BeaverJack, your posts get more amusing by the day! [&:] You praise the outfitter reviews in the NAHC Resource Directory, but if you are a member and go to their website you will see just how many members are disgusted with the whole rating process associated with the club. If an outfitter donates hunts to the club for the contests, that outfitter gets VERY few bad ratings in the directory, and everybody knows it. A lot of folks have been posting there in the last 6 months with claims of bias against the whole outfitter rating process.
Huntinfo.com is the best way to weed out the good outfitters from the bad that I' ve seen on the ' net so far. And you' re tear jerking support of " mom and pop" operations just wreaks of bias! Just because an operation is small and family owned doesn' t mean it is always operated in the best interest of the client. It' s like anything else; there are the good and the bad. You act like you' re the only real man out there, and anybody that has a bad experience with a small outfitter and complains about it is a " pansy" ! Just keep on thumping that chest, pal! It' s really hilarious!
I grew up in farm country and watched a lot of " mom and pop" farms go belly up, and these folks were real good friends and family. I still hold some bitter grudges toward big business and some government agencies. But I know that those folks didn' t lose their livlihood for lack of effort. THAT is what makes their situation so sickening. But if an operation takes advantage of clients and willfully misleads and falsifies advertisements to take the hard earned cash from the working clients, then I say to hell with them! Let them lose their business! It' s common knowledge that when you provide a service to the paying public and you don' t " ruck up" with your promises, you lose!
schmalts, you hit the nail right on the head! Most times a reference list from the outfitter is dripping with bias. A lot of times when I call for references I' ll ask them if they made any new friends while hunting with an outfitter, and if I can get names and phone #' s, I' ll see if those names are on the reference list, and if they aren' t, they are the first people I call. Ninety percent of the reference list will be " regulars" that return every year or so and are well cared for by the outfitter because of healthy gratuities dished out to the staff. Shopping for a reliable and trustworthy outfitter is far from easy. I know I work way too hard for my money to dish it out to someone who can' t or won' t stand by their promises.[:@]