Bad hunts, what would you do?

[ajeane]

[font="Arial"]Just got back from what started out to be a disaster of a hunt, that ended up in a great hunt in Texas. I'm from Louisiana and have been hunting turkeys for about 10 years in the great state of Texas. I am appalled and sad to admit that there are a few and I'm so glad to say again a very few people/outfitters that will outright lie to get you to hunt their places. No birds, no sign, horrible lodging. My husband and I were so excited to have this hunt set up for the first week of this season down in south Texas. Like I said before we've hunted Texas alot... turkey, whitetail deer, and exotics for several years, and have a couple of favorite places we go often, but we still like to check new places out for the adventure and fun of it. Let me back up a bit. I guess I'm most upset of being deceived, and actually felt taken advantage, but what can a person do about such experiences. We have a learned a very expensive lesson. I hate to lose faith in people's integrity, but in this "business" you can't trust everything an outfitter tells you. He's trying to make a living too. I really wish there was a website or somewhere a person can "check" places out or to warn other people. It was double dishearting to find out there were some guys from Arkansas there for their first trip to hunt Texas that had brought their young sons on spring break. They were out alot more money and their sons were so disappointed to drive all that way and not see or hear a bird one. Our week was saved by a friend of ours in the beautiful hill country that had an opening for us and we ended the week and experienced 4 great hunts and 2 successful kills!. My husband got it all on video! So my question is: Do we just chalk it up as a lesson learned, or is there anything we could do about this situation? Open to suggestions. Thanks yall

[swpatrkyhunter]

Hi ajeane! Welcome to the forum!
 
                      First thing I would do is to give a call to the better bussiness bureau and tell them about their decpetion. Second, contact the local chamber of commerce and tell them about it pushing the point of how it could effect other bussinesses if people get a raw deal. Third, talk to the outfitter about your dissappointment. See if they would be willing to refund any or all your money. Probably not though. Let them know you plan to let everyone who plans a Texas hunt know to steer clear of them. Forth, Post your comments about them on every hunting forum you can find.
 
  The problem you can run into is that some outfitters don't garantee succesful hunts. Which is how they get away with things like this. Most of your up and up outfitters will locat game for you days ahead of time and keep tabs on them till the time of the hunt. Thats the differance between the professional and the fly-by-night outfitters.  Good luck!

[DBraman]

The is a website that tells the good and bad about outfitters. www.huntreport.com
You can search outfitters by name and/or state. If anyone has submitted a good or bad report on a particular outfitter it will be on there.