It appears that Gardner is working with Riata Hunting Ranches in the Golden Triangle of South Texas. The ranch offers deer, bird and exotic game hunts. According to the company web site, Gardner is their big game hunting, wingshooting and fishing consultant. The site claims he operated one of the largest hunting and outfitting companies in the US and goes on to say that his company was "closed in early 2009 and all clients and outfitters of the corporation were made whole."
Our question is simply this: Were they?
In our lead story this month (see page 1) subscriber Roger Gregg said he had originally booked that hunt with Gardner's San Miguel Outdoors agency. According to Gregg and outfitter Mike Mell, Gardner had only forwarded $450 worth of the $5,000 hunting fee. Mell says he wanted to make his client happy and go through with the hunt. But Gregg refused and demanded that Gardner pay Mell the money that had been laid out for the hunt. After a bit of discussion, Mell says he got all but about $1,000 of what was owed to him, and he decided to take Gregg hunting and cut his losses with Gardner. How did everyone else fare after San Miguel went out of business? We'd like to hear from........(continued)
