Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game "I've never been here before"

What would you think if you were on a BC Stone sheep hunt.

You get off the float plane on the lake you are going to start hunting from.

The first thing your guide says is "I've never been here before".

We know what Stone sheep hunts cost these days. ($65-85+ large)

Is it reasonable for you to expect your guide would know the area you are dropped into for the nest 13 days?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I would not have been happy. Sat phone call to the outfitter would have been made in short order.

Sounds like you'd have a real hunt on your hands for the next 13 days!

It could be he’s hunting a new drainage in an area he has been before. Maybe he “scouted” via plane and saw sheep .

I guess it would depend on how the hunt went. Nothing wrong hunting new areas.

Wow, I had no idea those hunts cost that much. To answer your question, I'd need a little more context. If the area was a good one and the outfitter knew it well and told the guide where to find sheep and he found them for me, I'd have no complaints.


If we spent the whole time looking through unknown territory for sheep and didn't find any, I'd be pissed.

Finn Aagaard found himself in much the same situation on his first guide-for-elephant hunt. I don't think he told his Spanish client it was his first elephant hunt also, until after the successful hunt. . IIRC they found the elephant first by seeing it's legs at 10 feet in heavy cover.

What could go wrong?

OP - based on the info you posted, I'd have some reservations, perhaps. But more context, as noted above, is needed. If the hunt was successful, no complaints allowed. Nowhere is it written that a guide must be familiar with the territory, tho that is helpful. There are other attributes one is paying for; a good outdoorsman/guide can read territory he's not been in before, judging animals and approaches, etc., and with sheep hunting, you still have to find them even if familiar with the area.

My first, inexperienced sheep hunt was solo, self-guided, and I'd never been there before either, but I took a full curl Dall's. Smallish in curl inches. But it didn't cost me the coin mentioned!

On the other hand, I'd not have volunteered the info without being asked.

I'd be more than unhappy. If I came out at the end with a really nice sheep, I might get over it, but I would still think somehow I didn't get what I paid for.

I actually saw the subject and expected a different discussion. My favorite hunts are those where I'm crossing unfamiliar territory and maybe a bit lost. That is, unless the sky has gone flat gray, wind is coming up, temp is dropping, dark is coming, and it is starting to smell like snow in the air. When that happens the fun is over, the map and compass come out for a bearing, then I haul ass .. pronto.

if i could spend that on a hunt I would be ok with my blessed life and hunt opportunity

Was the hunt successful? I can actually see where such a hunt could be better than a hunt where the guide knows the area. This way they would actually have to hunt. Why would that be a bad thing? Nothing wrong with having to earn your game the old way rather than just sitting around waiting for it to wander by. The sport is called hunting, it is not called shooting and killing.

Might be asking a little much to require a guide in big country to know every lake and drainage by personal experience.

Might be asking a little much to require a guide in big country to know every lake and drainage by personal experience.

dukxdog How did you hunt turn out? I have hunted new to me area's all the time for the same primary outfitters I've guided for. We have regular haunts but activity ai,, kills,calving area's,snow or river levels,weather (winds) etc,etc. You hunt with your bino's and educated guessing.Hopefully your hunt went well! Jim

My belief is a hunter is far better off hunting an area he knows well even its it not the top area. The learning curve on learning new ground is real.

If I was paying someone to guide me for any game, I would at least expect intimate knowledge of the area we are hunting. Who wants to hunt behind someone claiming, “this is the first time I have ever been here”?

if you're expecting 100% guide knowledge of an area where the hunt is to take place and 100% kill guarantee then maybe a high fence hunt for a semi-domesticated animal is more in flavor

I don't think that is what the OP was looking for or expecting, or he wouldn't have been on such a hunt. Moreover, between the hunt you talk and hunting with a guide that has never been there or done that, there is a lot of terrain.

If Dugxdog is a non Canadian I believe that by law he needs to hunt with a registered outfitter and accompanied by a registered guide, for which circumstance I understand he paid big bucks, and not just the close to nothing cost of a tag a resident hunter pays. And when you pay big bucks you would normally expect some kind of return like having a guide with some experience and some knowledge of the territory.

Given the competence from local hunters these outfitters can get, it is not exceptional for them to hire guides with little experience that have never set up their foot in the country, as even if they learn about the hot sheep pockets in the area it is more unlikely they hunt back on their own.

Guides with this profile could also be less expensive to hire, and a reason by with the outfitter would pass on to the client the pressure of paying him a high tip, letting me remind you that 15% of $80,000 is $12,000!.

When $65-85,000 of MY money is being gambled, there 100% is something wrong with hunting new areas.

That's a lot to spend on a butler to cook and pack game. You know the country as well as he does so just hire a Mexican cook with horses.

That said, a guide should know how to read even new country to recognize where elk are likely to be.

Rock: Canadian aliens cannot hunt without a Canadian registered guide. Mexican cook does not cut it.

Here's something else to consider. Many guides work for an outfitter along with any number of other guides. They all want to be successful so they share info on good areas. While a guide might not have ever been there personally, he might well have had the assistance of other successful guides plus satellites, maps, etc. This might not be nearly as cold turkey as it sounds.

A good guide should be able to go into an unknown area and have success. People seem to forget that hunting is way more about “how” than it is “where”

Dukzdog: Did this happen to you or are you relaying a random thought or perhaps a "pipe dream"?
IF.... it happened to you I hope you made the best of it.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy