Not this year (2005), but next, a good friend and I are planning an Elk hunt utilizing an outfitter's services for a drop camp hunt. We both have all the camping equipment necessary. It's the means to get all that gear back into and then out of, to include meat (hopefully), an area away from the road where some undisturbed Elk live, which we do not have.
We are doing this mostly for the comraderie, return to nature and if a bull or two wish to cooperate, that's fine with us. I'm more financially challenged than my friend is. When I was a young, single Buck Sergeant in the Army, I could and did afford a 10-day guided elk hunt to the Absorakee Beartooth Wilderness just north of Yellowstone park, 22 years ago. I shot a 300 point 6-pt bull on the 8th day of that hunt. Though with wives, kids, mortgages, etc., it's not in the budget for either of us until the kids are grown and out of college.
Questions which come to mind are as follows.
1. Legally, does a service provider/Outfitter of this type need to be licensed or have permits by some state or federal entity?
2. Do most, or all, service providers/Outfitters who offer drop hunts also provide guided hunting, or are their Outfitters who do drop hunts only?
3. Are we competing with their higher paying guided clients? On the scale of importance, are we 2nd class hunters because we are not providing as much of an income or maybe just the opposite. Are we a more profitable client becuase we are kind of a "fire and forget" client until it's time to check in on us or pick us up? In the between time, they're are servicing other drop camp hunters. Kind of like a dentist with a 6 chair office.
4 Will the Outfitter "always" pack us into less than ideal areas that are not in competition with their higher paying guided clients?
5. What is a typical cost for a 5, 7 or 10-day drop hunt? Is it all inclusive? What's included? What's not?
6. What service is provided? What typically, can we expect? Horses for equipment and men or just equipment? How much extra for horses to ride to and from the main camp?
7. How often does the outfitter check in on us? Do Outfitters use/provide a form of 2-way communication with us while we are in camp?
8. Are their extra, hidden costs? Like, packing an animal from the kill site, which might likely be off the beaten trail, so to speak. Will the Outfitter expect the carcass to be at camp, ready for final packing to the vehicles?
9. Is their a contract which is signed prior to settling the deal? Can/will/has an outfitter tried to gouge a hunter/s at the start/middle/end of a hunt.
10. Is their a legal way to expedisiously remedy disputes?
11. Are their Outfitters who have/will take us where "we" want to go?
For example, if my friend and I were to return to the same area I hunted in the Absorakee 22 yeas ago, would an outfitter take us to nearly the same area, even if it meant competing with paying guided hunters of his own or that of another outfitters?
12. What is a standard tip for poor, average, good to excellent service?
13. For 2 hunters, is their a max weight allowance for our gear or do we have to pay extra for the horse/s necessary to pack the extra gear? I've been known to throw in the kitchen sink. :lol:
14. If familiar with the area, will the Outfitter make suggestions on where/how to hunt or are we totally on our own?
15. How early is early enough to book such an Outfitter and his services?
We are doing this mostly for the comraderie, return to nature and if a bull or two wish to cooperate, that's fine with us. I'm more financially challenged than my friend is. When I was a young, single Buck Sergeant in the Army, I could and did afford a 10-day guided elk hunt to the Absorakee Beartooth Wilderness just north of Yellowstone park, 22 years ago. I shot a 300 point 6-pt bull on the 8th day of that hunt. Though with wives, kids, mortgages, etc., it's not in the budget for either of us until the kids are grown and out of college.
Questions which come to mind are as follows.
1. Legally, does a service provider/Outfitter of this type need to be licensed or have permits by some state or federal entity?
2. Do most, or all, service providers/Outfitters who offer drop hunts also provide guided hunting, or are their Outfitters who do drop hunts only?
3. Are we competing with their higher paying guided clients? On the scale of importance, are we 2nd class hunters because we are not providing as much of an income or maybe just the opposite. Are we a more profitable client becuase we are kind of a "fire and forget" client until it's time to check in on us or pick us up? In the between time, they're are servicing other drop camp hunters. Kind of like a dentist with a 6 chair office.
4 Will the Outfitter "always" pack us into less than ideal areas that are not in competition with their higher paying guided clients?
5. What is a typical cost for a 5, 7 or 10-day drop hunt? Is it all inclusive? What's included? What's not?
6. What service is provided? What typically, can we expect? Horses for equipment and men or just equipment? How much extra for horses to ride to and from the main camp?
7. How often does the outfitter check in on us? Do Outfitters use/provide a form of 2-way communication with us while we are in camp?
8. Are their extra, hidden costs? Like, packing an animal from the kill site, which might likely be off the beaten trail, so to speak. Will the Outfitter expect the carcass to be at camp, ready for final packing to the vehicles?
9. Is their a contract which is signed prior to settling the deal? Can/will/has an outfitter tried to gouge a hunter/s at the start/middle/end of a hunt.
10. Is their a legal way to expedisiously remedy disputes?
11. Are their Outfitters who have/will take us where "we" want to go?
For example, if my friend and I were to return to the same area I hunted in the Absorakee 22 yeas ago, would an outfitter take us to nearly the same area, even if it meant competing with paying guided hunters of his own or that of another outfitters?
12. What is a standard tip for poor, average, good to excellent service?
13. For 2 hunters, is their a max weight allowance for our gear or do we have to pay extra for the horse/s necessary to pack the extra gear? I've been known to throw in the kitchen sink. :lol:
14. If familiar with the area, will the Outfitter make suggestions on where/how to hunt or are we totally on our own?
15. How early is early enough to book such an Outfitter and his services?
