My wife and I like to try to go on a hunt every season. I like to get on here and see what is being offered but it seems like y'all don't start offering hunts until summer. It would be nice if y'all would start offering your hunts right after seasons end so people could start looking and deciding which hunts they wanna go on and pay deposits and start putting money aside for the rest. The way most of y'all do it all the money is due pretty much up front because it isn't being offered until so late. Just my .02 cents.

I'm gonna have exotic hunts and deer hunts from now until I'm dead. When you wanna sign up???

Hold on. It's not the outfitters fault that someone doesn't get a hunt booked on time. Most of the time its the other way around. A lot of people don't start looking until it too late. I can guarantee you that after the first cold snap hits its like an alarm gets triggered in some huntes and it can be that season is already steam rolling along and I will get a dozen calls from people that didn't call or start searching until its way too late. It's not that outfitters don't advertise. A quick google search will help you find anything you need. Now if its coming down to a price issue, well specials dont just happen too often in advance. Sometimes an outfitter gets deals with a buddy he knows that changed his mind and wants to get some more critters hunted on his place because he needs the cash or is changing something up. I don't know a single outfitter that would not book you in advance if you inquired about their hunt and were serious. Sure you are not going to know in February how many managment whitetail hunts you will have next season. An outfitter will have an idea and can maybe book a few, but until the deer start growing their antlers its going to be kind of hard to know exactly what you will have. Put and take operations partly exist because of this.

If its a money situation of it all being up front, I wouldn't buy that "because its so late" excuse from an outfitter. They know that if its priced right, it will sell. And if its during the season it will sell quick if its priced right and the outfitter has a good reputatin. For our operation we take a 50% non-refundable deposit to book a hunt. The main reason I do so is when I did a much smaller deposit I would have people change hunt dates a lot more. Other outfitters have the same policy because of the similar difficulty that it puts them in to call in guides to help do the hunt and then it gets cancelled. Rescheduling situations can create some problems for the outfitter. That's probably why some charge so much for a deposit.

If you go online and search some outfitters I'm sure you can find a hunt you are looking for and book way in advance. But if its got to be that really special cheap deal, well those things just happen when they happen. It would make a lot of sense for hunters to start looking earlier, but its not because outfitters don't offer the hunts.

Wow, ever heard of google, bing, great search features, but I'm glad you are waiting on THF outifitters to post up some hunts.

Personally I don't know that early if I am even going to have anything to hunt. Drought, predators, fencing all play a big part on the animals you have or think you have to hunt.

We are unable to offer our hunts until we know what we will have to offer. I will not try and sell a buck hunt that I cannot provide. I also have to provide game surveys to parks and wildlife to get my MLD permits.

Wow what a post!

Ok the whiskey might of had something to do with my post last night. Not drinking tonight. I am just saying that when busy people start planning their year it would be nice to start seeing something a little earlier than a few months before hand. I pretty much have my year planned by April or May at the latest. It seems like everything on here is pretty much dead until right before season. Sorry if I ruffled any feathers.... Didn't mean to.

Lock your dates, guaranteed you can find an outfitter or ranch to take you on whatever your looking for in that time frame. I know if you gave me some dates right now you have saved from ealier this year I could get you on a hunt for sure.

I get what 2G is saying, if I were interested in hunting in Texas I would start here before doing a Google search; the prices are a lot more reasonable, and sifting through a lot of the BS that is out there on the WWW can be overwhelming.

Just a suggestion, if you want to set something up earlier in the year, why not create a post describing what type of a hunt you are interested in, and invite guides or outfitters to contact you with what they have available?

One of the reasons I give discounts on here at times is because the hunts are booked several months in advance.

On the other hand I also have to be ready for some clients that dont have that lifestyle to allow them to plan a hunt so far off in advance. A lot of the hunters dont plan that far off but have the money to spend and if you dont have it your gonna lose business.

Don't limit yourself to finding a hunt on this forum. Plenty of other outfitters that do not advertise here. Google the hunt you are looking for and start making calls.

Just a suggestion but every year i put back what I want to spend on a trip. Where i go each year may change but I will always have my budget planned out. You are the one in control of that. On another note we can hunt until mid February. Whatcha want to come shoot? I take all major credit cards

I don't. 2 years ago we went on a mule deer hunt in Colorado. I found that outfitter on google. We had a great time. I tried to book a hunt on here with an old member... RTP. He was booked for the year at that time. I would still like to hunt with him but he isn't on here anymore. I like looking on here for hunts because you can get a better feel for someone by thier previous posts. I will leave this alone now and again sorry if I ruffled any feathers.

If someone posts a hunt your interested in, but it's too late in the year for my planning cycle, I would contact them and inform them that, I would be interested in the hunt, but this years plans are made. I would then ask to be contacted at the beginning of my planning cycle. If I was an outfitter I would make a prospect folder with monthly sub folders it would then take about 10 seconds to move each prospect email into it's appropriate sub folder.

Ok. My first post was halfway tongue in cheek. But I guess I'm missing something. If u decide u want to shoot something, and post what u want to kill on here, don't u get flooded with offers? Don't these outfitters take deposits?? What's the problem with u making up ur mind what u want and putting a deposit down? Even if u aren't gonna have the jack to buy the whol hunt till next year?.

I think that is what I said (except I didn't mention deposits). But if I was serious about setting something up, naturally a deposit is part of the deal.

If I were interested in a hunt in Texas, I would first stop here before doing the whole Google thing (been there & done that years ago, just too much out there to sort through). If I didn't see what I was looking for advertised, I would create a post inviting outfitters to contact me with deals/offers.

I've only hunted in Texas a few times, but my experience in general has been that if you want to lock in the best times with the best guides, you have to move early, and get a deposit in to show you're serious. Money talks & BS walks, as my father used to say.

You didn't ruffle anything really. You stated your view and I understand that. Looks like you kind of see part of some our views as well. I get what your saying about getting a feel for someone by their posts on the forum. I know there are a lot of outfitters on here that seldom contribute more than offering a hunt occasionally and sending a pm to whoever posts up that they are looking for a hunt. When I first joined this forum I felt I was expected to contribute as much as possible to the forum and not just leech off of it for business. I try as much as possible to contribute when I can. Thanks for being here on THF.