Nope 50by50, sorry again and I'm surly not trying to be rude, but you're mistaken on the year. In 2014, he had two guys, I believe from northern Utah, and I think he brought one of his PHs from RSA that year but I don't recall if he did or if he came alone. So if you talked to me there in 2014 it was during the 10- 15 minutes that my wife and I stopped by to visit with him before continuing on thru the expo.
I've only helped him in his booth the last two years. In 2016, and this year, 2017. And, I certainly wouldn't have been annoyed that someone didn't book because I don't book for him, never have, and probably never will. I'll that I do when there, is visit with people and let them know of my experience's on my two hunts which were fantastic, show them the show packages and tell them some options, tell them my experiences with transporting guns, bow etc , buying airline tickets and all the same questions I had before our first trip. Then if they're interested, I refer them to the PH who explains everything else and does the booking.
And I'm certainly not trying to discredit Mr Courville. He is honestly one of the reasons that I booked in 2013 after talking to him and his wife about their hunt. And then we talked to them both again when we ran into them in 2014 while walking thru the expo. But..... the fact is I did seen him this year, I think on Friday looking at the booth from a distance five different times in a 1-2 hour period, I even waved at him once, not sure if he saw since he turned and walked away, and then after seeing this post last night I just wondered why he didn't come talk to the PH since he had these issues.
And last but not least I notice you live in Highland, so I'm only a few miles north of you and would certainly rather talk in person if you'd like, rather than get in a mud slinging contest. so PM me if you'd like.
Hey sbox-
I just sent you a PM with my phone number but I hope you don't mind if I respond here as well since i may have made some wrong accusations publically earlier.
I booked in 2013 so if that was not you with Werner in the booth that year, then I'm confusing you with someone else. It was the year he had that huge banner of the croc hanging by his booth. From your last message, it sounds like it wasn't you...?
If that's the case, I apologize for linking you to two incidents I found distasteful with that individual, which, if I'm being honest with myself, has made me more willing to call you out on what I perceived as an overstep on a public forum.
You may have seen him 5 times and waved at him but your telling of that in your first message came across as a slight to his courage, credibility and appeared like an attempt to make him look silly to everyone in this forum so his complaint would carry less validity.
You may not have meant it that way and I don't know the guy but after reading his experience I don't know that I disbelieve him.
Werner is a nice guy. He's personable, remembers my wife every time we talk, and I do think he wants to keep all his commitments and run a good operation.
After hunting with him however, I don't know that I would personally recommend him.
This deserves an explanation. Ive never share this before.
In 2013, besidss a killer deal, I booked with him over another outfitter because he told me four things: (That pushed me over the edge)
1- he would be my personal PH
2- my dad and I would be the only guys in camp and we would have exclusivity to 75,000 acres of tribal land
3- he would have my hunt video'd so he could make a bow hunting advertising video (I would be able to piggy back off this and get the footage)
4- anything I shot that wasn't Roland ward I didn't pay for (yes- this was on the contract signed by Werner although I wasn't planning on holding him to that unless he, as my PH, told me to shoot something super small. But it IS on my contract)
Sbox, not ONE of those commitments happened.
Here's what did happen:
1- he was my PH for the last two days because I was missing so many of my primary animals and was rather... pissed.
2- when my dad and I arrived there was a group in camp. They left two days later and the next day a HUGE family group from Idaho came in. They were rifle hunting and Werner was putting me in blinds for the afternoon hunt that had been hunted with a rifle (with shots fired) in the morning!
A day or two later ANOTHER group (2 hunters from UT) came in to hunt!
I spoke to Werner about our agreement and how I didn't want to be bow hunting over water that had been hunted by a rifle that morning or the previous day and he listened and tried to make it better by organizing ME to go hunt other neighbors little concessions.
This was not the agreement but Werner couldn't take his big group anywhere else (and they were shooting a grundle of animals so on a financial level- it made sense to keep them happy).
I felt like I had been bait and switched.... Okay- let's be honest. Regardless of his intention- I had been bait and switched.
3- With everything else going on I didn't even bring this up... neither did Werner.
4- Werner didn't bring it up and neither did I until the end of the hunt when I got the bill and didn't agree with some things that were surprises. At that point I did bring it up and we went the rounds a bit before coming to an agreement.
I know this message is way too long but I did want to say Werner did some kind things as well. My dads PH yelled "shoot" at some gemsbok running flat out at 150 yards and when he drew blood the owner of the little concession charged Werner for it. But Werner let my dad go on his big concession and shoot another one. He lucked out BIG time and shot a 41" gemsbok!
Werner allowed me to stay and hunt longer than the original 11 days so I was there a full 2 weeks hunting without paying any additional daily rate. (This was negotiated at the time of booking but still cool)
He had great quality on his big concession. I took a 14" warthog and 31" waterbuck before getting shunted to the small neighboring properties.
About the time I was moved off the tribal land, the full moon hit so the screeching halt of my hunt is likely due, in part, to that although at the time I could only see the correlation of moving to tiny neighbors parcels as the reason. At least I got some action on the animals that sleep at night because they were the only things coming in to water!
All in all- I would have hunted with someone else had I had the choice over and I do think Werner says things sometimes that he either doesn't remember or later feels he has to go back on-
But that doesn't make it okay. And for that reason I doubt I would refer a friend to hunt with him.
I know my experience isn't everyone's but to your original comment about some people you just can't make happy- I've since been to Africa 2x and both those experiences were fabulous- so my opinion is that an outfitter can make nearly all their clients happy if they keep their commitments.
