Bowsite.com

So let me start with this My name is James I found this place in 2022. I read about it and then I went to hunt big deer. Not only did I pay for me but I paid for another person too at the same time same week that was around $5,500 it was a 4 day hunt we didn't see any shooters until the third day I shot a buck that I thought was pushing 140 and it was not it was around 130 maybe 131 and I was on a 140 farm so Stacy let me have that and I'm very grateful for that. So that makes not even a shooter buck me and my friend seen. We hunted our asses off and never seen a shooter buck My friend hunted the whole 4 days 12 hour sits and never seen a shooter buck. So we just marked it up as an experience that year. I had 32 hours in a stand the first year So I go back in 2023 by myself and I do a 9-day hunt 5-day bow and a 4-day gun hunt. Another $5,000 for bow hunt and another $3000 to gun hunt. I seen over a 100 deer a day never seen a shooter Buck all 9 days. I sent pictures after pictures after pictures to Stacy the owner and the guides that were taking us to our stands. This year I had over 110 hours in a stand dark to dark I never bitched about anything other than I have not seen a shooter buck yet this year now I'm paying my hard-earned money to come here and hunt deer big deer. Some of the guides will tell you I haven't hunted this than 2 weeks Well let me explain this to everybody that comes there and spends their hard earn money. They have three lodges each lodge has about 12 to 17 people add that together for all three lodges that's between 45 50 people give or take. Do the math every four to five days they're switching that many people out from these lodges so there's no way they can tell you that stand ain't been hunted for 2 weeks. Unless tha guide has been gone. Now let's move on to this year 2024 I paid another 5,500 plus tips to come and hunt again I seen deer after deer after deer never seen a shooter buck except for one night after dark I seen a real nice one. Well I started complaining because I have not seen a shooter buck in 3 years so I hunted 2 days with one guide he done his best to try to put me on good spots and he did but still no shooter bucks. Now they're shooting there but they're what you would see here in Arkansas or anywhere else you go 140 148-in deer maybe On my third day I hunt with Stacy the owner he puts me up on a hillside again dear after deer after deer no shooter bucks then I come down at 11:30 a.m. I sat in the truck with him now this is where favoritism comes in it it happened right in front of me two times because the landowners are guides as well they have over 40 something cameras their self that you never see pictures of Well this year they was showing them pictures paying attention to all of that them pictures of the big deer are knowhere even close to the stands that they are putting us in to hunt. They have two guides that own multiple lands that is the meal ticket for Hadley Creek one owns a little over 3,000 acres The other one owns about 2,200 acres after I hunted with Stacy that morning he ask the other two guys what they wanted to do he let them do that. Then he comes to me and he shows me a deer walking across the field that's 150 to 160 inch deer he asked me what I would like to do I said I would like to hunt down here on the bottom in that ladder stand. He says I want to put you up on top where volume is in a box stand totally against what I wanted to do after he asked me what would I like to do. When we got up there was the same place I sat last year and I seen over a hundred deer no shooter bucks. This year I get in the stand and is smoking hot I text him and say hey I want to get in the ladder stand because it's too hot in here he says open the windows until the actions start Good luck my friend. So he just kind of told me you're screwed You're going to stay right there where I put you again another day wasted. All I've seen were does spikes a small 6-point and the rest were does I had over 60 deer no shooters again...So nightfall comes I go get in the truck I tell them all that I'm disgusted and aggravated because of not seen a shooter buck in 3 years. Now this where it gets really interesting So they have a little talk with each other back at the lodge and they put me with a guide that owns land his name is Richie so they put me with him the next morning he takes me to a stand I get up in it come daylight the hillside lit up with deer but still no shooter bucks just forked horns and small 8 points 6 points spikes and a whole lot of does nothing nowhere even close to a shooter. So I sit there for 6 and 1/2 hours I get down I call Richie to come and get me. He comes and gets me when I get in the truck I say to him that I'm kind of disgusted he says why I said I've been coming here for 3 years and I have a total of 185 hours in a stand here in Hadley Creek outfitters in Pike county and Adams county Illinois and I have yet to see a shooter buck. Then he says that's hard to believe more less calling me a liar. Then he says he shows a shooter buck in that stand that I was in that morning everyday he says. I sat there for six and a half hours and never seen nothing but does on top of does spikes forked horns small six points small 8 points nothing nowhere even close to being a shooter. Even the other guy that he put on another farm never seen a shooter buck all day long either. If a shooter comes in front of me I promise you I'm going to try to put an arrow from its ass to its head somewhere another now with that being said I'm not a crazy shooter I do my best to put a good shot on a deer. And this is where he gets smartass with me he says if you have to kill a deer every time you come to Hadley Creek maybe Hadley creek is not the place for you. If you cannot come here and enjoy your time off and enjoy the pretty weather and the time in the stand then you don't need to be here. He also tells me if you have to kill a deer every time you go out maybe you need to go to a pen place to kill a deer. Well I paid over $5, 000 I should see some kind of a shooter buck in the four or nine days that a person hunts there. So smart ass Richie says do you want to go somewhere else I said no take me back to my truck I'm done. I get back get my stuff out I text Stacy and tell him I have a problem and I told him what Richie did and how he treated me. I don't care how much money you have how much land you own no one talks to a person like that and I'll never be back at Hadley Creek again because of what's happening in the last 3 years. He tells me I'm sorry you feel that way have a safe trip home thanks doesn't even want to talk about it he doesn't care because he has got your money and he's fixing to move on to the next group of people and tell them a bunch of damn lies. I've got close to $20,000 tied up in this place plus tips that's another thing they say that the $5,000 that we pay each does not go to the guides. There's no way that them guides are going to come down there and stay for 5 months for just tips That's a bullshit lie this is not a bar. And I wasn't the only one bitching this year about not seeing a shooter several people in the group were talking about how they've been there two years and 3 years just like me and go home empty-handed. They don't have the deer there like they say they do. The deer they have on the floors when you walk into the lodges there's where your trophies are. But the money that we spend goes in Stacy and his wife's pocket so they can go to Africa and go kill these big huge animals and then bring them back and then brag about it. Do the math Like I said earlier on each lodge add it up that's about a million dollars a month that he's making off of everybody that's a lot of money and not have very many shooters at all. I'm going to make a review every year until I get my point acrossed so people will start to realize and look and pay attention before they spend their hard-earned money coming to Hadley Creek outfitters. Out of that many people in three lodges they should be a lot of deer killed. Only one deer was killed out of the lodge this year that I was in and it barely scored a 148 and the guides have been asking people not to shoot the deer because it was kind of small let it go until next year so it can grow bigger. The place has been over hunted and the owners should not be guides and assholes to the people that come and pay their hard earn money to hunt. And they should not play favoritism to nobody. This year I tried to call them 6 months before October could not get them on the phone for nothing I had to end up calling one of the guides to get them to get them to call me back or text Michelle texted me back and then she didn't do what she said she was going to do until the day before I got there. I had something come up 6 months before this and I needed to change or cancel but they didn't want to talk to me about it at all. All they care about is the damn dollar and I hate to say it that way but that's the way it is. Now you can either like me or not I don't care but I will be making a review every year until I get my point across so people will see pay attention and not listen to the bullshit stories they're pulling over your eyes. I have all the right in the world to bitch and complain. Their hunts go up every year because they say of inflation but no shooter bucks again I sat three and a half years with 185 hours in a tree through the hot the rain the snow the coldness everything and nothing. Can't believe the owner Stacy wouldn't even talk to me about what happened on the 4th day with Richie the landowner.... he didn't offer nothing. All people need to pay attention before you spend your hard-earned money in a place like this. I'll never go back there again.

Was the outfitter notified of problems? - YES