Ironbound Lake Outfitters

[HBartley]

Hello everyone, I have a moose hunt booked this year with Ironbound Lake Outfitters. Curios if anybody out there can give me some reviews or feedback from recent experiences with this outfitter. They were recommended to me from a fella I met at a whitetail hunt in Illinois that had been twice and had a great experience. So far communication has been great with them, but I can't find much along the lines of online reviews. Any info is greatly appreciated!

 

[Nickziegler]

They use to go by just ironbound outfitters. Try that in Google. I have no experience with them so can't help there

Sent from my SM-S918U using Tapatalk

 

[HBartley]

Thanks for that. Ive googled and yielded about the same results. Id still like to hear some real world experience if anybody out there has used these guys

 

[OLE1021]

IM ALSO BOOKED WITH THEM THIS OCTOBER.

 

[HBartley]

IM ALSO BOOKED WITH THEM THIS OCTOBER.

What dates are you booked? First time for you too?

 

[SuperDUECE22]

Why wouldn't you get as you say, " real world experience" BEFORE booking a hunt? Any quality outfit can & will provide a list of previous clients so you can call & talk with them about their experiences, but all of this should be done prior to booking. Hope it turns out well, but you are asking for trouble by not doing the appropriate leg work beforehand.

 

[OLE1021]

What dates are you booked? First time for you too?

OCT 17TH-24TH FIRST TIME FOR US

 

[HBartley]

Why wouldn't you get as you say, " real world experience" BEFORE booking a hunt? Any quality outfit can & will provide a list of previous clients so you can call & talk with them about their experiences, but all of this should be done prior to booking. Hope it turns out well, but you are asking for trouble by not doing the appropriate leg work beforehand.

true enough. I did that. Everyone I talked to hadn’t been in several years but was pleased with the experience hence why said “recent” experience. I didn’t know they had changed names. Why would they do that? I can give anyone a list of references that I know would give good feedback it is what it is. I noticed lately someone called them out for deleting comments on Facebook post, reasons like that are why I’m asking from anybody that’s dealt with them that’s willing to chime in. I don’t think that’s unreasonable

 

[ELKhunter60]

Hello everyone, I have a moose hunt booked this year with Ironbound Lake Outfitters. Curios if anybody out there can give me some reviews or feedback from recent experiences with this outfitter. They were recommended to me from a fella I met at a whitetail hunt in Illinois that had been twice and had a great experience. So far communication has been great with them, but I can't find much along the lines of online reviews. Any info is greatly appreciated!

A friend and I went out September 28th 2023 with Ironwood. Our guide was good. Mark Pike was good to deal with. We both shot bulls - but nothing huge. Mine was 34" and my friends was 29". All but one guy shot his moose in the group that was coming back in when we were heading out. So about a 95% kill rate at the time. If you're looking for a beautiful area to hunt, decent food, good guides and a bull moose to bring home, you should be happy with it. If you need a 40" bull or bigger to consider the hunt a success, it's possible but not guaranteed by any means. We enjoyed the entire experience and want to go back sometime.......for a 40" or bigger bull

 

[HBartley]

A friend and I went out September 28th 2023 with Ironwood. Our guide was good. Mark Pike was good to deal with. We both shot bulls - but nothing huge. Mine was 34" and my friends was 29". All but one guy shot his moose in the group that was coming back in when we were heading out. So about a 95% kill rate at the time. If you're looking for a beautiful area to hunt, decent food, good guides and a bull moose to bring home, you should be happy with it. If you need a 40" bull or bigger to consider the hunt a success, it's possible but not guaranteed by any means. We enjoyed the entire experience and want to go back sometime.......for a 40" or bigger bull

Thank you for the comment! Mark put me down for oct. 24-31st. seems kinda late to me but what do I know Ive never hunted moose before.

 

[thetrooper]

I'm booked with ironbound for September 12-19 rifle hunt. Looking forward to it. I added a bear tag in case we see any out there. Anyone else have recent reviews??

 

[thetrooper]

Well nevermind I guess I won't be telling you how my trip went. I cancelled it. Mark Pike is a real scumbag. I had read some mixed reviews and overlooked them since it seemed like an affordable hunt at a good size bull with high odds.

I've been hunting for almost 25 years and have done several outfitted hunts. All went well until now.

I was scheduled to hunt with Mark Pike 9-12-24 The hunt was $8500 but with taxes and moose tag it ended up being $10,352. Not cheap but not bad for a moose hunt. I paid Mark the $2500 deposit in May 2024 only a couple months ago when I booked the hunt. Should have been more concerned when I noticed he still had so many open slots this late in the game.

I recently went to pay the remaining balance on my invoice and when I tried to use the PayPal link Mark had sent, it didn't work. I tried to send payment at least 3-4 times. I called PayPal and called my bank. They both said that something wasn't right and it was not on my end that I needed to contact Mark. Mind you I was not delinquent on payment, the payment wasn't due for another month but I just wanted to get it squared away.

After calling Mark several times leaving voicemails and emailing him I waited for 18 days with no response. Assuming this was a rip off and with a bunch of other hunts and things in the works during the same month I said screw it I'm gonna cancel.

Honestly I knew Mark was a helicopter pilot and was actually worried maybe something tragic had happened to him or it was a very serious situation. For a person who supposedly hosts at least 30-40 hunters a year it seemed unfathomable that anyone with an operation of this scale would not have some kind of reliable customer service. I mean who wouldn't want to accept a clients payment?

At this point I still had plenty of other pans on the stove (other hunts which I had previously discussed with Mark) and had to make big changes in those plans if the moose hunt fell through.

So I emailed Mark that I hoped everything was ok and that I wanted a refund on my deposit and to cancel.

Miraculously he responded in less than an hour... after 18 days of radio silence only to say refunds are not available on deposits.

He then said:

His office was closed the entire time I was trying to reach him.....until the day I cancelled. (Somehow during NL bear season when he has hunters coming in and out.)

His website had a notice they were closed. (Lie, neither did his social media pages)

His email was set to auto reply that they were closed (lie no auto reply was emailing him on original thread the whole time.)

Frankly if Mark would have apologized or just been honest with me without all these lies at this point I would have proceeded with the hunt.

He continued to refuse refunding me and said he could only reschedule for another season as he had spent the money on tags and supplies.

I'll admit that I may have jumped the gun and should have given it more time in hindsight but I had planned this moose hunt in between two other DIY hunts in September in two different states so my logistics and planning couldn't be stalled by poor communication. The way this all went about really put a bad taste in my mouth and was not handled well.

After this I suggested in fairness so neither of us take a loss that since he had purchased my tag ($502). And some supplies that he send half the $2500 deposit back. At which point Mark has simply stopped all communication and won't respond to me.

I would not recommend dealing with Mark Pike from Ironbound under any circumstances. I would advise anyone who is currently booked to be extremely cautious. Newfoundland is a pretty good haul no matter what side of the US you're in and if you're going to take the time off work away from family and work don't deal with this guy.

Talked to some other outfitters in the area and they had absolutely nothing nice to say about the guy and that this sort of thing was common place for ironbound along with his poor treatment of his own staff.

 

[thetrooper]

And if anyone wants further information you can PM me I have screenshots with time stamps of all communication of everything I just described

 

[OLE1021]

Im not sure any outfitters would refund a down payment on a booked hunt less than 2 months from the hunt. That is what a down payment protects them from. Sorry you cancelled, I am hunting with IB in October and Mark has been good to deal with.

Good luck this season

 

[thetrooper]

Im not sure any outfitters would refund a down payment on a booked hunt less than 2 months from the hunt. That is what a down payment protects them from. Sorry you cancelled, I am hunting with IB in October and Mark has been good to deal with.

Good luck this season

The only reason I cancelled or even contacted him on this to begin with was because he fell off the face of the earth and sent me a PayPal link that nether the bank or PayPal associates could verify as legitimate. I'm not sending money to someone in another country half way across the continent until I could speak to him.

So yeah I cancelled because I could not pay complete payment or communicate with the person I gave a deposit.

He also suggested in some backwards way to commit insurance fraud by signing up and claiming it on cancellation after this fact to get the deposit back.

The whole thing is fishy and he apparently could care less. I hope your hunt works out. I've heard some people say the place was great, it seems like an awesome hunt on paper just be careful. This thread was started for recent ironbound reviews and this is as recent as it gets

 

[thetrooper]

Talking to the dept of tourism. Apparently he has not renewed his annual outfitters liscnece. Have any of you been able to reach Mark recently?

Funny he told me he had spring bear hunters a few weeks ago....don't know how you could do that without a liscnece

 

[medvedyt]

watch out you may be in a grey area if they do not have the right to operate a business and the guides are not certified ... i never heard of them but that doesnt mean anything as i guided in labrador and quebec with 2 different outfits.