I prchased a Giraffe hunt from the PHASA. The hunt was donated to PHASA by Koringkoppie Safaris in Limpopo. It was for 4 days of hunting, trophy fee for giraffe, lodging and food for hunter and guest, and a $150 airport pickup fee. Soon after I bought the hunt I contacted the owner of koringkoopie safaris Mr. Jacques Combrinck. I asked him about dates and sending his price list. I also found out his wife was a bird taxidermist. After looking at his pricelist I contacted him about hunting common reedbuck, black springbok, black wildebeast, waterbuck, and serval cat. I also said I wouldn't pass up a caracal, big warthog, and a big baboon. I also decided I would add a extra day of hunting and one day of observing for my girlfriend. I then told him I would rent his rifle. The next thing I acquired about was hunting red, yellow, and gray billed hornbills. I had seen that his wife was mounting them. I asked what the price of them would be. He said $1000 each because he needed to make his money back up from the giraffe. I replied back that if he didn't feel like he was making enough on the hunt I would try to sell it to someone else, and I said I thought the sale of the giraffe meat would offset the cost of the hunt. He replied back that it wasn't a problem and that the hornbills would be free of charge. He said we would hunt them with a air rifle at baited blinds. I told him I was really excited about hunting them and told him so. I asked him what his kids liked from the USA snack food wise. He said trail mix. So I went and bought some for them. I also gave all his kids and their friends Skittles I had packed over.
Before my trip over to hunt I asked him if he needed anything brought over from USA. He responded that he wanted me to buy him a $299.99 double bull ground blind. He then informed me that the common reedbuck, black springbok, and black wildebeest were all in small breeding fence enclosures. So I looked at his list and said we would replace them with an eland. I even asked if he would make more profit on the eland since it was on his farm. He said yes so we agreed on hunting eland. He then messaged saying a common reedbuck in a breeding pen isn't much different then getting one with a spotlight at night. He said once it's on the wall nobody would know where it came from. So I agreed hunt it as I didn't want him to think he wasn't making any money from the donated hunt. The next message between us he asked if my observer would need her own room. I said no. We meet his brother at O.R. Tambo. There we met him and another hunter from the USA. That hunter had won a free hunt that included trophy fees on Impala and warthog. We then made the drive to the lodge. We weren't greeted by Jacques. His brother showed us to our room. It only had single person beds. So I asked his brother if my girlfriend and I could get a room with a large bed. He told me this lodge didn't have big beds. Ok so we roll with it and push the beds next to each other. Not very comfortable but try to roll with the punches. Later we would see the other lodging on the property was just 5 minutes from our lodge. They could easily move a bed from there for us, but that was never offered.
The next morning we meet Jacques and shoot his rifle a .308. I shot two from the bench and one from the sticks. No bullseye shots. Little low and to the left. He said it was good enough and didn't make any changes. We then went hunting for the waterbuck. We didn't take a tracker. He just drove us and parked the truck in the area it was seen a lot. We then walked roads for the next 1.5 hours looking for it. We never saw the waterbuck. As we were walking I asked about the safe in the room. It was a gun locker. Jac told me the key was lost. He then said not to leave any valuables in the room as you couldn't trust the staff. His words was something like " you can't trust the monkeys to not be tempted" this was concerning for me as my girlfriend with me was Filipino. This was her first trip out of the Philippines. Later she was ask why Mr. Jac and his brother didn't like their black workers and she wondered if they didn't like us being in a mixed relationship. He takes us back to camp at 10:30. He says he needs to finish up a meat order in his meat locker building. He offers to make lunch for us. He is also the cook for this hunt. I had messaged him earlier about food saying I didn't eat onions. The first lunch he makes is burger meat with onions in it. So I remind him again and he makes me a grilled cheese sandwich, but seemed upset about it. He leaves again after lunch and then picks us up at 3 to hunt the evening. We drive around his farm looking for waterbuck and eland. We didn't see either. While doing this he is checking on his crew of 9 firewood cutters. He sells firewood by the pallet. Wood is split and bagged and bagged are sewed shut, then stacked to fill the pallet. While we were there they hauled 3 semi truck loads out. We then eat dinner and go to bed.
Breakfast is lite. He just puts out cereal and yogurts for us to eat without him and after the morning hunt he will make a proper breakfast. That morning we drive around and walk around the waterbuck area. No sightings. We come back to lodge and have breakfast. I mention again how excited I am about hunting the giraffe and hornbills. He then says we will hunt the giraffe the next day. He doesn't say anything about the hornbills. He also tells us we will go to hunt the common reedbuck this afternoon. So he leaves again. We are ready when he returns to pick us up for the hunt. He informed me we will be hunting it at his neighbor's. So when we get there they talk and he comes over and says we will ride in neighbors truck and kill it. I had already told him I didn't want to kill anything from the truck. He says we don't have a choice. Now I'm stuck because I don't want to piss him off when I still havent killed my package animal. This was my 4th hunt in Africa and all the others you hunted the package animal before extras. So we get in truck bed no hi rack just a lawn chair in bed for me. My girlfriend has to ride in front with landowner a old man. She was very uncomfortable doing that and later told me he kept telling her how pretty she was. They drive into the pen and drive to 40 yards of the two males. They make call to kill the one on the right. I do so. Hunt lasted 5 minutes from pulling into property. We take pictures. I asked to take pictures in front of a big termite hill. But the pictures weren't taken with hill. We then go back to his farm and look for eland. First tho we stop to check on his wood cutting grew. He loads two of the guys up into the truck and drives to another part of the property from where they are cutting. Eventually they stop and get out and start cutting random trees. This takes about 30 minutes. Then they load up and he drops them back off with the other crew members. I would ask him what that was about and he told me they were cutting trees he had poisoned to see if they were dry enough to have the guys move to that section. He said he couldn't keep up with the demand of the store for wood and needed more cut. Back to eland hunting we go. We spot it by a baited water blind. He then says I must think about shooting it with a crossbow as he doesn't allow gunfire from blinds.
On the way back to the lodge I talk to him about sending my capes to bullseye taxidermy in Vaalwater. He gets mad looking and says he thought I would use his wife for them like the birds. I said Craig at bullseye had work finished for me and he was willing to do these animals and do one crate. He tells me then I must get bullseye to come to his farm the next day to skin and salt the cape of the giraffe as it's there job. So I messaged Craig about it. He told me he was not responsible for that and it was Jacques job to do that. He said he had no one that could do that. I tell Jac that and he says Craig is lying to me and that is how it is done. He then says I should just have his wife do them on the farm. I leave it alone. At dinner he tells me we can't do giraffe the next day now because his loader will be used all morning for loading a semi with pallets of firewood. So now he wants to hunt the eland with a crossbow at the water blind in the morning. I agree. The next morning we shot the crossbow and then leave for the blind at 830. When we get to the blind the eland are there so we bumped them off. We sit in the blind until noon. No drinks or lunch boxes or snacks are packed. We then leave blind when tracker picks us up. We drive around until we spot the eland at another water baited blind. He has tracker drop us off but won't let my girlfriend come with us. We sneak to 80 yards of the big bull. It's in thick brush. I'm standing on the sticks he's kneeled down. So about 3 ft difference. He says shoot it in the shoulder you can see. I can't see anything other then body. He says shoot it again so I shoot. It's runs about 100 yards and stops in brush. We sneak to 50 yds and I shot it in the shoulder. It just stands there. Now the gun is out of bullets. He only had those 2. So he leaves me to go to his truck to get more. While he is gone bull falls over. When he comes back about 15 minutes later he has another gun a .375. We walk to bull and it stands up. So I shot it 2 times with the .375. We have loader pick it up and then take pictures. Then go to lodge for lunch at about 2. That afternoon we drive around and don't see any waterbuck. The next day is giraffe hunting day. We start with another lite breakfast by ourselves. Then Jac and our tracker pick us up. We head over across his property and cross gates into a section under high power lines. After driving around for an hour we spot a large group of giraffe. There was atleast 12 in the group. He has tracker stop the truck and once again has my girlfriend stay on the back of the truck as it drives off. We are hunting with the .375 today. We never fired this gun at the range. I had only used it close up on the eland. Now we stalk into the giraffes. He's looking at them in his binos. He finally picks one out and says this light gray one will do. We get to 80-100 yds of it and I get on the sticks. The giraffe is on to us. It's starting to walk away. He tells me to shoot. I fire and the giraffe runs off. We follow. In the pursuit it goes into the crowd and now we don't know if its down or mixed into the group. We look around for it for the next 15-20 minutes. We don't find it or any blood.
When I asked about the blood Jac tells me giraffe are thick skinned and the skin might keep the hole from bleeding. He phones the tracker and he says one of the giraffes that crossed the road looked hurt. So we head to the truck and then the tracker and him walk to the field with all the giraffes to get a better look. He has us stay at the truck. He comes back and says one has a hole in its side about 6-8" towards the back from the kill spot. He then says if I shot it and the hole is from a stick from a tree I'll be paying for the extra giraffe. So now he had tracker driving along the road so we can look at this giraffe better. I can see the hole but no blood. Also the giraffe is light gray like the one we shot at. Jac keeps saying its your call. That he can't make the call. Finally the tracker points out that this giraffe is peeing a lot and it's mouth is watering alot. So I finally say let's go put another round in him. We get off the truck leaving my girlfriend on the back again. Now we are stalking up a power line in the open towards the giraffe crossing the open. At 150 yds I'm on the sticks. I just hit the safety when Jac says are you sure you don't want me to look more around where we shot. I look at him and the giraffe takes off running. Now Jac says he will go look and me and the tracker will stay with this giraffe. We follow it for another 10 minutes when we spot blood. We try to call and radio Jac. No answer. Finally he calls tracker back. He tells him to stay at the blood. While we wait the giraffe walks off out of sight. Once he gets there we start back up tracking. Now we run into all kinds of tracks and get off track. Now a second tracker shows up. This tracker gets on the giraffe and calls Jac. Me and Jac meet him but the giraffe is now with a younger bull that is watching us closely.
We try to close the distance but it keeps bumping away. Finally Jac says let's go to truck and cut it off. Tracker will call when it's close to crossing the road. So we do that. Tracker calls and we move the truck after about 20 mins. Now we are in the bed of the Land cruiser. I'm sitting in the chair behind the passenger side cab. My girlfriend in the chair behind the driver's side cab. Jac is standing in the back corner of bed on the driver's side. I have the gun. The tracker calls and is telling Jac it's at the road. Right then Jac moves and I see it behind him. He looks at it in the binos. He then says " give him the gun" I hand it to him thinking I'm going off the truck to shoot. He they says " I am making the call" and shoots the giraffe from the bed of the truck. The giraffe falls. Jac jumps off the truck and is heading to the Giraffe. My girlfriend and I get off the truck. As we are walking over to it she asks me if I'm ok. I tell her no I didn't want him shooting it. I have never had a PH do that before. As we get to the giraffe it jumps up. Jac yells I'm shooting it in the head. He then Shoots it in the neck ripping 2 feet of the hide. Then it falls and he shots it in the forehead. Now prior to the hunt I told him I wanted to mount it and wanted the skull and I wanted to body shoot it. So once the giraffe is down he starts to tell the two trackers to clean it for pictures. I inform him there is no need as I didn't want pictures with it and wouldnt be taking it as my trophy. That he ruined it for me. He shakes his head and says he has a rule that he kills any wounded game. That the hunter only gets one chance. I tell him I have never had a pH do that. He says maybe he isn't a good pH like I had before. I then say yesterday I shot the eland 4 times. He says he doesn't know why he broke his rule yesterday. We drive back to camp with no words exchanged. He leaves camp to go do paperwork on the computer for a upcoming goat show.
Once the giraffe is at the skinning shed I walk over and ask the 4 skinners/ trackers if it's normal for him to kill all wounded animals. From the answers I got I knew that wasnt the case. I should mention I shot the giraffe at 845 and he killed it at 11. So we still had lots of daylight to hunt it. Later he would tell me we were running out of time on it. When Jac comes back I bring up the hornbills again as they were something I was looking forward to and thought maybe getting them would make me feel better about the whole giraffe hunt. He finally agrees on me hunting them and says jump in the truck to get the gun. We drive to his house in the property. He comes out with a .22 and says to start hunting them behind his goat barn while he fixes a chainsaw. So me and my girlfriend do that for the next hour. I connected on two redbills. One the bullet blew up good. We just shot them out of trees. No baited blinds. He then dropped us off at a large hole with goat poop in it with two lawn chairs to sit in next to a tree. I ended up shotting one more redbill that I thought was a yellowbill. They switched places in the tree. This one too the stomach was blown up good around the feet. Around 4:30 Jac picked us up from the poop pile. That evening we went to hunt the waterbuck. I wasn't happy about the giraffe but thought maybe he would come to his senses on it and realize what he did wasnt right. So I continued on. Tonight he had his son driving us, no tracker. His son is 11. I was impressed by his driving and told him so. We start doing a grid search of the roads behind the lodge and mountain on the property. Right at dusk Jac spots the waterbuck herd in the bushes in the back corner of the property. This property is super thick fence the firewood sales. He commands his son to stop so we can jump off. My focus is on getting off without bumping the rifle or making noise. I don't focus on the waterbuck. In fact I didn't have binos as I had accidentally left them on my counter at home when I wanted to pack them in my carry on. We slide off the truck on the side facing away from the waterbuck. Jacs son goes to pull away and grinds the clutch and stalls out.
He gets the truck going and drives away with my girlfriend once again on the truck. For an observer she never got to observe. The waterbucks run into the thick stuff from the noise. We set up on the road in the corner waiting for them to cross. It's getting darker. About 150 yds a female crosses. So now I'm in the scope watching that spot. More females cross, a young one, and a young short male, finally the big waterbuck comes to the edge. I'm lined up with it but it's chest and vitals are in the bush. Its boardside. I just focus on the vital area so I'll be ready when it steps out. Next thing you know it just bolts across the road not giving a shot. Jac asked why I didn't shot threw the bush. He says to me you can shot threw it and has a pissed look on his face. He says they are running towards the mountain. We get picked up and drive towards the mountain. We jump off closer to the mountain and walk a road running parallel to the mountain. He spots the waterbuck walking in the thicket ahead. We stalk in after them. It's getting dark. He throws the sticks up and says shoot him. I look in scope and can only see the bullseye of its butt. I tell him it's facing away. He says no you can shoot. I look again and trees are blocking everything but the butt. Finally the waterbuck runs off. It's now so dark there's no point to chase after. Jac had sent his boy to camp with the truck so we walk back to camp. On the walk I tell him I'm sorry I didn't shoot but that I didn't have clear shots. I explain I wanted a clean shot because I didn't want to wound and lose it or wound it and him want to shoot it again like the giraffe.
I then say I have never had a PH shoot my animal like that before. He asks if I ever wounded something before. I said yes on my first trip with Charl Crous in the Eastern Cape I had it happen with a Red heartabeast. My second trip with WJ in Limpopo it happened with a blue wildebeest. And the year before it happened in Limpopo with a white flank Impala with Hein Lottering. All game was recovered once I had a second shot in the animals. He then says what will you do on a buffalo hunt. I say to him that's exactly why I haven't hunted Buffalo. He then gets mad and tells me I am an unethical hunter because I didn't want the giraffe and didn't get my picture with it after he shot it up. He said I am a piss poor sportsman. That he never has had anyone upset for shooting their animals and once again states he shoots all wounded game for clients including all bow hunters. We walk back to the lodge in disagreement. I will say at this point neither of use was raising are voices. Right before we get to camp he asked if I wanted to try to night hunt for the serval cat. He had sent trail cam pictures of one but said it hadn't been spotted in awhile. I said yes that I would like to go.
The day before he said we would go but then after dinner he just sat around drinking. I waited for him to say if we were going until 9:45 then I dismissed myself to my room. I chalked it up as another thing that he said but didn't mean. Like hunting the hornbills with a airgun over bait, he had mentioned going to hunt a neighbor's place for baboon where they killed 2 the week before with other clients from Utah, and him having a big warthog to try to hunt at a blind. All things he said but all things we didn't do. Honestly from day one my girlfriend kept asking if it was normal for the PH to be so busy with other stuff. Her exact words was " are you supposed to be his priority, he has to many other jobs". So with it being the next to last night we went night hunting. His brother drove the land cruiser, his son was in the front seat, Jac was running the flashlight, his brothers client came too with his head light for raccoon hunting in the USA. My girlfriend opted to stay at camp. We drove around the farm for 2 hours. We saw some plains game and one ant bear. No cats spotted.
The next morning was spent looking for the waterbuck again. We drove the same roads we had seen it for hours. Jac determined it was probably up on the mountain. We took a break for brunch, there I asked Jac and his brother if the next day we could detour to Bullseye Taxidermy in Vaalwater before going to the airport if the other hunter was ok with it and I would pay them for their time and costs in the detour. They said it would be too much to get up that early when the other hunter agreed on going. Ok not a huge deal just wanted to check on animals being mounted from last year's hunt in Limpopo. During the late morning I asked Jac if I could hunt hornbills while he had to do more things around the farm. This time he offered me to use the blind I brought over to him. He put us at a water hole that had a trap ring around it with curtains to trap large mammals. After setting up he left then came back and spread a small can of chicken starch. We hunted it for an hour with no birds coming in so I asked to be moved to the goat poop hole since it had action the day before.
On the way he stopped a couple of times for me to try to get on hornbills in the trees. One was a gray but it was too far and then when we got closer by the time I got a good rest it flew off. He then dropped us off at the goat poop. Over the next 2 hours I passed on tons of red bills. Finally a yellow landed and I shot it. Once again I retrieve it and it's stomach and legs are blown up. I think the .22 was too much for them. Jack soon picks us up and to try to hunt a black springbok. His brother and the other American hunter are in the cab. They drop us off by a bush and drive off with my girlfriend on the back again. No observing for her. Jac then tells me they will use the vehicle to push the springbok towards us from the back of the property. After waiting 30 mins Jac says to me we can stop hunting and l will drive you to Bullseye now. I tell him that's nice and all but it's Sunday and no will be there especially that late once we add in the drive time. He says ok and says it's too early for his brother to leave in the morning at 5 am. I say ok and that I understand. Eventually his brother calls him and says the springbok won't leave the back thick bushes. So we end hunting them.
By this time we go right into looking for the waterbuck. We drive all the roads again behind the mountain. With no spotting of them we drive to the front of the mountain and pick up 2 trackers and one firewood guy from their houses on the property. We then drop them off to walk the mountain and push it. I even said to the other hunter that was ex Amish that it was like a Amish deer drive. Jac was certain the females, young male, and shooter male were up there. As they pushed we drove the back roads. Eventually hours later we spot the herd in the thicket. We stop the truck and me and Jac get off. He calls his brother to use the truck to bump them towards us. This doesn't work and they start crossing the road at 200 yards. The big male runs across the road. No Jac has me running down the road trying to get in front of them. It's starting to get dark. Finally he stops us and we set up at a crossing. About 5 mins later we see the young male cross, then all the cows, then the bull steps out slow. I focus on the vitals, Jac says shoot it, I squeeze the shot off, the waterbuck mule kicks and runs into the thicket.
Jacs brother drives around. He tells me to get on truck while him and tracker Moses looks for it. We drive to the back side of thicket. Then all the sudden we are driving fast and away. We eventually stop at workers houses and pick up 5 firewood and tracker guys. His brother tells me it's dead. We drive back and unload everyone and the tracker. It's dark now so I take out phone for flashlight. I follow Moses with my girlfriend behind me. We get to the waterbuck and you can see lung blood all over I look down and I'm in shock at what I see. The waterbuck is not symmetrical at all, his horns are close together, and doesn't look thick or long, points very shape. Im look at Jac. My face must of said it all. He says " what you don't like it" I said no not at all it's ugly and not a trophy. He slams the strecher down with all the guys around and says " fine load it up you don't have to pay for it". They load it with no words spoken. I said to his brother " you guys definitely knew it looked like that" I got no response. Jac drives us back to drop off workers at their house, he's driving like a mad man so I know he's pissed. We then drive to the meat shed. He backs the truck into it wild.
My girlfriend is scared and squeezing my hand. They open the tailgate and he asks me " how do you want the cape" I look at him and say I don't want it. He says " your paying for it" that's when I say again it's not a trophy animal. He says then says I should of seen the horns all the other times we seen it and asked why I didn't look at them before shooting it. I tell him I was focused on the vitals and always trust my PH to tell me if a animal is a shooter. I say he should of told me in 5 days it was ugly. He said that wasn't his job. At no point am I yelling at him or calling him names. He makes the remark that he never claimed to be a good PH and that maybe he is a bad one. He and his brother then say again I'm paying for. They are on ground I'm in the truck bed with my girlfriend and Jac 11 year old son. I say to Jac let's call the president of Phasa and get his opinion. He laughs and says " PHASA isn't going to tell me shit on how to run my business" he then says with a smile the president of PHASA is dead. I say I meant Tony Du Bryun.
He comes back with that Tony is out of the country hunting leopard. At this point his brother jumps in and says " your a shit shot you missed the shoulder of the waterbuck, you shouldn't even hunt" I never claimed to be a sniper, I'm a duck hunter more then anything so this didn't bother me. Next his brother see's that Jac son is crying and says to me" your a teacher and look what you did to this kid, your a piece of shit who shouldn't be allowed to teach". The. Jac jumps in and says" son look at this guy don't ever be like this guy, he's a piece of shit bargain hunter" at that point I say to them " I'm not being ugly with you guys I just don't believe that waterbuck is a trophy and think you should of told me it was like that". At this point Jacs brother moves at me like he's going to pull me off the truck, I'm standing at the end of the tailgate. Jac grabs him and pulls him off and says let's take his son home. I get off the truck with my girlfriend crying.
They drive off. We go into the kitchen building and grab water and fruit not knowing if we will have either again. We then lock ourselves in the room. My girlfriend is convinced they took the boy home so he doesn't see them attack me. In the room I call two PH I knew from a 2023 hunt and ask if they could come get us and I would pay them. Both couldn't but I felt better that they knew we were there and I told them if they didn't hear back to send help. One of them then sent me Tony Du Byun number. I called him and told him about the events. He informed me that he had already talked to Jac. He said Jac told him he lost his cool but would be settled down when returning to camp to square the bill away. He also told me I needed to work with Jac on the price of the waterbuck because it was a 27" waterbuck according to Jac. He told me that he knew Jac well and they had been neighbors and to tell my girlfriend she didn't have to be scared for her life anymore. He explained Jac's father had cancer and that medical bills might be the motivation behind his actions and changing his mind on the waterbuck not being a charge. He said Jac will be coming to talk to you and suggested I work with him on a price for the waterbuck. It kinda felt like if I wanted a ride to the airport tomorrow I have to pay. Eventually Jac knocked on the door and asked for us to come to the kitchen. Once there he handed me the bill with the waterbuck on it. I once again said it wasn't a trophy animal. Jac pointed to a gemsbuck with one horn normal and the other bent and said look that was trophy enough to mount. I then said to him" actually the second day I said to the other hunter I thought mounts like that with goofy horns look bad, and you were right with us but busy on your phone".
Jac then said a lady shot a waterbuck that looked just like mine and was so happy with it. I said that's fine and that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It was his job to make sure I liked that kind of thing first. I also asked if the women was a first time African hunter. He didn't like that question. He then tells me he doesn't own the business and has a board to report too. Says he can't tell them he gave a waterbuck away. I say again it's a cull. He says the price of a cull is $1500. I say I wasn't on a cull hunt and my pH shouldn't have me shooting cull animals. Finally I get the point that if I don't pay the $1500 this isn't going to end. My girlfriend is about to cry again. So I pay it. I ask him to take the $299.99 blind off the bill.
Originally it was going to be part of his tip but not now. He says to me" $300 or $170" I look at him like are you joking. He says" you said something about it being on sale for $170" I then say no I told you the blind only was $279.99 but the blind with 2 chairs was $299.99 and the chairs alone sold for $49.99 each, and you sent me the blind ad at $299.99 so I got the $299.99 one with the chairs"I pointed out that once again when we talked about this earlier in the week he was on his phone no giving me full attention, always doing firewood work. Next I asked when staff would like up for tips. Jac and his brother tell me and Jonathan the other American hunter that they keep all the staff tips and give them to them for Christmas bonuses because they will spend it all on drinking if not. Jack must of saw my face because soon after while pouring his drink he said" it's not in my DNA to steal from my staff" My girlfriend eats dinner, I choose not too. We go back to my room after paying the bill. I put all staff tips in envelopes and give them to Jac. I didn't tip what I normally would knowing the staff wouldn't see all the tip money. I have never experienced anything like that. You should be able to hand money to staff. Jac opened all the envelopes and told me I needed to add more. I told him I was tried and was going to bed and walked away. The next morning I look over the bill as we pack.He charged me $50 for renting the .375 for the eland hunt but he's the one that didn't have anymore .308 bullets. I'm not going to bring it up. But then I notice Jac had charged me $1000 for my girlfriend observering.
She was included in the PHASA hunt. I call him and he says he is busy and can't come straighten it up and hangs up. I should of looked better the night before but I was mentally exhausted after everything. Once again I messaged Tony. I'm not sure if he said anything to Jac or not but he came right before we got in car to leave and gave me $980 back. He kept $20 for some reason. He then says aren't you going to tip me for all my work. I said I'll think about it on way to airport and give anything to your brother depending on how I feel. He storms off upset and drives away. The drive to to the airport was long and quiet but his brother acted like nothing happened. On the way to the airport more people I sent the story and photos too messaged me back saying I got screwed and how bad the waterbuck was. People from USA and South Africa and other parts of Africa. So I decided no tip was needed. I messaged Craig at Bullseye immediately to try to get my Eland and Common Reedbuck asap as I was worried about them. Especially since I had no paperwork for them. Jac had me sign a blank page in his book. No numbers no tops permit number nothing. I left on July 22, Bullseye reached out to him on July 23. He was hostile and said he wouldn't be on the farm until August 5th. Today is August 5th, Bullseye was able to pick up the trophies but Jac was not helpful at all and gave the driver a hard time. How petty is that. Someone that had nothing to do with the hunt or either one of us. But after what I experienced I am not surprised at all. I would stay away from this outfitter/PH at all costs.
Before my trip over to hunt I asked him if he needed anything brought over from USA. He responded that he wanted me to buy him a $299.99 double bull ground blind. He then informed me that the common reedbuck, black springbok, and black wildebeest were all in small breeding fence enclosures. So I looked at his list and said we would replace them with an eland. I even asked if he would make more profit on the eland since it was on his farm. He said yes so we agreed on hunting eland. He then messaged saying a common reedbuck in a breeding pen isn't much different then getting one with a spotlight at night. He said once it's on the wall nobody would know where it came from. So I agreed hunt it as I didn't want him to think he wasn't making any money from the donated hunt. The next message between us he asked if my observer would need her own room. I said no. We meet his brother at O.R. Tambo. There we met him and another hunter from the USA. That hunter had won a free hunt that included trophy fees on Impala and warthog. We then made the drive to the lodge. We weren't greeted by Jacques. His brother showed us to our room. It only had single person beds. So I asked his brother if my girlfriend and I could get a room with a large bed. He told me this lodge didn't have big beds. Ok so we roll with it and push the beds next to each other. Not very comfortable but try to roll with the punches. Later we would see the other lodging on the property was just 5 minutes from our lodge. They could easily move a bed from there for us, but that was never offered.
The next morning we meet Jacques and shoot his rifle a .308. I shot two from the bench and one from the sticks. No bullseye shots. Little low and to the left. He said it was good enough and didn't make any changes. We then went hunting for the waterbuck. We didn't take a tracker. He just drove us and parked the truck in the area it was seen a lot. We then walked roads for the next 1.5 hours looking for it. We never saw the waterbuck. As we were walking I asked about the safe in the room. It was a gun locker. Jac told me the key was lost. He then said not to leave any valuables in the room as you couldn't trust the staff. His words was something like " you can't trust the monkeys to not be tempted" this was concerning for me as my girlfriend with me was Filipino. This was her first trip out of the Philippines. Later she was ask why Mr. Jac and his brother didn't like their black workers and she wondered if they didn't like us being in a mixed relationship. He takes us back to camp at 10:30. He says he needs to finish up a meat order in his meat locker building. He offers to make lunch for us. He is also the cook for this hunt. I had messaged him earlier about food saying I didn't eat onions. The first lunch he makes is burger meat with onions in it. So I remind him again and he makes me a grilled cheese sandwich, but seemed upset about it. He leaves again after lunch and then picks us up at 3 to hunt the evening. We drive around his farm looking for waterbuck and eland. We didn't see either. While doing this he is checking on his crew of 9 firewood cutters. He sells firewood by the pallet. Wood is split and bagged and bagged are sewed shut, then stacked to fill the pallet. While we were there they hauled 3 semi truck loads out. We then eat dinner and go to bed.
Breakfast is lite. He just puts out cereal and yogurts for us to eat without him and after the morning hunt he will make a proper breakfast. That morning we drive around and walk around the waterbuck area. No sightings. We come back to lodge and have breakfast. I mention again how excited I am about hunting the giraffe and hornbills. He then says we will hunt the giraffe the next day. He doesn't say anything about the hornbills. He also tells us we will go to hunt the common reedbuck this afternoon. So he leaves again. We are ready when he returns to pick us up for the hunt. He informed me we will be hunting it at his neighbor's. So when we get there they talk and he comes over and says we will ride in neighbors truck and kill it. I had already told him I didn't want to kill anything from the truck. He says we don't have a choice. Now I'm stuck because I don't want to piss him off when I still havent killed my package animal. This was my 4th hunt in Africa and all the others you hunted the package animal before extras. So we get in truck bed no hi rack just a lawn chair in bed for me. My girlfriend has to ride in front with landowner a old man. She was very uncomfortable doing that and later told me he kept telling her how pretty she was. They drive into the pen and drive to 40 yards of the two males. They make call to kill the one on the right. I do so. Hunt lasted 5 minutes from pulling into property. We take pictures. I asked to take pictures in front of a big termite hill. But the pictures weren't taken with hill. We then go back to his farm and look for eland. First tho we stop to check on his wood cutting grew. He loads two of the guys up into the truck and drives to another part of the property from where they are cutting. Eventually they stop and get out and start cutting random trees. This takes about 30 minutes. Then they load up and he drops them back off with the other crew members. I would ask him what that was about and he told me they were cutting trees he had poisoned to see if they were dry enough to have the guys move to that section. He said he couldn't keep up with the demand of the store for wood and needed more cut. Back to eland hunting we go. We spot it by a baited water blind. He then says I must think about shooting it with a crossbow as he doesn't allow gunfire from blinds.
On the way back to the lodge I talk to him about sending my capes to bullseye taxidermy in Vaalwater. He gets mad looking and says he thought I would use his wife for them like the birds. I said Craig at bullseye had work finished for me and he was willing to do these animals and do one crate. He tells me then I must get bullseye to come to his farm the next day to skin and salt the cape of the giraffe as it's there job. So I messaged Craig about it. He told me he was not responsible for that and it was Jacques job to do that. He said he had no one that could do that. I tell Jac that and he says Craig is lying to me and that is how it is done. He then says I should just have his wife do them on the farm. I leave it alone. At dinner he tells me we can't do giraffe the next day now because his loader will be used all morning for loading a semi with pallets of firewood. So now he wants to hunt the eland with a crossbow at the water blind in the morning. I agree. The next morning we shot the crossbow and then leave for the blind at 830. When we get to the blind the eland are there so we bumped them off. We sit in the blind until noon. No drinks or lunch boxes or snacks are packed. We then leave blind when tracker picks us up. We drive around until we spot the eland at another water baited blind. He has tracker drop us off but won't let my girlfriend come with us. We sneak to 80 yards of the big bull. It's in thick brush. I'm standing on the sticks he's kneeled down. So about 3 ft difference. He says shoot it in the shoulder you can see. I can't see anything other then body. He says shoot it again so I shoot. It's runs about 100 yards and stops in brush. We sneak to 50 yds and I shot it in the shoulder. It just stands there. Now the gun is out of bullets. He only had those 2. So he leaves me to go to his truck to get more. While he is gone bull falls over. When he comes back about 15 minutes later he has another gun a .375. We walk to bull and it stands up. So I shot it 2 times with the .375. We have loader pick it up and then take pictures. Then go to lodge for lunch at about 2. That afternoon we drive around and don't see any waterbuck. The next day is giraffe hunting day. We start with another lite breakfast by ourselves. Then Jac and our tracker pick us up. We head over across his property and cross gates into a section under high power lines. After driving around for an hour we spot a large group of giraffe. There was atleast 12 in the group. He has tracker stop the truck and once again has my girlfriend stay on the back of the truck as it drives off. We are hunting with the .375 today. We never fired this gun at the range. I had only used it close up on the eland. Now we stalk into the giraffes. He's looking at them in his binos. He finally picks one out and says this light gray one will do. We get to 80-100 yds of it and I get on the sticks. The giraffe is on to us. It's starting to walk away. He tells me to shoot. I fire and the giraffe runs off. We follow. In the pursuit it goes into the crowd and now we don't know if its down or mixed into the group. We look around for it for the next 15-20 minutes. We don't find it or any blood.
When I asked about the blood Jac tells me giraffe are thick skinned and the skin might keep the hole from bleeding. He phones the tracker and he says one of the giraffes that crossed the road looked hurt. So we head to the truck and then the tracker and him walk to the field with all the giraffes to get a better look. He has us stay at the truck. He comes back and says one has a hole in its side about 6-8" towards the back from the kill spot. He then says if I shot it and the hole is from a stick from a tree I'll be paying for the extra giraffe. So now he had tracker driving along the road so we can look at this giraffe better. I can see the hole but no blood. Also the giraffe is light gray like the one we shot at. Jac keeps saying its your call. That he can't make the call. Finally the tracker points out that this giraffe is peeing a lot and it's mouth is watering alot. So I finally say let's go put another round in him. We get off the truck leaving my girlfriend on the back again. Now we are stalking up a power line in the open towards the giraffe crossing the open. At 150 yds I'm on the sticks. I just hit the safety when Jac says are you sure you don't want me to look more around where we shot. I look at him and the giraffe takes off running. Now Jac says he will go look and me and the tracker will stay with this giraffe. We follow it for another 10 minutes when we spot blood. We try to call and radio Jac. No answer. Finally he calls tracker back. He tells him to stay at the blood. While we wait the giraffe walks off out of sight. Once he gets there we start back up tracking. Now we run into all kinds of tracks and get off track. Now a second tracker shows up. This tracker gets on the giraffe and calls Jac. Me and Jac meet him but the giraffe is now with a younger bull that is watching us closely.
We try to close the distance but it keeps bumping away. Finally Jac says let's go to truck and cut it off. Tracker will call when it's close to crossing the road. So we do that. Tracker calls and we move the truck after about 20 mins. Now we are in the bed of the Land cruiser. I'm sitting in the chair behind the passenger side cab. My girlfriend in the chair behind the driver's side cab. Jac is standing in the back corner of bed on the driver's side. I have the gun. The tracker calls and is telling Jac it's at the road. Right then Jac moves and I see it behind him. He looks at it in the binos. He then says " give him the gun" I hand it to him thinking I'm going off the truck to shoot. He they says " I am making the call" and shoots the giraffe from the bed of the truck. The giraffe falls. Jac jumps off the truck and is heading to the Giraffe. My girlfriend and I get off the truck. As we are walking over to it she asks me if I'm ok. I tell her no I didn't want him shooting it. I have never had a PH do that before. As we get to the giraffe it jumps up. Jac yells I'm shooting it in the head. He then Shoots it in the neck ripping 2 feet of the hide. Then it falls and he shots it in the forehead. Now prior to the hunt I told him I wanted to mount it and wanted the skull and I wanted to body shoot it. So once the giraffe is down he starts to tell the two trackers to clean it for pictures. I inform him there is no need as I didn't want pictures with it and wouldnt be taking it as my trophy. That he ruined it for me. He shakes his head and says he has a rule that he kills any wounded game. That the hunter only gets one chance. I tell him I have never had a pH do that. He says maybe he isn't a good pH like I had before. I then say yesterday I shot the eland 4 times. He says he doesn't know why he broke his rule yesterday. We drive back to camp with no words exchanged. He leaves camp to go do paperwork on the computer for a upcoming goat show.
Once the giraffe is at the skinning shed I walk over and ask the 4 skinners/ trackers if it's normal for him to kill all wounded animals. From the answers I got I knew that wasnt the case. I should mention I shot the giraffe at 845 and he killed it at 11. So we still had lots of daylight to hunt it. Later he would tell me we were running out of time on it. When Jac comes back I bring up the hornbills again as they were something I was looking forward to and thought maybe getting them would make me feel better about the whole giraffe hunt. He finally agrees on me hunting them and says jump in the truck to get the gun. We drive to his house in the property. He comes out with a .22 and says to start hunting them behind his goat barn while he fixes a chainsaw. So me and my girlfriend do that for the next hour. I connected on two redbills. One the bullet blew up good. We just shot them out of trees. No baited blinds. He then dropped us off at a large hole with goat poop in it with two lawn chairs to sit in next to a tree. I ended up shotting one more redbill that I thought was a yellowbill. They switched places in the tree. This one too the stomach was blown up good around the feet. Around 4:30 Jac picked us up from the poop pile. That evening we went to hunt the waterbuck. I wasn't happy about the giraffe but thought maybe he would come to his senses on it and realize what he did wasnt right. So I continued on. Tonight he had his son driving us, no tracker. His son is 11. I was impressed by his driving and told him so. We start doing a grid search of the roads behind the lodge and mountain on the property. Right at dusk Jac spots the waterbuck herd in the bushes in the back corner of the property. This property is super thick fence the firewood sales. He commands his son to stop so we can jump off. My focus is on getting off without bumping the rifle or making noise. I don't focus on the waterbuck. In fact I didn't have binos as I had accidentally left them on my counter at home when I wanted to pack them in my carry on. We slide off the truck on the side facing away from the waterbuck. Jacs son goes to pull away and grinds the clutch and stalls out.
He gets the truck going and drives away with my girlfriend once again on the truck. For an observer she never got to observe. The waterbucks run into the thick stuff from the noise. We set up on the road in the corner waiting for them to cross. It's getting darker. About 150 yds a female crosses. So now I'm in the scope watching that spot. More females cross, a young one, and a young short male, finally the big waterbuck comes to the edge. I'm lined up with it but it's chest and vitals are in the bush. Its boardside. I just focus on the vital area so I'll be ready when it steps out. Next thing you know it just bolts across the road not giving a shot. Jac asked why I didn't shot threw the bush. He says to me you can shot threw it and has a pissed look on his face. He says they are running towards the mountain. We get picked up and drive towards the mountain. We jump off closer to the mountain and walk a road running parallel to the mountain. He spots the waterbuck walking in the thicket ahead. We stalk in after them. It's getting dark. He throws the sticks up and says shoot him. I look in scope and can only see the bullseye of its butt. I tell him it's facing away. He says no you can shoot. I look again and trees are blocking everything but the butt. Finally the waterbuck runs off. It's now so dark there's no point to chase after. Jac had sent his boy to camp with the truck so we walk back to camp. On the walk I tell him I'm sorry I didn't shoot but that I didn't have clear shots. I explain I wanted a clean shot because I didn't want to wound and lose it or wound it and him want to shoot it again like the giraffe.
I then say I have never had a PH shoot my animal like that before. He asks if I ever wounded something before. I said yes on my first trip with Charl Crous in the Eastern Cape I had it happen with a Red heartabeast. My second trip with WJ in Limpopo it happened with a blue wildebeest. And the year before it happened in Limpopo with a white flank Impala with Hein Lottering. All game was recovered once I had a second shot in the animals. He then says what will you do on a buffalo hunt. I say to him that's exactly why I haven't hunted Buffalo. He then gets mad and tells me I am an unethical hunter because I didn't want the giraffe and didn't get my picture with it after he shot it up. He said I am a piss poor sportsman. That he never has had anyone upset for shooting their animals and once again states he shoots all wounded game for clients including all bow hunters. We walk back to the lodge in disagreement. I will say at this point neither of use was raising are voices. Right before we get to camp he asked if I wanted to try to night hunt for the serval cat. He had sent trail cam pictures of one but said it hadn't been spotted in awhile. I said yes that I would like to go.
The day before he said we would go but then after dinner he just sat around drinking. I waited for him to say if we were going until 9:45 then I dismissed myself to my room. I chalked it up as another thing that he said but didn't mean. Like hunting the hornbills with a airgun over bait, he had mentioned going to hunt a neighbor's place for baboon where they killed 2 the week before with other clients from Utah, and him having a big warthog to try to hunt at a blind. All things he said but all things we didn't do. Honestly from day one my girlfriend kept asking if it was normal for the PH to be so busy with other stuff. Her exact words was " are you supposed to be his priority, he has to many other jobs". So with it being the next to last night we went night hunting. His brother drove the land cruiser, his son was in the front seat, Jac was running the flashlight, his brothers client came too with his head light for raccoon hunting in the USA. My girlfriend opted to stay at camp. We drove around the farm for 2 hours. We saw some plains game and one ant bear. No cats spotted.
The next morning was spent looking for the waterbuck again. We drove the same roads we had seen it for hours. Jac determined it was probably up on the mountain. We took a break for brunch, there I asked Jac and his brother if the next day we could detour to Bullseye Taxidermy in Vaalwater before going to the airport if the other hunter was ok with it and I would pay them for their time and costs in the detour. They said it would be too much to get up that early when the other hunter agreed on going. Ok not a huge deal just wanted to check on animals being mounted from last year's hunt in Limpopo. During the late morning I asked Jac if I could hunt hornbills while he had to do more things around the farm. This time he offered me to use the blind I brought over to him. He put us at a water hole that had a trap ring around it with curtains to trap large mammals. After setting up he left then came back and spread a small can of chicken starch. We hunted it for an hour with no birds coming in so I asked to be moved to the goat poop hole since it had action the day before.
On the way he stopped a couple of times for me to try to get on hornbills in the trees. One was a gray but it was too far and then when we got closer by the time I got a good rest it flew off. He then dropped us off at the goat poop. Over the next 2 hours I passed on tons of red bills. Finally a yellow landed and I shot it. Once again I retrieve it and it's stomach and legs are blown up. I think the .22 was too much for them. Jack soon picks us up and to try to hunt a black springbok. His brother and the other American hunter are in the cab. They drop us off by a bush and drive off with my girlfriend on the back again. No observing for her. Jac then tells me they will use the vehicle to push the springbok towards us from the back of the property. After waiting 30 mins Jac says to me we can stop hunting and l will drive you to Bullseye now. I tell him that's nice and all but it's Sunday and no will be there especially that late once we add in the drive time. He says ok and says it's too early for his brother to leave in the morning at 5 am. I say ok and that I understand. Eventually his brother calls him and says the springbok won't leave the back thick bushes. So we end hunting them.
By this time we go right into looking for the waterbuck. We drive all the roads again behind the mountain. With no spotting of them we drive to the front of the mountain and pick up 2 trackers and one firewood guy from their houses on the property. We then drop them off to walk the mountain and push it. I even said to the other hunter that was ex Amish that it was like a Amish deer drive. Jac was certain the females, young male, and shooter male were up there. As they pushed we drove the back roads. Eventually hours later we spot the herd in the thicket. We stop the truck and me and Jac get off. He calls his brother to use the truck to bump them towards us. This doesn't work and they start crossing the road at 200 yards. The big male runs across the road. No Jac has me running down the road trying to get in front of them. It's starting to get dark. Finally he stops us and we set up at a crossing. About 5 mins later we see the young male cross, then all the cows, then the bull steps out slow. I focus on the vitals, Jac says shoot it, I squeeze the shot off, the waterbuck mule kicks and runs into the thicket.
Jacs brother drives around. He tells me to get on truck while him and tracker Moses looks for it. We drive to the back side of thicket. Then all the sudden we are driving fast and away. We eventually stop at workers houses and pick up 5 firewood and tracker guys. His brother tells me it's dead. We drive back and unload everyone and the tracker. It's dark now so I take out phone for flashlight. I follow Moses with my girlfriend behind me. We get to the waterbuck and you can see lung blood all over I look down and I'm in shock at what I see. The waterbuck is not symmetrical at all, his horns are close together, and doesn't look thick or long, points very shape. Im look at Jac. My face must of said it all. He says " what you don't like it" I said no not at all it's ugly and not a trophy. He slams the strecher down with all the guys around and says " fine load it up you don't have to pay for it". They load it with no words spoken. I said to his brother " you guys definitely knew it looked like that" I got no response. Jac drives us back to drop off workers at their house, he's driving like a mad man so I know he's pissed. We then drive to the meat shed. He backs the truck into it wild.
My girlfriend is scared and squeezing my hand. They open the tailgate and he asks me " how do you want the cape" I look at him and say I don't want it. He says " your paying for it" that's when I say again it's not a trophy animal. He says then says I should of seen the horns all the other times we seen it and asked why I didn't look at them before shooting it. I tell him I was focused on the vitals and always trust my PH to tell me if a animal is a shooter. I say he should of told me in 5 days it was ugly. He said that wasn't his job. At no point am I yelling at him or calling him names. He makes the remark that he never claimed to be a good PH and that maybe he is a bad one. He and his brother then say again I'm paying for. They are on ground I'm in the truck bed with my girlfriend and Jac 11 year old son. I say to Jac let's call the president of Phasa and get his opinion. He laughs and says " PHASA isn't going to tell me shit on how to run my business" he then says with a smile the president of PHASA is dead. I say I meant Tony Du Bryun.
He comes back with that Tony is out of the country hunting leopard. At this point his brother jumps in and says " your a shit shot you missed the shoulder of the waterbuck, you shouldn't even hunt" I never claimed to be a sniper, I'm a duck hunter more then anything so this didn't bother me. Next his brother see's that Jac son is crying and says to me" your a teacher and look what you did to this kid, your a piece of shit who shouldn't be allowed to teach". The. Jac jumps in and says" son look at this guy don't ever be like this guy, he's a piece of shit bargain hunter" at that point I say to them " I'm not being ugly with you guys I just don't believe that waterbuck is a trophy and think you should of told me it was like that". At this point Jacs brother moves at me like he's going to pull me off the truck, I'm standing at the end of the tailgate. Jac grabs him and pulls him off and says let's take his son home. I get off the truck with my girlfriend crying.
They drive off. We go into the kitchen building and grab water and fruit not knowing if we will have either again. We then lock ourselves in the room. My girlfriend is convinced they took the boy home so he doesn't see them attack me. In the room I call two PH I knew from a 2023 hunt and ask if they could come get us and I would pay them. Both couldn't but I felt better that they knew we were there and I told them if they didn't hear back to send help. One of them then sent me Tony Du Byun number. I called him and told him about the events. He informed me that he had already talked to Jac. He said Jac told him he lost his cool but would be settled down when returning to camp to square the bill away. He also told me I needed to work with Jac on the price of the waterbuck because it was a 27" waterbuck according to Jac. He told me that he knew Jac well and they had been neighbors and to tell my girlfriend she didn't have to be scared for her life anymore. He explained Jac's father had cancer and that medical bills might be the motivation behind his actions and changing his mind on the waterbuck not being a charge. He said Jac will be coming to talk to you and suggested I work with him on a price for the waterbuck. It kinda felt like if I wanted a ride to the airport tomorrow I have to pay. Eventually Jac knocked on the door and asked for us to come to the kitchen. Once there he handed me the bill with the waterbuck on it. I once again said it wasn't a trophy animal. Jac pointed to a gemsbuck with one horn normal and the other bent and said look that was trophy enough to mount. I then said to him" actually the second day I said to the other hunter I thought mounts like that with goofy horns look bad, and you were right with us but busy on your phone".
Jac then said a lady shot a waterbuck that looked just like mine and was so happy with it. I said that's fine and that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It was his job to make sure I liked that kind of thing first. I also asked if the women was a first time African hunter. He didn't like that question. He then tells me he doesn't own the business and has a board to report too. Says he can't tell them he gave a waterbuck away. I say again it's a cull. He says the price of a cull is $1500. I say I wasn't on a cull hunt and my pH shouldn't have me shooting cull animals. Finally I get the point that if I don't pay the $1500 this isn't going to end. My girlfriend is about to cry again. So I pay it. I ask him to take the $299.99 blind off the bill.
Originally it was going to be part of his tip but not now. He says to me" $300 or $170" I look at him like are you joking. He says" you said something about it being on sale for $170" I then say no I told you the blind only was $279.99 but the blind with 2 chairs was $299.99 and the chairs alone sold for $49.99 each, and you sent me the blind ad at $299.99 so I got the $299.99 one with the chairs"I pointed out that once again when we talked about this earlier in the week he was on his phone no giving me full attention, always doing firewood work. Next I asked when staff would like up for tips. Jac and his brother tell me and Jonathan the other American hunter that they keep all the staff tips and give them to them for Christmas bonuses because they will spend it all on drinking if not. Jack must of saw my face because soon after while pouring his drink he said" it's not in my DNA to steal from my staff" My girlfriend eats dinner, I choose not too. We go back to my room after paying the bill. I put all staff tips in envelopes and give them to Jac. I didn't tip what I normally would knowing the staff wouldn't see all the tip money. I have never experienced anything like that. You should be able to hand money to staff. Jac opened all the envelopes and told me I needed to add more. I told him I was tried and was going to bed and walked away. The next morning I look over the bill as we pack.He charged me $50 for renting the .375 for the eland hunt but he's the one that didn't have anymore .308 bullets. I'm not going to bring it up. But then I notice Jac had charged me $1000 for my girlfriend observering.
She was included in the PHASA hunt. I call him and he says he is busy and can't come straighten it up and hangs up. I should of looked better the night before but I was mentally exhausted after everything. Once again I messaged Tony. I'm not sure if he said anything to Jac or not but he came right before we got in car to leave and gave me $980 back. He kept $20 for some reason. He then says aren't you going to tip me for all my work. I said I'll think about it on way to airport and give anything to your brother depending on how I feel. He storms off upset and drives away. The drive to to the airport was long and quiet but his brother acted like nothing happened. On the way to the airport more people I sent the story and photos too messaged me back saying I got screwed and how bad the waterbuck was. People from USA and South Africa and other parts of Africa. So I decided no tip was needed. I messaged Craig at Bullseye immediately to try to get my Eland and Common Reedbuck asap as I was worried about them. Especially since I had no paperwork for them. Jac had me sign a blank page in his book. No numbers no tops permit number nothing. I left on July 22, Bullseye reached out to him on July 23. He was hostile and said he wouldn't be on the farm until August 5th. Today is August 5th, Bullseye was able to pick up the trophies but Jac was not helpful at all and gave the driver a hard time. How petty is that. Someone that had nothing to do with the hunt or either one of us. But after what I experienced I am not surprised at all. I would stay away from this outfitter/PH at all costs.
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