- Joined
- Aug 24, 2021
- Messages
- 17
Below my best attempt at a thorough and probably long-winded review of my experience with Efford's Hunting Adventures Lodge-Based moose hunt. I hope sharing my experience gives others a clearer picture of what to expect if not to caution against the lodge based hunt.
I had been researching different outfitters for Newfoundland moose hunts with plans to go sometime in the next couple of years. Once my elk hunting plans fell through for this fall, I decided to go for it. I booked a drive-in moose hunt with Efford's back in February of this year. I would have loved to go on a fly-in hunt, but the budget was tight and the size of the trophy was a low priority - I wanted to see the country and the animals and hopefully fill the freezer.
Prior to putting down a deposit, I had been in consistent contact with "Bob" (I was told by their office person I was in fact emailing with her), and they had answered all of my questions promptly. After booking, contact stopped. I had read on this forum that others had similar experiences and their hunt proceeded without any problems, so I wasn't very worried. Fast forward to a few days before the hunt, and contact has been minimal even with a hurricane passing through. I arrived in St. John's on time, and was prepared to be picked up from the at 10 am. I got a call at about 8:30 that my driver was 15 km away at a gas station and that I needed to take a taxi to him. I wasn't thrilled that I had to pay a taxi ~$30 USD to take me to the driver that I was paying $200 for to get picked up from St. John's, but I had no choice. I met the driver, who turned out to be my guide, and we made the trek to the lodge for paperwork. During this drive, I found out that the plan was to go to a remote camp for the week and not hunt out of the lodge - this is one unexpected change I was happy about, but up until that point I was told I would be based out of their main lodge.
Once at the lodge, we waited for their office manager to show up. Everyone else was on the western side of the island dealing with the fly-in hunters. Upon arrival, she made it clear she did not know what exactly needed to be done or how things needed to be filled out as this was her first time dealing with that side of things - not really what I wanted to hear when filling out legal paperwork for tags and such.
Fast forward to the hunt, the cabin we stayed in was plenty fine (I prefer not to have 5 star accommodations on a hunting trip anyway) and the guide was good, though he didn't seem to like hunting mid-day. Being my first guided hunt, it felt weird to have spent so much money to be there only to sit at the cabin for 3-5 hours during the day. Overall, I would hunt with Glen again. We worked together to get it done. I'm satisfied with his effort, I learned a lot, and he was a good guy to spend time in the woods with.
Post-kill, we took the meat to Scott's Farm for deboning. I had correspondence before booking with Efford's saying that deboning and boxing is included with the hunt price but any additional butchering is on the hunter. At Scott's Farm, I was told it was in fact not included and I needed to pay $400 USD for deboning and boxing. So I ponied up the cash and figured I'd deal with Efford's on my way out of town. Well, filling out the export paperwork I dealt with the same office person that hadn't handled any of that before, so the export permit was questionable for my flight home. Additionally, I had asked about whether the skull needed to be a completed mount for shipping or if there was a way to clean it or dip/pack it for shipping so I could finish the mount myself. I was told for both the deboning cost and the skull question they would need to contact the owner, Bob, but he was on the other side of the island flying and they would contact me the following week.
4 weeks went by, with me calling 2 or 3 times a week before the butchering charge issue was "resolved". They thankfully agreed to reimburse me the $400 USD by putting that toward the meat shipping bill via Newfoundland Big Game Shipping. The question around the skull had not been answered.
A few weeks later yet, I emailed to find out the status of the skull, hide, and rough dates for meat shipment. I was told the skull had to be sent to a taxidermist and that they would be in contact with me shortly, and my question about the hide was ignored. I was frustrated that they had not informed me of the additional work and expense without prompting, but I wanted the skull so again I was stuck. Then, the taxidermist calls to inform me that he has my skull, but someone has cut the base of it off to "get the brain out", except the brain is still in it. I have pictures of the skull prior to me leaving, and the skull is all in one piece. After I left someone at Efford's decided to take a saw to it for an unknown reason. They were aware of my intention to do a euro mount. The taxidermist was kind of enough to let me know that in his opinion it wouldn't look right or be able to hang on the wall correctly. After discussing with my regular taxidermist, we've elected to install the antlers on a replica skull from Antlers by Klaus which will probably be in the ballpark cost of the finished mount shipped from NL. The original skull is toast.
Next, I received a credit card charge from Newfoundland Big Game Shipping for some $550. Interesting, because I was supposed to have a $400 credit toward the 4 boxes of meat plus 2 boxes of hide. Also interesting that the charge works out to 4 boxes. I call, email, and call some more to finally get an answer that they have elected to send me a check for the $400 instead of applying it to shipping - another decision made without actually informing me of said decision. We will see if the check ever shows up. The office person said she had no knowledge of the hide that was supposed to be included with the meat/skull, but she was going to talk to the owner's son and call me back within 24 hours. Its now been over a week, and I have not received a phone call or an email, and they have not answered my calls since we originally spoke. If something happened to the hide such as the hair slipping at camp after I left, it sucks but I get it. Just tell me - the earlier the better. I'm confident my hide is gone.
Overall, it seems the drive-in hunts are very much a side gig for Efford's with little coordination and no communication. The hunt itself was a good experience, but everything after the kill has been a logistics and communication nightmare with Efford's failing to meet expectations at every phase. The meat deboning costs should have been covered by them, the skull was damaged beyond repair, and the hide lost or damaged. The communication has gone from bad to nonexistent. These are all things we handle on our DIY hunts without much thought that you trust your outfitter to, especially when out of country. This was the first guided hunt I've been on, and I damn sure learned a lot about what to look for in an outfitter.
I had been researching different outfitters for Newfoundland moose hunts with plans to go sometime in the next couple of years. Once my elk hunting plans fell through for this fall, I decided to go for it. I booked a drive-in moose hunt with Efford's back in February of this year. I would have loved to go on a fly-in hunt, but the budget was tight and the size of the trophy was a low priority - I wanted to see the country and the animals and hopefully fill the freezer.
Prior to putting down a deposit, I had been in consistent contact with "Bob" (I was told by their office person I was in fact emailing with her), and they had answered all of my questions promptly. After booking, contact stopped. I had read on this forum that others had similar experiences and their hunt proceeded without any problems, so I wasn't very worried. Fast forward to a few days before the hunt, and contact has been minimal even with a hurricane passing through. I arrived in St. John's on time, and was prepared to be picked up from the at 10 am. I got a call at about 8:30 that my driver was 15 km away at a gas station and that I needed to take a taxi to him. I wasn't thrilled that I had to pay a taxi ~$30 USD to take me to the driver that I was paying $200 for to get picked up from St. John's, but I had no choice. I met the driver, who turned out to be my guide, and we made the trek to the lodge for paperwork. During this drive, I found out that the plan was to go to a remote camp for the week and not hunt out of the lodge - this is one unexpected change I was happy about, but up until that point I was told I would be based out of their main lodge.
Once at the lodge, we waited for their office manager to show up. Everyone else was on the western side of the island dealing with the fly-in hunters. Upon arrival, she made it clear she did not know what exactly needed to be done or how things needed to be filled out as this was her first time dealing with that side of things - not really what I wanted to hear when filling out legal paperwork for tags and such.
Fast forward to the hunt, the cabin we stayed in was plenty fine (I prefer not to have 5 star accommodations on a hunting trip anyway) and the guide was good, though he didn't seem to like hunting mid-day. Being my first guided hunt, it felt weird to have spent so much money to be there only to sit at the cabin for 3-5 hours during the day. Overall, I would hunt with Glen again. We worked together to get it done. I'm satisfied with his effort, I learned a lot, and he was a good guy to spend time in the woods with.
Post-kill, we took the meat to Scott's Farm for deboning. I had correspondence before booking with Efford's saying that deboning and boxing is included with the hunt price but any additional butchering is on the hunter. At Scott's Farm, I was told it was in fact not included and I needed to pay $400 USD for deboning and boxing. So I ponied up the cash and figured I'd deal with Efford's on my way out of town. Well, filling out the export paperwork I dealt with the same office person that hadn't handled any of that before, so the export permit was questionable for my flight home. Additionally, I had asked about whether the skull needed to be a completed mount for shipping or if there was a way to clean it or dip/pack it for shipping so I could finish the mount myself. I was told for both the deboning cost and the skull question they would need to contact the owner, Bob, but he was on the other side of the island flying and they would contact me the following week.
4 weeks went by, with me calling 2 or 3 times a week before the butchering charge issue was "resolved". They thankfully agreed to reimburse me the $400 USD by putting that toward the meat shipping bill via Newfoundland Big Game Shipping. The question around the skull had not been answered.
A few weeks later yet, I emailed to find out the status of the skull, hide, and rough dates for meat shipment. I was told the skull had to be sent to a taxidermist and that they would be in contact with me shortly, and my question about the hide was ignored. I was frustrated that they had not informed me of the additional work and expense without prompting, but I wanted the skull so again I was stuck. Then, the taxidermist calls to inform me that he has my skull, but someone has cut the base of it off to "get the brain out", except the brain is still in it. I have pictures of the skull prior to me leaving, and the skull is all in one piece. After I left someone at Efford's decided to take a saw to it for an unknown reason. They were aware of my intention to do a euro mount. The taxidermist was kind of enough to let me know that in his opinion it wouldn't look right or be able to hang on the wall correctly. After discussing with my regular taxidermist, we've elected to install the antlers on a replica skull from Antlers by Klaus which will probably be in the ballpark cost of the finished mount shipped from NL. The original skull is toast.
Next, I received a credit card charge from Newfoundland Big Game Shipping for some $550. Interesting, because I was supposed to have a $400 credit toward the 4 boxes of meat plus 2 boxes of hide. Also interesting that the charge works out to 4 boxes. I call, email, and call some more to finally get an answer that they have elected to send me a check for the $400 instead of applying it to shipping - another decision made without actually informing me of said decision. We will see if the check ever shows up. The office person said she had no knowledge of the hide that was supposed to be included with the meat/skull, but she was going to talk to the owner's son and call me back within 24 hours. Its now been over a week, and I have not received a phone call or an email, and they have not answered my calls since we originally spoke. If something happened to the hide such as the hair slipping at camp after I left, it sucks but I get it. Just tell me - the earlier the better. I'm confident my hide is gone.
Overall, it seems the drive-in hunts are very much a side gig for Efford's with little coordination and no communication. The hunt itself was a good experience, but everything after the kill has been a logistics and communication nightmare with Efford's failing to meet expectations at every phase. The meat deboning costs should have been covered by them, the skull was damaged beyond repair, and the hide lost or damaged. The communication has gone from bad to nonexistent. These are all things we handle on our DIY hunts without much thought that you trust your outfitter to, especially when out of country. This was the first guided hunt I've been on, and I damn sure learned a lot about what to look for in an outfitter.
