Hunter_59

I agree, but that is what threw me, the guide didn't seem to take into account the wind at all. Like I said, this guide is a brown bear hunter in Alaska and he has guided elk hunters for years. The outfitter is very reputable and I would book him again if I could. I had a great experience and I realize that I paid for the experience, not for a guaranteed bull, but in the two opportunities that I had, I know these bulls could've been taken if the wind had been taken into account before giving away our location. After the first bull winded us, Ithought that he would've put more effort into the approach on the second bull.

This is the type of information I was after, whether or not it is ok to give some input in a situation without offending the guide on my next hunt. I would like to hunt elk on my own, so that all mistakes are my own, if I could figure out the logistics; scouting, permit hurdles, game retrieval and so forth, on a very limited amount of time. Thanks for the responses!

Garminator

Hunter, by chance did you ask him why he made those decisions???

Wolf killer

I would have told him the wind is wrong. We need to move. The wind will end yourhunt everytime.I hope you at least had a good time while you were there?

Alsatian

I think you've got the information you need. If it were me, in the future I would start the whole trip by talking to my guide and telling him that if I see something amiss or don't like the way something is going I'm going to speak up, but that I'm open to being coached and being corrected for not understanding something. Tell the guy you respect his knowledge, but that you may have different ideas from time to time and he shouldn't take it as an offence. In similar dealings in life I try to be very apologetic and say I may be mistaken but I'm still going to speak out if something doesn't look right to me.

The guy who is a guide who responded is probably right, there may have been special extenuating circumstances that led the guide to bugle even when the wind was wrong (a possible explanation occurs to me, maybe he knew there was another hunting party in the direction of the bugling bull and felt if he didn't take his chances calling the bull would be overtaken by this other party -- just a wild speculation. Sometimes there is more involved than what we see in front of our noses -- the wind isn't right -- is my only suggestion).

Hunter_59

Garminator, I guess I should've asked him about his decision after the first bull winded us. I didn't, which led to the second scenario in which another bull winded us.Like I said, this was my first guided hunt and I wasn'texactly sure of the protocol of using a guide and whether I should give any input. After seeing the responses on here, I definately, willbe more willing next time, to respectfully ask questions. Thanks for all the responses everyone, that's what makes this site so great!

TomFromTheShade

Your guide should be a professional, which means that "the customer is always right" should apply. If I were a guide I would try to explain my strategy quickly, take your point into consideration, give you the choice of what to do after adding my opinion, and then we would follow the course of action that YOU chose. I would make sure to give you the standard disclaimer, "This isn't the way that I would do it, so if you get skunked don't say I didn't warn you!". That is how I would handle it.