Elk oufitters

[rclary]

guys, just want to advise anyone before they decide to use this outfitter, Mesa Verde Outfitters in Mancos, CO.
we signed up to hunt for 6 days, during the first week of archery season in Colorado.
will simon, the owner, told us we would be hunting areas that they had scouted and found elk. he also mentioned he would have trail cameras to show us where the elk were and that we would be able to shoot a 300" bull

after two days we canceled our trip, and got no refund or any money back.
there were no trail cameras setup and the land didn't have any signs of elk tracks/poop at all. the guide took us to cattle water holes, we got to our stands 30 mins after sunrise and the blinds were aspen branches piled up the day before the hunt.
then the guide wayne took us to hunt on public land which is illegal in Colorado to guide customers on public land.
I would not recommend this outfitter to anyone, they are obviously chasing mule deer and not elk. look on their website they are all photos of mule deer with a couple pictures of elk. their lodge in manocs has about 15 mounted mule deer and 1 mounted elk.
this is not how you run a business, promises were made and not held up on their end.
day three we went too hunt public land on our own and shot 2 elk on our own.

 

[cohunter14]

Wow, sorry to hear that. At least it worked out for you and you filled some tags! Guides are allowed to hunt public land in colorado, but they have to be licensed to do so. It might be worth a call to the CPW or the Colorado Guide Association to let them know. Honestly the promise of shooting a 300? bull tells you right away what kind of people they are.

 

[Outfitterabuse80]

We are the outfitter on this post, I was angry at first reading this stuff all over the internet but honestly now I?m glad because it shows what we have to to deal with in this industry. These guys showed up from Louisiana and probably brought their Primos dvd collection with them and practiced their mouth read calls the entire drive with aspirations of Elk trying to break into their cabin while they were sleeping. They hunted with us for one day!! we had blinds set up for them they didn?t want to sit water. We asked them to please sit in them and not go traipsing around the 2,000 acre ranch we had already scouted. The guy that wrote that post (Ryan) immediately did just that and miraculously walked the entire 2,000 acres that evening and said there was no fresh elk sign on the property. He somehow failed to mention in his post the cow elk they almost hit with their truck driving into the property that morning or the bull elk Ryan (poster) said was a ?nice bull? they glassed up the first day in the mountain right above the ranch. We told them sitting water was their best option since it was extremely hot and it had not rained in a month. I get that some guys don?t want to do that and they they expect to just roll up opening day of elk season and have bulls chasing them all over the place. Unfortunately as any experienced elk hunter knows this is not always the case, if the elk are not talking your probably better of not calling and if it?s hot and not raining you should probably sit water and some of the biggest bulls are killed this way.  These guys told their guide they wanted to go hunt on the public after day 1 and they asked him if he would show them some spots as a favor as he explained to them that he can?t guide them there but he wanted to do anything he could to try and please these guys, he also explained that our business could have no involvement with that and that he was doing it entirely at his own risk. They saw elk that morning where he took them and how did they repay the favor? By calling me an hour later and telling me all about it. jeopardizing the poor guides  job at which point I explained we do not operate that way and whatever the guide did he is not getting paid for it nor is he acting on our businesses behalf and that they should be very careful how they proceed but to please not contact me since they were clearly acting outside of the rules set in place for them. They called me at 10am the second day of their hunt and asked for their money back. Unbelievable! I asked if they would at least allow us to try and fulfill our job as their outfitter and they said no they would prefer to just have their money back. These guys paid a very minimal amount to hunt on private ranches as a DIY hunt, we insisted that they get a guide mainly because we don?t like people roaming around kicking up every bush on a ranch and then wondering why they aren?t seeing elk. We were very upfront with them before they showed up that the opening week is generally a slow hunt and involves a lot of sitting. We had a guy sixty yards from five bulls this morning and two over 300? so yes fellas 300? bulls do exist in CO although they are not plentiful by any means. Mountain! They hunted exactly one day with us, saw elk and a bull in 90F temps. That?s all I can say about the whole experience. There is a reason why most Archery elk hunts are not one day! Being an outfitter is hard work, and we love doing it but when someone doesn?t even allow us to do our job and chose to bash us on the internet that?s a pretty low blow.

 

[Bull_Fighter]

guys, just want to advise anyone before they decide to use this outfitter, Mesa Verde Outfitters in Mancos, CO.
we signed up to hunt for 6 days, during the first week of archery season in Colorado.
will simon, the owner, told us we would be hunting areas that they had scouted and found elk. he also mentioned he would have trail cameras to show us where the elk were and that we would be able to shoot a 300" bull

after two days we canceled our trip, and got no refund or any money back.
there were no trail cameras setup and the land didn't have any signs of elk tracks/poop at all. the guide took us to cattle water holes, we got to our stands 30 mins after sunrise and the blinds were aspen branches piled up the day before the hunt.
then the guide wayne took us to hunt on public land which is illegal in Colorado to guide customers on public land.
I would not recommend this outfitter to anyone, they are obviously chasing mule deer and not elk. look on their website they are all photos of mule deer with a couple pictures of elk. their lodge in manocs has about 15 mounted mule deer and 1 mounted elk.
this is not how you run a business, promises were made and not held up on their end.
day three we went too hunt public land on our own and shot 2 elk on our own.

Let's see some pics of these public land bulls? We need pics on the Meat Pole.

 

[Elk Noob]

day three we went too hunt public land on our own and shot 2 elk on our own.

Did you have Public and Private land tags?

 

[DreamingofHunting]

Wow

 

[Montmac]

Too many people have been brainwashed in to thinking that elk hunting is all about running a marathon through the countryside chasing huge bulls and when you tell them that you can take elk by sitting on a good spot they think that you're an idiot - because that's not what they've seen on the videos.


I also wondered if they were properly licensed for hunting on public land by themselves.  It always amazes me how often people will violate hunting laws and think nothing of it. Just recently I was kicked off of a popular forum for pointing out that a guy violated the hunting laws.  I even quoted the regs and I was ridiculed for being an idiot and a sour jerk, I even checked with the game and fish and they agreed it was a violation.  But hey, telling him he broke the law didn't make anybody feel good so I was the bad guy and got canned.


I'd never be a guide nowadays, there are too many idiots out there that have no clue about the real world and I don't have time to waste on their stupidity.  Besides, you do all the work and the client claims that he was the expert hunter.

 

[KHNC]

Any E/S tag i have ever purchased OTC in CO did not have a "private land only" restriction. What exactly are you referring to by being licensed to hunt public land?

 

[dlnwohio]

I believe what he is referring to is the 6 or so units in the northwest of colorado that are draw units for archery. You can purchase a otc elk tag and hunt private land within those units but you cant hunt public ground in those units. Given the location stated I'm guessing their tags where good to go on public or private.

 

[KHNC]

Well, that makes sense. thanks. Sounds similar to Wyoming type 1 and 2 tags.

 

[cchatl33]

I have to say, we used Mesa Verde this year at their Dolores, CO place. 2nd rifle. We had 7 hunters which is way to many for one place in my opinion. I am a guide but this is different hunting for us. Anyway, all but 1 had an opportunity to shoot a bull on a 4 day hunt. I shot a good bull the 1st morning and was almost run over by a spike going in. It was cold and had snowed prior to us getting there. OCT 28-Nov 1 hunt. We saw herds of 60 that morning. Lots of Mule deer. The guides worked their butts off. The cabin was rustic but great for us. We stayed at Ground hog lake res in campers. Only bad thing was a 1 hr drive in and out but that was our decision. We took home 3 animals with an opportunity of 6 out of 7 people. 1 didnt shoot and the other 2 missed. SO, our hunt was great as an odds and success standpoint. Sorry for the bad trips others have had. THATS WHY YOU ASK EVERY QUESTION AND NOT THINK THE VIDEOS ARE EVERY HUNT!!.