spoonieduck
AH veteran
- Joined
- Feb 6, 2011
- Messages
- 141
- Reaction score
- 92
Let me ask you a question--a question I've put to other Outfitters and Professional Hunters. As a preamble: I hunt a lot, all over the world and done it for many years and I've never--and I mean NEVER--bought a hunt at any kind of convention. Now, I'll check things out on the internet but prior to that convenience, I wrote a lot of letters and made a lot of phone calls. Also, I am under no misapprehension that I'm establishing any kind of special, life-long relationship with my PH. It's a business, pure and simple and, in a sense, I'm buying a bottle of milk.When something is to good to be true then it normally is. We as Outfitters in South Africa do see these adds and that puts lots of concern in our minds. Many Outfitters spend lots of money to fly to the States and spend 4 - 6 weeks doing show after show, meeting face to face with the potential clients, putting them to ease that what we offer is Legit. Then one Outfitter comes along and spoils the whole industry with crap like that.
So why is it necessary to spend money and time at those 4-6 weeks at conventions? Don't other hunters simply 'hunt' you down trying to obtain good game at a decent price? Or….is back slapping and glad-handing an essential part of business? If so, why?
I am not without personal experience. I did some paid hunting for whitetails, hogs, javelinas, turkeys, birds and varmints down here on my ranch in South Texas. I couldn't keep hunters off the phone with me. I never went to a convention and I wasn't offering special hunts like for the golden speckled greater aardvark--just regular stuff. Hunters came from all over the world--Argentina, England, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the U.S., England, Sweden and I never advertised anywhere, just word of mouth.