Paying an outfitter?

[spoon33]

Have any of you guys paid an outfitter to hunt at their ranch? I only have access to public land, which is a coin toss obviously sometimes.

Been looking at a few places and it's 4-5,000 for a whitetail deer hunt. One ranch here in Oklahoma actually has exotic hunts with some of the animals cheaper. I am having a hard time spending that much money for a deer, even though one of the places offers a guarantee opportunity or full refund.

Anyone else gone to a ranch and been happy with their choice? I also understand how much work/money it cost to maintain land with feeders/stands/food plots etc, plus if people like me are willing to pay that much you might as well charge that much.

[SCfisher]

Outfitter would be ok if it's fair chase(no fences). If it has a fence might as well slip into the zoo and shoot one.

[preacher ed]

If it is just a deer you are wanting to kill for the meat, a lot of TX ranches has doe hunts on the cheap from what I have seen. And I am sure you know that many of them have the exotics as well. If you have never been on this site http://texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php , check it out and see if there is anything in your neighboring state that suits what you are looking for. There is a forum about outfitters on there. If an outfitter under performs, they usually are not shy about speaking out about it. Good luck with finding a fair chase hunt.

[11pounder]

Have any of you guys paid an outfitter to hunt at their ranch? I only have access to public land, which is a coin toss obviously sometimes.

Been looking at a few places and it's 4-5,000 for a whitetail deer hunt. One ranch here in Oklahoma actually has exotic hunts with some of the animals cheaper. I am having a hard time spending that much money for a deer, even though one of the places offers a guarantee opportunity or full refund.

Anyone else gone to a ranch and been happy with their choice? I also understand how much work/money it cost to maintain land with feeders/stands/food plots etc, plus if people like me are willing to pay that much you might as well charge that much.

Contact Stompy on the Texas forums on here, he is an outfitter on his own ranch in Texas, I'm sure he can answer any questions or concerns you may have.

[Babe Winkleworm]

No way I would spend that kinda money to hunt deer. You can travel to KS and knock on doors.(especially with a bow)

[Transom]

A few close family members do a hunt nearly every year. I have been asked to go and I feel I am missing out on time with them but they are going places that are expensive and high fenced. That ain't for me. I am not going to get into an argument with anyone over morals but I will not do a hunt like that. They are essentially paying thousands of dollars for a very expensive farm raised deer that they go out and shoot.

[SCfisher]

A few close family members do a hunt nearly every year. I have been asked to go and I feel I am missing out on time with them but they are going places that are expensive and high fenced. That ain't for me. I am not going to get into an argument with anyone over morals but I will not do a hunt like that. They are essentially paying thousands
of dollars for a very expensive farm raised deer that they go out and shoot.

I'm with ya, if you are hunter don't do it in a cage. Now if it's a deer of a lifetime and maybe a couple of times, pay a guide out of state where big boys grow and get him to put you in an area where your chance is great to take a free range hoss.

[preacher ed]

I won't get in a debate about the high fence thing either, but it is definitely NOT for me. I know that some only uses the natural animals that were in there when it was fenced in, but it is hard for me to separate that from the ones that go out and buy those "freak" deer and then you pick out the one you want and pay based on the B & C score. Just wrong in my book.

[Roddy]

I'm not opposed to outfitters, I know lots are great, but some are as bad as the big local outfitter here. Good land, bad land, he doesn't care. If he can place a stand on it he will lease it. He leases around 15,000 acres and He hunts 400-500 hunters a year over those 15,000 acres. Over half those acres are fields. I'd say if your the third or forth guy hunting that same stand your success rate might be low. I saw pictures of around 25 bucks that were mature killed out of all those hunters. Lots of 2 and 3 year olds killed though.

[WileyG]

Do your research before you spend a penny. Ask for a list of previous customers to contact for their opinions.

In 2014 I won a Kansas whitetail archery hunt with an outfitter and went out in October 2015. There were 6 other, paying hunters there for the same 5 day hunt. It was the biggest clusterf#@k I've been around in 50 years of hunting. The address of the "lodge" (old farmhouse) wasn't divulged until 2 days before you were to be there. All stands were placed within 25 yards of a pile of corn,(corn was in open prairie type terrain) facing the corn with bedding area behind the hunter. I would have preferred to face the bedding area or between the 2 but the outfitter didn't have the bedding area leased. This was true for all 3 stands that I hunted. Nobody saw any shooter (140"+) bucks. I never saw a buck at all. 1 hunter left and headed back to Georgia on the 4th day and I left that night. I felt bad for all those 6 guys that paid $3500 each to be there. One pair was a man and his son from Canada that had flown it to Kansas City and rented a vehicle for the week. Another father and son pair were there on a "discounted" hunt because the outfitter had screwed them on a fishing trip where the lodging was still under construction and they had to rent a motel with no reimbursement from the outfitter. Any way, after being there in Kansas about 3 days we learned that a film crew was coming in the week after us and that the best hunting areas were off limits to us so the film crew could get good deer for their video. That was the icing on the cake.

Ironically I got a group text from this outfitter last week asking if i'd like to come hunt Pennsylvania. I let him know that he couldn't pay me to hunt any of his properties ever again.

Now, I'm not a world class hunter by any means but I have some nice bucks on the wall, have the same hunting lease in TN for 20 years now and have been hunting since I was about 10 years old (60 now) so I know a little about the sport.

[Stompy]

Contact Stompy on the Texas forums on here, he is an outfitter on his own ranch in Texas, I'm sure he can answer any questions or concerns you may have.

You can get on a lease here in Texas and hunt year round (legal seasons) for a lot less than 4-5k. Hunt Deer, Turkey, Dove, Quail in season, and Varmints and Hogs year round. A good lease will start at about $2500 per man.

I sell Dove, Turkey and Hog hunts, I keep the Deer for me and two close friends. Deer season here in Texas is a little over 3 months long including Bow. If you get on an MLD (Managed Land Deer Permit) ranch Deer season is about 5 months.