ZIMBABWE: FANTASTIC Zimbabwe Double Buffalo At Shangani Safaris

[Custom]

I got it last week and saw the article right away. Great article by your son.

 

[C.W. Richter]

The Beasts (#1 mounted and #2 hanging at the farm as a Euro until Sonnyboy gets out of school and can enjoy it at his home or office) have finally arrived "home"...

 

[Gerry Addison]

I am the person that is referred to in this post and I will stand by my report. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Lloyd while in the truck hunting with him. One of the nicer gentlemen I've ever been with. Most of what you were told it true but not all. Juan Pace was the booking agent that put three people in the same camp with on PH (Lloyd), unbeknownst to any of the three. Lloyd worked very hard to try to hunt all three but it was an impossible situation. There was never another PH brought into camp! For the first three days Juan Pace took myself and a gentleman from Germany out on one side of the concession (where there was no game) while Lloyd ran Leopard baits with the third hunter. We didn't know it at the time but Juan Pace wasn't licensed in Zim and the game scout was being bribed to allow it. On the last day of the hunt Lloyd told be when he found out three hunters were in his charge he contacted his brother who was also a PH and was going to bring him into camp to help but Juan refused to pay for him to come in. I have no idea what the other two hunters paid or didn't pay for? I know they were understandably upset when they left camp but they both did shoot at animals. The only animal I shot on a 12 day buffalo hunt was a Zebra which I paid $1200 for with a check written to Lloyd that he cashed and I stood behind. After two years of emails to both Lloyd and Juan Pace (most of which were never answered) and never being given any satisfaction as to when or if I would receive my animal I wrote the report. After I wrote the report Lloyd did email saying he would take my Zebra skin to be shipped. As it turns out it went through some special permit system because proper licenses were not used when I shot the animal and I had to pay to have it tanned in Zim and special paperwork done to get a "special" permit to get it out of the country. This cost me over $2000 on top of normal shipping and handling fees that I wouldn't have had to pay had the proper licenses been used when harvesting the Zebra. By the time I finally received my skin it had been over three years since I left camp and I'm 100% confident I would never have received my skin had I not written the report.

As far as Lloyd is concerned he seemed like a nice person while in camp. He tried very hard in a impossible situation. Whether he knew about this or not ahead of time I have no idea. He told me he didn't know and I take him at his word. I do know Juan Pace was the ringleader in this entire affair and I know he is still booking hunts. Lloyd did contact me after this was all over and offered to take me on a buffalo hunt at a reduced rate which I appreciated but never accepted. I am attaching the exact email Lloyd sent to me after this was all concluded. Again, I stand by my report and I swear on my life that all that I wrote is true to the best of my knowledge. I would not be afraid to hunt with Lloyd and I think this was a terrible situation perpetrated by Juan Pace and that is why I amended what I had written at the end of the report. Could Lloyd have handled things better, yes. I think he was upset because he felt cheated by Juan and we got caught in the middle. It is not my desire to harm Lloyd or his reputation. Had I received my animal I would never have written a negative report. It was only after numerous unanswered emails that I decided others need to know what was happening. I think when the dust finally settled he tried to make things right but it took the negative report to make that happen. I am only writing this because I feel my word was being questioned in this report and I wanted to clear the air, if that is possible.

Here is the last email I received from Lloyd in it's entirety:


Hi Gerry
Thank you for what you posted. I really appreciate it.
Just so you know exactly what I knew going into the hunt. Juan originally booked Chappie on a Leopard hunt and then later told me he had a German client that had a disaster hunt with him in Mozambique and he wanted to make ammends with him. At the time I had a elephant available for the German to hunt. Juan then told me that he had a American friend ( thats you ) who wanted to come and film Chappies hunt and the Germans hunt to do a promo video for Juan and me, He then asked if it was possible for you to be able to shoot a buffalo if the opportunity presented itself. I had extra buffalo so I agreed to you taking one. I had no idea that you were told by Juan that you were booked to do a buffalo hunt. I only agreed to this deal because I thought that Chappie was the main hunt and you would tag along and film the hunt and if there was time for you to hunt and shoot a buffalo then you could do it. For that very reason, I never charged you a daily rate to hunt. The same goes for the German client.
I was as surprised as you were when you arrived that Juan had lied to you by telling you that he was one of the PH's ! To make matters worse he did not tell you that there would be another two clients that you would hunt with and that there would only be myself as the PH.
As it turned out the time wasted trying to get Chappie his leopard and hippo affected your time to actually hunt.
I had registered Chappie as the client on the TR2 paperwork before the hunt commenced which is the legal requirement. It would have been impossible for me to register you on a TR2 as a full paying client doing a buffalo hunt. Our Reserve Bank Laws insist on all hunters to be declared with banking proof that all hunters had paid the full daily rate which they have a minimum amount of daily rate per day that is acceptable. The reason for this is that they dont want any Zimbabwean to leave foreign currency out of the country. They want all of it brought back into Zimbabwe.
Because Chappie had no trophies to be exported Juan could not send your zebra skin to South Africa under Chappies name. Juan should have made a plan earlier to export your trophy without you having to pay all those extra fees. Its very obvious to me now that he did not care at all about getting your trophy out by using his other clients that hunted Zimbabwe to ship your Zebra with their trophies.
My hands were completely legally tied to export your Zebra . I did receive $1,250 from you of which I had to pay our Council $850 for it. I had no daily rate from you in order to register you aTR2 to legally export your trophy. I understand that this it not your fault but it shows that both you and I got cheated by Juan.
It is illegal for Juan to guide you as a PH in Zimbabwe. For that reason Juan could not take you to shoot a buffalo . I was not prepared to risk losing my License and my only livelyhood over this. I lost money on your hunt because I had to feed you and accomodate you which exceeded the $300 profit that I made on your zebra. It costs a minimum of $75 per day to break even accomodating one person. It should not have been expected of me to make things right on this hunt by spending a further $250 per day to pay for a second PH. On top of that I would have had to come up with a minimum amount of $ 375 per day to legally register you with your own TR2 paperwork. This was not the agreement that I had with Juan. I did not financially gain anything from you or the German. I also lost in the region of $6,000 on this hunt because of Juans dishonesty. The blame of you not getting your zebra the correct way and all the frustration is due to Juan and not me. The only reason that I offered you a return discounted hunt was purely because I liked you and because you had been cheated by a man who had also cheated me. I wanted things to be made right because you had hunted on my Concession . I felt that it was the honorable thing to do and not because I had done anything wrong. I regret doing any business with Juan and I was too trusting and got burnt like you did.
I hope that you would consider a return hunt so that you can be treated the right way from the start. I do sympathise with you. I just wanted you to know where I stood in this whole disaster. Juan has been trying to make contact with me to book clients ! I dont even respond as he is too thick skinned to actually see that he is not only cheating everyone but himself as well !
Please keep in touch.
Cheers
Lloyd

 

[Scott CWO]

I am the person that is referred to in this post and I will stand by my report. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Lloyd while in the truck hunting with him. One of the nicer gentlemen I've ever been with. Most of what you were told it true but not all. Juan Pace was the booking agent that put three people in the same camp with on PH (Lloyd), unbeknownst to any of the three. Lloyd worked very hard to try to hunt all three but it was an impossible situation. There was never another PH brought into camp! For the first three days Juan Pace took myself and a gentleman from Germany out on one side of the concession (where there was no game) while Lloyd ran Leopard baits with the third hunter. We didn't know it at the time but Juan Pace wasn't licensed in Zim and the game scout was being bribed to allow it. On the last day of the hunt Lloyd told be when he found out three hunters were in his charge he contacted his brother who was also a PH and was going to bring him into camp to help but Juan refused to pay for him to come in. I have no idea what the other two hunters paid or didn't pay for? I know they were understandably upset when they left camp but they both did shoot at animals. The only animal I shot on a 12 day buffalo hunt was a Zebra which I paid $1200 for with a check written to Lloyd that he cashed and I stood behind. After two years of emails to both Lloyd and Juan Pace (most of which were never answered) and never being given any satisfaction as to when or if I would receive my animal I wrote the report. After I wrote the report Lloyd did email saying he would take my Zebra skin to be shipped. As it turns out it went through some special permit system because proper licenses were not used when I shot the animal and I had to pay to have it tanned in Zim and special paperwork done to get a "special" permit to get it out of the country. This cost me over $2000 on top of normal shipping and handling fees that I wouldn't have had to pay had the proper licenses been used when harvesting the Zebra. By the time I finally received my skin it had been over three years since I left camp and I'm 100% confident I would never have received my skin had I not written the report.

As far as Lloyd is concerned he seemed like a nice person while in camp. He tried very hard in a impossible situation. Whether he knew about this or not ahead of time I have no idea. He told me he didn't know and I take him at his word. I do know Juan Pace was the ringleader in this entire affair and I know he is still booking hunts. Lloyd did contact me after this was all over and offered to take me on a buffalo hunt at a reduced rate which I appreciated but never accepted. I am attaching the exact email Lloyd sent to me after this was all concluded. Again, I stand by my report and I swear on my life that all that I wrote is true to the best of my knowledge. I would not be afraid to hunt with Lloyd and I think this was a terrible situation perpetrated by Juan Pace and that is why I amended what I had written at the end of the report. Could Lloyd have handled things better, yes. I think he was upset because he felt cheated by Juan and we got caught in the middle. It is not my desire to harm Lloyd or his reputation. Had I received my animal I would never have written a negative report. It was only after numerous unanswered emails that I decided others need to know what was happening. I think when the dust finally settled he tried to make things right but it took the negative report to make that happen. I am only writing this because I feel my word was being questioned in this report and I wanted to clear the air, if that is possible.

Here is the last email I received from Lloyd in it's entirety:


Hi Gerry
Thank you for what you posted. I really appreciate it.
Just so you know exactly what I knew going into the hunt. Juan originally booked Chappie on a Leopard hunt and then later told me he had a German client that had a disaster hunt with him in Mozambique and he wanted to make ammends with him. At the time I had a elephant available for the German to hunt. Juan then told me that he had a American friend ( thats you ) who wanted to come and film Chappies hunt and the Germans hunt to do a promo video for Juan and me, He then asked if it was possible for you to be able to shoot a buffalo if the opportunity presented itself. I had extra buffalo so I agreed to you taking one. I had no idea that you were told by Juan that you were booked to do a buffalo hunt. I only agreed to this deal because I thought that Chappie was the main hunt and you would tag along and film the hunt and if there was time for you to hunt and shoot a buffalo then you could do it. For that very reason, I never charged you a daily rate to hunt. The same goes for the German client.
I was as surprised as you were when you arrived that Juan had lied to you by telling you that he was one of the PH's ! To make matters worse he did not tell you that there would be another two clients that you would hunt with and that there would only be myself as the PH.
As it turned out the time wasted trying to get Chappie his leopard and hippo affected your time to actually hunt.
I had registered Chappie as the client on the TR2 paperwork before the hunt commenced which is the legal requirement. It would have been impossible for me to register you on a TR2 as a full paying client doing a buffalo hunt. Our Reserve Bank Laws insist on all hunters to be declared with banking proof that all hunters had paid the full daily rate which they have a minimum amount of daily rate per day that is acceptable. The reason for this is that they dont want any Zimbabwean to leave foreign currency out of the country. They want all of it brought back into Zimbabwe.
Because Chappie had no trophies to be exported Juan could not send your zebra skin to South Africa under Chappies name. Juan should have made a plan earlier to export your trophy without you having to pay all those extra fees. Its very obvious to me now that he did not care at all about getting your trophy out by using his other clients that hunted Zimbabwe to ship your Zebra with their trophies.
My hands were completely legally tied to export your Zebra . I did receive $1,250 from you of which I had to pay our Council $850 for it. I had no daily rate from you in order to register you aTR2 to legally export your trophy. I understand that this it not your fault but it shows that both you and I got cheated by Juan.
It is illegal for Juan to guide you as a PH in Zimbabwe. For that reason Juan could not take you to shoot a buffalo . I was not prepared to risk losing my License and my only livelyhood over this. I lost money on your hunt because I had to feed you and accomodate you which exceeded the $300 profit that I made on your zebra. It costs a minimum of $75 per day to break even accomodating one person. It should not have been expected of me to make things right on this hunt by spending a further $250 per day to pay for a second PH. On top of that I would have had to come up with a minimum amount of $ 375 per day to legally register you with your own TR2 paperwork. This was not the agreement that I had with Juan. I did not financially gain anything from you or the German. I also lost in the region of $6,000 on this hunt because of Juans dishonesty. The blame of you not getting your zebra the correct way and all the frustration is due to Juan and not me. The only reason that I offered you a return discounted hunt was purely because I liked you and because you had been cheated by a man who had also cheated me. I wanted things to be made right because you had hunted on my Concession . I felt that it was the honorable thing to do and not because I had done anything wrong. I regret doing any business with Juan and I was too trusting and got burnt like you did.
I hope that you would consider a return hunt so that you can be treated the right way from the start. I do sympathise with you. I just wanted you to know where I stood in this whole disaster. Juan has been trying to make contact with me to book clients ! I dont even respond as he is too thick skinned to actually see that he is not only cheating everyone but himself as well !
Please keep in touch.
Cheers
Lloyd

Let this be a lesson to anyone using a booking agent. Always talk directly to the operator as soon as the hunt is booked to make sure everything is disclosed before you spend another dime on your second payment. Some agents try to keep you away from the operator. If there is nothing to hide, an agent should have no problem with you communicating directly with the operator as long as you don’t bother the operator too much. Most questions can be answered by the agent but make sure the major issues are confirmed with both. I learned this on my first trip to Africa with a friend/client of mine. He was hunting leopard, buffalo, sable and PG. I was hunting PG. We had to switch concessions due to a leopard quota problem. The operator had told this to the agent but the agent did not tell us and we did not find out until we arrived in Zim. It all worked out but we should have known before arriving.

 

[johnnyblues]

Juan Pace....Man this guy just keeps getting BAD reports!

 

[Spearhead]

Although I’ve been religiously following the forums on Africahunting.com for quite some time, the impetus to finally sign up was to relate the following, very good Safari experience that exceeded our (already high) expectations! My Son and I booked a combined Buffalo and Plains Game hunt via Carl Knight of Take Aim Safaris in the RSA and It was my wish to hunt with famed PH Lloyd Yeatman who operates Shangani Safaris in Zimbabwe. (I had seen Lloyd’s team in action in videos and television programs produced by other professional hunters over the years, and was highly impressed by he and his team’s skillful big game results. His name is additionally featured alongside an impressive number of big game records, and he has also helped to mentor and train other PHs. He has hunted with “the little guy” as well as royalty, but luckily both are treated equally well both in camp and in the field.) I had hunted in Zimbabwe 10 years ago, and as a result of that experience, fell in love with its wild places. My prior PH of 10 years ago had since retired, but he both knew and recommended Lloyd for continued safaris in Zim.

As opposed to the preconceived notions that hunters from abroad may share (mainly conjured up by the media), Zimbabwe is, in reality, quite a safe and healthy place to visit. Sure, it has its on-going economic challenges, but the dollars brought in by safaris represents just one avenue to help remedy that. Many life-size Big 5 mounts welcome you in the airport lobby in Harare, a reminder of just how important the safari-tourism business is to all in the country (#3 next to agriculture and other natural resources, I am told). The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority has representatives available at every port of entry, to assist hunters with effortlessly obtaining necessary visas and rifle/ammunition import permits, should you have any last-minute questions or issues. Clearing customs in Zimbabwe is exceptionally quick and painless (comparable to that of flying into the very hunter-friendly State of Texas in the US). Ask your PH, and they will provide you with the simple protocol to follow and short forms that can be completed in advance of your visit. Representatives of Shangani will assist you at the airport in ensuring an exceptionally smooth arrival and departure with all of your gear.

The drive from the airport to camp would be considered a bit of a cultural expedition for most. Once out of the city and suburbs, you will pass by large high plains farming operations, then through the high, very scenic rocky Zaka mountains, and finally down into the more thickly vegetated and wooded riverine lowveld country of Zimbabwe. I jokingly referred to camp as “the bottom of the Earth,” as, to reach it, one must drive across the length of a 75-mile long continuously downhill road. The end result, as well as the changing scenery along the way, make the journey well more than just worth it. It is still paying dividends, as you will read below…

Shangani operates several concessions in the region, each suited toward specific big and plains game species that reside in each area, dependent upon time of year, and occurrence of cover, water and food sources. Our safari took place at Shangani’s southeastern Zimbabwe lowveld concession, situated high atop one bank of the Mkwasine River. This area is perfectly situated across the river from the famed Save conservancy, contains a number of habitats from riverine bush to open savannah, mopane forest, and additional thick brushy stream corridors leading from nearby sugar cane plantations into the main river. This brand new tented camp is fully outfitted, very scenic, comfortable, clean, green and self-sustaining via use of solar, wood fires, and judicious use of propane in the kitchen area when not cooking on the handmade brick braai. It is exceptionally well planned, no doubt the result of Lloyd’s drawing from several decades of experience at many different camps. The Mkwasine river camp also includes a nicely appointed, brand new safari vehicle fleet. Several cooks are employed to provide excellent food and drink at any time of day or night. Local Shangani trackers and skinners are an integral part of the operation, famed for their excellence in the field. All members of the Shangani team are among the nicest, friendliest, most helpful and hard-working people in the world! Lloyd recommended the Mkwasine area in late summer, as an abundance of water was keeping the buffalo herds (and elephants, lion, leopoard and hippo too!) content in the vicinity at this time.

The purpose of our hunt was for my son to experience the natural wonders of Zim, starting off with plains game endemic to the area. Over the course of 7 days, we saw duiker, grysbok, bushbuck, herds of impala, waterbuck, kudu, eland, zebra, giraffe, and even red riverine bushpigs. My son was able to collect both an outstanding waterbuck and Livingstone’s Eland. PH Lloyd never saw such a wide waterbuck and booking agent Carl remarked on “the largest eland he had ever seen taken from the area.” Both easily exceed RW minimum scores. Although my son additionally saw small bands of kudu, including several exceptional bulls, he was never presented with a good shot within range of his .375. A nice bushbuck was also collected along the river early one morning while tracking dagga boys. I had an opportunity to collect a massive red riverine bushpig, but decided to pass on it as we were after buffalo (I am now regretting that, as we never caught up with that particular Inyati-(Shangani for Buffalo). Targets of opportunity must be taken as they are presented to you!

Buffalo were very plentiful in the area, and that’s what I had come for. On the very first morning, while drinking delicious Zimbabwean coffee in the braai area overlooking the river, we could see a herd of one-hundred or so drinking from the flowing, clear water of the Mkwasine as they slowly made their way across. A stalk would have been in order if not for the fact that we hadn’t checked the sight-in of our rifles (which is done on a plantation approximately 10 miles out of camp, as not to spook any game.) As it turns out, my son’s .375 was dead on at the range, but my .416 was slightly off, no doubt from the “tender-loving care” it received from the many baggage handlers enroute!

They say, in elephant hunting, you’ll walk a mile for every inch of ivory collected, and I fully believe the same adage applies to buffalo horns; We walked approximately 40 miles in 4 days, and had seen several different herds, and a number of different groups of large (40”+) dagga boys, ranging from lone old bulls to 4-5 bulls off doing their own thing back away from the herds. The only shot opportunities presented thus far were not ideal (either too quickly or too much brush in-between). Then, shortly after sunrise on the 5th day, we caught up with a herd that was headed into the river for a drink…We quietly stalked into a position where we could survey most of the herd, and immediately noticed an elderly bull, in the lead, staring us down on the far edge of the river. Lloyd instructed me to take him, so one well-placed high heart/lung shot from my trusty .416 sent the herd running, leaving the old boy standing rather unsteadily in the back. Although it was not entirely necessary, the insurance was paid and a follow-up solid sent transversely through the entire body of the bull dropped him and all 4 legs were in the air. I had gotten my first southern African buffalo and couldn’t be happier! Although my buffalo (~38”) was very nice with a heavy, old, battered boss and very in-need of a hair transplant, at the shot, we witnessed the riverine brush come alive with many additional buffalo, including several that appeared to be in the 40”-<50” range. They scattered and took off for the security of the more forested areas.

On the very last day of the hunt, with less than a half-hour until sunset, we noticed the tail bull in a small herd of dagga boys, heading down into the tall grass that lines both sides of the river where they prefer to cross. We made a quick plan, stalked into range, and my son executed a perfect frontal brain shot on an even nicer, lower mileage bull with his .375. (~40”)

Although it seemed to be the icing on the cake for the most exceptional safari ever, what happened at dinner that night was at least a comparable treat. We saw a pride of lions roaring and hunting outside of camp and running up and down the river bed below. One was an exceptionally large bodied, big-maned male. Lloyd noted that there are limited lions on quota. They undoubtedly reside in the Save conservancy located on the opposite side of the river from Shangani’s camp, but were on the prowl due to the large number of buffalo in the area.

As if the above wasn’t good enough, Lloyd’s wife Sabine is a professional grade photographer that quite surprisingly captures moments of the hunt and safari camp life that the hunter could never possibly duplicate in the heat of the chase. What a treat it was at the end of the hunt to be sent a package of photographs that help paint the picture of your entire Zimbabwean safari experience for you, your family, and friends to enjoy when you safely return home. In the spirit of my family full of teachers, we give Shangani an A+ for its hunting, but factoring in everything else (the truly unique new camp, staff, vehicles, local cuisine and drink,) Lloyd Yeatman will have to settle for an A+++++ instead. We WILL be back and his entire staff knows it!!!

One final parting note…I have been in the real world long enough to know the many human personality types that linger out there. Some people apparently become unfairly irate on-line, even after they may have wronged the Safari operator behind the scenes (or wronged by a bad actor booking agent), and the readers unfortunately sometimes do not get the entire, fair and balanced story. As we say here in the States, what I relayed to you above is certifiably “The Truth, and Nothing but the Truth!” *That said, I did for a moment contemplate pilfering a six-pack of Zambezi beer just seconds before leaving camp...It's wrapped in a manner that might just stand up to the most robust of baggage handlers!

-C.W. & A.W. Richter, Pocono Mtns., PA, USA


View attachment 200566

I enjoyed your post and approach (attitude). I am new to the forum but not hunting and it always comes down to attitude. Can’t control the outfitter, nor the animals, but how we approach it ethically, respectfully and realistically has a huge impact on a successful hunt (unless killing is one’s sole definition of success). I apologize for odd sounding post, but I am reading this after reading another post with the same outfitter where the hunters attitude and absolute lack of ethics and respect for the game has really gotten to me. It’s gasoline for the antis and it hurts the sport immensely, and frankly it doesn’t help an outfitters view of clients either, though the PH experience was polar opposite. Best safari story line: “The drive from the airport to camp would be considered a bit of a cultural expedition for most” loved that!

 

[C.W. Richter]

The reason I choose to hunt in Africa is Africa itself not just expeditiously trying to collect trophies. That same sentiment applies to every single hunting trip in my lifetime... If I don't fancy a particular region of the Earth I have no desire to go there simply to whack a "white tooth whippoor-will!". I could name these places but to each their own. If you read Ernest Hemingway's quote below that pretty much sums up Africa for me every single time;