You say that you must trust the guide in devulging their complete client record for referances, Are you really that naive. No guide will give out their client records for fear of loosing their clients to others that would undercut them. A guide will only usually give out the names to the most trusted clients, ones that he has no fears or loosing to people that would try to steal them with lower fares.
Really, we can have a conversation without name calling, accusing, putting words in each others mouth, or putting each other down, can' t we???
I stated that I would ask for the names of everyone on a particular hunting week, the same week as I am planning to hunt. For instance, this year I asked an outfitter for the names and phone numbers of all hunters that hunted with his place for the first week of bow season. He didn' t ask a few of the fellows, so he asked if he could get back to me after he asked if they would be references for him. Sounds reasonable so far right? Well he took seven archers out that week last year, and guess what I got seven numbers. I confirmed the number of hunters that hunted that week with the other hunters and everything was legit. I only called four and felt it was enough, I had no need to call everyone. No kind of conspiracy there.