I'll chime in here too...as i did on the other forum where Bruce posted this. i bought a sheep hunt at the WSF banquet in Sacramento in 2010 for $6k- what a deal...well maybe.
Its a long story but the RD version;
I flew in from Magrath with 2 other hunters- both rifle and there were about 10 guys in camp with only a couple guides- a big mess and they had all been weathered in for 3 days. I was promised a certain Bow guide and first thing i did was confirm this with Tom and then i met the guide outside and told him to GET EVERYTHING READY TO GO- all of his gear and food ready to go and on the runway. In the meantime, while everyone was in the main tent relaxing in their longjohns drinking beer- we got it together even tho i just flew in. Tom couldn'T fly due to weather. As it goes in AK, shit weather cleared at about 10 pm that night and while everyone else was drunk in their longjohns we were packed and ready to go so when i said," tom its clear" he said who is ready right now....and we flew out first- pissing off many to no end i'm sure.
I flew in after my guide to find half of our dome tents rainfly was shredded and he was trying to fix it. I had seem remnants of another abandoned tent 1/4 mile down river flying in so I walked down, salvaged some of that shredded tent and we jury rigged and duct taped it over our tent.
The sheep hunting sucked as it was an open unit- over the counter tag for residents...but after a few days of tough hunting we found one legal ram and sat on him for a few days trying to get a bow shot. It was wide open. A couple times we got stuck climbing on rocks we had no business scaling without rock climbing gear- I wasn't digging that. I don't mind hiking but that was just stupid. About 5 days in we had 6 different planes circling the legal ram and the guide must have told me 20 times, if i don't shoot that ram soon with a rifle someone is going to come in and shoot him right out from underneath us- so i did...and I regret it. I hadn't shot a rifle in probably 20 years and the steep uphill 240 yd shot with a .338 scoped me but good!
When we got back to Toms main camp there were still guys that hadn't hunted yet- a cluster..... a guy to stay away from for sure. I went out back to look around an the meat he had been using for camp had fly larvae in the ripped game bags- a bit disappointing though cooked it probably didn't make much difference.
Toms outfit is totally unorganized and i would say- stay away. i'm a big boy and its my fault for not doing more homework on the guy even at an auction.
Besides the Tom Shankster thing- i think there is something that needs to be said.
WARNING: Some of these ARE HARD CORE hunts....and not for the faint at heart. If you are getting dropped in the woods in the middle of nowhere- stuff happens...so be ready for that. I'm not making excuses for Toms crummy operation...but I get the feeling some of the guys complaining just don't get what is involved here.
Some of the "can't fly because of weather" in that article...truly is can't fly with a supercub. If you have ever flown in a Supercub...you know what I mean....if its crummy weather you feel like you are in a kite. Almost all of the flying in Ak is line of sight and weather can change from clear to socked in in 20 minutes....not good when you have a 1 hr flight.
Is that dangerous- yes. Can they do anything about it- no. No amount of bit ching or moaning will improve the situation so when you plan one of these hunts- bring your glass half full mood- because things go wrong. I have no doubt the guy in the article got screwed but some of the stuff that happened- HAPPENS- when being dropped off in Ak. You run into difficulties, a guy has to expect that....
our jury rigged tent
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Did someone say steep- grin
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The ram
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