This is an awful outfitter. I have been on multiple hunting expeditions, and this was the worst. First off, the outfitter told us a month prior to the hunt where we would be hunting, so we spent that time studying the topography and downloading maps to our GPS's. When we arrived, he casually mentioned that he had gotten some older hunters, who would be guided and using horses, so he moved us to a different area to make room for them. They paid extra for the guide and horses, so he gave them preference over us. They ended up seeing a bunch and killing a few nice big bulls, and we saw absolutely nothing. That is my second issue- we may not have paid for guides, but we did pay for him to scout for us and put us in an area that we would see some sign, hear a bugle, or something. We saw absolutely nothing in regard to Elk. We saw plenty of predators, wolves, a mountain lion, heard a bear in our camp at night. But no Elk. Lastly, my biggest issue with this guy Rick, is the lack of communication. After driving across the country from upstate NY and Michigan, we asked him if we could shoot our rifles to ensure a good zero. He said we probably would not have time. But the morning he was supposed to pack us out, we sat around for 5 hours doing nothing, while he and his packers got our gear on the mules. Also, he never mentioned we should keep ammo in our weapons when we pack into our drop camp. We assumed it was a safety issue to ride horses with loaded firearms. He never mentioned to us that our deer tags could be used for mountain lion, one guy had a mountain lion in his cross hairs at 30 yards, not moving. He had no idea he was able to harvest that game. Rick lied right to our faces after the hunt, told us that he said we could shoot them. The truth is, he never even introduced himself to 5 out of 8 of the hunters in my group. Never sat us down and told us about our new area, never gave us instruction about our tags and the animals we were allowed to harvest.
He was an all around shady character. Once he received our money, he offered no more assistance to ensure we had a successful hunt. His only advice when we called him mid week- "you gotta get into it!" I assume that meant get deeper into the woods, but we were tracking our expedition with GPS, each of our 8 experienced hunters walked on average 12.5 miles a day. He put us in an area with no scouting done prior and no attempt at helping us throughout the week. In addition, he has offered no refund or any kind of accommodation. read more
