Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting How Would You Feel If....Question #1

I have a budget of 2 k. What can you set up for me? You did say a 100 per cent guarantee right?

To begin with.....:I am completely aware of my ignorance of elk hunting

As far the beautiful country, there was trash all over the areas we hunted, junk piles, and carcasses(domestic and wild) on every walk we took. Beer cans, glass, oil containers, gas containers, cigarette butts.

When I read 80-90% success, I ignorantly believed it. I wasn’t expecting a giant. I was hoping to at least see a bull.

If I had known more....I would have shot the cow but we were exactly half way through the hunt and I was being told the elk travel a lot and there was a chance at a bull.

I suppose the "guarantee" has to do with whether you can boil water without burning it. I honestly don't know what Jeff charges. I don't think 2 grand will get you very far. I believe he caters to rich guys from the coasts who want the man points and the mount to go with them. I've seen the herd. Good looking elk. The whole concept is so laughable to me on its face that I don't even know how to make jokes about it. But the business has been going for a while, and he was already very wealthy through real estate deals before he started it.

Holy Schit! Is that actually a thing?

Yes. I know, right?!

I have had both. One guy in the Selway-Bitteroot area was completely clueless on hunting elk up in the back country. He did not know the area at all and was always worried about getting lost. It was the early days of GPS and thankfully I had one on me. It helped us get back to camp every night. I complained to the outfitter and he switched us out with another guide. My previous guide was put on packing duty to get the meat down to the airstrip to fly it out. I was nice about it saying that the guide was a nice guy but I should not be the one "guiding" us. I was a fairly proficient elk hunter at the time. I ended up with a decent 5x5 with the second guide.

The next was on a ranch. While he was new to the area, he was great hunter and just fun to be around. I had several chances but was waiting for a mountable 6x6. I was clear about it from the beginning. I went home empty handed but had a great time, ate well, and loved every minute of it!

Maybe let him shoot a calf in the corral? and let him do all the work?

That might work, but my aunt would complain. The herd resides in some high-fenced river bottom land right behind her house. As in she can sit in her kitchen and watch them mill around less than 30 yards away.

If I hired a guide the main value would be for his knowledge of the area. I usually see elk here at first light, or there at last light. The elk tend to move from here to there, so we can set up along the travel route. This is a great bedding area in thick cover uphill from this feeding area, so we need to be here well before first/last light.

I’d want my money back.




P

I hunted first permit elk this year in Colorado, 2400 acre ranch in Hamilton, Colorado. Outfitter lived on the ranch, I've hunted this ranch before when his brother guided on it. I killed a 6x6 bull (my biggest) on the first evening. My buddy killed a big 5x5 the next morning, the other two guys from Minnesota killed a broken 5x5 and a cow for 100%. Food and cabin was good and the guides were the owners son and son-in-law, $3600, no need to spend $10K. There is some expectation that there are elk on the land that you are hunting and the guides know the property, that's what you are paying them for!


If you went to a 5 Star restaurant that had great reviews and you got a lousy meal with bad service, what would you do?

How did your contract read regarding "I'd want my money back"?

Nothing in the contract.....here is a text exchange and I now know I should have asked for more details of a discount and had it in the contract....

Why does your Montana hunting guide have a New Mexico phone number?
It seems pretty obvious you got suckered.

The hunt was in New Mexico

Whoops. Sorry, I thought you had said it was in MT.
Still seems like you got taken advantage of.

I certainly don’t expect skilled folks to work for peanuts; I don’t myself. Seems like $5,000 is rock bottom for a guided outfitter hunt these days. Considering some of the experiences I hear about, I would not book a guide unless I personally knew a few folks that had used them in recent seasons. Life is a crap shoot like buying used cars.

After looking at your outfitter's site, I would say that the expectations that were set, 80-90% success on 5x5 or better bulls, were very high and probably not realistic unless there was something about the land that would draw and keep the animals there. I wouldn't have shot either of the cow elk that you saw, as I'm more interested in the antlers than the meat, plus shooting the cow would take them off the hook for their feeble attempt to put you onto one of those 5x5 bulls that 80 to 90% of their hunters tagged.

Me too. Well, not 15 times, more like four or five times. When that happened I would show up a couple days early and do a walk-about and/or drive-about with the outfitter, or the rancher, or another guide who was familiar with the area. The first year I set foot on a ranch in New Mexico I went three for three in 5 days for ARCHERY clients--all spot and stalk. Needless to say, there's always some luck involved........

Good grief..........