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Jesse's Hunting > Hunting Articles > Hunting Articles Archives > Planning Your Out of State Hunt - Part 3
Planning Your Out of State Hunt - Part 3
Dave Blake - JHO ProStaff
- Southern California
July 04, 2006
Hunting is one of those activities in which success is directly affected by the amount of time spent before and during the hunt. Early scouting can render benefits such as finding a great secret spot, or locating a pocket of game overlooked for years. Once the scouting is done, and the phone calls to game wardens are made, all that is left is the hunt.
But, what about those hunters who don’t have the time to spend hours out in the woods looking for sign? For a lot of people, a week-long hunting trip means using all of their vacation time without any left over for scouting. It can also be difficult for someone living in the eastern part of the U.S. to get out to Big Sky Country more than once a year. With the price of gas and other means of transportation going up, cost can be prohibitive.
Hunting with a guide or through an outfitting company can be a great way to increase your chances of success with animals you don’t know much about, and in areas where you don’t get a chance to spend a lot of time. One of the things you pay for when utilizing a guide’s services is knowledge of the area and the game. The guide does the scouting and trailblazing for you.
If you choose to use a guide or outfitter, there are a few things to keep in mind like, how long has the guide or outfitter of your choice been in the business and getting phone numbers for references. How much do they charge? What is included in the cost of the hunt? How much land do they have access to? What is their success rate? Do they cater to bowhunters, or are they rifle only? What are their accommodations?
Experience makes a huge difference when it comes to hunting guides. This doesn’t mean that all guides should be long in the tooth. Some of the best guides out there are barely 20 years old. Experience refers to how much time has the guide spent successfully pursuing the game of choice. If your guide isn’t very experienced, you probably won’t have the best hunting trip ever.
The best way to find out how about a guide is to call his former clients. Most guides and outfitters will have a list of references they make available for prospective clients to do some sleuthing and get an idea about what they can expect. Any guide or outfitter who doesn’t provide this list should be avoided.
Put your phone to work
Take the time and call some references before booking an outfitter. Make sure you call some unsuccessful clients, as well as successful hunters. |
When you check references, don’t focus only on the successful hunters. Talk to some of the clients who came away without their game. Ask specific questions. Would they hunt with him again? Was their lack of success due to something the guide did, or was it just bad luck? Did the guide offer to make it up to them, via discounts on future hunts or extended stays? Keep in mind, though, that you may need to decide for yourself whether you’re hearing sour grapes or honest appraisal. That’s why you need to talk to more than one reference.
Guided hunts can be as cheap as $500 or as expensive as $50,000 (or even more) depending on the quarry. In California, $500 will get you a good central coast guided hog hunt that will usually end with a dead hog in the back of a beat up farm truck. On the other hand, a guided trophy class bull elk hunt on the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona can climb as steep as $50,000 depending on what the bull scores.
This potentially huge outlay of cash usually includes more than just the hunt, but not always. You’ll want to know in advance. Most outfitters will include food, lodging and transportation as well as field dressing, dragging and preparing the game for the butcher. The lodging can range from a nice big tent with a woodstove to a room in a vast lodge with vaulted ceilings stacked with racks from hunts past. The food can span the menu from basic cowboy camp cooking to five-star meals prepared by a full gourmet staff.
The luxury of a lodge doesn’t mean a lot if it is sitting on a small piece of land that doesn’t hold a decent population of game. The best guided hunting outfits have access to acreage measured in the tens of thousands. Make sure that your outfitter will at least limit the amount of hunters in your general hunting area if not let you have it all to yourself. Nothing can kill a great hunt sooner than having to compete for the hunting spots that you thought you’d already paid for.
Once again, this is where a few phone calls and a little footwork can pay dividends. Ask your outfitter or guide where you’ll be hunting, and if it’s going to be public or private land. If you will be hunting public land, ask about pressure from other hunters, and how the guide will deal with that. A guided hunt on public land can be very productive, if your guides know how to get you away from the crowds and into the animals. Ask similar questions when you call the guide’s references as well.
You’ll also want to verify how many hunters will be in camp, and how many will be assigned to each guide. It’s not uncommon to have as many as three or four hunters to a guide, especially among the lower-priced operations. This can work just fine, but not if your expectation is one-on-one service. You definitely want to have this detail ironed out before your hunt, not over coffee in the wee hours on the first day.
Every hunter has a favorite way to hunt, whether it’s rifle, archery, muzzleloader, or handgun. Keep in mind that the guides are usually hunters too, and they also have their personal preferences and strengths. Make sure that the outfitter you choose not only caters to your style of hunting, but has guides who know about the type of hunting you’ll be doing. Ideally, you want a guide who shares your preference, or at least has experience with your chosen method of hunting. It’s easy to find horror stories of bowhunters guided by folks who’ve never pulled a string. The guides try to apply rifle techniques to the bow hunt, resulting in frustration for both hunter and guide.
What ever you decide to do about your out of state hunting experience make sure you do your homework first. Ask questions, make phone calls look at maps and check your gear. The secret to a great hunt is to get prepared beforehand, whether you’re researching a new area, or a guide and outfitter service.
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