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Hunter Comments

Immediately seeing the negative review of Silver Spur Outfitters on the bowsite, I emailed them expressing my concerns about the fact I was coming to hunt hard and did not want to sit in a blind at the edge of a field. Secondly I expressed my concern to Rob Cater prior to the hunt. I said I wanted to hunt hard spotting and stalking elk. So in my opinion I told those folks what I wanted. Immediately I was told by Robb we hunt mornings “Just so we don’t screw up the evening hunt”. This is my weekly breakdown of the hunt and then you will be able to make an informed decision if this hunt is for you. Morning day 1- Road hunted a ranch close to the Triple J ranch. Drove straight up a large mountain using a hand drawn map. I must say some impressive driving skills. We got to the top and Robb called his wife to check in with her. We walked to the back side of the mountain and then went to eat at the Triple J Ranch. Evening day 1- We hunted a field called Fulton 1-4. Ended up seeing 5 bulls and one was 3 yards away. It was amazing to see that many animals. No arrow fired just happened to fast and there was a stick in the vital area. The other bulls were far out of bow range. Morning day 2-Went elk viewing, watched elk headed onto private land without an honest attempt to get me a shot at them. Evening day 2-Same spot as evening day one. No animal seen. I wanted to hunt there. Morning day 3- This is where I start having a problem. Monster bull and a herd of cows heading up the mountain. Rob says there is no way we will catch those animals. He says nature is calling right when we should be in hot pursuit. Then he takes me across the hill, low and behold we see the elk 250 yards away on a cliff. We messed around looking at them through binoculars instead of coming up with a plan to cut them off. Rob’s favorite line “the wind is wrong to do anything”. Later on I figure out that hill tapered into a flat just up the hill. In my opinion that is where we needed to be up there and fast. Heard a satellite bull above us no luck. Evening day 3- Sat in a blind edge of a field. Big bull came down right at dark. Morning day 4- Put a small bull to bed on BLM lands. I would have been happy with this bull. Rob said impossible to make any type of stalk on the animal. Evening day 4-Sat in a blind edge of a field. No elk seen. Morning day 5-Put the same bull to bed. 0 action taken to get me on it. I expressed so much interest in moving in and around that bull. Robb has a favorite line “You will just blow that animal out of the country”. Evening day 5-Sat in a blind edge of a field. No elk seen.

Was the outfitter notified of problems? - NO

Outfitter's Response

Hello :

I have been asked by Silver Spur Outfitters (Mr. Trent Snyder Owner Silver Spur Outfitters) to respond to this review. My name is Robb Carter and I was the guide on this hunt.

I have been a licensed guide since 1985. This is the first negative review I have ever recieved. I have been around and worked with many outfitters in my career. In my opinion Silver Spur Outfitters and Trent and Cheryl Snyder are the BEST OF THE BEST.!!! They truly care about every hunter that comes to their camp. They do their BEST to insure that every hunt and hunter is the BEST it can be. This is the reason I pride myself in working with them exclusively now for six years.

I will address this hunters day to day hunt as he did so in his review.

Morning Day One: The Hunter mentioned we drove up a mountain with a hand drawn map. This is true. Many Elk had beed spotted here and I was not as familiar with the area as other areas, however this was an area that had a lot of Elk and our best chance of a spot and stalk hunt (which this hunter wanted). The hunter failed to mention in his review that we saw several Elk and started a stalk on a small bull. We also picked up a 350 plus shed horn that I sent home with the hunter (quite a find) I did call my wife (because we had rare cell phone reception) and she just had gone through her second mastectomy surgery with severe stage 4 breast cancer, prior to our hunt. YES, I CALLED MY WIFE TO SEE HOW SHE WAS FEELING, and would do so again.

Evening Day One: The hunter saw 5 bulls and around 30 cows. We sat up on them. I positioned the hunter where I thought he should be before calling. Once I started calling the Elk responded, I looked and the hunter was crawling through the brush and trees, not where I asked him to set up. Yes, he had a Bull 3 yards at FULL DRAW, had he been in the original spot he would have had a clear shot. Again what a GREAT EXPERIENCE!!! Elk Everywhere, especially where the hunter should have stayed.

Morning Day Two: The hunter mentioned we went Elk viewing and watched Elk go onto private property and we made no attempt to get him a shot at them. This is true, the Elk were on private property and Colorado has strict NO TRESPASS LAWS. I would not risk my license, Silver Spur Outfitters license or my hunters license to get him a shot at Elk on PRIVATE PROPERTY, that we could not legally access.

Evening Day Two: We hunted the same spot here we had the 3 yard Bull encounter and did not see any Elk. We did hear them bugle above us.

Morning Day Three: Monster Bull and some cows heading up a hill is true. Mother Nature calling, well, fellow hunter I am sorry it happens, cannot be in "hot pursuit as you put it " when the need is there. Yes, we see the Elk 250 yard away with the wind at our back and no way for a stalk. I have hunted these same Elk and their same patern for six years. I know them. Any experienced Elk hunter would know that if you try to stalk these Elk now with the wind at your back you will BLOW them out of the country and have no chance at them. We did build a ground blind and set up for them that evening day three. All of the Elk did come into the meadow, about 70 yards from the hunter. We had them buguling for several hours and close to bow range. What a great experience and close encounter with a Monster Bull. (He fails to mention this)

Morning Day Four: After a several mile hike we did spot a five point bull and did put him to bed. Hunter says no effort to stalk him. He is correct. Any experienced Elk hunter would know that if the wind is at your back you will have no luck on a stalk with this animal. There was no way to get downwind of this animal. The hunter fails to mention that after tracking this animal we found where he was watering and did pack a tree stand in over the waterhole.(in my opinion a much wiser choice that a run and bow )

Evening Day Four: We sat in a blind at the edge of a field and no Elk came in. True statement. This blind has been a hot spot, lots of Elk sign. I had a hunter shoot a Big Bull here same season last year. Sorry, no Elk, this was my best hunch for your hunt with a bow for this day.

Morning Day Five: We did put the same bull to bed as on day four. In my opinion as a professional guide for over 25 years if we were to stalk this bull we would blow him out. This is why I suggested we sit in the stand over the waterhole for him, in the evening. In my opinion this was our best option for success. True no Elk came into drink except after dark, which hunter failed to mention.

For anyone that has hunted Elk you will see that many of this persons review is because of his lack of knowledge of Elk and Elk hunting. Elk have one main source of defence, smell. Once an Elk or herd of Elk smell or sence your presence they are gone. Not just over the next ridge, they may go for miles. With this in mind our best strategy to keep our clients consistently into Elk is not to blow them out of the country and to hunt smart and effectively. We do not run and gun hunt. We hunt wisely, and this is why we have good success. Hunting Elk is not like hunting Whitetail Deer in Pennsylvania.

All in all as the guide for this hunter I will say that if you have never hunted Elk before and hire a guide, please take the time to learn from his experience. This may insure your success. Myself and Silver Spur Outfitters are PROFESSIONALS and we both want to insure that every client we take has a very QUALITY EXPERIENCE. I am sorry that I did not lead up to this hunters expectations, however with the conditions of weather Elk habits, Moon etc. I can insure you and this hunter that myself and Silve Spur Outfitters did everything we could do to insure his success and will continue to do so for every hunter that comes to our camp.

Robb Carter