For that kind of money you could make a land payment or a pretty good lease. Seems like throwing money away to me. Even if you did kill a deer.

Dan I have hunted Canada 5 times and have asome understanding aswhat to expect ...if a person wants to hunt a 140 or 150 class buck thats their business ...it is a trophy ... BUT if that was what I was hunting for I think I could do it for a lot less money here in the states and stand just a good of chance ... and no where NEAR the risk or hassle as Canada...the reason I hunt Canada is in hopes of a Booner your right .....and why are you so inquisitive as to who I will be hunting with in Saskatchewan ?

dd

I understand that you go/come to Canada in hopes of killing the buck of a lifetime......BUT, if you pass up 150" deer and then want a 1/2 price trip next year, I say thats unreasonable.

I'm curious who you are hunting with because I know a lot of outfitters and was curious who met your expectaions.....on the phone. Like I said, you can PM me if you don't want to put it on the open forum.

Dan I feel we have high jacked this guy's thread ....hopefully our open discussion may help someone down the road avoid the same pitfalls ....when I call an Outfitter that I am considering I make my expectations known to him ...I explain that I have been lucky enough to already have taken a 150 and a mid 180s whitetail ...and that I am looking to hunt an area they historicaly produces 160 class bucks and up ...if he sells me on the area he hunts then I explain my terms ...he does not have to accept and I do not have to hunt with him ...however just for everyone's benifit this is a very very competitive market in Canada ...I have found it generally very negotible ....only the extream high end outfitters such as Scott Taylor and a few more are booked 100% of the time ...the others are looking hard for hunters .... I will say that if you know that a particular outfitter is etical ..hard working and productive you may not need to have an understanding like this BUT if it is your first or second time with him it sure makes it an even playing field...he has something other then a lot of words invested into YOUR hunt of a life time ...Dan as for telling you the outfitter I will be using in Canada I see nothing productive that can come from that ...I smell a gut a shot in the air.

dd

I'm only trying to tell the other side of the story here Doc, from the outfitters perspective. I apologize forusing you as an example....you are the exception for a client. I commend you for being upfront with any outfitter you choose.....most do not do that. They book a hunt and expect to be on the next magazine cover. Again, I apologize.ood luck to you in SK next year DD....I hope its a tad warmer for you than it was for me last week.

As for a gut shot.....you wouldn't ever get that from me Doc. I have tried to make a good name for myself and I intend to keep it that way.

I think using the devil's advocate approach was a good deal. Thought it was gonna degenerate into an argument but was actually an informative discussion.

Thank you Doe Dumper ..... disagreement fuels discussion ...hopefully it will help someone down the road ...I am sure some may not find my remarks to their liking ...others may use my idea and benifit from it ...

dd

I agree. I think we can all learn something from this thread.

I also agree that in true fair chase conditions your outfitter really can't promise to put you on a mature buck. It's kind of like the stock market, past resultsare not always indicative of similarfuture returns but sometimes they can give you an idea of what you can expect.

What your outfitter can give you is good hospitality and their best effort. Slipshod possibly unsafe stands and a bucket to sit on doesn't really sound like a best effort at $5,800 a person.

Reading more and more threads on outfitters it really does seem like some have an "A" camp and a "B" (or even C or D) camp. One that they put their best effort into for celebrity hunters and the big tippers, and one where they put the blue collar guys who invested a serious % of their hard earned dollars in the hunt. I'm sure there are many reputable outfitters out there as well, but the temptation to oversell your capability to provide your best has to be a temptation. Buy a few extra tents and a college kid who somewhat knows the area and you can start a B camp and charge the same rate you've been charging everyone else. Before I booked an outfitter I would want to know how many hunts they are running simultaneously. That will also dramatically affect their ability to move you if the area that you are in that week turns out to be a dud for some reason or another. Sometimes they have someone already at every huntable area that they have and you are stuck whether the area is a hot or cold.

Of course I still have never hired an outfitter, but I've thought about it for a chance at a mature bull elk and a close to recordbook mule deer. I'm going to keep trying on my own hunting public land for a while longer though, I think it will mean more if I can get a trophy on a DIY hunt.

One other thing I thought of is that you could compare how many hunts they are selling to the number of photos they put up of the past years hunters. If they are selling 20 hunts a year and only havea couple pictures that might seem a little fishy, but possibly some folks may not want their picture posted on the internet and refuse to give permission to use it. If I was an outfitter I would probably have that somewhere in the contract that I can take a picture of the successful hunter and use it for advertising purposes though. Of course an unethical outfitter could just snag a few photos off a site like this and claim them as their own though.

When it comes down to it at some point you just have to trust someone with your hard earned $ and hope for the best. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

I don't understand the big deal of heading to Canada for a deer anyway... I've picked up some really nice deer and elk in WA.... Maybe if your going for moose or something, I could understand it... but not deer....