I went on a hunt with La Garita Outfitters this Octoberand was told before hand how many 185"-200" they were seeing. Our guide was three hours late meeting us at the ranch to start. Then he asked if I minded if we drove my truck the whole five days because he had an auto lock (breathalyzer) in his truck. Then he told me if I was expecting a record
book deer that I should prepare myself to home home with nothing. Next the food was terrible you'd think potatoes wouldn't be too hard to cook.
On the night of day two we sat on the edge of an alfalfa field where our guide took a nap. Then on day three we had discussed that there was a nice old buck that had been injured and was a nice old management buck.
We had a plan to push the deer towards us by my friend walking a creek bed. So we dropped him off and move further down the creek. As we set up we faced the opposite direction from where my friend was coming from.
Then my guide laid back on his pack and started to doze off for the second time on our hunt, I'm sorry but $1,125.00 a day NO NAP TIME! I ask if behind us is where my friend was going to come from? The guide said yes, so I moved and he got up and followed.
We sat in our new position for a few minuets before I saw a big buck come bounding through the brush 400 yrds from us I described him to my guide from what I could see from my 4x scope thinking he was on his spotting scope as he
should have been to confirm if it was the right deer or not. I asked the guide if that was the buck we where after he said "yes do you want him" so I took the shot. Keep in mind I'm from Texas and have never hunted CO mule deer so I was counting on my guide to know what he was looking at before I took a shot.
Well I killed the deer and when we came upon it it was a little 4 year old deer that wasn't close to what I thought he
had me shooting at. Just after we arrived at the spot where my deer lay dead the buck I saw in my scope that I had described to my guide jumps up and takes off, clearly my guide had not been using his spotting scope and didn't know what he was looking at seems he just wanted to get he hunt over so he could take a nap. Now that's hunting sometimes you go home with less that you expected.
Two days after we left Chico Basin Ranch I receive a picture of a true trophy killed in a spot of the ranch we asked to be taken to but where never shown. I was made some assurances from the guide that a return trip would be discounted, but instead of a discounted hunt I got an $11,000 quote (I was bringing them a new client). When I asked for a better deal and pointed out the unprofessional circumstances this is the response I received.
"I got a list of guys waiting to pay $6000, that is what you pay for a 180"deer or better. I am sorry that you did not shoot the right buck but I thought at first you where damn happy with your deer. My hunts are all inclusive (food, guide, trespass, etc.) and that's the way it is. I have already sold the hunts so I will be ok, good luck finding a good deer
ranch for less than I quoted"
Mike
Owner of La Garita Outfitters
La Garita is a Joke!
He then wrote back saying that he had hundreds of happy clients and if only one was unhappy then it was okay in his book, then he told me to grow up... This coming from a guy who just cashed a $5500 check of mine.
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