A Bad Experience at Mallard Barn

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A Bad Experience at Mallard Barn
...after we took the photos he asked me again would like me to cut the head? And I said yes please after I answer him he told me to pay now because his boss was waiting for the money...

... Then he came to pick us up and ask us the same question would you like me to cut the head? And I answered yes so I told him if could get all the heads but he answered No you cant you will to come on week day to get them if you want them clean. Also he asked me for the money again and I paid him...

...the gamekeeper who went with you forgot about of cutting the heads on Saturday and the butcher came and took both deer and incinerated both heads so we cant do nothing about it...

...He instantly said: No what do you think I am going to let them shoot another deer free? You have the pleasure to stalk at my state and to shoot that is what you are paying for not for the trophy...

...So I told him: I just don’t want the trophy to see how big it is, its for when my sons see it they will think of the trip we did of three days with their dad. Also there is no pleasure of stalking at your rented state because I am paying for it and you haven’t invited me and you are also playing with my son’s illusions...

I actually think the OP's grasp of the English language is pretty good and I wish I could speak another language to this degree.

Looking beyond the 'he said this... and I said that...' because it will always be down to two sides of the story, who on here goes paying stalking for the male of the species and does not expect to get to take the head away with them? Now no comments about not being a tropy hunter please because if that was the case we would all be stalking for females in the winter. The OP is absolutely right to assume he was getting the heads back, and this was confirmed when he was asked if he wanted them cut and then told to pick them up on a later date.

Now if the beasts are picked up on a regular prior arrangement basis with no further contact to be made with the game dealer, then the stalker/keeper should have ensured that the heads were removed before the beats were lardered otherwise they were going with the deer. He did not do that and the heads were lost. If the phone call was made for the game dealer to attend and uplift them, and he still forgot to pop over and remove the heads, regardless it is still his fault and the heads were lost.

Paying for a days stalk on bucks or stags is about the head at the end of the day, regardless of its size. I do not mean the stalk itself or the reasons for the stalk and cull are not important but the reasons for taking that beast are more often than not based on the quality of the head, poor or superb. This site is littered with posts about shooting a buck because it was a poor head, or leaving it because it was a good head..., but I have never had a friend or guest out who has not wanted the head to take away. I do not like the term trophy to be honest. I prefer to see it as a reminder that can be handled, looked at, discussed over with friends, whatever... regardless of its size.

The OP took his sons stalking which is fantastic, and their memory of that day is now some photos. That is not the same IMO.

If it was me then I would be making good and offering another day out for them. That is how you build good relations with clients, and that is why they would want to come back again...
 
If people who have a concern about a trader or estate or any other product or service are going to be criticised or scolded for voicing an opinion then why bother coming on here at all?

There will always be people who have had a good experience and people who have had a bad experience with the same product or service.
At least by voicing his opinion the OP has given anyone who reads this and considers using this service in the future a heads up about crossed wires, ascertaining all expectations before hand and preparing them for any issues that have already been seen.
He is not asking you to take his experience as gospel, hopefull you can all make your own opinion of the back of what he has to say.


don't be so closed minded just because someone doesn't spend all day on a website or isn't a known and regular user of SD. without new members and new stalkers sites like this and the sport in general suffers.
 
My dilema: I have shot at Ampton several times, love the place, and Alan the head gamekeeper has always been fantastic.

They do favor high seats for people who don't know the ground, because of the bird pens, and because the road can be within 50yds in some areas.

That said, I've also been allowed to stalk with someone who knew the ground well.

Right, that aside, taking the OP's account at face value, which would appear to be quite reasonable, I think the treatment unacceptable, and would like to think that the owners would do the right thing, and offer some free stalks/shots as compensation.
 
Clarifications to bad expirience in mallard game

CLARIFICATIONS TO BAD EXPIRIENCE IN MALLARD GAME

1) My complaint is not on the estate is on the guard Lian and his boss Peter , one for not cutting off the heads and the other for failing to stand up in due course
In no time I referred to Alan as he was on vacation

2) Before writing in this forum and tried to fix things but the only thing I received from them two times I have cut the phone and tell me I was going to reply by email, I'm still waiting.

3) I have read comments saying that so you can not destroy the reputation of a person and their way of life with the comments made by me, I say to those people who's reputation is earned every day and when something goes wrong you have to face the problem and provide solutions
All sometime make mistakes, but mistakes have to solve them and face


4) I used this forum because I felt helpless, the only way to put people in place is as telling as to when problems occur. This type of comenterios comes well to the forum. I in a few months volvere to Spain and I hope this report will serve to at least these people react,
I take it from you when you return from Spain and if anyone ever have any issues there will help you fix it

5) It was not the first time that I stalk in AMPTON andi t the 5 and I never have a problem before
 
would it not be better for you to try an get in contact with the estate again, to try an sort it out with them, because i dont think posting it on this forum is going to help in anyway, unless they were members on here, im not having a dig here, just what i think will be better for you. as i said i cant see you achieving anything posting it on here.
 
It as been said already here there are good and bad experiences to be had at any stalking ground (fact).

I think there should be a response from the sport provider stalking or not. A practical solution to this problem and any others that arise would be for someone who knows the estate to show them this post. It would work two ways the original poster might get a reply or some satisfactory conclusion to his complaint. The estate might become a trade member and SD members would be aware of more stalking opportunities. The estate could defend their name.
 
I actually think the OP's grasp of the English language is pretty good and I wish I could speak another language to this degree.

Looking beyond the 'he said this... and I said that...' because it will always be down to two sides of the story, who on here goes paying stalking for the male of the species and does not expect to get to take the head away with them? Now no comments about not being a tropy hunter please because if that was the case we would all be stalking for females in the winter. The OP is absolutely right to assume he was getting the heads back, and this was confirmed when he was asked if he wanted them cut and then told to pick them up on a later date.

Now if the beasts are picked up on a regular prior arrangement basis with no further contact to be made with the game dealer, then the stalker/keeper should have ensured that the heads were removed before the beats were lardered otherwise they were going with the deer. He did not do that and the heads were lost. If the phone call was made for the game dealer to attend and uplift them, and he still forgot to pop over and remove the heads, regardless it is still his fault and the heads were lost.

Paying for a days stalk on bucks or stags is about the head at the end of the day, regardless of its size. I do not mean the stalk itself or the reasons for the stalk and cull are not important but the reasons for taking that beast are more often than not based on the quality of the head, poor or superb. This site is littered with posts about shooting a buck because it was a poor head, or leaving it because it was a good head..., but I have never had a friend or guest out who has not wanted the head to take away. I do not like the term trophy to be honest. I prefer to see it as a reminder that can be handled, looked at, discussed over with friends, whatever... regardless of its size.

The OP took his sons stalking which is fantastic, and their memory of that day is now some photos. That is not the same IMO.

If it was me then I would be making good and offering another day out for them. That is how you build good relations with clients, and that is why they would want to come back again...

I could not agree more with Jamross, he's got what I wanted to express down perfectly. You are a credit to your profession JR65.

In my opinion ther should be some compensation made as the estate have dropped the ball on this one.

ATB
Moses
 
I can see no problem with the post at all.

Someone has paid to shoot roebucks, the heads are part of what make that an event. I would be seething if I shot 4 bucks and 2 of the heads went missing, full stop, trophy or not. I am amazed that they are sending the heads to the butcher at all.

The lack of a sincere apology is amazing oin this day and age.

This site sometimes amazes me, I am sure that if the guy had put up a story that someone had shot him or pushed him out of a high seat there would be some on here determined to defend the "other side" of the story!! The guy is brassed off and has come on here to vent, seems reasonable and not sinister to me.
 
i do see the point of his post but for the first two posts know nothing about the guy in question or the estate but after reading other posts on here recently everyone jumped on the bandwagon and slated somebody who it turned out had done nothing wrong, once something is written on here it sticks thats all i am saying and site rules state that some one must make a proper introduction which we havnt seen and can slate someone for something we do not know is fact again just my thaughts i am totally nuetral i see where he is coming from and if it where me i would have taken the heads home myself there and then and if not it would be on payment at the end simple as that ,atb wayne . i would also think that in this day and age if some one has a problem isnt it better to sort it out face to face in private so there is definately no missunderstanding.
 
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Wayne, in private?

Nice thought. However, this site is getting like Jeremy Kyle at times. Next thing we will be talking about our "feelings"....

I have to declare a small interest in this that I know the keepers in question, the keeper mentioned is a lad called Liam. I have only ever found him to be entirely helpful and absolutely sound. He went out of his way to help me out on my last visit there.

Reference the "dumping stalkers in high seats". Sure, this is true up to a point. We go there for a cull shoot every February. The objective is to knock over as many Muntjac does as possible. There are usually ten to fifteen of us. The only way to safely manage this is to put every one up high seats, and tell them to stay put. I have been told in certain areas I can stalk on foot, and have done so.

Speaking to Liam and Alan, they seem to host paying stalkers regularly who stalk on foot. I should really say this is a big shooting estate, stalking is very much a side line.
 
I actually think the OP's grasp of the English language is pretty good and I wish I could speak another language to this degree.

Looking beyond the 'he said this... and I said that...' because it will always be down to two sides of the story, who on here goes paying stalking for the male of the species and does not expect to get to take the head away with them? Now no comments about not being a tropy hunter please because if that was the case we would all be stalking for females in the winter. The OP is absolutely right to assume he was getting the heads back, and this was confirmed when he was asked if he wanted them cut and then told to pick them up on a later date.

Now if the beasts are picked up on a regular prior arrangement basis with no further contact to be made with the game dealer, then the stalker/keeper should have ensured that the heads were removed before the beats were lardered otherwise they were going with the deer. He did not do that and the heads were lost. If the phone call was made for the game dealer to attend and uplift them, and he still forgot to pop over and remove the heads, regardless it is still his fault and the heads were lost.

Paying for a days stalk on bucks or stags is about the head at the end of the day, regardless of its size. I do not mean the stalk itself or the reasons for the stalk and cull are not important but the reasons for taking that beast are more often than not based on the quality of the head, poor or superb. This site is littered with posts about shooting a buck because it was a poor head, or leaving it because it was a good head..., but I have never had a friend or guest out who has not wanted the head to take away. I do not like the term trophy to be honest. I prefer to see it as a reminder that can be handled, looked at, discussed over with friends, whatever... regardless of its size.

The OP took his sons stalking which is fantastic, and their memory of that day is now some photos. That is not the same IMO.

If it was me then I would be making good and offering another day out for them. That is how you build good relations with clients, and that is why they would want to come back again...

I couldn't agree more!
In the service industry it makes little sense to have a client leave dissatisfied. Whatever compensation could be agreed it would be better than losing future business!
 
dear alvaro i have been hunting with the mallard barn for 15 years they have always been very very friendly an helpfull.Peter an his team always do there best to provide an excellent days sport .Never once have i had a bad day on his estate an i feel very angry at your stupid comments bad mouthing 1 of the best estates in suffolk which is totally unfair.From what i can gather about you from the shooting world an from several people who have the unfortanate experience of having to deal with you in the past they all say your nothing but a whinging git an a pain in the back side. So keep your pathetic untrue comments to yourself.KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK MALLARD BARN YOUR DOING A SUPERB JOB.
 
ok, will toss in my 2 pennies worth.

if I went stalking on an estate and paid for it, I would want to keep the trophy's as a memory, hence I mount all my stags and bucks with comments about where and when shot, notes, etc. memory of good times and a respect to the animal that gave it's live.

If I found out two of the trophies I had shot were disposed of and I had paid a trophy fee, then I'd ask for either compensation in the shape of an opportunity to shoot another buck or two, OR, financial compensation/re-imbursement of the trophy fee.

if there was no trophy fee in the first place, I'd just take my good memories of the stalk and leave it at that.,,but probably not return again either tbh...despite what others experiences might have been...

there's no such thing as second first impressions!
 
the only person who are stupid comments is your sell
how can you said that the .are some people talking about me if you dont know my real name
ARE YOU PETER ?
 
This Estate should refund the gentleman for his full weekend and offer him alternative dates for him and his sons to return until they manage to shoot the same number of deer and qauility without question this was the estate - keepers fault, i would also like to think they covered his travel etc
 
Another very nice and informative first post. If you wish your contribution to be taken seriously your Lordship then maybe an introduction would be of help so that members can assess the worth of your input.

John

dear alvaro i have been hunting with the mallard barn for 15 years they have always been very very friendly an helpfull.Peter an his team always do there best to provide an excellent days sport .Never once have i had a bad day on his estate an i feel very angry at your stupid comments bad mouthing 1 of the best estates in suffolk which is totally unfair.From what i can gather about you from the shooting world an from several people who have the unfortanate experience of having to deal with you in the past they all say your nothing but a whinging git an a pain in the back side. So keep your pathetic untrue comments to yourself.KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK MALLARD BARN YOUR DOING A SUPERB JOB.
 
dear alvaro i have been hunting with the mallard barn for 15 years they have always been very very friendly an helpfull.Peter an his team always do there best to provide an excellent days sport .Never once have i had a bad day on his estate an i feel very angry at your stupid comments bad mouthing 1 of the best estates in suffolk which is totally unfair.From what i can gather about you from the shooting world an from several people who have the unfortanate experience of having to deal with you in the past they all say your nothing but a whinging git an a pain in the back side. So keep your pathetic untrue comments to yourself.KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK MALLARD BARN YOUR DOING A SUPERB JOB.

I wonder who wrote this :rofl:
 
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