spruceswamp

I thought this would be the best place to see if anybody out there has any knowledge or feedback on a hunting membership group called Shoshone Wilderness Adventures Team Sportsmen (S.W.A.T.S.) run by a guy out of western Montana named John Andre.

I recently received a full color booklet from them advertising their service of finding discounted outfitted hunts and offering them to their members. At $100 per year, membership is not exactly cheap.

Anyway, I’m familiar with services such as Eastman’s, Cabela’s TAGS, Huntin Fool, etc… but never heard of this guy before. Is there anybody that can provide any information on them good and/or bad?

THANKS!

salukipv1

Just join the huntin fool?

they have sponsored guides/outfitters, not sure they're at any reduced rate for members though, but personally, I'd rather pay for quality than save for average, or worse.

skb2706

I'm still trying to figure out what they do for you for $100 a year.

Send me your $$...I'll hook ya up.

beech18

I got that same booklet and wondered about them as well. 100 a year, or 500 for lifetime membership is the pricetag I remember. From what I saw in the booklet I wasnt paying for it.

salukipv1

huntin fool is $100/yr.

slamquest

I am a member of the hunting fool and have been for years. They give you the draw odds and a perspective on the quality of animals in the unit. I would recomend taking that information and filling out your own applications. Remember all these services will say our member drew this tag or that tag and you might say wow. But also remember the hunting fool alone has at least 11,000 members and i would hope some of their members would draw some hard to draw tags. The best areas to draw almost always have the worst odds of drawing and by applying in an area with maybe a little less trophy potential, you might have five, seven or even ten times better odds of drawing. Starting with good information is the key and the hunting fool would be hard to beat

spruceswamp

I've seen the Huntin Fool magazines and they seem like a good service. I was just a little unsure if this S.W.A.T.S. was even legit or not. It has that "car salesman" appeal for sure. I didn't know if it was new or had been around. I guess the premise was interesting enough I wanted to see if there was any truth to the pitch but it seems that it's just another gimic to take money out of a hunters wallet.

salukipv1

just remember the saying "Don't trust anyone from Montana" haha.


speaking of MT, seriously, what is up with 4 casinos on every corner? It's like culture shock every time I'm in MT, to go from essentially no casinos in our entire state, to 50 in each town I pass through in MT...??

Big Uncle

I know an elk guide that was talking about starting this type of business. He would charge a fee to provide information about where, when, and how to hunt anything. He thought it would be a good supplement to his income as he got older.

The Big Trouble with his plan was:
1. He was not even a good elk guide,
2. He only hunted elk is one specific area of one state,
3. He had never hunted many of the species for which he would offer advice,
4. He had never even been to some of the states for which he would offer advice.

I have never heard of the business mentioned in this post, but I think it is becoming fairly common.
I had a subscription to Eastmans for a couple of years. It was not bad, and it was cheap, but decided that it gave the same information that was easily obtained elsewhere.

beech18

[quote=salukipv1;3749005]just remember the saying "Don't trust anyone from Montana" haha.

Why being sarcastic towards all people of Montana?