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Hunter Comments

First off let me say the only redeeming quality of this hunt was the fact I had six buddies and a couple good guides. Cog (the outfitter)knew we were all bow hunters but somehow forgot even though he knew we booked from bowsite????. Only one of his guides had any bow hunting experience and he's quiting next year. Cog double booked our hunt dates for the first week of October as we originally wanted to catch the tail end of the moose rut and the beginning of the caribou rut. Even though we booked a 1.5 yrs in advance and almost $40K worth of hunts (6 moose and 3 bou), he told us "all his best guides would be taken and we needed to hunt a week later". I let it slide because he assured me my group would still be hunting the moose rut which apparently is total BS according to all his guides and fellow hunters who frequent NF. We had guides who refused to get out of the trucks and just wanted to road hunt! We all killed great caribou but unfortunately for Cog he sold that area to one of his guides who I would highly recommend (Richard). Luckily this guide took the initiative to take our capes to his freezer as Cog's was broken and then took our animals to the taxidermist. Once at camp Cog tried to get more money out of us for bear hunts which we negotiated as a trophy fee since we had such a large group. We argued over this for several days until someone in my hunt party produced an email that outlined the deal and even then Cog reluctantly agreed we were correct. I also heard Cog had this same issue with the group before us as well. Additionally instead of putting all 6 of my group in the same cabin, he stuck some poor old guy from europe with 4 of us and put the other 2 members of my group in the camp house??? The list goes on and on. If you want more details, feel free to contact me, My handle is TheSaint.

Was the outfitter notified of problems? - YES

Outfitter's Response

In responce to Blaynes report,I must say it never cease's to amaze me how a guy who shook your hand and thanked you for everything when he left can actually then try to assasinate you when he gets at arm's length. Firstly lets respond to his comment on i forgot they were bow hunter's.. i mean come on..even though we put over 60 hunters though our camps this year and I have on occasion been accused of having alzemerizes, maybe in conversahion about something i might of momentarely forgot he was Bowhunting but to say that we didn't know or were'nt prepared for him as a bow hunter is rediculess.Then to say only one of my guides have any bow hunting experince is a real insult and falsehood. Nelson, Roger,Deon and Jordan who guided over 30 bowhunters himself are bowhunters themselves albeit at different levels. As well the rest of my crew who are all seasoned guides, each who have thier own hunting styles and experiences getting hunters in shot whether it be with rifle ,black powder or bow have until now at least, been getting animals for anyone they have guided. Now to address the issue of double booking??? I called Blayne and asked him if he would mind taking the week after he had originally booked. i explained that i had a group out of Norway that could't come any other time. however i made it clear that if it was a problem for him not to worry about it. he said no problem ..we discussed the implications on the hunting and I explained that it would be probaly be better for Caribou hunting and should have no effect on the moose hunt as our success is the same on the first week of the hunt as it is on the last week,all of course, hinging on resonable weather in any week.(As a quick Note you can see by his own weather comments it was snowing one day hot another then windy the next, overall an extremely bad weather week and amazing to me that my guys got them any animals at all.)I will say it brought a lot of extra pressure and hype to the camp. Now to recap our original booking ,it was supposed to be for 3 Caribou hunters however it over time grew into seven and with moose hunts and combo hunts as well.During this time apparently he proposed a free bear hunt for the increasing size of the group i admit i couldn;t remember that in perticular and after reviewing it I'm still not sure on the interpretation of the wording on his propposal and my agreement, but after we tried to settle up and discovered the discreapancy before agreeing, when i got back in town from the camp and went through my emails (and they dug one out as well) rather than cause any fuss i didn't relunctanly agree, I was happy to agree and even payed back the money that Jim had already payed me which is one of the reasons i thought they all still owed me. sounds reasonable enough to me!!! Now i'd like to address the issue about my frezer being broke down and Roger having to put his cape in his freezer. If he is talking about the freezers in the building in the little village close to the camp where Roger lives they are mine, including the other 10 i have in town. Trying to make an issue out of something like that as if it was a problem is unreal. If Roger had to put it in his own freezer which is in the same direction as the Taxidermist rather then going to town in a different direction is the common sense thing to do, part of his Job is to take care of trophys and get the meat and capes brought to the places they need to go .Whats the problem with that??? He didn't need to take any extra initiative, its his responsibility, as he and the rest of my guides will tell you!!! Now as Blayne said himself i could go on and on defending these petty issues but i think i've made my point and i normally like to work out or reply to any complaints face to face with any issues that may come up during any of the guiding services we provide and I can proudly say after a lifetime in this industry there have been very few. Hopefully with reason and without any unkind words I have managed to find solutions for all. Best Regards To all who may have the displeasure of having to read this. Cyril (Cog) Pelley

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