RE: I want to become a hunting guide, what must I do?
Crowpecker,
You got a good attitude. I'd be happy to guide you. I was jus' emphasizin' the near impossible task guides sometimes have. They have to please people, no matter what the circumstances. Consider this a minute. A camp is licensed and an outfitter runs maybe 30 hunters thru in a year. If he's good, and got a 90% success rate, that means that 27 hunters are goin' home with meat. Now consider that you can only realistically ride a maximum of 5 miles to your hunting area each morning (unless you get your hunters up at 2AM). Then throw in the fact that game in any given unit is captive game (no migration and reliant of feed grounds for winter feed). Now, considering all this, can you imagine all 27 of those hunters being able to kill big bulls year in and out? No, only one or two hunters in a camp will score a real trophy-class bull each year. Such a limited area will only produce so much. Yet every one of those fellers thinks they should have a B&C elk. Usually, they get a dose of how hard it is to hunt and end up settling for a lesser bull. You wanna know the real secret to killin' trophy class bulls? Get close. Don't tell anyone, but the real secret to killin' big bulls on a guided hunt is being prepared to go home empty handed. That's right. 99% of pay hunters aren't prepared for this, so they kill small bulls as the pressure mounts and they aren't seeing what they want, cause face it, it ain't that common. Time limitations, the big investment, and the fact that people can't bear to fail all work against the hunter realizing a true trophy. The most successful hunters are the ones that enjoy the ride, no matter what size bull's on the end of it.
BJ