Originally Posted by smokepole
Originally Posted by Mule Deer
What I don't get is why some people apparently look down on guided hunts and hunters--even some people who are guides.


I don't look down on them, especially in a place like Africa where you pretty much have to use a guide or not hunt. Seems like hunting with a good guide there would be a big part of the experience.

And I don't look down on someone who wants to spend $15K on a guided private land elk hunt. Some of those guys save up a long time for that, and it's literally the hunt of a lifetime for them. And when they're telling the story, they don't leave out the part about the guide, and give the guide the credit he deserves. Who am I to find fault with that?

However, I do believe that bagging the same bull (or buck) on your own, on a public land DIY hunt is much more of a personal accomplishment. And much more to be proud of. And some guys will leave out the part about the guide, or the part about paying to hunt a high-fenced South Texas ranch for a genetically-manipulated and spoon fed "monster buck." To me, that's nothing to brag about. I think that's the source of the disdain.


I can agree with the first, as well as the second. That said, they should differentiate between a fenced hunt like that, and a hard hunted buffalo in the Dande North region of Zimbabwe, where there are no guarantees.

A good principle to guide me through life: “This is all I have come to expect, standard lackluster performance. Trust nothing, believe no one and realize it will only get worse…”