Me and 3 other guys booked a trip with Affordable Outfitter near Bryson and Jacksboro, TX this past weekend. We were looking for a cheap meat hunt. I did a search on here previously and didn't see any bad reviews for them. However, I have found a couple now and they seem to have had the same experience that we did. We paid $2,400 for the weekend. ($600 each) The website said they were under new management, it also said we were allowed a cull buck, a doe and 2 hogs each.

Everything was great leading up to the hunt. The outfitter James made good contact, told us what to expect with weather, and sent us game camera pictures the week of our hunt. Once we got close to the cabin we were staying in we were given directions from James on how to get to the cabin. We never met him in person and once we got on to the property we could not get ahold of him again. (and still haven't)

We were unloading our stuff into the cabin when the guide (Aaron) showed up and said "I believe there is a balance due" We paid him the rest of the $2,400 after our deposit and he explained that he was seeing lots of game. Told us that our cull buck was a spike only.

The cabin was decent. An old cabin with everything you could need. Not the nicest but I am not picky about that part of my hunting. (I've stayed in much worse) The guide (Aaron) explained to us that he was Harley mechanic from Montana and just showed up guiding this year at Thanksgiving. Everything is still fine at this point. All I need is someone to show me where to hunt and where to sleep and I would be perfectly happy. He explained that the ranch we were staying on was 5,000 acres. and the other ranch we would be hunting is another 5,000 acre ranch.

What he didn't know is that I am a professional land surveyor and my buddy is a land man. After our failed hunt we researched him and it turns out the property we were staying on is only 115 acres. Which would still be fine since we were not hunting there. He also told us that the 5,000 acre ranch we were hunting on, only had 6 blinds on it??

The first time he dropped us off for the Friday evening hunt. He placed us all within about 400 yards of each other. One person in my group was sitting 50-75 yards out in front of me. Right in the path of where I would be shooting since he threw the corn out there. 2 of us were put in duck hunting blinds at frozen ponds and with no feeders. Somebody threw out corn the day before we got there is what it looked like. We didn't see a single deer or pig. The next day we were all put in a box blind. They were nice blinds. some of our feeders went off, some of them didn't. We were spread out a little more, but it was more of the same. Not one single deer or pig was seen.

We asked the guide where the game cameras were. "There aren't any game cameras on this ranch" he said. So James was sending us pictures from another ranch apparently.

We asked to be taken to a different ranch but had the same luck. One of our blinds was a motor home that looked like someone was living in. I will see about getting the pictures up on here. We told him we didn't want to go hunting on the last morning. So the guide came into our cabin Saturday night while we were taking our boots off and said "I will take my tip now" We had to pay him a little cash just to get him to leave us alone.

It was a bad experience. So bad I wanted to share with everyone and hope nobody else uses them. The only deer we saw was after dark on the road back to our cabin. It goes to show, you get what you pay for. We weren't expecting to limit out, just looking for a last minute meat hunt before season was over. Hopefully, someone will learn from our mistake.

This is one of the blinds he had us hunting out of. Again, the box blinds were nice.

Wow.. Speachless.. and you tip'd him.

Just about booked with that outfit. Glad I did some last minute research on line. Found 4 to 5 bad reviews and one good. Im traveling way to far to hunt roll the dice on a outfit like that. Sorry to hear your hunt didnt go well. Thanks for the report. Confirms my suspicions that I made the right choice to look else where.

My goodness that is truly unfortunate.

go

I told him I wasn't tip anything. Another guy in my group felt bad and decided to give him a little cash cause he wpuldnt leave us alone. They have signs posted saying it's an insult not to tip the guide.

The insult is they call themselves professionals. Sorry this happened to you.
There are lots of reputable pros on this site to turn to in the future.

This was the 3rd hunt I've been on this year. One was a drawn hunt by tpwd. Tpwd gave us a great hunt too. Need to find a better meat hunt for next year. My family will go through at least 7 or 8 deer in a year. Lesson learned.

Sorry to hear about a bummer hunt.
For me getting on animals is only part of what I expect from a guide/outfitter. I expect a good time and experience and animals/fish, although they do not always cooperate.
I have stayed in single wides with sandwiches and enjoyed myself better than the a lodge with steaks.
I also hate guides that are always telling you about all of the other great hunts they have done, when they cannot find you a thing.

Jace,
I offer a meat hunt for about the same price in Central Texas. I would be more then happy to have you down to the ranch. Sorry you had such a bad hunt.
Mike
512-635-2320
michaelcsavoy@gmail.com

Hate to hear that and glad you posted for others. Hopefully people will do their research and pick one of the more reputable outfitters on this site. Good luck next year

As a side note, ain't no way in hell the "guide" would have bullied me into tipping. You either deserve it or you don't. If you want a better tip, run a better operation

X2 thanks for sharing and that sucks. I'd have socked him in the face and then gotten myself in a bunch of trouble lol

Sorry for the unfortunate experience, and loss of time and funds. Glad you shared so no one else is unaware. WOW is all I can say to the trailer blind.

Wow..just wow. Some folks have no conscience. Sorry for the bad hunt.

People like this need to be prosecuted for fraud.

Gman

Been on one of those....it stunk

been on another...we all killed GREAT deer....then found out we were trespassing . Ranch owner liked us so we stayed out of jail at least

we all cancelled our checks to the "outfitter"

Sounds like a lot of money for that hunt. Good many deer in that part of Texas. Over run by hogs. That really sucks. Was that camper a blind, lol? I lived in worse in college

Wow, that is horrible. Sorry you had such a bad experience.

Unfortunately, it's the same way they run their auto repair shop in Graham, Shady!

I'm glad you posted this report. I had a similar experience with that group 2 years ago. It was my first time using an outfitter and I was quiet disappointed. Thought it was just me expecting too much.

One guy sat in the camper for an evening hunt.

UPDATE: The outfitter contacted the guy in our group who setup the hunt. He found my reviews on here and with the BBB. He has offered to give a partial refund in an effort to resolve this. I have resolved the complaint with the BBB.

I was taken by that same clown last year. I provided reviews in as many places as I could to try to prevent others from getting hosed. Our experience was pretty much the same - except imagine that you walked into the accommodations you had to find two strangers bunked with you. Even though you were told you would have your own quarters.

I took my little brother and we never saw the owner either. His 14 or 15 year old son hauled us around but you could hardly call him a guide much less them an outfitter.

Pretty sure they provided pics from another location to us as well. Good for you that you got a partial refund. We got not nowhere with him and actually left early it was so bad.

Haven't seen a refund yet, I will post if it happens. He has only said he would, but he also said he had game to hunt.

The only tip I would give him is don't eat yellow snow.

Sorry about your experience and just an FYI. Just because they post on here doesn't mean they are a good outfitter. I use to do a guided hunt every year as my "veteran day" gift to myself. But, after two bad experiences from outfitters, I no longer do them. I don't like paying someone to sit and watch nature (and no game animals). I can watch nature in my backyard and have better living/eating accommodations when I come inside!