what one did you go with, helps us all make future decisions

 

Sunfish valley outfitters. Owners/cooking staff were awesome. Lodging was nice, meals were great but just way over hunted. We had perfect temps in mid-November, over 20 guys in camp and 2 kills and 3 misses for the week. Some guys had a great week with seeing deer, myself and the other guys in my cabin and others saw very few deer. I personally sat from daylight to dark 3 days, 2 of the days I came into camp for 2 hours for lunch bc it was actively raining/snowing. I could could the number of deer I saw on 2 hands and none of them were over 75 inches (3 bucks for the week. Spike, yearling 6, basket rack 2.5 year old.) The particular property I was hunting had one access through the bean/corn fields the deer were feeding in so it was impossible to get in without bumping deer in the morning. The guide gave very poor instructions to find the stand locations and I didn’t get in the tree the first day until after daylight. The second spot I was moved to was not even marked like it was claimed to have been. After wandering around in the dark for 45 minutes climbing up the side of the mountain with a climber on my back I finally had to call the guide on the radio and have him show me the area I was supposed to climb because nothing was marked clearly. The last evening of the hunt I was moved from a stand and put into another stand with the worst possible wind for the place I was hunting because “the wind was wrong” for the other stand I was hunting (not true, actually a perfect wind for the other stand). We were told to trust our guide, which I did. I never asked to be moved, just asked for his opinion on where best to go. The deer were very wary of the fixed stands in place and immediately reacted to just seeing a body there even without movement. They do have a return policy we’re you can gun the late season for only the cost of lodging, but neither the guide nor the owner responded to my texts when I was trying to work out a return trip. Overall, nice place, nice people, fantastic food. They do have some giant deer, I saw pictures of deer on the property I was hunting that were pushing 160,170. They kill big deer every year, you can’t deny that but it’s way over pressured. 20+ hunters a week for 2 months is a lot, even on the 10,000 acres they have for bow hunting. T pretty much everyone in camp had a much better week than I did, and a few of the ones who didn’t shoot still saw a fair amount of deer. I would be less hesitant to go back if I had just seen regular movement, bc we had great conditions for deer movement. Or if I hadn’t had to wander around in the dark because of poor instructions or absent trail/tree markers. My cabin might have just had some bad luck but it was a really rough week for what should’ve been perfect conditions

 

Seems like a fair and thorough analysis. I've never been to Sunfish, but I went with a service in IL and KS as a teen years ago, then one in KY as an adult. All were similar to what you describe. Some absolute giants are very much around, but services are misleading (at best) in accurately depicting how many hunters they run through for just a handful to shoot a large deer. It's a volume play. If I bring 100 hunters/season through good properties, 5 good deer will get shot every season and I can trade on the marketing value of those 5 deer every year.

 

Seems like a fair and thorough analysis. I've never been to Sunfish, but I went with a service in IL and KS as a teen years ago, then one in KY as an adult. All were similar to what you describe. Some absolute giants are very much around, but services are misleading (at best) in accurately depicting how many hunters they run through for just a handful to shoot a large deer. It's a volume play. If I bring 100 hunters/season through good properties, 5 good deer will get shot every season and I can trade on the marketing value of those 5 deer every year.

Bingo!

I have had some bad experiences. I prefer the camping or stay in cabin and hunt public land type trips now. I do it on my terms (ie dont have to deal with annoying people in camp or blow hard outfitters) and success rate is really about the same but the feeling of accomplishment is there

 

Go to Hupp outfitter the best hand down
The only problem is getting a date he is booked with return clients

 

Not Brushy Fork Outfitters. There were a million guys in camp. 8 guys sleeping to one room. Wind blowing right over bait piles and the guide openly admitted someone sat in the stand I was in a week prior.

I ended up leaving a day early. It has made me really skittish to go to a guided outfitter again.

 

Just my 2 cents: from my experience the really good whitetail hunting outfits don't need to advertise and get booked year after year. When there's an opening friend or family take the spot. There's a bow only outfit in Kansas I've been on the waiting list for 3 years spoke to the owner still no opening.

 

Wide Rack outfitters is ok, had a terrible experience this season, stay away, I've been with them for 6 years, not any longer. Brian at B Camp is dishonest, Mike Connett the owner is okay but he has to look out for his business and protects Brian. They kill some good deer but their treestand policy at B Camp is a joke. I won't go into all the details but warn you to avoid and take your hard earned money and vacation time somewhere else. Brian has zero clue about deer hunting, stands are all wrong for just about every wind, bait piles are literally 8 yards away and we have told him repeatedly to move them back, he lets people take your spot on a rotation each day which we never agreed to. Like I say, I don't recommend these guys. I did back in the day but they have changed. They hide behind a Christian badge and promote themselves in such a way, far from the truth.