Bongo With A Bow In Central African Republic With LEFOL SAFARIS

*the Rift
*Maybe

And, I understand getting late much more than never getting.

Congratulations on a beautiful animal!

Congratulations on your beautiful bongo trophy from the CAR. Good luck with the logistics in getting your trophies back to the USA.

For comparison purposes and with complete respect for your situation, I hunted with Northern Operations Africa in May 2024 in southern Cameroon. My crate containing my bongo and forest sitatunga capes and horns is already in Paris and is scheduled for flying to the Chicago airport this week.

I am happy with NOA and nine (9) months shipment is quick service and turnaround for African jungle trophies. My salted leopard hide and skull from Botswana took over 19 months and arrived in Chicago earlier this month.

Just thinking out loud, some unknown CAR government authority may be demanding a substantial undocumented “early cash Christmas bonus” to get the trophies processed and shipped. I am not advocating any illegal activity but cash is definitely king in Africa. I got tired of being “hit up” for cash money by almost everyone while in Doula.

Good luck again and happy hunting, TheGrayRider a/k/a Tom.

Mike Nicholas said:

Not sure if you're saying you hunted with Lefol in CAR. If so, his now-deceased father (2023 of cancer) ran operations in 2016.

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No I hunted with Jacques Lemaux and I was his last hunter in eastern CAR. Security was a concern. He tried some other areas but retired.

I was just saying that it is still early in 2025 to get upset about May 2024 trophies. It’s not even a year. A year is standard in lots of areas and can take even longer in several places. My advice is to not anger your outfitter by creating a mess online until it’s been much longer.

Thank you for comments, Scott.

But, per prior posts, he has not met his own shipment deadline by several months. btw: I hunted there in May of 2024. And, when I tried to get status updates, it was very difficult to get responses. When did, I received varying responses with some of which involved potentially serious implications from CAR governmental authorities such as failed to "repatriate funds".

Other hunters that have hunted with Kewin (Kevin in English I guess) and Andrew Gooden from SA since Kewin took over for his now-deceased father specifically have not received their trophies. They fail (as far as I'm aware) to respond to Safari Club International inquires about the matter, etc.

I would love to get evidence of any shipping issues ironed out and him shipping any trophies. His father built that concession over decades, his gracious mother, who I've met, I'm sure is still counting on the concessions and company being successful. No one of which I'm aware has received their trophies involving those two PHs-I hope to stand corrected on that. As you can see from this thread, nobody has has yet said they've received their trophies involving those two PHs.

SCI may be opening an "ethics complaint" with serious implications for this newly-managed Lefol Safaris. CITES has also been contacted in hopes of getting sparsely available governmental authorities' contact information for any one to get a status or report to about the potential problem. I.E., it's not just a matter of time. There are other potential concerns.

It seems Lefol and Gooden may very well be selling largely successful hunts, but cannot ship trophies. Again, I hope I'm wrong.

Mike