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Getting All Your Info - How?
Posted by mdhunter on Mar 04 2006
Ken,
I agree that the hunter shares the burden of being informed and asking a lot of questions before the hunt. That said, I'll say that most of the websites I've seen for guided hunts paint a picture that's a little rosier than the real thing. And I've talked to an awful lot of guides on the phone over the past few years, and I have to say that their optimism in December and January sometimes exceeds the reality that occurs the following September. A few examples:
2002 hunt - website claimed all equipment was in excellent condition - reality in camp was a 14 year old boat with a pretty big hole in the bow, and a 9 year old motor that had an exposed kill switch. The assistant guide I had also forgot to pick up emergency equipment from the main camp, so we did without for several days. Oh yeah - and when they grabbed the tent poles from the outfitter's house, they grabbed the wrong poles for the cooktent we had - so we tied together a few logs and made do (good thing I brought 100 feet of parachute cord, or else that wouldn't have worked either).
2003 hunt - Perfect example of "hunter talking to guide in advance" not working out. My main criteria for this hunt was a spike camp with just me and a guide - I wanted some distance from any other hunters the outfitter had booked, and made that clear in talking with the outfitter over the winter. But, I went on a late September hunt - and in early September he had a couple of guides quit, after a bad float trip experience with a coupe of hunters who weren't in shape for a float hunt. So due to manpower limitations, we were dropped into a camp with another hunter and his guide. Shouldn't be a conflict, outfitter said, because the other guy had already shot a moose (I was moose hunting), and was after bear - we'd help each other, 2 more sets of eyes, he said. Well, the other hunter loosed his .300 Mag with muzzle brake at a wolverine at the same time we were calling a 65+ inch bull moose into range.....so much for the moose, he went on his merry way. I tried to reach out to this outfitter several times after the season to suggest alternatives to alleviate the "conflict", but never heard squat from him once I had left his camp.
Now - I did have an enjoyable hunt in both cases, never got a moose but did shoot a caribou each year, and had a great time in the wilderness. But I talked at length with both of these guys ahead of time, asked all the questions I could, and still didn't get accurate information, or conditions that worked out as they said it would when we talked in advance. So doing your homework, while highly recommended, is far from foolproof.
Haven't lost my desire to get that moose, coming up again this fall to chase moose and grizzly! But maybe I'm getting smarter over time,using a different outfit this year, and someone who has received compliments on this forum. Time will tell.
Good luck to all as we head afield this year,
Michael
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