three months and it will be three years? Ouch!
 
Pieter maybe you should stop by and look at the trophies before they are shipped so the story doesn't just get longer.
It is only three months and it will be three years? Ouch!
Sir that was done months ago and pictures sent to the client. The problem was not with taxidermy but with lost documentation at nature conservation. An export company handles this side of things not the outfitter, however I did get involved and helped sort out the problem.
An outfitters job does not end when trophies are delivered to the taxidermist as this case prooves. Things can go wrong and I take full responsibility.
 
Hopefully the export company can get the crate on its way quickly. It is regrettable that the assigned. PH did not do his job very well and that things did not meet the expectations of the clients. Pieter, your honest response is appreciated by readers of this thread and hopefully the OP.
The PH was discharged and an offer of another hunt made. Efforts to get the shipment on its way have obviously been derailed by a government agency which has demonstrated little to no urgency in the matter.

I can honestly say that my trips with Pawprint Safaris have gone well and exceeded my expectations. Have some things gone differently than what I initially expected on a hunt .....yes, but Pieter addressed and corrected anything that I brought to his attention. He even went out of his way to assist in helping me get a doctor and medication that I needed on one hunt.
It is my understanding that Pawprint now has dedicated bow hunting concessions which should alleviate future concerns like these clients experienced. I can also assure anyone that the food offerings in 2015 and 2016 were outstanding. I will let you know in three weeks about the 2017 food with the new chef!
 
@bowfishoholic , sorry to hear about your bad experience. I also had a trophy shipment which took nearly two years to arrive, and on top of that, the work was lousy.
 
@bowfishoholic , sorry to hear about your bad experience. I also had a trophy shipment which took nearly two years to arrive, and on top of that, the work was lousy.

Were these company's suggested by the people you hunted with?
I had a bad experience with a taxidermist and a dip and ship from companies that I hunted with in SA.
I just did a trophy hunt in New Zealand and I brought the trophies back in a 30" by 50" duffle bag and it only cost me $50NZ to get them back to USA. That would cover three or four animals in shipping. May never go back to Africa again. My wife will question the D&S and shipping of $5000 to get them back.
You can shoot five or six animals in NZ and if you want use helicopters to do it and still be less than SA?
 
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Sorry but this is what I got in NZ

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I have deleted the export permit photo as it had confidential information on it.
 
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I would agree with you on that I thought it was kind of out there.
I hope it wasn't there because of me since I was agreeing with the fact that you were saying you had covered the taxidermist PROBLEM.
It would be great if companies would cover for the people they told some one to use for Dip&ship or Taxidermist after a hunt.
Tom
 
We found no fault with Pieter. He seemed to be a wonderful person. I think he got taken advantage of by John and the cook. We really did enjoy our time with Pieter and Paw Print Safaris. It just seemed that the whole trip was a disaster all the way to the trophy shipment.
 
The above is true. I did apologise for the inconvenience, regarding the delay with the export which is not acceptable. I did offer a free hunt.
Unfortunately I used an experienced PH who advertised on the weekly PHASA newsletter. He had his own chef, everything seemed good in the interview. It turned out not to be.
As Murphy would have it the conservation authorities lost the paperwork.
This week the export permit was finally issued.
As you can see I often visited camp and no complaints ever were made.
As mentioned when I was in camp the food was always good.
The PH was dismissed after this complaint. I did apologise, I did sort out the export and I did offer a free hunt to compensate.
I never distanced myself from the problem.
My offer still stands.

As outfitters we are very reliant on our Pro Hunters that represent us on a daily basis when we are not able to.

Hiring a new guy is always risky. I think every company has had a hunt go sideways for many different reasons. The only difference between a wannabe and a class operation though is what are you prepared to do to remedy the situation.

I do know that the Limpopo department is notorious for delayed paperwork.
Good luck with this Pieter.
Regards
 
Thanks for sharing this case- its always unfortunate when a PH lets the outfitter down, other issues arise, etc. Good luck with your trophies- I hope it all works out.

Glad to see @Pawprint Safaris doing everything they can to address the issue.

@bowfishoholic regarding your upcoming hunt with @Limcroma Safaris - there's a good chance that you can meet not just Hannes the outfitter, but your specific PH as well prior to your hunt, if you go to one of the conventions. Most of their PHs have been working with Limcroma for years and attend the shows with them. We hunted with Riaan Jacobs and his brother Henk was our videographer. Great crew, great trophies, etc.
 
This has all been handled well on both sides. I'm impressed both with the hunter and the outfitter. I hope that crate arrives soon and that you love your mounts!
 
I think this is what separates the good outfitters from the outstanding outfitters. Pieter has taken full responsibility on a world wide forum, he is still working to salvage shipment of the trophies, and has offered a free hunt going forward. I believe this shows Pieter's real class as an outfitter. Sorry this happened @bowfishoholic and I am sure you will have a great hunt with @Limcroma Safaris and I hope that you take Pieter up on his offer of a free hunt some day.

Cheers:D Beers:
Mekaniks
 
Thanks for sharing this case- its always unfortunate when a PH lets the outfitter down, other issues arise, etc. Good luck with your trophies- I hope it all works out.

Glad to see @Pawprint Safaris doing everything they can to address the issue.

@bowfishoholic regarding your upcoming hunt with @Limcroma Safaris - there's a good chance that you can meet not just Hannes the outfitter, but your specific PH as well prior to your hunt, if you go to one of the conventions. Most of their PHs have been working with Limcroma for years and attend the shows with them. We hunted with Riaan Jacobs and his brother Henk was our videographer. Great crew, great trophies, etc.
We had a great hunt with Hannes and Guillaume in 2012. We went to Nashville and spent the weekend there and met with Guillaume off and on all weekend. Thanks for the advice.

We tried to go and meet Pieter in kansas, but on the way our DEF system had a malfunction and started slowing down our speed. Fortunately we made it home and to the dealer later that week.
 
We found no fault with Pieter. He seemed to be a wonderful person. I think he got taken advantage of by John and the cook. We really did enjoy our time with Pieter and Paw Print Safaris. It just seemed that the whole trip was a disaster all the way to the trophy shipment.

I hope you will take Pieter up on the offer of a return hunt and let him give you a great experience.
 

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