Even a "put and take" operation can be challenging to hunt as some of them are wild. You just have to be brutally honest and tell guys when it's more of a harvest than a hunt.

I don't want to get into the moral arguments of HF/LF, small acreage/large acreage and such. My point is that honesty is that the Rancher / Outfitter / Guide must be honest.... something that is lacking in certain operations.

Insight I agree with you about the honesty thing. That is my biggest problem with Thompson. He is not always honest about his animals.

That's my understanding as well. To be fair, I've never done business with him. A couple of my friends have guided for him at times in the past and tell horror stories and my retired partner had to clean up messes when groups would come to him after a Thompson Temple debacle, but I've traveled different circles.

well i do appreciate all the info and that is kind of what i thought any how. i will definantly stear clear. thanks guys

Come on guys this topic usually goes a lot better than this...... What to many re-runs

Ive been there too. Last year and actually i was there when Helo was there. I didnt actually stay at the ranch as I stayed at a hotel nearby. The accomodations didnt look to appealing to me so I am glad I stayed at the hotel. Hunting(killing) wasnt hard at all. I bowhunted the entire time and spot and stalked. I shot a Tx Dall that someone had shot in the face. I will prolly never go back. The only reason I went that time was because the trip was given to me so it didnt cost me anythign out of my own pocket other than gas to get there.

I know one thing,he has a beautiful daughter,I met her a couple years back at Garvin store north of Leakey,he definitely has the genetics to produce extremely large racks.

Haha, and his stepson plays for the Minnesota Vikings

I have been there three times. No its not really hunting, its shooting to most people. I look at it as it is the same thing as going to the store and buying a painting or a piece of furniture. The accomodations are pretty pitiful, but I always enjoy my trips down there. Its far from a challenging experience but with the right group of friends it can be an enjoyable experience. If you dont want to shoot a ram standing broadside at five yards then back up to fifty or sixty. Use traditional gear instead of a 300+ fps bow or high powered rifle with a scope. If you have already formed a negative opinion before you go then dont waste your time going but if you go in planning on enjoying your time away from traffic, day to day dealings with life and cell phones that wont stop going off then you can have fun.

Some thoughts to take into consideration is the put and take remarks. Walmarts and grocery stores have to restock because they have good business. A ranch has to restock his exotics ever so often if he has a good volume of business just because you can hunt exotics 365 days of the year.

Another thought is you can't really compare most exotics with free range whitetails. People have a tendency to compare exotics with what they are use to hunting, whitetail deer. Free range whitetails are a hard creature to hunt. They can be very elusive. To go a little further whitetails in east Texas are much harder to hunt than whittails in other parts of Texas. Rarely will whitetail deer come to feeders during day light hours in east Texas. That is not the case in the hill country or south Texas.

The point here seems to be how easy the hunt can be. Whether it is whitetail or exotics, what part of the state, rifle or bow, size of ranch, or specie of animal, free range or fenced.

how close could you stalk up on her you think?

everyone who hunts in east texas thinks this.......

a whitetail thats unpressured isn't hard to hunt at all......they pattern just like any other animal, which is why, in the heavily hunted pine woods, they are more apt to be nocturnal. if the hill country or south texas got the pressure east texas did, it would be the same thing.

we had a lease in walker county, about an hour north of houston. we had 600 acres and the surrounding properties except for one wasn't hunted that hard. it wasn't uncommon to have 6 or 8 deer under the feeder everytime it went off.

I think I went with the right group, when I went. The fire and was great, and made it the weekend that it was. I felt bad, as both my uncle and cousin worked for the man, either guiding and or game care, and were there when the THF group was at camp. I wish they would have given me more insight on the so called hunting.

Reference the texasbowhunter AND Kieth Warren groups, they seem to enjoy it and book on a regular basis. To each their own, and more importantly their money. I have tried it, and gave it my honest opion. It isn't for me.

He(TT) has to be doing something right.............the place stays booked year round. So people do enjoy it, for what it is worth. Facilities are awful, as I had stated before on a similiar thread. With all the goats that go through that place a few coins on the trailer and cabin would be nice. Nasty nasty place, the dumping of carcasses is another thing that irrates me, along with the smell If it's your ticket then keep buying it

7mag is right

Wait that seems hard to hit a moving target... can i get you to at least put a chian on him so he cant go to far????

Very well said.

I went close to 20 yrs. ago. I would definetly never go back. I felt like I was at a petting zoo.

7 mag, good point on the dumping there by the trailer. I forgot all about that. The smell was terrible.

I have been there once.I was glad to leave. I probably will not go back.

Well with all due respect for the above posters and comment's, his operation is a disgrace to outfitters and exotic hunting in TX. I've been on several hunt's with outfitters in TX and his was the only one I couldn't wait to get away from. Had it not been for the group I was with I would have left that morning. I put the gun up after the first morning!

It It would be strictly hand to "uh" hand combat!

Most of us want to at least have an opportunity to take the targeted animal on the hunt we invested a sizable amount of money to hunt. How do we balance the "too easy" with the "challenging" and still have success and still please the "not real hunting" critics?