Need some opinions
 

Just got back from hunting elk with an outfitter. The hunt went like this.
Day 1 was spent waiting 3 hours for the outfitter to pack horses then ride into camp another 3 hours followed by no firewood for tents so we spent 2 more hours cutting wood with 2 man saws. No hunting.
Day 2 was suppose to be 2 on 1 but had to do 3 on 1 because he was short one guide that wouldn't be in camp unitl the next day.
Day 3 hunted 2 hours in the morning then spent 3 hours going back to trailhead to meet up with extra guide. Loaded more horses with hay etc. to take back to camp.
Day 4 arrived at meadow on top of mountain over a hour after sunrise. Ran out 30 cows and a few bulls from near wooded area no shot.
Day 5 arrived at another meadow over a hour after sunrise. Spotted a few cows in corner of field. Had to stop guide from riding out into meadow in the mean time spooking the cows and a few bulls.
Day 6 still riding on trail well after daylight. Guide left binos at glassing area 45 minutes away from trailhead. Had to wait an extra hour on the last day for him to walk back and get them. rode a couple of hours to evening hunting spot with 1 1/2 hours left of daylight.

Outfitter was very nice and hospitality was great. Just didn't feel like he gave 100% on hunting elk. Not really a bad hunt just wish we could have hunted more and arrived at our hunting areas before daylight.
Please fill free to comment. Is this pretty typical for a guided hunt costing around 4800 dollars.

I don't know if it is typical, but I would have started raising holy heck the first day.

Hell what ya bitchin about look at all the free training ya got to be a wrangler!!!!!
sounds like ya got the quick shuffle and was dealt the low hand........
But I can say that there is some that say when yer out in the timber before light U stand a Chance of injury and makin all sorts of racket and scaring the game into the next county... I see it all the time, I have this real sweet spot on top of a hill that slopes down into a shallow bowl filled with sagebrush that is normally full of deer, but invariably some idiot will drive up and jump out and run over the side to get in front of me and it's hard to tell whats makin more noise the humans or the deer leaving.... remember them deer like to sleep in also

Hmmm tough break, that can be frusturating my advice...do your own hunt.
Besides having a pair of other eyes and having some trained hunting advice(from what it seems like you did not get a lot of either) those are the two main advantages to having a guide. You can learn a whole lot more about hunting elk by observing the animals and reading up on things. If you are paying 4800K for a hunt and they did not do their job or did not really give the best possible service than that is asking too much. Get a hunting buddy to go with you and act as a second opinion(plus its much more fun to hunt with someone else) and help you pack it out and all that jazz. A guide can be very useful if they have a high success rate and/or if they are guiding on private property or a ranch. Try to get some more bang for your buck by getting a better guide.

PS. Don't feel like its unkind or rude to ask for better guide to hunter ratio or to ask for better guiding, its their job and your paying them.

Hope this helps but remember this is all MY opinion.

ya think ?

Sounds like you spend a considerable amount of time undoing his errors and clusterxxxxs.
I'd want some money back. As far as I'm concerned any decent guide would have you hunting at first legal light, wouldn't space out his equipment, would have wood and horses prepped before you ever got there. But thats just me.

If the outfitter treats all of his clients with service like that, he won't be in business very long.

I would have been pissed. He should have his act together better then that if he does it for a living. I would expect to be hunting from before sun up to after sun down everyday with a guide, until I tagged out if I was paying $4800 for a week.

I would have definitly let him know how I felt before the 1st day was over. It's crap like that, that is the reason I will never pay that kind of money for a guided hunt.

^^^THIS^^^

The price you paid seems to be on the low end of average for Colorado. Although I've never gone farther than to research guides (can't get The Wife to bless off on it), I know plenty of folks who have hired them. NONE of them have any stories like yours. Usually they talk about how hard core the guides are, making them get up really early to get in position before sunrise, etc.

Whats the name of this "guide" service ?

Crackhead Outfitters Inc.

In short, no, that doesn't sound right.

Did you mention any of this to the guide? The outfitter? I've only been to one place, but the thing he stressed on the first night in camp "If you have a problem, come see me, I can't fix it if I don't know about it".

Everyone seems to be forgetting all the free training to be a wrangler that he got ... to hell with hunting he can be an outfitter next year LOL!!!!!!!!

As an outfitter we live by a golden rule: "Take care of, what you can control." Elk hunting is full of uncontrolable issues but having a camp stocked and staff in place is very controlable. However, there are certain saftey concerns on every hunt as well. We are also only getting your side of the story, and every one has two. I have been in camps in years past where the story told online, wasn't what actually happened in camp, both from the outfitter and client.

On our first rifle base camp hunt this year we faced the possibilty of some pretty good snow as we entered camp. We decided to take a limited number of stock and split them into two trailers in the event that we had serious ice road conditions coming out. We packed one group of hunters in, then the other. They waited at the trailhead for nearly three hours, it wasn't sloppy on our part, it was a saftey concern. We did have some issues getting out with ice, but it all turned out fine, but I was dang glad we split the stock and reduced our trailer weight coming out. I did, however, explain this to all the clients before we went up the mountain.

As far as getting up to the meadows at first light, that is a couple of considerations as well, among them traveling in the dark with clients on stock. Second would be the concern of clients and staff getting an appropriate amount of sleep to work safely and effectively throughout the course of the hunt. Logisticals would also play a role, as we have areas where we blow out the herd if we try to get in at dark.

May be a nice guy and may even for the most part be sincere and honest but sounds like he runs a pretty disorganized guide service. $4800 should have got you a pretty good legitimate hunt. May not buy you a monster bull hunt but should have been a good hunt for $4800.

Thank you Muley 70 for your input. I never thought about the safety issue side of it. And like you said every story has two sides. But I am not out to make the outfitter look bad. Like I said the hospitality was great and the outfitter could not have been nicer. So I wasn't making anything up, that was truly what went on good or bad. That is the reason I wrote this post to see if anyone could give a good explanation. However, it is partially my fault too for not talking to the outfitter (which was also my guide) about how I felt. All in all I had a great time and that really is all that matters.

This is a fair post KJ. I am not saying you are lying, not did I even imply that or mean to. Many considerations go into a camp, with safety of hunters, guides and livestock always being the number one priority. We instruct all of our clients that they need to be prepared to spend the night on the mountain if they get lost. I will not look for them at night as the possibilty of injury to searchers is too great, and the chances of finding them are too slim. We do many many things based on the safest method principle.

Has to agree on the horses and safety part 100% anymore. 22yrs and have never had an incident but I cringe anytime anyone gets in the saddle. I love riding horses through the mountains but I actually have never had one relaxed ride with a client in tow. Horses are just animals and anything could happen at anytime.

I stopped going up the trail in the dark riding right through the elk in the dark. If you want to be at a certain spot come first light you better already be cold camped there in seclusion.

The outfitter did seem way to lackadaisical for elk hunting but I'm sure at times I get accused of the same thing. Who wants to go into the trees in the middle of the day and push elk to other hunters that aren't in your party. I'd say $4800.00 was way too much money. We've been staying down around $2000.00 just to stay busy during the recession. Might go up another $500.00 this year but after 2nd and 3rd season this year of heat and weather and elk being hunkered down in the trees like ticks I'm not sure any of our clients thought we were worthy outfitters either cuz we didn't get any elk past 1st season. Once again two years in a row the elk locked it up and stayed tight. And all you do is jump them before you get the shot. So the plight is understood on both sides.

BTW anyone want an outfitting business? You can have all the glory and gusto.

Sounds like 6 days of a working vacation.

For that price on public land, I would have expected a 1st class hunt. You did not receive that in my view.