Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game How do you book your hunts?

This may be the same or may need its own thread but before you choose the outfitter how do you choose an area in a state. I have been building points in CO & WY for multiple species some almost at 10 pts. how do I decide an area then the outfitter? 5 yrs ago I dropped my Hunting Fool subscription and this past year dropped Eastman’s but thinking I should re-subscribe to both. I feel if I go straight to an outfitter they are going to push their hunt and area. What do you other non-res’s do for finding the best area for what you want then find the outfitter?

Fully agree and have used him for several hunts. I am currently closing on a Zim buff/sable hunt through him for 2018.

When I become interested in an area, I search for outfitter websites for that area.

My wife and kids use facebook but I don't have a lot of time to waste on it or texting. I'm probably old school but if a friend doesn't want to talk and sends texts, I don't answer.

I also prefer the conventions and local fundraisers. Not only can you talk face to face with the people who will host you but you also can talk to their past clients and club officials who have vetted their donors. I lost count on the number of hunts I have booked and have had only one that failed to meet expectations. The outfit was sold and I opted to go with the new guy rather than cancel as was offered. I only filled one of my three tags so it wasn't a total washout just not what was promised. I am not a fan of agents. I like to make my own
choices and/or mistakes. Oh, book the 2nd year you talk to a guy, that makes me even more comfortable.

I like to talk face to face, but living on the east coast and wanting to hunt in the west, this is often hard.

Internet/google is good. you can find anything. the one thing that scares me here is finding NOTHING.

My wife and I just booked a hunt, and how it happened surprised me, but we went with a gut feel.

We'd done lots of online/email/phone research and were down to one of three options, two where outfitters, one in Montana, one in Wyoming, and #3 was via a friend suggesting we check the booking service he uses.

Two of the three were at the Harrisburg Outdoor show last weekend.

Going in, I would have bet the mortgage we were heading to Montana in 2017. Our first stop was the booking agent, he'd given me two to check into via email, one wasn't open until 2018 and one was an option in CO but for 2017 and he wasn't sure they were still open, but could make some calls. He gave me some general tag info on getting Antelope tags in MT that I didn't know.

Off to the Montana outfitter, who's "bread and butter" is bow hunting whitetails, but does deer/antelope rifle as well. I had never gotten this guy on the phone but all internet references and a phone call or two had me leaning towards him. then I met him. Nothing bad happened and he seemed like a good enough guy, however he didn't really understand the odds of getting an Antelope tag for his area, his answers were vague and all he wanted was to talk about deer hunting, he didn't understand the point system etc. So nothing hugely wrong, but my wife and I both walked away with an uncomfortable feeling.

We wandered the show, stopped at 9-10 other outfitters, ended up talking to another WY one that I'd never heard of. Small husband/wife deal. We had a very good talk with them, got good feelings, they explained, in detail how tags worked how to make sure to get them etc. While there twice past hunters stopped to talk, said they'd come back when the outfitter wasn't busy - one thing I liked they did talk to the returning hunter, but did not make us feel rushed. Both cases I would "wander" off and grab the hunter for a quick reference check, all good things.

We thanked them for the time. About an hour later were sat down for a drink and snack and figure out what to do. We had found 2 outfitters of interest at the show, crossed off one, had the booking agent, but he didn't have any good options until 2017/2018. That one outfitter kept coming back up in our talks, we both got good feeling from them, no red flags and we both pride ourselves in reading people.

spent about 60 minutes on our phones and google, called a reference each off the web site, searched for reviews etc.

We decided to go with them. Went back to ask a couple follow up questions about specifics of lodging (husband and wife pair coming sometimes raises issues), everything was great, talked over details of a day of hunting, how to balance both animals (deer/antelope) etc. We then booked with them, turns out that they also had October 2016 open, so we are going in October!

Long story short, shows may not be the "future" but for my wife and I they are a comfort setting for us to fork over money! This outfitter mentioned that she fully books at this show (good thing we went the first weekend!). Infact in the time we were gone she had booked 3 other groups, two return clients and one new one!

Won't know for 100% til October, but for now we are comfortable with out decision!

I am an outfitter in Idaho and I have both a personal facebook page and a business page, they seem to be good in the aspect that people can look back over the timelines and verify that you are who you say you are but I don't think they have generated much new business, with that being said both pages keep growing and people are becoming more addicted to social media all the time so it may be a big factor in the future. For the present time I would say 90% of our clients find our web site first & then some check out the facebook page but the number of direct web site clicks and inquiry messages we get off the facebook page is very low. One thing about social media that makes it attractive is that it is very low cost, it does take a substantial amount of time to build a following but so does word of mouth which is the best advertising.

Any advertising or exposure is good and the favorable reviews on "The Hunt Report" and other sites have probably done more for our business than any on-line source other than our web site it's self. Magazine ads, most on line ads and sports shows have all proven to be cost prohibitive at this point. I would like to go to Harrisberg but I would have to book so many hunts to make it all pencil out I just don't think it is feasible, IF I booked all my remaining available hunts across the board elk, deer, bear, moose, lion, wolf... for 2016 and half of my 2017 schedule I would still have to add several hundred dollars to the cost of each hunt.

Around about Sandpoint by chance?

Yes EdM, we are near Sandpoint, we operate in unit 4A and the northern portion of unit 4. Clark Fork Outfitters is the name of our business.