I probably mentioned, at least in passing, that I had some issues during my recent archery elk hunt in Colorado. The outfitter, Rick Webb of Dark Timber Outfitters is a great guy, and runs a top notch operation. But even the best companies sometimes hire bad help.
During the first three days of the seven day hunt, my brother, Scott, and I hunted with guide, Chad Kleebes (I probably slaughtered the spelling of that). Chad is a relatively young fella, in his early 20’s, but I think he’s got what it takes to be a successful big game guide. He’s quiet and unassuming, but there’s a competence there that belies his youth. He did a great job with my brother and me, and with a couple more years’ experience I can see him being a real champion elk guide.
Unfortunately, on the fourth day of the hunt, on the way out of the field, Chad stepped off of a rock at a bad angle, and next thing we knew, he was rolling on the ground in agony. Turns out he did some significant damage to the ligaments in his ankle. Bottom line, though, he was out of the game. Scott and I had broken our guide!
Rick tries to keep all of his hunts to a two-on-one hunter to guide ratio, and his other guide, Chad’s brother Grant, was occupied with the other archery hunters in camp. Rick’s other top guide was unavailable for the hunt. Rick, himself, would be spending the next day helping a successful hunter pack out his bull. Rick had to call in the reserves, a new guide on his team who we’ll call, “Wild William”.
Wild William is an experienced fishing and rafting guide, and has spent a lot of time in the field hunting elk, but he was brand new to guiding elk hunters. As we were all about to find out, putting weekend tourists on a raft and sending them downriver is not quite the same as trying to put a pair of bowhunters within archery range of an elk.
To cut to the chase…
I learned a lot of things during those last couple of days with Wild William that I will definitely take to heart in my own guiding practice. I don’t know how many readers here are hunting guides, but these lessons might be helpful to you as well… especially if you value that tip after a long week of hard hunting. I wrote a long article on this topic for the JHO Journal, so I won’t reprint it or rehash it here, but it comes down to a couple of key things.
First of all, treat the clients with the utmost respect. They are paying a lot of money to be there. Some of that money goes into your paycheck. You are working for the client, not the other way around. You don’t have to like them, or even be particularly social, but you have to show respect.
If the client makes an error, contain yourself. Manage your criticism, and more importantly, control your tone. Never speak down to a paying client, and never, ever raise your voice at a customer (unless there is an immediate safety issue).
Wild William made that mistake twice during our hunt. Once wasn’t so bad, the second time was unforgiveable… especially when it turns out that he was the one at fault.
Secondly, remember that you are working FOR the client (mentioned this a second ago). It is the client’s hunt, NOT YOUR’S. If the client doesn’t want to run headlong through the oakbrush in pursuit of ghost elk, then you don’t go running headlong through the oakbrush in pursuit of ghost elk. You may suggest that your experience shows that running through the oakbrush is the best plan of attack, but it’s the client’s call about whether to go or not.
Likewise, if your client tells you that he’s not trophy hunting, and will be very happy with any legal animal, then don’t try to second-guess the client and go blowing through “raghorns” in order to pursue a “toad”.
My brother and I were both meat hunting on this trip, both carrying either-sex tags, and both very clear about our goals for the hunt… elk on the ground. Imagine our surprise, and disappointment, when Wild William charged right through prime hunting ground, spooking elk along the way, in his single-minded quest for the trophy animal we’d spotted previously. We practically ran over one bull, and pushed out countless others simply trying to keep up as he raced down into a canyon and up the other side.
This all ended in a fairly tense conversation as I explained “the facts of life” to our guide. It boiled over in the bottom of a steep draw, after he pretty much ignored my suggestion that we stop the mad chase and make an attempt on a bull that was bugling less than 100 yards away, as opposed to climbing another 2000 vertical feet in hopes of setting up on HIS trophy. This bull was bugling. The other wasn’t. This bull was close. The other had disappeared into the timber over two hours earlier.
His final mistake was telling ME what a shame it would be to shoot this “raghorn” and miss the chance to kill the “toad” up in the timber. He had forgotten whose hunt this was.
Properly chastened, he set up and called the smaller bull. It came close, but we never got a shot. It was still exciting, and what I had come for… but at that point the hunt was pretty much ruined. I had lost all confidence in the guide, and worse, the remainder of the hunt became a matter of going through the actions as my enthusiasm was totally shot.
We went out the morning of our last hunt in pretty low spirits. I should have told Rick about the experience the previous night, and ask about switching guides. Grant’s hunters were leaving early, as it turns out, so he was going to join us anyway. We could have left Wild William behind. But at that point, I really didn’t even care any more. We called the hunt at about 10 in the morning on our last day and returned to the lodge to prepare for the homeward trip.
This is not a totally sad ending, though. After returning to camp, we had the opportunity to speak, at length, with Rick. My brother and I both related our experiences and our feelings about this guide. Rick felt responsible, and offered to make it good with a discounted hunt in the future. I couldn’t have asked for more, and since I don’t think our experience is typical for his operation we made arrangements then and there for a return hunt in 2009… as soon as Scott has time to acquire a preference point.
So I’ll definitely be returning to Dark Timber Outfitters. I’m not so sure Wild William will, though.
