Yes, I now realize "Affordable" in their name should have been clue enough.

I wanted to take my younger brother who has never been deer hunting on a hunt before the end of this season. This past weekend, we hunted with Affordable Outfitters in Jack County. It was extremely disappointing at best.

I had seen a couple of negative reviews and discussed those directly with James Rae, the owner. He explained them away as one being another outfitter and the others being hunters who were just mad because they didn't get their animals. I asked for and got references and connected with about 5 of them who all spoke positively. He also overwhelmed me with supposedly recent pictures of lots of deer as well as references to being overrun with does and hogs.

We arrived last Friday around 2:00 PM, ready to hunt. We had been told there would be 2 other hunters that weekend, but they would be hunting separately. So we were surprised when we got there to learn that we were not only hunting with the other guys, we were also bunking with them. They were nice guys though and we were in two room cabin that had 4 bunks in the sleeping area. We did have to go into town to buy toilet paper and paper towels.

We were soon joined at cabin by the "guide" who turned out to be the 15 year old son of the owner. Now, he was a great kid, very polite and respectable, and he walked us the through the rules and paper work then said he would be back at 3:00 to head out. We never saw or spoke with the owner while we were there. All we got from him was constant texts reminding us to tip the guide, even asking that we tip him $50 up front for all the special work he had done just for us in preparation of our arrival and hunts.

The first night, we hunted a ranch approximately 10 miles from our cabin and our 15 year old guide took us and dropped each of us anywhere from 100-200 yards from our stands and with instructions / descriptions of how to get there. We were not to leave our blinds until it was completely dark, then come back to where he dropped us off and he would pick us up then.

That evening, my little brother saw about 8 hogs and shot one. The son of the other hunter saw one doe and shot it. My ladder stand ranged at 12 yards from the feeder with the wind at my back and I saw nothing. The father in the other group saw nothing until after dark and he could not tell whether bucks or does. We heard two other shots very close, including one between myself and the father, but we were assured no one else was hunting that same ranch.

The next morning, we hunted the same place, and stands. I heard a number of shots fired throughout the morning. At one point, a truck drove into and across my line of sight from my ladder stand and beyond the feeder and proceeded to drive slowly within 75 yards of the feeder I was hunting over. Later that morning, I could actually hear two people talking from where I was sitting in my stand. When we got back together with the other hunters, none of them had shot or even seen a thing. They had also seen the truck and heard shots, one of which was actually between myself and another hunter.

They changed us up Saturday evening so we were hunting a different ranch which turned out to be the land they owned. My brother and I hunted there while the other two hunted a ranch about 15 miles away. Our guide took my brother and I out first and told us when and where he would pick us up. My set up was great and looked promising, but the wind wasn't really in my favor. The guide told me my feeder would go off around 5. At about 4:48, a feeder went off that had to have been less than 50 yards away, but outside my view. A few minutes later, another feeder went off behind me around 100-125 yards away. Not an animal one - deer or hogs. My little brother had the same results - nothing.

When we were finished, it was pitch dark, no moon and after waiting about 30 minutes at the spot where I supposed to be picked up, I decided to keep walking and try to find my way back. I was just getting to camp when the guide came through the gate with the other 2 guys and we went to pick up my brother who had literally been waiting over an hour.

That night at the cabin after hearing the feedback from the other two hunters, we decided enough was enough and pulled out of camp. By then it was pretty obvious that whatever game there still might be out there was so pressured we were not going to see anything during day light hours. I did follow up the next day and sure enough, the other two hunters saw absolutely nothing Sunday morning.

Upon my return, I contacted the owner to share our disappointment as well as my concern that he had misrepresented the quality of hunting. His response was that we should have come in October. So chalk this up as a lesson learned. This was the first time I hunted a day hunt/outfitter and from now on, I will make sure I find good honest people work with.

Glad you posted this. Another outfitter to put on my black list.

Thanks for sharing. Its a shame it went like that However by posting any reviews, positive and negative on the internet it assures the bad are weeded out and the good ones survive. The internet has made the world a small pla e

Did you forget to pay give the "guide" the $50 tip up front, lol? That's a major red flag to start with, evem asking for a tip is ridiculous. Maybe the tip up front gets you better hunting areas. At the very least. it sounds like it was misrepresented with all the other activity all around your hunting areas. Now, whether you see animals and get shot opportunities is a whole different situation as there are no guarantees when hunting. But, the activity of other hunters shooting and close enough to hear them talk is a bit ridiculous.

When we realized the "guide" was just a 15 year old kid, we did go ahead and tip him. He was very nice and he tried and it wasn't his fault that his dad put him in that position. When I realized that the dad knew nothing about any of us hunters other than our names, it makes you wonder how he could leave a 15 year old who didn't even have a hardship license to deal with / manage 4 strangers with guns in the boonies.

With regard to the game, my expectations were lower than what the guy portrayed. But I did get excited when the the guy started texting me pics of all these animals that were supposedly recently captured on trail cams.

Sorry for the bad experience.