I'm not sure why there's a couple bad reviews for this outfitter. My dad and I just spent 5 days with them and had the greatest time. Ray is the owner and he met us there to get us all settled in. He would stop by from time to time to check in on us and see how we had done. He even guided my dad the first day himself. He put together a team that works hard to protect the reputation and image of the Milligan Brand. The guides were all very knowledgeable and had great personalities. They made us feel like we were part of the family. We had other hunters in camp that had been coming there for 20-30 years, which speaks for itself. There was no "preferential treatment" to the repeat hunters. We all had the same opportunities at elk. My dad and I both took beautiful bulls, a 6x6 and a 6x7. Big Ben was our camp chef and let me tell you, the man is great at what he does. He has as much passion with the pans as the guides do in the field. If you're looking for a 5 star hotel with suits and ties for guides, this isn't for you. This place is rough around the edges and so are the guides. They're hunters like us with a true passion to be in the woods with us and yes, they are going to have a couple beers when we get back to camp. Nobody was getting stupid drunk like one review I read. My guide was Desi and I don't think I could've asked for a better one. He knew what I wanted and made it happen and genuinely seemed like he enjoyed every minute of it. This was my first elk ever and I think he was just as excited as I was when we walked up on it. He's a very family oriented man. His father is also a guide there. It was pretty amazing to see the relationship they have since my dad and I are the same way. My dad's guide was Patrick, who's also the head guide. He kept everything running smooth with the rest of the guides and hunters. He truly bent over backwards to make sure he had a great hunt. At 76 years old my dad took his first elk, and it was a great bull. The weather was unseasonably warm which slowed the bulls down a bit but everyone in camp had opportunities at bulls and when we left a day early, 6 of the 8 of us had taken bulls. This hunt was everything we pictured in our heads and more. After some terrible experiences with other outfitters in the past, these guys restored our faith that there is some good ones out there. read more

Milligan Brand Outfitters - Wildlife Hunting Ranges Near Me

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Let me start this off by saying I don't normally write reviews but this one is warranted. To be very clear, Ray is an arrogant guy who only cares about getting your money and making sure his higher end clientele are taken care of, where us average/new guys get the short end of the stick. Next, let's talk tipping, (and I have all the original documents, contracts, etc. saved). We looked at the tipping guidelines emailed to us beforehand and it said in writing that "Tips generally run $500-$1000 from a hunter to his guide. Also, the chef averages $125 per client. Our Camp jack is often tipped $25." I went on a 2x1 rifle Elk hunt and my buddy and I each left $600 in tip to the guide, $150 to the chef and $25 to the camp jack. We are not millionaires but thought we received good service so we tipped accordingly, per the guidelines we were sent. As we were leaving, we got a text from Ray saying "YOU AND (MY FRIEND) ARE NO LONGER ALLOWED TO COME BACK AND HUNT WITH US. DO NOT CALL US AND DO NOT TEXT US EVER AGAIN. YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE ANYMORE." Are you kidding me?! That text was sent to me on our drive home across the country without any context or any reason why. Who the heck does that?! My friend and I were perfectly good clients, acted properly, said nothing offensive, stuck to the rules and followed all orders so what the heck did we do to deserve that type of treatment?! Did we not tip enough based on Ray's guidelines that he himself wrote and we followed?! Do yourself a favor and avoid this man and his company at all costs. He is not worth your trouble, hard earned money, or time. Now to the review, in case you are still interested... My friend and I were on a 2x1 guided rifle elk hunt and were told we had over 10,000+ acres or more of high-country land to hunt on. Sounds great right? Well, every single morning we went to the same exact spot and saw nothing and maybe heard a bugle or two very far out. Our morning hunt (with the walk included) lasted for about 2 hours, then we came back to the camp, took a nap/had a snack, and went back out in the late afternoon for another 2 hours. Then we came back, ate dinner, and had some drinks. My buddy and I were ready to hunt all day considering we spent almost $9,000 each to make this trip happen and all we got was 4-5 hours a day with A LOT of downtime. Now don't get me wrong, the wilderness was very nice and the chef was excellent but the guides were basically drunk all day and night, drinking beers and slugging crown royal in between hunts and late into the night. The bunk cabins we stayed in were nothing special and the limited number of elk we saw were mostly spikes and young 3x3 or 4x4. We ended up getting a young 4x4 bull and a 3x4 on the 4th day because we wanted to go home with meat. Ironically enough, I got my bull on my own in between hunts during "down time" because I wanted to hunt more so the guide said "Go in that direction" which I did, I sat for an hour and got my shot. After experiencing this hunt and doing my own research on other guide services for the future I would rate Milligan Brand 1 star out of 5 at best, and 1 star just because we liked the chef. Avoid this company and go with someone else! read more

Milligan Brand Outfitters - Wildlife Hunting Ranges Near Me

Ray Milligan is a snake oil salesman...we went Sept 2022 and when we called Ray in 2021 and asked what was the best week...he gave us the 2nd week of September....when we got there ALL of his guides said they do not do very well the 2nd week and that Ray was just "trying to sell hunts." Ray is ALWAYS drunk walking through camp while bragging about how wealthy he is which is very annoying for the hunters to hear over and over. He said he has 100,000 acres to hunt and of the 4 spots we hunted 3 of them were tiny parcels with rancher fences dividing them and he has nowhere near the acreage he advertises. One of the neighboring ranchers actually drove his 4x4 50 yards from me while I was on an evening hunt sitting by a water hole..and did the same thing to another hunter. I texted my guide and he saw this happen through his binoculars and told me to get up and move to where another hunter was (mainly cause the parcel was so small there was not alot of areas for us to spread out.) Ray will falsify his success/opportunity rate and many hunters in camp witnessed him writing on his dry erase board that a hunter got a 4x3 elk when what he killed was a 1x1 tiny spike. He does this so when other hunters come to camp they think there is high success when there is not. This unethical outfitter is only out for your money and could care less about how disgusting the camp is (flies all over the food, spiders and other bugs in the showers, filthy bedding. I feel bad for his staff as they ALL talk poorly about Ray when he is not around but because there are not a lot of jobs in Chama.....they are nice to his face. i would 100% save your money and not hunt with this lying outfitter read more