the last 2 package hunts i went on, the "guides" sukt. showed up late, could have cared less if you got your game. last year the outfitter was more concerned makin his promo video than getting his clients on game.
year before i went cheap, trying to save some money, terrible.

this year im booked with the guys i went with three years ago. it was a great time. They made sure my daughter an i got our game and had a great time doing it

That Is the hunt I was in camp. Mulie Mike has good hunts. Only paid hunts I've been on where two of his and two of Desert Safaris. Both outfits were excellent. Thus year will likely just hunt on my land and maybe shoot a doe on my buddies lease in Laredo.

Next paid hunt I want to do is Nilgai.

There is absolutely no excuse for the guide showing up late or having that kind of attitude. To me it is about service and when I guided I tried to make sure it was the best experience a hunter could get when he was with me. Of course I always wanted my guy to get his animal(s) but there were a couple of times they didn't because they were after a specific deer we had on pictures that we just couldn't get on. In those cases I made sure that I did everything possible to try and get him on that animal and even when we didn't that he/she thoroughly enjoyed their time in the brush whether that meant driving the pastures between morning and evening hunts so they could see the ranch and other animals like varmints to shoot or maybe driving fence lines in the afternoons checking snares and resetting them.



Sometimes the old saying is true that you get what you pay for. Sad as hell to say, but true.



You made a wise decision here for sure.
Go back to what you know is good or if you change and go somewhere else do it only on the advice of someone you trust that has been there before....preferably more than one time.

Good luck. I hope you and your daughter both have a great hunt.

great reply, thanks

I'm in on the Nilgai Hunt. Got my 7mm Maggie now

I've seen it both ways. Some guides are just trying to knock down animals and get the trophy fee. In my experience the guides that don't have any ownership in the ranch they're working on that work harder for a better experience. It pushes them to make sure the experience is as good as it can be so they get a bigger tip.

I own the place so I try to have who ever is here at the time enjoy themselves. I don't do much actually guiding unless I am asked to. Here I have found that most folks enjoy it more if I just put them in a stand and if asked what to shoot I just tell them what ever they want. They have seen the price list so they know what animals cost and which type not to shoot. If they shoot at something I tell them to call me. So far everything has worked out great.

The only guided trip i have ever been on was a guided, well SUPPOSED to be guided thermal hog hunt. High Plains hunts or something like that. Up around Memphis / Childress area. Very poor experience. Apples to oranges here maybe, but the customer service aspect is the same.

Been on several guided trips, mostly low price hog hunts and one heli hunt.

The first low price hog hunt the guide did a great job working for us and finally getting us on some hogs. It was a misty night after several days of rain and we knew going in the hunting was going to be tough since we were stuck working roads mainly and then walking in. Creekbottoms were off limits due to water. We worked hard and finally found a sounder which we made them pay for letting us see them. Guide worked hard for us and we appreciated it.

The remaining hog hunts have been anything from a disaster to a complete lack of hunting understanding. One we showed up and the guy who was "guiding: told us to our face he shot at a big hog the night before, but not to worry there were hogs all over the place...we saw one in two hard days/nights of hunting. It ran through a sendero so fast we couldn't even get a shot off. not to mention a little bait and switch on the place itself, he advertised all these creek bottoms and then we get there and he says don't go back in there because thats where all the turkeys roost and I don't want them bothered. Also, his family was camping on the place....total nightmare.
Second hog hunt was set up well, but the "guide" turned out to be out with a buddy and they were hunting too, more of a off season deer lease type thing it turned out. The guy would drive all around the stand he wanted us in before putting us in it, all around the feeders we were hunting "to show us the layout of the place" and then go off and hunt with his buddy in a different area he hadn't driven around in. He said driving around a couple hours before doesn't interefere with hunting....had both those last two not been several hours from home I might have just called it a day and packed up, but the effort to get there was part of the fun, I guess.

Heli hog hunt was legit, they did a class act job. As expected from the price tag.

I am hitting Montana this year for an elk/antelope combo hunt this fall. I have high expectations. I hope I am not let down. My first "high dollar" big game guided hunt.

i like this!!

We should do it next season. I have a 9.3x62 I'd like to use.

I've been on 1 guided fishing trip that was so bad it was comical. Cliff notes where: Showed up with a rented boat ( that had to be returned at noon) mismatched old fishing gear ( spinning reels on baitcast rods ) had live bait in a folgers coffee can ( worms ) and his target species after lake trout didn't work out was panfish. Truly an awful trip. I did catch a 6 lb largemouth though on a night crawler. This was in Upstate New York and had i had property gear and boat, we would have smashed the smallmouth.


Most fishing guide trips I have been on were pretty good. Just Add Water ( Jay Nichols ) was the best trip as of late. Bad weather made fishing tough but he did try hard, had great gear, didn't skimp on bait and was a fun guy to be around.

Only three hunts I've been on that were guided were my South African trip, a Duck Hunt and a Deer Hunt I was invited to. The deer hunt was fine, it was a quick wham bam thank you type hunt for a managment buck. The safari they went above and beyond and it was unforgettable. Duck hunt was at fin and feather lodge in Seadrift and we had a great guide ( Garrett ).

We booked an anniversary fishing trip years ago, with a guide that a friend recommended. Drove to Port O'Connor. A little weather moved in, but when I called the guide the afternoon we arrived, he got me confused with someone else and it was obvious the idiot had double booked. Finally mumbled about having to watch the weather. Sure 'nuff, the next morning he said we couldn't go out. Everyone else was heading out. Lame liar. He did refund the deposit promptly though, although he didn't even attempt to reschedule. 'Hope he had to go to work for "the man."

Being late is a big no no for me. Id rather arrive an hour early and sit in the car than be late.

All the pay hunts i have done were spike/doe hunts on MLD properties and were all good experiences.

Took a guide out last year with my inlaws. I have used him 2 times great both times. My brother has used him twice great both times. Took my inlaws out with him and the starter on his almost new motor died at our first stop. The man busted his azz for us we still caught fish. Moral of the story.... my FIL is like taking a banana on the boat! every time i take him fishing something bad happens.

Twice I didn't leave a tip. And I made it clear as to why. Some people just do not need to be in the guide business.

Stay with experience, works every time.
DC

Sometimes experience is hard to figure when going somewhere not local.
Case in point, went to Bahamas, looked for fly bonefish fishing. Did quite a bit of research. Contacted a few. One dude was pretty well written about, had great reviews, he emailed back said he loved teaching the art and helping people learn to fly fish while still catching fish. We email back and forth several times, ensures me he loves to teach. I knew he had one arm from reading an outdoor life article on him and how he was such a good guide, etc....

Show up at our time slot, he is nowhere. We were 10-15 minutes early, so we start walking the coast to see if he is down at the next dock, nope. By the time we get back to our location it is time and he is there but kind of rude about where we been. Issue 1. He then asks us if we have been fly fishing before, I said “no, like our email discussion we haven’t and you said you would gladly teach us”....he shakes his head and starts mumbling, gonna be a long day...issue 2.

Issues 3-5, We go out on the water, he teaches both of us roughly how to cast a fly rod, and then we motor to a spot on an out island and beach the boat in a cove. He says practice casting. He then takes my son and walks the beach with him all the while complaining how he can’t catch fish if he can’t get the fly out there...I was left at the boat in the same location the entire time. We then motor back in and that was that. I stayed polite but as soon as we got in the car we both died laughing. For a guy written up in outdoor life (it was an impressive article about him) and such eagerness to teach via email, that all went away pretty quickly and never got better. Of course my wife says “you should have known going on a fly fishing trip with a one armed dude”, and I should have, but his reviews were excellent, his email banter was excellent (I showed her his email communications with me and how they differed with his personal attitude) and that he was written up in outdoor life magaizine. Crazy how some “real world” experience can be very unhelpful and the only experience I trust is my own.

It’s become a standing joke in my family that anytime I pay for anything fishing or hunting it’s gonna be a bust. There have been a few exceptions to that rule, but for the most part when you go cheap it really shows (the above story wasn’t going cheap, it was a typical price for a half day none fishing trip in the Bahamas)

Reviews, and especially "awards" don't mean diddly. An alligator outfitter I used was given SCI's "Outfitter of the year" award the year after I went. He was beyond lame. We did get our gators, but everything else was just pulled out of his rear at the last minute; terrible accomodations, you had to compete with the locals that showed up for food, etc. The award just means he's been exhibiting at SCI long enough and spending enough $ with them.

I guess I can really only speak for myself and my own experiences guiding clients and friends from all over the globe, and by the way, I've guided for alligators for over 30 years without SCI! When you hear words like passion, experience, manners, and enthusiasm, well its not just words its a way of life, treating people wether clients you've never met or old friends with respect.
Sure hate to hear these stories, but things have changed, figure in the money component along with the "now" generation and you have a whole new culture.
Ill say this to end my two cents, i do this thing called guiding, hunting, trapping, along with catering and cleaning, repairing and consoling, simply because I'm passionate about what I do.

DC

Sorry to hear this. How good was the one armed dude's typing in all the emails? and now matter how much email correspondence I always speak several times on phone with guide in my advance research if it is a destination booking

I took my brother and friend on a guided duck hunt by eagle lake. Found the guide on here I believe. I've duck hunted for a few years, first time for the other two. We get there and the blind has no top cover. The guide is wearing blue jeans and a A&M hoodie. Decoys were already out and in deep water. We had one flock of teal buzz over and a few singles. Think we got one teal on that hunt. I paid and talked to the owner about the hunt he said he would discount me half for each fee if I booked again. So I booked again this time I took a buddy I've hunted for years with and a newbie. Same thing happens we show up early and head out get there decoys are in the water and make shift blind with no top cover. Ended up shooting two birds and the guides gave up on retrieving them cause the dog sucked.