Hiring an outfitter or guide.

The resources available for finding an outfitter seem to be endless especially with the internet availability. But with all that is available, the first thing you need to do is make a list of what you are looking for in a hunt.
For example:
1. Are you looking for meat or a huge trophy? There can be a big difference in price for trophy hunts.
2. How much do you want to spend or can afford? This can vary with the length of the hunt, whether it is a wilderness hunt or easy access, if it is a trophy hunt, one guide with one hunter or two hunters.
3. What physical condition are you in? This can determine both the length of the hunt you will want and the level of endurance the hunt requires. Will you be hiking a lot in steep terrain? Will you be on horse back?
4. Are you flying to your destination or are you driving. Factor in the cost of getting there and getting your trophy home.

Once you have decided on the kind of hunt that you want, start contacting outfitters. There are endless places to get names of outfitters. Sportsman shows, outdoor magazines, ad pages in the state hunting regulations, searching internet sources, and many more. I prefer the sportsmans show because it is a place you can actually talk face to face with outfitters and their guides and get a real feeling of who they are while answering your questions. The things you need to find out from each outfitter you talk to could be: TAKE NOTES
1. What is their fee? One of my favorite questions is will they charge a trophy fee after killing an exceptional animal. If they do, you need to make the decision if you are willing to pay that trophy fee in addition to the cost of your hunt. Find out what all their fee includes. I personally will not hunt with an outfitter that charges a trophy fee.
2. Find out if they will provide transportation to and from the airport, are they providing meals, care for your meat, what are the camp facilities like.
3. Find out how many hunters and how many guides will be in camp. Also find out how many hunters were in camp in the week or the hunt prior to your arrival and how successful were they. If you are bow hunting, find out if the guides are actually bow hunters. If the guide to hunter ratio seems to be short on guides, or if there seems to be an enormous amount of hunters in camp at one time, I would be cautious before hiring that outfitter. A typical camp will have six to eight hunters and three to four guides.
4. Make decisions on how you will get your trophy and meat home to your freezer and ask the outfitter how he can help you meet those goals. These things can all add to the cost of a hunt in a big way.
5. How big is their guide area and is it on private leased land or is it public land. Are they licensed bonded and insured in the state or province . Also ask how many other outfitters are hunting the same area.
6. Ask how much walking and hiking will you be doing, what is the terrain like, can you do some of your own calling if the situation is right, how big and how many animals could you expect to see in a day.
7. These days it is prudent to ask if the outfitter is experiencing problems with wolves and grizzly bears impacting their hunting area and reducing elk numbers or pushing elk and deer out of their hunting area. A good example is in the north Yellowstone herd. Elk numbers have been reduced from over 20,000 to under 8,000 since the reintroduction of wolves and grizzly bears. Probably not a good area to book a $5000 hunt.

Okay, so you have made some of the hard decisions and decided on two or three outfitters to pursue further. Contact the outfitters and ask them for a list of names, addresses and phone numbers of successful and unsuccessful hunters. Call as many of the references as you can and ask them the same questions you asked the outfitters. If it is an outfitters specific question, ask them if they were happy with the outfitter in that specific area. Also ask them if they are a repeat client. An outfitter with a lot of repeat clients is a very good sign that the outfitter is a good one and provides a good service and a quality hunting experience.

Now you have decided on an outfitter. If you really want to dig for information find out the exact area where the outfitter will be hunting and contact the forest service personnel and the game biologist for the area and ask more pertinent questions. You can ask the forest service if there has been any fires in the area, logging in the area, what the terrain is like. Ask the game biologist about elk and deer numbers, cow/bull ratios, outfitters hunting in the area, if so, who are they and what are their names, at what elevation will you expect to see animals, how did the elk fair through last winter, is the area heavily hunted, Is there anyone else you can contact to get information.

Satisfied with your outfitter selection? Book your hunt and start planning. Happy hunting