Stumbled upon an outfitter's camp in a unit their not listed with.....

[Nickofthewoods]

Send pictures and coordinates to whichever USFS district it was in and title the email "Possible Illegal Outfitting Operation." The FS takes it seriously, but they are notoriously understaffed when it comes to Patrol and Law Enforcement. If recreational users don't report suspicious activity it will most likely go unnoticed.

 

[Brooks]

Maybe an outfitter sold his wall tent to another outfitter.

 

[Scooter90254]

I think you owe it to the good outfitters to report the bad ones. There’s so many bad apple outfitters that people generalize outfitters as bad which is unfortunate for the good ones.

 

[BigAntlerGetter]

I think you owe it to the good outfitters to report the bad ones. There’s so many bad apple outfitters that people generalize outfitters as bad which is unfortunate for the good ones.

Agreed, unfortunately we are all judged by the bad 1% in every aspect of life.


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[Marble]

That’s a tough situation as an outfitter. Legally we cannot tell a person to leave, our permitted spot. But we also can’t go set up a mile down the trail. Usually if this happens I speak to the guys there see how long they are Gonna be there, if I won’t be putting clients in that time, I drop my stuff out of the way and ask them to just watch it and I’ll set it up when they leave. Tell them good luck and leave. If I’m putting clients In I let them know when I’m bringing them in and how many. Then I let my clients know there’s people there and give them the option to go or move somewhere else. Haven’t had it happen yet though l. Please don’t think I’m saying our as if we own it, but let’s say you hike in to the spot and pound nails in a tree we don’t see. If the forest service comes in to check our spot, and find them we get fined for it. Whether we used it that year or not, my camp locations when I show up in the fall to set camps I take pictures of anything that I can get fined for them send them to the forest service. I also do the same with clients in the camp. If they do stuff they will get me fined I charge them for the fines. We also lose points and if you lose so many points you lose ur permits. So if someone trashed our campsite over the summer we can get fined for it if we don’t have proof it was done before we set up.


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That's really informative thank you!! That particular outfitter has been ran out for probably 10 years. He was a real jerk and his crew was very difficult too.
But someonelse runs it now and they are all super class acts.

I ran into him the year after we used his camp. He cussed us out with some colorful four letters words and most of you would never say. Then challenged me to fight right there in the woods. In front of his clients! It was amazing. The hand with him just rode his horse out of view and waited. I'm glad a new guy took it over. Those new guys are all really nice.

Thank you for sharing.

 

[BigAntlerGetter]

That's really informative thank you!! That particular outfitter has been ran out for probably 10 years. He was a real jerk and his crew was very difficult too.
But someonelse runs it now and they are all super class acts.

I ran into him the year after we used his camp. He cussed us out with some colorful four letters words and most of you would never say. Then challenged me to fight right there in the woods. In front of his clients! It was amazing. The hand with him just rode his horse out of view and waited. I'm glad a new guy took it over. Those new guys are all really nice.

Thank you for sharing.

Hope that’s not my outfit I took over hahaha kinda sounds like something the old owner would do.


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[Logan80]

This is a really interesting thread. I've never seen an Outfitter's camp here in western Washington and likely never will since this area isn't known for amazing hunting.

 

[Marble]

The area I go to has lots. Some drainages which are 4 to 5 miles long have three camps with 4 to 5 guys in each. The better the weather it seems the more there are.

Occasionally we'll find a stash in the woods with their tent waiting for the next client.

 

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

so what happens when an outfitter wants to just go hunt his own tag and this happens to be his camp for his own hunt? I do all my own packing and have been questioned a few times if I was an outfitter. seems like this could be that or maybe not who knows.
On some of the comments above about stashes, we hunted an area for years and it was pretty unpopulated while we were there but it burned one year and when we went back the next time there were 3 major steel drum stashes with gear for 6 or 7 people at each. They did a good job stashing because we had been walking within feet of some of them and never noticed them. We opened one up and it was all melted into a few chunks of what used to be tents, stoves, fuel cans, canned food, and misc.

 

[godeepKR]

If you have a Outfitter permit for an area and register it with USFS, is there a way that we can find where these camps may be in order to aovid them? especially with all of the e-scouting that goes into picking a spot.

 

[BigAntlerGetter]

If you have a Outfitter permit for an area and register it with USFS, is there a way that we can find where these camps may be in order to aovid them? especially with all of the e-scouting that goes into picking a spot.

Call the USFS in the area and they can give you who’s permitted in the area. Some will tell you where camps are others just tell you who the outfitter is and tell you to call them.


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[Praxeus]

So I hope this doesn't come off the wrong way and maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree, but last September I did a solo trip into a wilderness and came across an outfitter camp about 4 miles into the wilderness. Wall tent, cots, stoves, solar panels, archery targets, a whole setup with the outfitters named stamped on the tent with contact info. This camp looked kept up and the horse trail I took to get into the general area which later led to this had dead fall and logs cut somewhat recent so I don't believe it was left especially with the amount of gear that was up there. Now I've read through some regulations in the past about how outfitters are supposed to be registered apparently and make known what units they work in. Maybe I misread or doesn't apply to wilderness areas? So bored farting around at work i decided to get onto the Colorado Outfitters Association and was cross referencing units I've scouted to know possibly who I may run into/need for a pack out and who and how many outfitters are in the units.


I do not believe that registering with the COA is required with a state licensed outfitter. Its an "association". There are other states where there are many licensed outfitters that are NOT part of an association. Wyoming, Idaho to name a few.