Bowsite.com

Harteis Ranch (Sportsman Channel guy) is a great salesman. I reached out Freddy as there are zero reviews online and he does not allow reviews on his Facebook Page so there is no way to vet this outfit with the exception of watching the Sportsman Channel. When speaking to Freddy he will lie about the amount of acreage he has (his ranch is the smallest compared to the neighboring ranches). The valley his lodge sits in is beautiful and when you get there there are hunters in every room of the house...but do not be fooled...this is NOT a hunting lodge and Freddy will remind in a VERY rude way about that throughout your hunt....he will say "this is my home"...even though he advertises it as the "Hunting Lodge" and literally every hunter there was uncomfortable and they just sat in the rooms because Freddy makes it uncomfortable. There are small cabins on the property where if you are hunting a certain area you will stay the night in the small cabins. When arriving in the cabin both my guide and myself saw an infestation of black widow spiders, the generator wasn't working, and there were thousands of bugs which bit us up all night. When I got back to the lodge after yet another day of seeing zero animals, I shared feedback with him (privately and in a very respectful way) about the black widows, infestation of bugs, and other issues that I would not expect to encounter at a hunt of this price point. I then went to look for my guide in the guide quarters which were in a building across the street to discuss where we were hunting next, Freddy showed us this building when arriving at the lodge and told us this is where to find the guides if you need them. Well later that day, Freddy aggressively pulled me aside to question me why I went into the guide quarters and accused me of snooping as he checked the cameras...I literally walked in ...didn't see my guide..and walked out which I explained to Freddy when he asked. He then became irate that I gave him feedback about poisonous black widow spiders (which his guide backed up) and the infestation of bugs in the cabin (guide again backed it up). At this point I was fuming and instead of doing what I should have done, I went for a run and a workout far away from the lodge so I would not have to be around this arrogant, pompous, and narcissistic maniac. He acts like he is a man of god...the truth is he is the typical trust fund kid that never made his own money and inherited everything he has from his father and now acts like he built it. While I was there several hunters approached me in conversation and through those conversations we realized that Freddy charges people different rates (lowest was 12k and highest was almost 23k) for the exact same hunts. He promises a "Chef" on site, we ended up having a girl from the local pizza shop at the end of the dirt road as our cook which at this price point was very disappointing. Freddy sells you on how much acreage he has but in truth the ONLY good hunting area he has is a parcel he was leasing on the New Mexico border which that property is currently up for sale so when he loses that parcel, his land is tiny and the only chance you have is if the elk come over from the neighbors property across the road with traffic constantly passing by. There was (1) elk seen...yes seen the entire time and most of the hunters were very upset as Freddy "guarantees" elk and will tell you there is 90-100% success on his property. The truth is Freddy is the only one that kills large bulls on his ranch (this was from his guides in conversations..not me complaining) ..he changes the name of his terrible hunting show every few years and on his show he is NOT hunting his ranch...it is property an hour and a half south of his that belongs to another family who is now selling it...so his land is all you can hunt and with 10-14 hunters in camp on a small parcel..nobody got an elk. All of his guides are in their teens and early twenties...with that said, I have no issues with his guides as they worked hard, seems like good elk hunters, and were generally nice people..but ALL of them were very young except the head guide..probably because Freddy has quite the reputation from what I have discovered in speaking to others that have been there and also Sportsman Channel personalities whom I met on a Canada Moose trip. I can tell you that for the same price range there are MUCH better ranches to hunt in the same area and other hunters in camp shared those outfitters with me as they told me they would never come back to Harteis Ranch either. I am writing this review so others will not waste their money on this scam of a hunt and also so they will not have to deal with the Billy Madison of the hunting industry

Was the outfitter notified of problems? - YES