Worst hunt/hunter you have ever guided?

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Sabre

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This is mostly for guides, but maybe some clients have seen some horrors on hunts and can chime in with their own stories they've witnessed as well.

I am curious to hear stories; as a guide what was your worst hunt, or hunter you have guided.

I have heard some really interesting stories from guides in the past about nightmare clients. I always find them interesting. Also, I have been surprised to hear some nightmare stories and then find out that the guide has continued to guide that same person for many years after that with multiple bad encounters almost every time.
 
Rare Breed said:
You probably will hear “crickets.”. No outfitter ever admits much less announce when they had a bad client , just not done
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I was thinking same. However, I’ve had many/most PHs tell me stories about their worst clients. Putting in writing on a public forum though is something different.
 
375Fox said:
I was thinking same. However, I’ve had many/most PHs tell me stories about their worst clients. Putting in writing on a public forum though is something different.
Click to expand...

That's fair. I feel like it's sort of like HIPAA and if they just left it without identifying information (names, etc) it could be a fun thread. But I can see the other side of it as well if a client recognizes themselves and becomes offended.
 
Would be a poor business decision to publicly post negative things about clients. The only exception would be clients that rip them off... But even then, there is risk.
 
I’m not an A-guide any longer and I will say this:

There is one standout prick that I had on the peninsula for brown bear and one guy I had in moose camp that had unbearably unrealistic expectations that tried to dime me and the master guides operation out (he passed on several and one massive 70” bull ((his minimum bull had to exceed 72”))). The entire hunt and every bull spotted along with him opting to pass were all recorded by me. Once the master guide and him reviewed my tape together he shut up. But still blamed me for not “encouraging” him more.

No point in reliving that though. The hunting over the years has just been too good to dwell on it all.
 
Funny, I read “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” today.

“You mean will I tell it at the Mathaiga Club?”

“No,” said Wilson. “I’m a professional hunter. We never talk about our clients. You can be easy on that. It’s supposed to be bad form to ask us not to talk though.”
 
Not hunting, but I have with fishing. Salmon runs happen roughly the same time every year. Worse yet, if the fish start coming in before or after the season, it’s kinda tough. I had a guy who insisted on a certain week. I told him it was pretty early in the season and the run hadn’t shown up yet.

I took him all over the place trying to find fish. We eventually switched to bottom fish just to get him a tug. Somehow, the other clients caught fish but he didn’t. He started getting an attitude and was affecting the other people. He then got all kinds of pissy with me and said all he got was a shitty boat ride (it was a little snotty).
 
Well, I am not outfitter so I can say few words.

"Starving for shot" type of client.
This guy came to hunt pheasant same day as me. They put him with me, with same guide.
We were walking side by side towards the car. Not expecting to have a bird flushed out.

A pheasant flushed in front of me, it was in my shooting zone, he flashed his shotgun in front of my nose and shot. (literally in front of my nose, muzzle in front of me).

Same guy next year, same area shot a roe deer with semi auto rifle. 4 times. that buck looked like after stepping on land mine. They were skinning his buck, he was goin home, me I just came in.

Next, I remember a group in a camp.
I describe that as "alcohol and incompetence".
Over night, they devastated a bar in camp, and with 4 of them, 4 bottles of whisky were annihilated, and several bottles of red wine.
read - all whisky and all wine gone. All the time they were loud and noisy in a camp, and unpleasant to others. How they hunted next day I dont know.

When the final bill came, last day, they were quiet. They had extreme percentage of game wounded and lost. They had to pay.
 
There is always that 1, or 2 , or even 3 , but as was already stated, dwelling on it or telling on it doesn’t really accomplish anything. Difficult people are, well, difficult.
 
38 years guiding and I've got a few guys that stand out. They can be found under a**h**** in the dictionary. With that said, I've had so many good ones that they far exceed the bad memories of the few jerks. Would do it all again in a heartbeat.
 
I let an “experienced” hunter sit in a stand by himself. I told him that a pair of buck fawns would likely come out early that evening and not to shoot them. Because there was a good buck that would likely show about an hour before dark. Just be patient. Of course he shot one of the buck fawns.

The following year he’s back. Similar scenario and he shot another buck fawn.

Needless to say he was never allowed back.
 
I’ve heard some great stories about clients from guides and PHs. Of course it’s not my place to re tell their stories.

I used to lease farms and take people whitetail and turkey hunting. I had a few people I paid to help me.

The worst customer I had was a “Minister”

He called wanting a break on a 4 day hunt for deer because he was a poor child of God spreading the gospel. Or some similar line of BS.

I gave him a ridiculous deal. I think 60% off on a firearm deer hunt. The absolute worst hunt to give a break on because I was always full.

I had a room in a building for hunters to meet in the morning for coffee and doughnuts. It was decorated with mounts and other hunting mementos.

He was struggling and it was obvious he didn’t know what he was doing. He was the last hunter without a deer the others had left.


I asked him to meet me back in the meeting room midday, and I would take him out and help him. when I arrived several of my mounts and other items were gone from the room, including a Dall sheep and large whitetail mount.

The man of God was a thief.
 
I assisted in guiding a group of guys on opening day of conservation goose season in Upstate NY. There wasn’t a competent shooter among them. Additionally they were so out of shape they could barely walk across a 3 foot deep slowly moving river to get to the blinds. Followed up with sky blasting and hitting nothing.

13 geese were harvested that day. My friend IGS and I accounted for 11. They took pictures for social media as IGS and I headed for the truck. We vowed to not do this ever again with people we haven’t vetted.
 
It really takes strength of character to put up with idiots out in the woods.
But there are also lousy hunting guides.
Slackers, late sleepers, drunkards, good-for-nothings.

We were pheasant hunting in the Czech Republic. Since we shot better than expected, the boss showed up, called off the hunt, and said he wanted more money—even though we’d agreed otherwise. The hunt was over, and we never got our advance payments back.
The next day, a young Czech man came to our lodging and said he’d heard that we’d been cheated by Mr. XY. He was ashamed that this had happened to the guests, even though he had absolutely nothing to do with it. He had a sika deer stag available (it was rutting season) and said I could shoot it as compensation for him. Although we never actually saw the deer, gestures like that restore your faith in the goodness of people.
 
It's probably bad form to talk about clients, but a few stories slip out

We all have differing degrees of skill, and some are raw beginners. If you are honest about your experience and skill level, most PH's can work with you. Show up never having hunted or even fired a rifle before, your PH doesn't have much to work with.

That's exactly what happened to one PH I know. Client arrived in camp and went to the range to sight in rifles. Out came a brand new rifle, still in the box, scope still in the box, rings and bases still in the box. When asked if he had fired the rifle, the client replied he had never fired ANY center fire rifle. The hunt went exactly as you would expect. :rolleyes:
 
skydiver386 said:
It's probably bad form to talk about clients, but a few stories slip out

We all have differing degrees of skill, and some are raw beginners. If you are honest about your experience and skill level, most PH's can work with you. Show up never having hunted or even fired a rifle before, your PH doesn't have much to work with.

That's exactly what happened to one PH I know. Client arrived in camp and went to the range to sight in rifles. Out came a brand new rifle, still in the box, scope still in the box, rings and bases still in the box. When asked if he had fired the rifle, the client replied he had never fired ANY center fire rifle. The hunt went exactly as you would expect. :rolleyes:
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I’ve heard a lot of stories, but the bad stories have never been about a client’s skill or shooting ability. It’s always been about their attitude and how they treat the PH and staff. They’ve also frequently been about the client trying to get a better deal mid-hunt or trying to avoid payment.
 
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