O.K., we've seen the photos of great hunts & safaris from the past, and we're starting to see photos & reports from this seasons safaris starting to come in, and they are all great and wonderful and we all love to read them and live vicariously through fellow members.
Now......what was the worst hunting experience you've ever had? It can be a case of bad luck, a piss poor outfitter, nature not cooperating..........but it just about made you swear off hunting..FOREVER!!!
Mine was a hunt 2 years ago in North Carolina. My friend and I paid for a guided whitetail hunt and he was looking forward to it, as it was his first "guided" hunt had he had been deer hunting for almost 20 years and had yet to take a buck (and has only taken one doe) in that time. I'm proud to say that I introduced him to both firearms and hunting.
I had hunted with a different outfitter in N.C. before, but they didn't appear to still be in business. We decided to go with this outfitter because they had a nice website, good reviews, etc. Prices were about average as to what everyone else was asking. We headed off with great anticipation and excitement.
To make a long story short, the place was grossly misrepresented. They advertised that they only took 12 hunters at a time; we had 22 by the end of the week. Top that off with only one bathroom!!! In a week of hunting, nobody took a deer, and the only deer seen were either so far away that a shot was unethical, or it was a small buck that was not shootable. Trail cam pictures (that the 'guides' got overly excited about) were over 3 weeks old, and the feeders looked as if they had been filled just the day before. After the fourth day, I got out of my stand and walked around......couldn't find a single deer track in the soft earth! There idea of 'guiding' was to move you from one plywood box to another (which your bunk mate hunted in the day before.....and saw nothing). They advertised "3 meals", but their idea of a meal was little Debbie snack cakes for breakfast and frozen hamburgers for lunch. Top that off with only a 4 cup coffee maker for 22 people and lets just say I'm surprised that a riot didn't break out. No safety devices (first aid kit or fire extinguisher), and we later found out that the refridgerator was jury rigged into an overloaded circuit!! Our "guide" greeted us on the first day with profanity, saying "If I catch any of you m******* F******** of your stand, I'll throw your M******* F********* ass of this property; I don't give a damn how much you paid!!" (great way to start a client relationship, eh?). He would then drop us off at our plywood box and go home and work on his house.
My friend has decided that he no longer wants to go on any out of state hunts due to this wonderful experience, and I didn't receive ANY satisfaction from the local chamber of commerce, better business bureau, fire marshal, N.C. dept of fish and game (there was a state license number in the lodge).
I had a near drowning experience that fall when my canoe capsized while duck hunting, and this hunt was worse than that.........imagine a hunt being worse than almost dying!!!
O.K., so that's my story...........what's yours?