One of the worst "examples of hunting" I have seen

[Outdoorbound]

I have been a bit hesitant to chime in on this post having been an individual that wrote a positive report based on my visit with Motshwere. A little worried I would get both barrels from everyone if I shared a story that differs from what everyone has watched. I want to start with stating that I do not support the behaviors of many of those in the videos and I agree that the videos do not represent the sport we all enjoy well at all. I do feel compelled to state that my experience was absolutely nothing like the ones in the videos. I was clear with my PH what I was expecting to experience and I felt they did all they could to accommodate my requests, as they did with others in our group. Many of my hunts consisted of hours on foot and were quite difficult (To the point that my wife was telling me it wasn't going to happen and we needed to give up) but again I was clear with what I was looking for in my hunt. Do outfitters change their ways based on clients requests, I cant speak to that but in my few trips over my outfitters have always hunted the way I chose to hunt. I was not able to harvest a few animals that I went over looking for so if their goal was to take money from me they failed because I would have gladly taken a few more animals had the opportunity presented itself. A question I have for many on here is what role does the client play in these situations? As many have stated, there are individuals that head to Africa with no other goal than to kill as many animals as possible. As a business owner, would you accommodate their requests? If a clients goal was to drive around all day, shoot as much as they could from the truck, would you accommodate or refuse to take their money? When you are in a customer service industry, where do you draw the line? Are hunting style, means and methods questions you are discussing when you book a new client, i have never been asked such questions. If a new client arrived and this behavior was their expectation, would you accommodate their request? I completely agree that several of the videos didn't need to be displayed publicly but also feel that some people what their 5 minutes of fame and they feel like this will help them accomplish that. We all see it in social media and YouTube, people wanting to be famous and making questionable decisions in the process. Motshwere treated me, my family and friends very well and went the extra mile to make our trip as memorable as possible. Although there was one other group in camp with us, it actually made for an enjoyable experience, it was nice to meet some new people and share stories. No I don't work for Motshwere nor have i been asked to share my experience, just had quite a few question that i was hoping some on here could answer in regards to best practices and behaviors in a customer service based industry.

 

[R.M.C.]

I have been a bit hesitant to chime in on this post having been an individual that wrote a positive report based on my visit with Motshwere. A little worried I would get both barrels from everyone if I shared a story that differs from what everyone has watched. I want to start with stating that I do not support the behaviors of many of those in the videos and I agree that the videos do not represent the sport we all enjoy well at all. I do feel compelled to state that my experience was absolutely nothing like the ones in the videos. I was clear with my PH what I was expecting to experience and I felt they did all they could to accommodate my requests, as they did with others in our group. Many of my hunts consisted of hours on foot and were quite difficult (To the point that my wife was telling me it wasn't going to happen and we needed to give up) but again I was clear with what I was looking for in my hunt. Do outfitters change their ways based on clients requests, I cant speak to that but in my few trips over my outfitters have always hunted the way I chose to hunt. I was not able to harvest a few animals that I went over looking for so if their goal was to take money from me they failed because I would have gladly taken a few more animals had the opportunity presented itself. A question I have for many on here is what role does the client play in these situations? As many have stated, there are individuals that head to Africa with no other goal than to kill as many animals as possible. As a business owner, would you accommodate their requests? If a clients goal was to drive around all day, shoot as much as they could from the truck, would you accommodate or refuse to take their money? When you are in a customer service industry, where do you draw the line? Are hunting style, means and methods questions you are discussing when you book a new client, i have never been asked such questions. If a new client arrived and this behavior was their expectation, would you accommodate their request? I completely agree that several of the videos didn't need to be displayed publicly but also feel that some people what their 5 minutes of fame and they feel like this will help them accomplish that. We all see it in social media and YouTube, people wanting to be famous and making questionable decisions in the process. Motshwere treated me, my family and friends very well and went the extra mile to make our trip as memorable as possible. Although there was one other group in camp with us, it actually made for an enjoyable experience, it was nice to meet some new people and share stories. No I don't work for Motshwere nor have i been asked to share my experience, just had quite a few question that i was hoping some on here could answer in regards to best practices and behaviors in a customer service based industry.

Thanks for chiming in. That's kinda what I thought was going on with the outfitter, if the client was paying and wanted a less than honorable hunt, the outfitter would provide it. Glad to hear you had a good hunt with them.

 

[WAB]

Very interesting thread. I have done a couple of ranch hunts as side trips on bush hunts for buffalo. It’s not really my thing but I have nothing against it.

I choose to hunt the wilderness and gravitate toward tracking hunts. However, I also grew up on a farm and spent much of my career in Ag. These ranch owners are Ag operators just like we are. They are raising game animals for profit just like we raise cattle. The video is in poor taste and not something I support or would participate in, but if you’ve ever taken your cattle to slaughter you’ve seen a lot worse.

I’ve actually been on a ranch in SA that was culling at night from the back of cruisers with spotlights. This was on the same ground hunted by paying sportsmen.

One final thought from my past. In high school my buddy raised bison for meat. One bull became very aggressive and almost got me in the pasture one day. That was it for my buddy. He decided to put the bull down. Being an entrepreneur, he put an ad in the local paper for a bison hunt. He and I put the bull in the back pasture and a ‘hunter’ from the city paid my buddy to shoot it. He even borrowed my buddy’s .300. There wasn’t a stick of cover in the pasture and the guy just leaned up against a fence post and shot it. All he kept was the head. Were we wrong to sell that ‘hunt’? Neither of us wanted to shoot that bull so it saved us having to do it. Was the hunter wrong to pay to shoot that bull? Either way the bull was going to die.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

@Outdoorbound ... Thank you for sharing that. And I am sincerely happy you had a good experience.

My own opinion is that yes, it takes two to dance. My guess is unscrupulous people with weapons have the money to push for what they want. Ultimately I hold the outfitters a bit more culpable. They have the ability to say "No, that's not ethical; I'm not going to do that. I am not going to provide that for you." And before anyone takes this down the road of questioning what's ethical, is there anyone here who is OK with what was on these videos?

And finally, with regards to this specific outfitter, clearly he is just fine with killing animals this way: he has these videos on his social media sites.

 

[Ravensview]

I have been a bit hesitant to chime in on this post having been an individual that wrote a positive report based on my visit with Motshwere. A little worried I would get both barrels from everyone if I shared a story that differs from what everyone has watched. I want to start with stating that I do not support the behaviors of many of those in the videos and I agree that the videos do not represent the sport we all enjoy well at all. I do feel compelled to state that my experience was absolutely nothing like the ones in the videos. I was clear with my PH what I was expecting to experience and I felt they did all they could to accommodate my requests, as they did with others in our group. Many of my hunts consisted of hours on foot and were quite difficult (To the point that my wife was telling me it wasn't going to happen and we needed to give up) but again I was clear with what I was looking for in my hunt. Do outfitters change their ways based on clients requests, I cant speak to that but in my few trips over my outfitters have always hunted the way I chose to hunt. I was not able to harvest a few animals that I went over looking for so if their goal was to take money from me they failed because I would have gladly taken a few more animals had the opportunity presented itself. A question I have for many on here is what role does the client play in these situations? As many have stated, there are individuals that head to Africa with no other goal than to kill as many animals as possible. As a business owner, would you accommodate their requests? If a clients goal was to drive around all day, shoot as much as they could from the truck, would you accommodate or refuse to take their money? When you are in a customer service industry, where do you draw the line? Are hunting style, means and methods questions you are discussing when you book a new client, i have never been asked such questions. If a new client arrived and this behavior was their expectation, would you accommodate their request? I completely agree that several of the videos didn't need to be displayed publicly but also feel that some people what their 5 minutes of fame and they feel like this will help them accomplish that. We all see it in social media and YouTube, people wanting to be famous and making questionable decisions in the process. Motshwere treated me, my family and friends very well and went the extra mile to make our trip as memorable as possible. Although there was one other group in camp with us, it actually made for an enjoyable experience, it was nice to meet some new people and share stories. No I don't work for Motshwere nor have i been asked to share my experience, just had quite a few question that i was hoping some on here could answer in regards to best practices and behaviors in a customer service based industry.

That might be the case, it still doesn’t make this type of behavior right, and that they were willing to do it doesn’t speak highly of their character or sportsmanship, i know for me at least they lost a potential client and if I hear there company name will always associate it with this behavior, doesn’t matter if the client wants it, as a PH they shouldn’t do it in my opinion, I find it totally repulsive and disrespectful of the animal, hunting and any ethics that a hunter and outfitter should have,

 

[BenKK]

Also, in regards to bow hunting if one has to finish the hunt with a rifle then is it really bow hunting or are people fooling themselves?

From experience, proper bowhunters do not claim anything where things went bad and a rifle was necessary to assist.

I love South Africa and the hunting I have experienced there has been quite difficult, which is perfect. Lots of top quality, highly ethical folks involved in conservation and hunting there.