WOW......this story brings back some terrible memories carved in my mind from last years Montana elk hunt! I'm having the same delima as you. I don't know howfar to let my emotions runas tocripple this outfitter!

I had invited five friends to a semi-guided outfitted camp in Montana for a ten day hunt. We were packed in and were to be guided 2x1 until each pair had a full day of guiding. When we reached the trailhead we were introduced to our guide, Jeff, 18 years old fresh from guide school. Lived somewhere in the mid-west but was guiding elk in Montana. So much for the local guide knowledge told to us from the outfitter. We brought along topo's, satellite photo's, 3d imagery maps plus downloaded software into our gps's. The guide had a crumpled up photocopy of a topo map from the outfitter, coffee stained and all!
To make a long story semi-short we went with out lights in camp for 5 nights because the adapter to take propane out of the 20 pound tank and fill the small lantern canisters was no where to be found. No lime for the out house, that was nice in 70 degree weather! Our guide hiked to the "other" camp, the fully guided camp to bring back supplies twice. That was a three hour walk for him, each way. We had no livestock left at our camp. One of the guys did however bring along a satellite phone and called the outfitter to make known of the shortcomings. This is just asample of things that were wrong in camp. On to the hunting.......

I had talked with the outfitter about camp location. We decided since we were a group of sea-level flatlanders from the east coast it would be better to hunt up in the morning from camp and down in the afternoon. The first day, my friend Jim and myself have the guide for the day. The outfitter had spotted a nice bull during archery season and they had put on a couple unsuccessfull stalks. We walked the 3 1/2 hours in darkness to get to the ridge where the bull had been living. We reach the summit and Jim looks in a meadow in front of us, says to the guide, there's an elk right there, as he's standing there glassing the meadow. He glassed right over the elk, we spotted it with our eyes, no bino's. Jim takes the shot and misses, followed by my shot. No reason for the misses, only that we were somewhat rushed by the guide, hollering "SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT" after climbing on a 45 degree angle for two hours our hearts were pumping almost as fast as our lungs were gasping! We had all day to harvest that elk as he never saw us. But, we rushed the shot, and WE both know better but we were caught up in seeing our first elk ever. After missing, we hunted the adjoining ridges all day and the guide asked if we'd like to hunt until night fall. Jim and myself said yes. WHAT A MISTAKE! When darkness descended all hell broke loose. Our guide took us off the mountain, only problem was, we were going 210 degrees on the compass instead of 130. I knew this and brought it to his attention but he said we had to go this way because the terrain "to the left" is too steep, although we had walked up it in the dark that morning. He said if we get too far left it's not walkable, so we gave him the benefit of the doubt. To make this story a little shorter, we spent2hours grabbing trees that grew straight up in our face, in the dark! Sliding down shale and finally he admits he's lost. He would not listen to us at all as I showed him the track on my gps on the way up. Finally he broke down and I gave him the compass course out. We made it back to camp at around mid night, after leaving at 4am!
The only other shot at an elk thattrip of ten dayswas a friend of mine had a 465yard shot across a draw that resulted in a miss. We hunted every day until dark. Six hunters, no animals to bring back. That was not our complaint as we all know there are no guarantees in hunting.
Now for the best part................
The last day we wake up.....ready to leave....the packer comes in with his mulesand a note from the outfitter saying "Jeff (our 18 year old guide) knows what to do." Jeff looks at us as if to say what does that mean. The packer had nothing to say, just started packing our gear. Of course it was raining. The cook emerges from his tent all set for a hike. Then says to us, okay boys lets start walking. We walked out the six miles back to the trailhead, NO HORSES! The deal was pack in, pack out. There is so much more to go along with this story, if I wrote it all, most of you would fall asleep before reaching the end.
I've hunted Moose in Newfoundland, Bear in Quebec and Alaska, I knew what to expect. This trip had so many shortcomings it wasn't funny. Some of the hunting party emailed the outfitter and asked for a partial refund. His reply was he'll give us a "good" deal if we come back next year. What a joke, I feel like putting him out of business, let alone going back there!
I'm heading back to Alaska in May for another bear hunt. I can't wait for that, at least the outfitter I use there runs a top shelf operation.
John