A guided hunt with a REPUTABLE outfitter is a "normal" hunt that someone else did the scouting for you, and in the case of hunting a species that you are not familiar with, the guide fills in the species/land knowledge you don't have. They are FAR from fenced or canned hunts.

They are a way, in my opinion, to hunt a different part of the country or even world, for a species that you don' thave the chance to hunt where you are. You could do do it yourself, or even drop camp hunts, but if you don't have the years it takes to build up the knowledge, of both the animal and land, a guide is a sort of "short cut" to this knowledge.