Bowsite.com

When I booked my bear hunt with Paul, owner of PB Guide Service, I thought I had a good chance to have a good time and get a bear. In the end, I did not get a bear and had an O.K., not great, time. Here's why:

1. The week I went, the camp was extremely overbooked. The camp normally accommodates about 30 hunters and there were 40-45 hunters. Each guide, if you want to call them that, had 10-12 hunters. My guide, John, was the most inexperienced guide and had 12 hunters to handle. He did his best, but logistically it was impossible for him to transport his hunters and get them to their spots in a timely fashion. Some hunters didn't get to their stands until 5 or 5:30 pm which surely affected bear movement. Some hunters weren't picked up from their stand until 10 pm, 2 hours after sunset. I was asked to drive my own truck to my stand, as well as drop other hunters off at their stands and pick them up. Definitely not what I expected.

2. Paul didn't speak to me or my father once during our week there. He had a group of repeat hunters that he would occasionally talk to, but the guys who were new to the camp were treated like second class citizens. He sure was happy to take our money though. Some clients who did not get a bear were offered a reduced rate if they came back next year, some were allowed to stay and keep hunting the following week. I was not offered anything.

3. The food was pretty good, but because the camp was so overbooked the kitchen did run out of food at one point. Not good.

4. Paul touted a 90%+ success rate on his brochure. I think he does have a pretty good success rate, but the week I was there it was more like 50 -60%. My dad got a bear and I was happy about that, but I never even saw one and I wasn't the only person in the camp that had that happen.

5. Paul's brochure says that once you shoot your bear that you can go fishing, hunt coyotes, etc. Once my dad shot his bear, none of these activities were offered. I think Paul and his guides were still struggling with too many clients. Basically, my dad ended up having to sit around for the rest of the week and there were other people who had the same thing happen to them.

6. The camp was filled with some really decent people, the other hunters. That made the week a little more bearable. We could all sit around and complain about not seeing anything. There were no big bears taken during the week. The largest was about 250 lbs.

7. I had a few other minor gripes, but since it has been a while since the hunt I have forgotten most of them.

Would I go hunt with PB guide service again - absolutely not. Why pay $1500 to sit around camp and feel like an annoyance, a second class citizen. I can do that for free at my house. I also would not recommend his service to anyone. He treats his buddies pretty well, guys that have been going there for a while but doesn't care too much about new clients. If you are going on your first black bear hunt or want to try a new place DO NOT GO HERE!

Was the outfitter notified of problems? - YES