manboy

hunter 59,
i wouldlike to say that i had the same ideas of guides a few years ago as
bghunter00, now i look at more in the way you do.
as for "haveing to hire a guide to hunt wyoming wilderness as a nr" that is not the law. you can hunt the wilderness, you just have to be with a guide. this could be any resident to the state of wyoming. the resident just has to go to local G AND F personal and get a "guide license". it is a license issued for the nr person that the resident is going to guide. it is very easy, and the guide license is at no cost. a wyoming resident can guide 2 nr per year. but the resident can not charge anything that has a "value" to it.
p.s. next elk hunt that you are looking at in wyoming, let me know i could help ya!

tomsbass

One thing about checking references: learn to read between the lines. Some "references" are really just props for the outfitter. If you call one and he sounds like a commercial for the outfitter, hang up and scratch that outfitter from your list.

game4lunch

If I may add to the Wyoming wilderness issue of "having to hire a guide" if you are a nonresident, G&F statutes also award any resident license holder a "temporary guide" status. In other words, if you know a resident here, they can legally take you into a wilderness area. FREE!

Bob H in NH

This "hand holding" thing comes up often and its pretty dumb. Yes its cheaper to drop camp/diy, however for some, such as myself, while possible, its not probable.

Given the decisions one has to make in life, revolving around family commitments, vacation time etc, for some of us, it isn't really possible to go out west for 1-3 weeks a year for an elk hunt. Those, such as myself, who have always dreamed of it, then tried it for that "once in a lifetime" hunt, going drop camp or diy is just not a good idea.

In my particular case, yes I am now completely hooked on elk hunting, however given family committements with a wife and 2 kids, limited vacation time that I feel family should get the majority of and money, I just don't get to elk hunt more than once every 3 years or so. Why on earth would I then want to spend several of those trips learning an area? I don't have the time, due to decisions I made, to go every year, or even multiple times a year, to learn and scout a new area.

It's a personal choice to pay an outfitter, for that I get his knowledge of the land, his knowledge of the local animals habits. I do not feel I am being led around by the hand. Would I get a bit more satisfaction if I had done it myself? Probably, but then again I may never get a chance at an elk either.

I also do not own the equipment needed to go diy and for hunting every few years, it wouldn't be financially worth buying it.

How many of you "held by the hand" attitude guys hunt with a partner? Well to me this is alot like the guide I go with, the only difference is I am the shooting partner he is the calling partner. Hunting with an outfitter is a shortcut to knowledge that you would acquire over years, nothing more. Not all guides lead you around by the hand and say "shoot now". some may, but not all. I have now been on 2 elk hunts, going on #3 in 2007, last trip out my outfitter/guide taught me to cow call and bugle, I even bugled in a bull, well to 100 yards anyway. A good guide will have you as involved as you want and can handle. Mine is this way and he knows that's what I expect and we get along great.

My occassional elk hunts are a special vacation to me, no I don' thave to cook, clean etc, to me this is an added bonus, not a detraction.

BGHUNTER00

I was mostly just attempting to illicit some conversation and posts about the topic. I would never fault a person or look down on them for hiring a guide to take them hunting. In fact the real underlying issue may be that I know I cannot afford a guide so my views are predjudice. Hunters are in a unique family and I would not bash anyone for simply using a guide.

I also understand the family, vacation, and time issue as I also face them. Most of my hunts are far from relaxing, hiking miles and miles, eating freeze dried foods, packing 100's of lbs of meat on my back, sleeping in a cold tent, filtering/carrying water back to camp, but that is what I love. I fully understand that some look at thier vacations a different way and chose to be more comfortable and relaxed.

To those of you whom I struck a personal chord, I apologize. Those are just some of my views as you have your own.

Hunter_59

manboy, I appreciate the offer and will keep it in mind. Thanks for clarifying the "guide" law of Wyoming. When a non-resident tries to hunt out of state, it's like wading through mud trying to figure out all the do's and don'ts of each state. That's what is so great about this website, hunters helping out other hunters. Thanks!

sdeshazo

The main thingI want from aOutfitterI look to hire is a complete list of all his hunters from the last year. I also ask how many tags he has for the year& the list he gives me better be the same as the number of tags. If an Outfitter is not going to give me a complete list of all hunters I will not hunt with him.

I love it when they say I had some hunters that did not want to be used as refferences. I've never met a hunter that did not want to talk about a hunting trip to a fellow hunter.

MNpurple

I have been attempting to book an elk hunt for my father and I. Neither of us have hunted elk andhe has never hunted anything outside of MN. We're working stiffs, so this is probably a once in a lifetime thing.

MY question for ALL OF YOU, everyone says the most important thing is to check references, especially those unsuccesful ones. Well if a guide/outfitter is badwhy in the world wouldhe give you names of anyone who would cut him down? How do you know his references aren't friends/family.I just dont see a shady guide giving you references of unsatisfied hunters, and there is no way of knowing if you got theCOMPLETE list or a outfitter friendly version. Am I missing something?

Bob H in NH

MNPurple, that's a valid question and was one of my biggest concerns when I chose my elk outfitter. What it comes down to is you have to go with your gut feel. If an outfitter hesitates on giving references, that's a problem. I asked specifically for hunters who were unsuccessfull, he didn't hesitate to give me a few. I had also met the outfitter in person at a sports show.

With references, its hard. Make sure the area code of the phone number matches where they say they live, then when talking with them, ask open ended questions to let them talk and talk, then ask more questions. I found my calls to get references lasted 30-40 minutes. Ask what they didn't like, there has to be something.

There is only so much research you can do, then it comes down to gut feel, then you just have to make your decision and go with it. I was scared to death when I went on my first elk hunt, scared I was getting ripped off. My gut instincts told me the guy was honest, references came across as honest, so I felt good and went with it.

Howler

The outfitter I hunted with 2 years ago puts out a brochure. Upon request, he will send it to anyone interested in hunting with him. Within the brochure is a list of all hunters, address/phone numbers,that hunted with him the previous year, successful or not. Also he has pictures of all the successful hunters and the game they harvested. I would think that any outfitter worth hunting with would do the same thing!