MTMountainMan

Personally I wouldn't want to hunt with horses I've rented.I've heard too many stories of them getting flipped over and wedged upside down with their legs flailing above them, requiring you to try to correct the animal without getting kicked. Packing horses in the mountains is tough. You get thrown or your foot gets stepped on or whatever. I think if you need horses an outfitter is by far the way to go. I think if you have the luxury of a 2-3 week trip you can do it on your own, on foot.However, 2-3 weeks is what you will want tohave a really good shot atfilling your tag. If you can afford the time off I would recommend it. I'm trying to take off our 5 week rifle season, but wouldn't you know it my wife just had an emergency surgery scheduled for 5 days after the opener! Hope I tag out the first day!

SILVERTIP-CO

A lot of guys new to an area will use and outfitter the first year then go DIY in all succeeding years. Its ONE way of doing it if you have the ca$h. Good luck.

tickman1961

Public land is public land and should not be contrived as some ones personal spot regardless of whether a guide or DIY is hunting it.Of course if someone is already there you move on, otherwise first come gets the location.

What is stopping someone from getting to the honey hole before your guided tour gets there? It is hard for me to believe a guide is going to take you somewhere that is easy to get to.

A11en

I used outfitter in Colorado to get me on Mule Deer on Public Land / BLM.Ibought a landowner tag from him, he gave me maps, and showed me a couple good spots. I plan to goto the same location to hunt ELK with an OTC tag. I see nothing wrong with it. I paid good $ for the info!

homers brother

First - I won'tendure any sympathyfor the guy who's out making money from other guys on public land(whether it's to feed his family or make the payments on his wife's Escalade). What's to say the spot he's taking you isn't the same one I've hunted since before your "guide" was born? Maybe it's MY spot? Those deer feedMY family. Maybe instead of thinking about the "poor guide" you should think about the poor guy like yourself who has a job during the week and only gets out on weekends, slogs into this little area, in hopes of bringing venison back to his family every year?

Though I don't own pack animals, I do know people who do. And they hunt elk inthe wilderness areas right there with the outfitters. Are we saying that because a commercial enterprise makes money from this endeavor that you - as a private citizen - have no right to hunt there yourself?

On the flip side though, I don't know many folks personallywho'll PAY a guide to hunt in the first place. We've plenty of public land out west, and generally plenty of friends who'll bend over backwards helping someone get started hunting. If we run into a guide, it's pure accident - if we know him, it's from seeing him at the gas station. We've never paid him for game information, never will, and he'll never "guilt" us into giving up our access so that he can turn some coin.So, in that regard, I would say that we completely agree.

CamoCop

x2

tsoc

I am in agreement with most here.The only thing that I don't agree with is to go back in to a spot a guide has taken you.You hunt with a guide,you have a good experience where the guide bust's his a-- to put you on game and the next year you go back to the same area that you punched in on your GPS the prior year with the hard working guide?
I couldn't do that,even though I understand that it is public land.I am not a big fan of guides,I am two for two with bad experiences with them many years ago,but I don't believe one year of paying a guide entitles someone to hunt or claim a location.
If it is an area that I had a history with or an area that I chose to hunt with no prior knowledge of a guide bringing me in to it than I say have at it.

npaden

It's not 100% but most of the folks saying that it is okay to go back into an area on public land where a guide took you the year before aren't from the West. Some of these same folks are saying things like why would a guide take you to a great spot on public land in the first place. Some of the BEST hunting spots in the west are on public land. The key is knowing these areas. Some of these areas are not great distances from the nearest trail. The place where I took my elk this year in Wyoming was less than 2 miles from the nearest improved gravel road which doesn't seem very far to me. There were 2 different outfitters hunting that same area and both of them took elk out of there and one was pushing 360". In the first week of rifle season 5 bulls were taken that we knew off in an area about 3 miles long by 1.5 miles wide. That's a honey hole IMO. One thing that is helping that area stay a honey hole is the wilderness guide rules in Wyoming. You can't go back there without a guide by law, but otherwise it would be pretty easy. I know know where the wallows are, where the best trails are, etc.

That's what got me thinking about this issue. Even if there wasn't a guide requirement I don't think I would go back there without my friend or without his permission. It is an area he spent about 20 years figuring out exactly where all the wallows are and where the best trails are and he showed them to me in 1 week. If I had paid an outfitter I think I would feel the same way.

Oh well, I was just curious how others felt and it looks like we have a pretty wide range of opinions on the subject.

Thanks for the input.

Nathan