Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Which PH's do you like in Namib?

Yepper they did thx, Ingwe said next time he'd mucho rather take my .270 than his 7X...

Dober

BLASPHEMER!
Ingwe

Mark,

I used to book hunts there and know quite a few of the folks in the biz. My wife were talking about going for another hunt, playing the "Who should we hunt with?" game. I don't think we came to a final conclusion.

We started out with Jan Oelofse, and hunted with his main guy Steve Tors. Steve is really excellent. Vaughan Fulton and Cornie Coetzee were the other two PHs in Jan's operation in those days, and both now run their own operations. All of these guys are great. Elaine Coetzee managed the hunting camp, and she and her husband are both PHs and operate CEC Safaris now, http://www.cecsafaris.com/

I can also recommend John Wambach and Pro Guiding. John does some interesting hunts too such as backpack and primitive. http://www.pro-guiding.com/

Namibia is the most bang for the buck in safari hunting in my opinion. There are some things to know like anything else. Questions?

jim

I would not recommend Karl Stumpfe based on this hunt report. I have no personal knowledge of Karl but this report is very critical and Karl's response does not look reasonable or professional.

http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6321043/m/4861047311

Don't have any personal experience yet, but we did book w/ Hoekus VanNeikirk at Uhlenhorst Safaris for our trip in April/May 2010. Met w/ them personally at FNAWS in SLC this last Feb., and their references were very positive.

I also highly recommend Johann at Shona.

Williford, I notice that you are a brand new, anonymous member. If you have some knowledge of the situation you cite, please present it. If not, are you just trying to damage Mr. Stumpfe's reputation for fun?

I have hunted with Karl Stumpfe twice, just recently for bull elephant. I have some knowledge of the situation you cite and there is a great deal that has not been posted. Mr. Stumpfe is too much of a class act to engage in a back and fourth, he said she said argument. The parties have settled.

So what is your involvement, Mr. Anonymous?

SS
Josh Amerine

Sharpshooter, I got to disagree with you on this one. To begin with, the number of posts Williford has made on this site it irrelevant.

There is no dispute that Karl Stumpfe has been a PH with a fine reputation. The tenor of your post leads one to believe you had a good experience with him. However, by his own admission he dropped the ball with Tim Herald. Bringing this to the attention of the hunting community is not an attack on Mr. Stumpfe. This is legitimate criticism.

This thread is about PHs in Namibia. The AR thread was about a bad experience with a PH in Namibia.

I can't speak to Willifords "involvement" with the AR thread but I can to mine. I spend money on hunting trips. I am currently booking my 2nd safari. I will not hunt with any PH that has what I consider (for me) to be a legitimate negative hunt report in his past. There are too many PHs in Africa with stellar reputations for me to risk my time and money on those that have had problems.

I wish Mr. Stumpfie the very best and I am sure he will resurrect his reputation. However, I will not be hunting with him.

Good hunting,
405wcf

"Bighorn" writes about a hunt he took with Jan Oelofse and booked by myself, Jack Atcheson Jr. From his hunting report (1/14/99) he writes; Absolutey first-class! Also, he wanted to rebook with Oelofse if they re-aquired the Caprivi concession again. In "Bighorns" words "Oelofse very good for husband/wife, family groups. Great place for hunting Gemsbok-had so much fun hunting the first one, took a second one on the last day of the hunt. A letter supplied to "Bighorn" at the time of booking 5/16/1997 from Jan Oelofse, states "the only date open closest to your date mentionin your fax dated May 15, 1997 is June 29 until July 10, 1998. All trophies mentioned in your fax are available. The Nyala are scarce, since leopard predation is very hard on them at the moment, but we will do our best to reserve a trophy for your client". I have the letters scanned if anyone would like to read them.



Jack Atcheson Jr. jack.jratcheson

405wcf, you meant to say that "In my opinion, williford's number of posts don't matter."

Of course it matters if a brand new, anonymous poster links to ANOTHER website to not recommend a PH without an reference to whether he knows the PH or the upset party.

I have hunted with Mr. Stumpfe twice, just recently for bull elephant and I have very recently hunted the property that is the subject of that turmoil. I also know that not all the information on that situation has been made public. I also am known here and do not post anywhere anonymously.

You'll excuse me if I feel free to call out the 1 post anonymous guy about his direct knowledge with this PH or situation.

Josh

Sharpshooter,

I do not know either party. I believe I stated in my original post that I had no direct knowledge of Karl. If you would take the time to read the full thread on AR (instead of only going by your experience with Karl and likely Karl's viewpoint as told to you by Karl) I believe you would have a different opinion of the situation. I agree with 405wcf, there are to many good PHs to take a chance on one that has had negative press (especially the situation with Mr. Stumpfe). Please read the complaint.

John

JACKJR,

There is a difference between game being scarce, and simply unavailable. Based upon the correspondence, which you noted, I believed there would still be the opportunity to hunt a nyala. The only one we saw on our trip was the pet camp nyala, which was off-limits for hunting. I have become friends with another hunter who also hunted with Oelofse, saw the same camp pet, and who was also disappointed in not having the chance to harvest a nyala.

As far as the hunt itself goes, I gave it a good report- we indeed had a good time hunting, largely due to the efforts of our PH, Vaughan Fulton. In spite of not being able to hunt nyala, there were plenty of other game species to occupy our interest.

Fact is, we very nearly didn't get to Johannesburg, due to the airlines having no record of us ever having reservations. My wife and I both vividly remember trying to talk to people in the Joburg airport, who barely spoke English, to get return reservations booked.

We both thought, I guess mistakenly, that those details had been taken care of by our booking agent. Since that time, I double-check those details myself, or book my hunts directly.
I know your outfit enjoys a great reputation world-wide, with many thousands of satisfied clients. I guess we just fell thru the cracks.

Our trip to Namibia was our first African hunt, and we didn't know fully what to expect- we were reliant upon folks like you and the outfitter, to help us out with those details. I'll admit we were a bit naive, and not as well-informed as we could have been- we don't make that mistake anymore.

Best of luck to you, Sir, and your future endeavors.

Jack,

Welcome to the Fire. You and Keith know me.

Camfire Guys,

I can say that I have always recieved first rate service from Jack and Keith and would not hesitate to book with them again.I would be glad to share a real campfire with them as well. They are a wealth of information and I hope they choose to come to this forum in the future.

Britt

Yes, welcome to the 'fire. I'ved booked several hunts through your business, mostly talking to Keith, and all have been satisfactory.

Jack Jr--welcome to the Fire, if you're gonna get this way send me a pm and we'll get together and cuss and discuss hunting.

Dober

+1 Just got back from a hunt with Jannie & Bollie at Gras. Fantastic time, great people, good staff, definitely would like to go back. Waidmannsheil, Dom.

Williford, if YOU would read the thread on AR you would find my post on it. You sound a lot like you are from the peanut section. You have no knowledge on any part of the situation, but you have an opinion.

j

Sharpshooter, your post on AR has no bearing as to whether you have read or comprehend the situation. As far as I can tell, your only "knowledge" comes from your friend Mr. Stumpfe.

If you had a contract for a hunt with Mr. Stumpfe (where it states he was to be your guide) and shortly before the hunt (after you had invested much time and a nonrefundable ticket in subject hunt) he called and let you know that he had a higher paying client and wanted to cancel your hunt, would you be upset. Mr. Stumpfe has never denied that this occured.

The old saying "a litle knowledge is a dangerous thing" is appropriate in your case, especially when you blindly accept one parties explanation of the situation. Try and be more than a lemming.

John

You're trying to tell me I have little knowledge of the situation and you have exactly none?

Like I said, there is much more to this situation than has been posted. Karl Stumpfe is a class act and decided to quickly resolve the situation rather than deal with the peanut gallery. He could have given much more information that is pertinent but he chose the high road.

Williford, post your full name and real interest in the situation or stay a "peanut."

j

Sharpshooter, My name has always been available- John Williford from Houston, Texas. What is yours? My real interest is keeping other hunters from making mistakes in selection of a PH and that is why I referenced the AR thread. I can understand you wanting to help your friend but in my opinion you have done more harm than good. You keep expanding this discussion with no facts except "what Karl did not say". Neither of us was there but any reasonable person can see the root of the problem by reading the AR thread with an open mind. Karl calling his hunter a liar does not seem like he is taking the high road. Karl appears to have caused the problem and is now doing his best to cut his losses (which is the first smart thing Karl has done). He was doing nothing until the post on AR.

You never answered my last question. If you had a contract for a hunt with Mr. Stumpfe (where it states he was to be your PH) and shortly before the hunt (after you had invested much time and a nonrefundable ticket in subject hunt) he called and let you know that he had a higher paying client and wanted to cancel your hunt, would you be upset. Mr. Stumpfe has never denied that this occured.

John