Bowsite.com

Hunter Comments

This is a honest review and I am not calling out the owner or guides. I am simply making everyone aware that this outfitter is not worth a look because it will ruin your trust for outfitters. I researched outfitters for a couple of years and wanted to go to a outfitter that was reputable and had a high client return rate. After going through multiple outfitters I was comfortable committing to Dave Lusk who at the time seemed like a honest person. Dave told me they have a 90% oppurtunity rate at a 130 or better and around 95% during the rut. Dave also told me his client return rate was high 80%'s and the people that didnt come back had reasons of illnesses or financial issues. Everything was great and I was excited but when we pulled up to the main lodge that is when the nightmare began. The first thing that caught my attention was the buck pole. The buck pole was starting to rot and the pulleys were rusty along with the chains. You could tell the pole hasnt been used at all that year. There was junk all over outside the lodge such as old feeders laying around, old decoys, and misc. stuff laying against the lodge. The first person I met was guide Kevin Ray. I asked Kevin how the season was going and he said great. I asked how many bucks were taken so far and he said 3. Now for being open for a solid month and having over 10,000 acres that is terrible. I later found out that week they havent taken any bucks so far. My guide Tony Stewart seemed honest but I could tell the properties he had me hunt the week I was there were pressured because every deer was cautious and being from Michigan where pressure is huge I could recognize it when I see it. I was forced to sit in the same stand for 3 days strait on one property. My neighbor went to this outfitter also and he was forced by his guide Kevin Ray to sit a stand 4 days strait even after the 1st day my neighbor didnt see a deer! All because some guy named keith shot a decent buck there the year before. On any property you have your early season stands, rut stands, and post rut stands. These people didnt care about that they just put you on farms to spread you out. I didnt see a great buck all week. The only buck I seen that was ok was a 12 pt 2 and 1/2 year old that might of pushed 100 inches. I was never shown any trail cam pics of shooters on the land I was hunting. I was just told "well another hunter saw a ten point here last week". So it was safe to say that there really wasnt any motivation to sit all day besides the fact I spent $2,100 to come here. My neighbor only saw 2 basket rack bucks that week. Camp wise there were 14 hunters in our cabin and 3 hunters at the other cabin. Out of 17 hunters NO ONE SHOT A BUCK THAT WEEK! I constantly battled with the owner/guides about there being no seat cushions on the stands. This really wasnt nice because the mornings were frosty and I sat all day on bare steel. On the 4th day I was taken to a cow field and sent about on a mile walk to a "Prime Spot" which ended up being a ladder stand with a gun rest that didnt flip up. It is kind of difficult shooting a compound bow with a gun rest being in the way. Needless to say the only thing i saw that night were about 50 cattle and a skunk. The guides didnt know about the gun rest being there because they never check the stands obviously.Also we were told the day we arrived that they use feeders because it keeps the does in the area during the rut. Every feeder my neighbor or I hunted around was empty and when I asked about it the guides always came up with some lame excuse. On to the food part of this hunt. The food was nothing to write home about. Breakfast was always either freezer burnt jimmy dean sandwiches, oatmeal, cereal, or old fruit. Lunch was always a ham or turkey sandwich. Dinner was always something quick and cheap such as ragu and noodles. The thing that got to me was everyone was told this was the time to be in the stand all day but if we wanted to we could come in for a hot lunch. I did decide to come in for lunch one day because I was tired of sitting in that crappy squeky stand for the 3rd day strait. It was obvious the cook always made enough for everyone in camp but the only ones that came in for lunch were the guides which was nice to know that out of my $2,100 I was paying for their lunch. When I came in for lunch that day I heard the guide Mike Back whom had the most knowledge out of all of them said to Dave Lusk "These guys are going to be mad if no one shoots a buck this week" Daves reply was "well it isnt our fault". That comment sealed the deal for me that this place is sold on lies. When talking to the other hunters almost everyone in my camp had a problem with this outfitter but only 5 of us had the guts to say something to Dave Lusk. I told Dave about my concerns and he just came back with excuses. I told Dave I was going to write a review when I get home and his response was " Writing bad things about outfitters will get you blacklisted". About all the hunters dave reels in are from the NorthEast and these people have deep pockets. Dave puts all his focus into the Northeast people because they seem to be fond of seeing anything bigger than a basket rack. one guy from jersey said he has been to 4 outfitters and S.O.O is by far the worst. Nobody was from any other region except us that week. I did make a couple of new friends from NY which was the only good thing about this trip and they are real hunters that caught on to this terrible outfitter. Dave also posts Kill pics of the bucks that the guides killed. Wish the focus was putting clients behind those monsters rather then the guides. I was offered tthis year to come back for half price and i commited to it at first because it was cheap but after I thought about my experiance more this place isnt worth the price of the deer tag to hunt Ohio. I finally posted this review because I see Dave wants $4,000 for a 7 day hunt starting in 2014. SAVE YOUR MONEY IT IS NOT WORTH IT!! Go to Illinois or Kansas and avoid this "top 5 outfitter by deer and deer hunting magazine". I dont know who and the world came up with that. Again I am not mad or hateful towards this outfitter, the owner, or the guides. This review is factual and honest. I just don't want to see someone else experiance what I did

Was the outfitter notified of problems? - YES

Outfitter's Response

Well, unfortunately it took Mr. Farmer, a year and a week to the day decided to leave this review and if you believe all this non sense then I had ocean front property in Ohio that I'll sell ya... Dan did pass up a big shooter with in his first couple of days in camp and his friend had a shooter within 25 but couldn't get the deal done. I have this email from Dan summing up his hunt which states, :

On 1-20-13 Dan writes:::::

"""Hey Dave, I would like to come back 11/11-11/15, 2013 go ahead and pencil me in.Dewayne is in a toss up about it I will let you know either way he decides asap. We paid 2100 last year so it would be 1050 which is fine with me. I will send a 50% deposit out and if possible I would like Tony to be my guide. I thank you for addressing my problems last season. It proves that you are focused on quality and not quantity. Thanks Dan Farmer""

So, after not contacting me back ASAP, and never hearing from Dan, and putting him on big bucks and STILL offering him 50% off his next years hunt, there's nothing else more I can do. Some people you will never make happy and they will simple go out of their way to spread false propaganda. Absolutely everything this hunter had to say was NOT the truth and all lies although you noticed several times he had to reinsure everyone that "he was being honest and truthful". He is anything but that. As I've said many times in the past, shoot me an email and I'll have no problem getting you a massive list of successful and unsuccessful hunters that would far, far, far outreach anything that this hunter along with a few of his friends might have to say.....kind of hard to be in business for almost a decade, with the amount of repeat customers we do, if our food and services were poor.