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Gut Pile

Scouting service..is worth it. Anyone have experience?

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I've been considering a scouting service for my elk hunt this year. A package runs $300. I work at a lake so summer is real hard for me to get out and scout as much as I'd like to. Also my father has never killed a big game animal. We've hunted every year together, but I really want him to bag his first Elk. Opinions and advice is so greatly appreciated! Since joining this site years ago I've made so many great friends. Love my CWT family. Any help would be awesome!

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Never heard of that before. Sounds like it could work if it was someone you trusted but I could see the money passing hands and some past experience being passed along without any actual current scouting happening. I would ask if you could get some video or pics with current dates close to your hunt time.

I went back through some of the old threads on here and found some good info on units I was looking at.

If you go the scout service route post some data on it.

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Personally, I'd be careful about paying only $300 for a scouting service. $300 wouldn't even cover my gas for just 1 serious scouting trip! I would guess with that price you will be getting old info, which could be good and even worth the great price, but I'd be worried about getting old info which could be worthless. Scouting packages can be a great idea, just be very careful where you get it from, what it actually includes and how many others are getting the same info. Best of luck! JIM>

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I cannot say for sure but I think all that they give you is a map of your unit with some highlighted areas known to be "hot spots." For $300 I'm sure you could buy a quality topo map, look at terrain and spend one weekend in the field. Feet on the ground in your unit prior to your hunt is exponentially more valuable than some else's advice...especially if they are selling it to other people too.

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If you are starting from scratch, I would first check out the areas that game and fish mention on their website. Start by looking at them on google earth along with the habimap (AZGFD). From there you can start looking for similar areas just on google earth. After this, I would call the W.M. for the area and see where he thinks you should go. Ask him what he thinks of certain areas vs where should I go.

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There is a "desertbulls" that provides such a service.. I have never used it but apparently they WILL send you photos and video of the scouting trip. Then they will provide topo's with marked spots to look at. They will also just sell you marked up maps or a GPS with preloaded spots... If you do use them, PLEASE post what you think..

Thanks & Good Luck!

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Desertbull is also a member on the forum.

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I would agree that 300 bucks sounds a little fishy. I know a couple outfitters that do sell hunting packages. Or scouting packages. The one in particular is Arizona strip bucks. They offer a package with specific details on particular animals that they know about very well. I know they only offer a certain few so as to not double dip if you know what I mean. They will only sell specific info on one animal to one guy. Straight legit operation that way. They are out to help and the resource is rather invaluable in my opinion if you don't have the time to do your homework. Just my 2 cents about it.

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for $300 you are going to get old info and water holes on map. I did a couple scouting gigs a few years back and got $1250 each, I spent 6 days looking over the terrain on each gig, was only supposed to be 5 days. Both guys tagged out opening morning and gave feedback to the outfitter that I did him right, they were happy with the animals and they were right where I said they would be. To properly scout you end up with maps and lot of fuel and boot leather expended, glass morning and evening and drive and walk during the day.

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Just a thought for you!...''azgutpile'' is spot on! anyone can get the info, from the wild life manager in that unit!...dont be affraid to contact rancher's an hunters from the past!...and yes thank god for Google Earth!! even a couple of days of scouting is worth gold!!....cover alot of ground get a forest map!!.. invest in a big topo map!! an ask a game&fish officer to go on a ride along! most officer well do that for you!.....its not really hard to put a hunt together with what little time you have and it well be worth more as a hunter to do a DIY! the memorys the ups the downs makes it that much better!...test yourself !! DYI is where its at!! :D good luck !! ""GET 'ER DONE""..there is alot of Die hard hunters on the site that dont mind dropping you alittle 411 now an then!! ^_^

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If you can get to your unit several days in advance then do your own scouting. The days right before season are the best to find the latest patterns. I'm a scoutaholic. Last year spent 26 days scouting my unit 10 archery bull tag and son's unit 10 rifle bull tag. The best info I got was the days prior to the hunt and during the hunt. All the info I received from everyone who helped was basically spent looking over areas and fantasizing of previous hunts. Oh yeah - and spending over $3k in fuel. Good luck to you and congrats on your tag...

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Like a few others have said, don't expect much for $300. I know a few outfitters that stopped doing scouting packages for several different reasons. Here are a few:

-hunters are too green and even an "x marks the spot" with specific animal patterns, bedding areas, pics, video and so forth isn't good enough. It still takes some basic instincts and knowledge to seal the deal. So in the end, the Outiftter looks like the bad guy when no animals are found or killed.

 

A few yrs ago I did a scouting package for a guy with a dec rifle tag. He hunted exactly the way I told him and in the right spots. He saw 12 does in 2 days. I knew something wasn't right. So on the third day I told him I'd meet him and hunt with him that morning. We got on the same hill he'd been glassing from the prior two days. By 10am I glassed up 8 bucks, the last one he ended up shooting. He was doing everything right. He was even in the right spot. He just had little to no experience glassing for Coues deer. If I hadn't of showed up, be could easily have been one pissed off client. But he was a good dude and it all worked out.

-some hunters won't even hunt or follow the scouting package info or suggestions on how to hunt particular animals anyway. So an outfitter spends a few days of his own time getting everything together and the hunter ends up doing his own thing In the end. Once again, outfitter looks bad. It's all about risk vs reward from a business perspective.

-here's the worst one. Hunter is successful and ultimately takes all of the credit AND all of his buddies in there the next yr! BIG pet peave of mine.

 

When I did packages in the past, I scouted it the way I would my own tags. And sometimes these were prime spots. So ultimately you're putting someone you've never met in "your spot" on opening day for a few hundred bucks. Many of these spots might produce high quality animals on a regular basis so it's almost bad business when you see the risk of showing someone a honey hole. The info you share is never as confidential as you'd hope.

 

In the end, you risk a lot (mainly reputation and hunting spots) to gain very little. But once in a great while it works out and everyone's happy and benefits. That's not the usual, though.

 

Another thing to consider is what type of elk hunt do you have. Rut? Late rifle? Bull or cow? Rifle or archery. Those are things to consider. Depending on what you've got, especially with elk, you might find that techniques and strategies are just as important as where to hunt.

 

Sorry, that was WAY long..... Haha. Good luck to you and your dad! Hopefully he gets his first.

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