PSA: Horox Outfitters

[tdhanses]

Wow amazing the comments in this thread, I bet any of you would pay him millions if his skills could save your child or other loved one?

How many of you went through 8 years of school and 2-4 years of residency to gain a very valuable skill set? He did and it pays well for a reason? Would you let a carpenter or auto mechanic cut into your family members to save a dime? You can go down to Mexico and get cheap medical every day of the week, don’t complain if you regret the decision to save a buck though.

I can’t afford to spend this kind of cash but I’ll never knock those that can, good for them and sucks he had such a bad experience.

 

[Fanrockslide]

That guy is a scammer..accidentally, my friend booked him and we went for 3 days and saw no elk... we pay for 6k on a semi hunt...

 

[tradman]

"Maybe I'm wrong, but I think anyone on here would rather be stalking a 350+ bull vs. a raghorn"

I'll stalk whatever bull gives me a chance. Whether it be a big bull or a spike. Meat is meat.

 

[el_jefe_pescado]

OP I am curious about the pricing breakdown as well. Was a significant portion of the 21k represented as the LO voucher?

Maybe I missed that earlier in the thread.

 

[insanelupus]

Almost all human conflicts can be boiled down to one of two issues.

1. Unreasonable or unmet expectations.

2. Poor or non-existant communication.

It certainly sounds like what you expected was not delivered on and that sucks.

And in a free range hunt on animals that can move to other property you might not have access to, I would find it difficult to think anyone could guarantee anything but an honest effort.

I would challenge the OP on this, though your personal benchmark for "big builds" was 350+, you did (or so it seems from your posts) see multiple 300"+ bulls you both passed on. There are MANY elk hunters who might not reasonably expect to find more than 1-2 300"+ bulls in a season! And, you were able to have that experience with your father.

I get it, it didn't meet the expectations of what you were paying for, time is more limited at your level than other resources, and you wanted a specific experience you paid for and didn't receive. And that is for sure disappointing.

But I'll also add, it is often times very easy to be disappointed in what we didn't receive instead of thankful for the things we did. You were able to take your father on an elk adventure in UT and pass on 300"+ bulls. Even if you didn't fill tags (I wasn't clear on this point from the outfitters comments or yours if a tag was filled) either way, that's quite a privilege many might not ever have.

That's quite a gift to both you and your dad.

 

[4BarN]

Outfitted hunts can be a crap shoot. I just had a similar experience with an outfitter in northern New Mexico. What we were told in the phone and reality were two different things. In my case, the expectations weren’t on size of bulls, it was the hunt style and country. We were told spot and stalk on foot. Our 75 (not a typo)year old guide drove us around all day. We were told the country would be 9-10,000 alpine country which is what we wanted. We drove the same four ranches, basically plains country, for five days looking at elk on neighboring ranches with cover. On top of this, we find out they bring in 30 hunters a year in this type country. We were group six so if there was anything there originally, it was long gone by our hunt.


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[Turkeytider]

My buddy killed this elk for $7k ... it scored 415

I guess people actually have rooms and houses big enough for a mount from something like that !?

 

[LongWayAround]

Is there a FNG starter pack that tells people to dig up old threads with irrelevant comments?

 

[SDHNTR]

While this outfitter is clearly a snake, IMO the onus is on the hunter to properly know the area and what realistic expectations are.

If someone told me to actually expect a 350” bull nearly anywhere, but especially in the unit in which Horox operates, I’d know right away they were FOS.

Do your research, manage your own expectations, and you’ll rule out most of the problems.

 

[Chris in TN]

We looked at this outfit back in either 2022 or 2023. I forget.

We lost interest when they quoted us $25,500 per hunter. I'm assuming it would be even higher now. No thanks.

 

[CAElkhunter]

Note for FNGs.....350 Bulls are few and far between unless you draw a "Golden Tag" in a special unit or hunt a private ranch with high fences.
Most Elk hunters would be lucky to see 300 class Bulls in public land fair chase hunts. Any outfitter promising 350 Bulls should be questioned.

 

[Chris in TN]

Note for FNGs.....350 Bulls are few and far between unless you draw a "Golden Tag" in a special unit or hunt a private ranch with high fences.
Most Elk hunters would be lucky to see 300 class Bulls in public land fair chase hunts. Any outfitter promising 350 Bulls should be questioned.

Very true, but you'd think an outfit with a really big chunk of private land that borders the Dinosaur area of CO, charging double the going rate for more 'normal' hunts, would be able to take the pains with their bull harvests, to have an environment where 350" was a legitimate possibility and beating 310" ought to be relatively common.


(To be clear I've never seen an elk that size and likely never will - I'm just saying, if anyone could grow a 350" it should be them)

 

[SDHNTR]

Very true, but you'd think an outfit with a really big chunk of private land that borders the Dinosaur area of CO, charging double the going rate for more 'normal' hunts, would be able to take the pains with their bull harvests, to have an environment where 350" was a legitimate possibility and beating 310" ought to be relatively common.


(To be clear I've never seen an elk that size and likely never will - I'm just saying, if anyone could grow a 350" it should be them)

I’ve hunted the property. They have nowhere near the age class. And I don’t even think they have the genetics to produce consistent numbers of bulls in that class.

 

[Chris in TN]

I’ve hunted the property. They have nowhere near the age class. And I don’t even think they have the genetics to produce consistent numbers of bulls in that class.

I can't speak to genetics either way (I would have assumed being so close to Dinosaur they'd be able to grow some nice bulls, but could easily be wrong there) but I had naively assumed that at $25,500 per hunt, they'd have an excellent age class, as that is largely controlled by what they choose to harvest.

Luckily I dodged that bullet, by being poor, I guess. lol.