The Difference Between An Agreeable & A Difficult Client From A Professional Hunter Perspective...

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I am sitting around a fire on a windless evening looking at the bush TV and have decided to type some thoughts and an experience I had many years ago regarding this issue.

I have hunted with many clients over the years, most of whom are most enjoyable and understanding, some however have been know it all and very unpleasant folks to be associated with...luckily by far the minority.

I was asked to assist as a freelance PH on a DG hunt in Matetsi. Being my first hunt with this outfit I was assigned the client who had booked the least number of animals for this safari. I was ok with that as I cherished hunting DG game and the main animal for my assigned client was a Cape buffalo.

I drove up a few days before the hunt commenced as although I was familiar with the Matetsi blocks, having hunted there before, I wanted to scout the area before the hunt in order to familiarize myself with the general movement and proximity of the game beforehand.

I had insisted with the outfitter that I would take my own tracker and skinner as we were a team and I did not hunt DG with a tracker I did not know..

Scouting proved that not much had changed from my previous hunt in the area, except that single or small groups of dagga boys are nonexistent, only large herds of buffalo were seen.

Day one I am assigned my client out of a group of seven hunters, the leader of which seems to be a mister knows all who gives unasked for instructions and is generally making himself the point of attention in camp. He was also making videos for publication in his country of origin.

Now don’t get me wrong I understand some folks come for a once in a lifetime hunt and wish to have this filmed. No problem. I just don’t like “hunting for the camera” especially when it is for the sake of money and broadcasting, and not for cherished memories, as invariably the ethics start going out the door, many times.

I was also assigned a local camera man. I was not to happy about this arrangement and had a discussion with him. I explained to him that I do not hunt for the camera and that I hope he had his sh.. together because if he screwed up the hunt there would be hell to play. If he did not agree to this he could report to the outfitter and ask to be assigned to another PH. My client agreed and did not like the idea of a cameraman on tow as he was not interested in the footage, as this was for Mr X, the leader of the group…

I finally get some private time with my assigned client and as always I discuss with my client what he is expecting on his safari and what his expectations are. His reply makes me smile and relax and ignore the BS the ring leader has been get rid of. I silently smile and instantly know that as the “newbie” freelance PH for this outfitter I have drawn the trump card on this hunt.

His simple reply was Cape buffalo was his primary animal and he had no expectations or wishes regarding spread or inches, he wanted the oldest, meanest looking and scarred up buffalo I could find….simple as that….

The normal discussion regarding caliber and bullets ensued and I informed him that although I had arrived a few days early to scout I had not found any single dagga boys or bachelor groups of dagga boys I was confident we would find what he wanted.

He was using Trophy bonded bear claw bullets and when asked if he needed to load up with softs or solids or soft and solid backed I by solids I replied that from what I had seen he was best off just loading the softs as solids in a herd situation could be a problem if the bullet exited and hit another buffalo. He was more than cool with that and we had an early night in anticipation of out hunt the next day…

So we started hunting…quite a few days’s passed and although we saw many herds of buffalo and made many stalks we did not find a beat old dagga boy my client had in his mind to hunt. We collected PG as opportunities arose. Passing the first half of his hunt we had had an very enjoyable time together and never did he become negative or despondent even though we had passed up big decent trophy buffalo during the first half of his hunt, I am talking 40-42 inch spread hard boss bulls here, it was not what he was after…..

We went out again as per usual, being up well before sunrise and leaving camp before sunrise…

At about 9h30 we were on a section we had not been on before which was a track running parallel to the a joining block. We came over a rise and way up ahead next to a stream I spotted a lone buffalo bull. A short rap on the Cruiser roof had my tracker stop and my bino’s went up. I was looking at a beat up ancient buffalo bull grazing on the spars green grass next to the stream….

We kept glassing to see if we could see any other buffalo, we could not we only saw this ancient warrior.

Being a long way off we decided to have a closer look. Neither the Zim PH, game scout or tracker showed any interest to go after this buffalo. He was on the opposite side of the stream and the only approach we had was from our side, taking the wind into consideration. The problem was that our approach would be through long thick elephant grass that would bring us out very close to the buffalo, we would not be able to see him until we came out about 30 yards from him. We had no idea if he had a companion or two and if he may have moved position until we came out of the elephant grass…

I discussed this with my client and he said let’s go I like that buff…my tracker, myself and client left the rest of the crew and started our approach.

As we entered the elephant grass I explained the situation again to the camera man, making sure he understood that this was going to be difficult and that we had to be absolutely quite, no funny stuff on camera or not as we were hunting for the client not the footage…

A painstaking stalk ensued without us knowing if there were any other buffalo, no forward vision so to speak through the elephant grass and it was noisy as everything was bone dry…. After what seemed like an eternity we saw the elephant grass thin, Alec my tracker leading, me close behind with client on my heels and camera man behind him…

As we started emerging the elephant grass with no words spoken, Alec slowly set up the shooting sticks, a clear sign that our plan so far had worked and our quarry was in his sight, I moved in next to the shooting sticks and gestured my client into position. He silently and purposefully got his rifle on the sticks, the plan was coming together….or so we thought….

We had actually come out closer to the buffalo than expected and where only just 20 yards away, which was not a problem as this ancient buffalo, probably in is 14th or 15th year had not heard our approach, until the camera man decided he needed to move to the side to get the footage and in doing so and not having anybody’s footstep to follow in made a noise that instantly changed the whole dynamics of the painstaking stalk….

The client was not quite ready for the shot the ancient buffalo instantly spun around from broadside with a snort, head up facing the noise, trying to figure iout if this was the lion that had left the clearly visible scar on his rump or that had chomped his tail off a few years back!!

He swung around, ran up the other bank of the stream that was only about 10 yards further and stopped next to the only bush on that side of the stream with his nostrils flaring and staring down his nose at us only separated by a stream of water that was insignificant in the context of the dilemma we were faced with….

I knew and could feel that the charge to come was imminent and would come at any time, I silently urged my client, Shoot, he is going to charge, Shoot!!!...with that and a snort the ancient buffalo bull gave a snort, lowered his head lifted it and started his charge with raised head and flaring nostrils pointed at the disturbance of his final hr…

To be continued....

@IvW
Both my PHs were 20 to 30 years younger than me ( something us old fellas have to accept) and it was a pleasure to hunt with such knowledgeable young people. Yes y ou can teach us old dog's new tricks.
Bob

 

[tn4lee]

Yes, great story there IvW thanks.
I usually won’t watch anything that has a label like “Team Yadayada Whatever” but did watch that because of this thread. Holy cr!&)@p!
No practice loading under stress, fumbling trying to find extra ammo, loading cross handed and left handed while fumbling with action, dry firing and flinching with a 375, turning the power down on the scope mid scramble and so on! All with the reversed ball cap- eh!

Question from a newbie: Presuming that the shooter's Winchester rifle is Control Round Feed...is this not an example of one of the disadvantages of CRF? That is, with an empty chamber and magazine, the next round must be inserted into the magazine so that the extractor can then engage and capture the cartridge as the bolt is closed? As opposed to Push Feed in which the bolt can "push" the next round directly into the chamber? Not trying to excite the masses but would appreciate clarification. Thanks.

 

[tn4lee]

@IvW
Both my PHs were 20 to 30 years younger than me ( something us old fellas have to accept) and it was a pleasure to hunt with such knowledgeable young people. Yes y ou can teach us old dog's new tricks.
Bob

I am very thankful that my Cardiologist is much younger than me, too, and for the same reasons.

 

[Fastrig]

Question from a newbie: Presuming that the shooter's Winchester rifle is Control Round Feed...is this not an example of one of the disadvantages of CRF? That is, with an empty chamber and magazine, the next round must be inserted into the magazine so that the extractor can then engage and capture the cartridge as the bolt is closed? As opposed to Push Feed in which the bolt can "push" the next round directly into the chamber? Not trying to excite the masses but would appreciate clarification. Thanks.

Good Lord, you will start a hornets nest with this old comparison, LOL. Both feeds have plusses and minuses. I own both and never had either fail in the field, but then I practice with both (the key to anything) and take care of both properly. Have three CRF rifles that have had feeding issues, all of which went to the smith to have them repaired. Never had a push feed feed fail to feed properly. Doesn’t mean one is better than the the other, just that mechanical things can and will have issues. I’d use any of my rifles on PG or DG without worry about which type of feed each contains.

 

[BeeMaa]

Excellent read @IvW.
Well done sir.

First rule of hunting with a guide...
Don't guide, the guide (or PH in this case).
You have paid a lot of money for their professional opinion.
Use it to the best of your abilities.

Second rule of hunting with a guide...
You were given 2 ears and one mouth.
Listen at least twice as much as you talk.

 

[Newby]

Question from a newbie: Presuming that the shooter's Winchester rifle is Control Round Feed...is this not an example of one of the disadvantages of CRF? That is, with an empty chamber and magazine, the next round must be inserted into the magazine so that the extractor can then engage and capture the cartridge as the bolt is closed? As opposed to Push Feed in which the bolt can "push" the next round directly into the chamber? Not trying to excite the masses but would appreciate clarification. Thanks.

It's the opposite for me. Pushing a round down into the magazine of either CRF or PF is less fiddly and much less likely to cause trouble than the much vaunted "dropping one in" of the PF. Unless the single load of the PF is actually started into the chamber with your fingers, there is a high probability of the bullet nose of the loose round butting into the barrel face or some other hang up point on the way to the chamber. Or maybe even rolling out of the port before the bolt even starts moving forward if one is sufficiently excited.

Much more reliable to feed from the mag with either system IME.

 

[Rare Breed]

I will not be that client...I will not be that client...I will not be that client...

Great read. I have only been to Africa once so far. I well remember my PHs big smile after he asked me what my number one priority was and I answered I did not want to let down or disappoint him

 

[spike.t]

@AZDAVE
Forrest Gump said life is like a box of chocolates.
I think life is like a bed of roses but you've got to watch out for the pricks.
Bob

You need to be careful who you get into bed with.....

 

[Happy Myles]

Some clients forget their responsibilities are to keep up, keep quiet, keep an efficient rifle, and shoot straight.

 

[Wheels]

Thanks for sharing the experience. It was a good writeup.

 

[Bullhunter]

Great story and great writing.
You are an expert and should going on.

I had some good PHs in the past.
I learend something from them.
To many I still have contact, sometimes over a decade after the hunt.

But...
I have seen (on my travels worldwide) and meet, pp., some PHs, that are Mr. X in person.
Unfriendly, untrained, with cheap/shit/unfounctional guns, less amo, unfuctional equipment and cars, rude, with an bad behaviour (some are very unfriendly to the locals, witch I stopped at the point), fat, out of shape for this job, drinker and smoker, unkowen the area, "to close" to my girl-friend,etc., etc.

(So I decied to go only to hunts - on farms or in country there is it allowed to the law - there I can hunt alone. Of course with an tracker, local (native) scout, pp. I had not everytime sucsess, but for me that is the ultimate adventure.)

I wish you all an happy and sucsessfull new year 2021.

 

[IvW]

True there are two sides to a coin......

 

[Rule 303]

IvW a great write up. More to the point a good reminder to us clients to listen and take onboard what is been said.

I don't doubt there are PH's that are not up to the job and give PH's a bad name. If I found myself with one of these I would be between the devil and the deep blue sea but would have to do a lot of wondering about my research.

Having hunted in Zim once and Namibia twice I count myself very fortunate to have had good PH's and clients in camp. I just hope I was a good client, tried to be.

 

[1dirthawker]

wow, that guy hunting buffalo on magnum tv, what a dumbass!! lucky the wounded bull did not charge!! i can't believe that guy would talk about the virtues of shooting and wounding an animal and how that is better than a clean kill. as IVW says" i wonder what goes on off camera", bet i wouldn't like it.

IVW, good write up. you have guided many more hunters than i (like a hundred times) but the truth is, if you guide enough people, some of em are gonna be like mr X, just how it works, some guys that have money and some success can be "difficult" to convince of a position other than their own.

a great write up, you should do it again.

 

[2400]

Do you mean, like this one Graham Hunter and LivingTheDream?

Magnum TV S4:E3- Cape Buffalo Showdown

WOW. just wow...

I can't believe how many times he sweeps the guys around him with his rifle.

I wouldn't hunt prairie dogs with him.

 

[ZG47]

You need to be careful who you get into bed with.....

Yes ... you want to be careful with them rose prickles (they ain’t thorns, look it up if you don’t believe me).