ZIMBABWE: WARNING: Hunting With Juan Pace & Lloyd Yeatman - Don't

Lloyd Yeatman and I have been exchanging emails and I now have a much better understanding of his involvement in this whole affair and I believe he was taken as badly as we were. I don't agree with how the entire thing was handled but I understand how he got into this mess and I don't believe it was his fault. I would not be afraid to hunt with him in the future.


When we arrived in camp we found out Lloyd Yeatman was acting as PH for all three of us. Juan tells us that while Lloyd is hunting with one man he will take the other two. We didn't realize he wasn't licensed in Zim. and that he was bribing the game scout to allow him to take us to the side of the concession where there were no animals other than a few Duikers which neither of us wanted to shoot.

Lloyd Yeatman knew Juan Pace was NOT licensed to hunt in Zimbabwe and hunted out of the same camp when in fact legally and ethically he should have turned him in to Parks. Lloyd is licensed in Zimbabwe (since 1995) and understands how things work.

Somebody continues to be taken and it is not Lloyd Yeatman.
 
I'm not going to speak for Lloyd. That will be up to him to respond or not respond. As I said, I don't agree with everything that was done by Lloyd and I'm not happy that I didn't receive my Zebra, but I do believe he was originally told a "story" by Juan. There are many things about this entire affair that bother me but at least he wrote me and discussed it with me. I believe he is a decent man that made some mistakes because of the situation he was thrust into. He says he no longer has any communication with Juan.
 
Gerry,

There are terrible reports on JP posted on Africa Hunting long before you went on your hunt. Too bad you were not a member back then, this mess could have been avoided.

Another interesting tidbit in this whole sordid affair is I contacted the Outdoor Channel in 2011 to have a conversation about some of JP's activities. They chose to ignore my information and continued some sort of relationship with him, which ultimately cost you.
 
I honestly didn't know about this site until recently when I joined. I too wish I had known about it, I could have avoided this entire mess. This all happened three years ago and at the time none of my friends were hunting Africa so I was pretty much flying by the seat of my pants. I did check references and of course they all gave a thumbs up. Apparently sometimes JP has a good hunt, especially when in SA where he takes hunters to some good camps that provide the service promised.
 
Juan is still in business, advertising elephant today....02/11/2016.
 
Juan is still in business, advertising elephant today....02/11/2016.

Also still a full member of PHASA.... I guess there investigation isn't complete yet. :eek::rolleyes:o_O

http://phasa.co.za/membership/phasa-members/phasa-members-p-q-r.html

Screen Shot 2016-11-02 at 1.13.37 PM.png
 
Just incredible!!
 
I had a terrible experience with Lloyd in 07. He was booking thru Jeff Blair of Blairworld at that time. He is good at making himself look humble when the s##t hits the fan but don't believe it. Lloyd has never been the victim of a bad booking agent and was always aware of the scam-ripoff he was involved in. If you hear Lloyd Yeatman or Jeff Blair- Blairworld run as fast as you can. I find it hard to understand how either he or Blair remain in business with the number of bad reports on them.
 
Graham sorry to hear you had a bad experience!
 
I am surprised in an industry that requires licensing and is so vital to the economy that they continue to be allowed to operate. People like that really give a black eye to all outfitters and I would think every reputable outfitter and PH would join in the effort to shut them down.
 
Gerry, thank you for posting your experience. The good thing about the Internet is that it is making it harder for these people to pull this kind of stuff.

I wish you had seen the reviews on this site. I am glad I joined this site as it has a wealth of information and as I prepare for my first trip to Africa I very much appreciate it.

I will add that I saw nothing but good comments about the outfitter I selected (Limcroma) and reading this site has just confirmed that and has helped me avoid any anxiety about this adventure.

Good luck on getting your zebra back. I hope when you look at it you will remember the positive things about your experience.
 
It's is awful when such an important experience is ruined by thieves.

I cannot imagine not receiving my trophies.. hopefully your zebra will eventually turn up.

Ady
 
Just an update on this bad situation. I finally did receive my Zebra skin. Because the paperwork was not filled out by Lloyd I had to pay a crazy, inflated price to have it tanned there and "special" paperwork done. I had the choice to either pay the price and get the skin or not pay and never see the skin. I shot the animal so I paid the price and finally did receive it. Didn't want the animal to go to waste. Sad end to a sad affair. Hopefully this link will prevent some others from going through all of this. I'm actually afraid to add up what this Zebra cost me in total! I have been on many, many, guided hunts all over the world and if I can be taken this badly I would say most can. Some people work harder at being dishonest than just doing things the correct and moral way.
 
Glad you got your Zebra back! I certainly understand wanting to get the animal you had taken back to the US, even at a higher cost.
 
Some people work harder at being dishonest than just doing things the correct and moral way.

Yes sir that is the sad state of the world today. Thank goodness we have this site to help us check people out before booking. I hope this bad experience will not end your safari adventures. There are great honest outfitters here that will do the right thing by the hunter.
 
I wanted to add to this post that I have been in contact with a member that runs a concession that borders Lloyd Yeatman's and he assures me that Lloyd is an honorable person in every way. I want to say that I liked Lloyd while I was there in camp and thought at the time he was caught in a very bad situation. While I don't agree with all that he did I still believe he was trying to make the best of a very bad situation and I don't think it was caused by him. I always like to give people the benefit of the doubt and I think I would be inclined to do just that with Lloyd Yeatman. He was pleasant to be around, hunted hard for the person he was hunting with, and treated all of his staff with great respect. There is no question he knows game and is an excellent hunter. It is not my intent to damage him and hopefully each member who reads this will take into account that perhaps Lloyd was trapped just as the three of us hunting there were. While I don't know this to be 100% positive fact, the fact that another member has stepp


I know there has been other threads on this site about Juan Pace and I haven't said anything as I've been waiting to hopefully get my one animal, a Zebra back to the states. Well I'm not going to hold back any longer. In August of 2013 I contracted with Juan Pace to go on a 14 day hunt with Lloyd Yeatman in Zimbabwe. The deal that was made was I was to film a German hunter as he hunted Elephant, Hippo, and Leopard. As we were hunting if we came across Buffalo tracks we would hunt them for me. I paid my own transportation and trophy fees for any animals I shot. I was also to produce and edit a video to be used by Juan for advertising. My day fees would be my payment. I signed the contract, booked my airline tickets and waited for the date.

August finally arrives, I pack up all the camera equipment and my gun and head off the Zimbabwe. When I'm met at the airport by Juan there are two hunters, one from Germany as I expected and one from the Cape. In talking with them I learned the gentleman from Germany was going to hunt Elephant, and Hyena, and the man from the Cape was going to hunt Leopard and Hippo. I didn't think anything about this as I assumed there would be two PH's in camp, well boy was I wrong. When we arrived in camp we found out Lloyd Yeatman was acting as PH for all three of us. Juan tells us that while Lloyd is hunting with one man he will take the other two. We didn't realize he wasn't licensed in Zim. and that he was bribing the game scout to allow him to take us to the side of the concession where there were no animals other than a few Duikers which neither of us wanted to shoot. This went on with the German and myself riding with Juan while Lloyd took the man from the Cape Leopard hunting. After about 4 or 5 days of riding around and seeing nothing we began to put things together and put a stop to it. We sat in camp many mornings and evenings doing nothing while one of the men hunted.

Lloyd had a nice Leopard on bait and assumed they would kill it the first night or two and then he would hunt with the German fellow and that might have worked except he didn't plan on the man from the Cape wounding the Leopard. So now after the Leopard gets wounded he feels he can take some time for the German hunter. He takes him out a couple nights and they shoot a big bull over a water hole with a spot light on a piece of private ground. Nice 69 pound bull and the German fellow was basically done hunting even though he had been told he could hunt other animals. He wasn't happy the way in which the bull was hunted but he was told it was legal and I have no idea if it was or wasn't. By this time we didn't believe anything we were told.

Next he takes the man from the Cape to a large lake where he shoots a Hippo and I film it for the video I was to produce. We wait until dark and it never floats up so we drive the hours back to camp, get up the next morning and drive back to the lake and spend all day looking for the Hippo which we never find. Certainly not Lloyd's fault, but two days more were spent with neither the German or myself hunting at all.

Now in all this time I have yet to get on a Buffalo track because Lloyd is catering to these other two hunters. Finally after the wounded Hippo Lloyd says he is taking me Buffalo hunting the next morning. We get up and we are driving down the two-track road bordering a park. He tells me we look for the tracks coming out of the park and then drive down the road to make sure they haven't gone back in. Well, sure enough we come onto a set of tracks and they seem to be staying in our concession. To say I was excited would be an understatement. Well we tracked them for two hours and they made a circle and went back into the Park. We did the same thing one other morning with the same results and that was the extent of my Buffalo hunt. On the last day as we were driving that same boundary road we saw a Zebra and he ask me if I wanted one. I did want a Zebra so we stopped made a short stalk and I shot it. Only shot I fired on that hunt. That afternoon I paid the trophy fee of $1250 and Juan said he would take care of getting the animal back to S.A. the next week when he returned. To say that the camp was tense for the entire hunt would be an understatement. On the last day in camp Lloyd told me he had his brother a licensed PH on standby to help out and Juan refused to use him because it would cost more.

That will be three years ago in August and my Zebra still isn't here. About 8 months ago after many, many, emails to Juan and Lloyd I was finally told it was going to be delivered to a taxidermist in Zim. for processing. Well I come to find out there was no paperwork on the animal so I'm told by the taxidermist they will have to apply for a "special" permit and this can only happen if the animal is tanned there. I agree and ask how much? I'm then told over $600. I send them the money and now I'm informed that it will cost $260 more to get it from Zim. to S.A. and then $350 more to get it from S.A. to the states. And remind you this is after almost three years and only one Zebra skin! Had the permit been done when I paid for it the skin could have gone straight through the system and shipped back to the states to be tanned here at a huge savings and in about 6 months instead of 3 years.

The three of us hunting in camp were so mad on the way home Juan took us all to a ranch in S.A. where we shot a couple animals at their trophy fee. I think he knew he might not make it home alive had he not done something. All in all I hunted buffalo a total of 6 hours in two weeks. I'm posting this because I don't want to see anyone else get burned by this man. Lloyd was very nice while we were there and tried his best to hunt three men, hunting different animals, but there was no way he could do that and make everyone happy. He told me he wasn't going to take any more hunters from Juan but I know that he did because he told me when I was trying to get my Zebra skin that Juan had brought clients in to hunt Leopard when he didn't have any Leopards on quota. I would have respect for Lloyd if he had cut off all contact with Juan but that didn't happen so I now believe he was in on the entire affair. Remember all three hunters thought there were only going to be two hunters in camp and one of the two would be filming most of the time.

I sent emails to the professional organizations in both countries and never got a reply or any help getting my animal back. The only reason I'm posting this now is I don't want others to waste their time, money, and dreams on this crook. The name of his company has changes at least twice in the last three years that I know about. At one point two women were named as owners of the company I can only guess why??? Hopefully this post will save some others from going through want the three of us went through.
 
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Reading this thread certainly makes me appreciate both AH and honest operators all the more!

Also, thanks to the OP for shining a light on this dirtbag.

Tim
 

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