60" club Troy Sessions!!!

[wind gypsy]

So……..what exactly are you paying him for? Since he’s not flying you out….. a GPS coordinate? Sounds like a good gig.

Seems like you're paying for a scouted spot on public and the name of a transporter that may nor may not be able to actually get you there and back.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

So……..what exactly are you paying him for? Since he’s not flying you out….. a GPS coordinate? Sounds like a good gig.

That’s literally all you pay him for. You give him big money and he basically tells a pilot where to drop you off.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I have a hard time understanding "booking" something with a guy who has zero control of getting you into the field. Is this a common practice anywhere? I've always booked with the guy flying the plane.

It’s all a scam, once you send the checks to guides and pilots, for the most part the money is just gone. At least in my experience. I personally know of a guide who overbooked his spring bear hunts (like really overbooked, like 20+ clients) and now he only has like 4000 dollars of those deposits left over and guys are asking for their money back….he dosent have it.

I booked a flight for a hunt once and sent the pilot a thousand dollars. When we got to the town we were going to fly out of, the weather was bad…then again the next day, then again the following day. Finally we had to pull out because it was a 4-5 day hunt and 3 days were gone. Pilot refused to give me the deposit back even though we never even got in the plane.

I also had a pilot (same general region of AK) drop me off at a lake that I’d arranged with him a year in advance only for him to drop off another group at the same lake 2 days later. (This was a spot the pilot only became aware of once I asked him to take me there)

I’ve come to realize that in Alaska at least, the guiding and flying industry is 90% run by shady bastards who talk a good game on the phone when they are trying to get your money but in reality don’t give a single shit about your hunt or time once they have your $$$.

It’s unfortunate but most guides and outfitters up here seem to have the attitude of getting the $$$ while the getting is good.

I’d also wager that troy sessions either hadn’t paid the original pilot (so it cost him Nothing) or he got the money he paid the pilot back and just didn’t want to spend it on your new pilot.

At any rate, you paid for a package and when a chunk of that package fell through, it should have been on them to find a new pilot rather than making you book another at your expenses. Figure if you paid him 10k, probably half of that was for flights. I’m guessing that shady bastard spent your money the second it hit his greasy palm.

Read that sheep cancllation thread. I guarantee you that outfitter doesn't give a single fuuuuuuck the guy had to cancel, he will act like your friend while giving a partial refund then sell that hunt at sheep show for 25% more than he was getting from the initial client.

There is a reason you hear the names of the good guides and outfitters (Phil shoemaker, Billy molls, Jake Jefferson, papa bear, midnight sun etc) and don’t hear about the rest. There are top quality guides and services, the next tier down from the top is a huuuge drop though.