Bowsite.com

I have never reported on an outfitter in any way publicly before. My wife and I save our money every year for one hunt/vacation. This years hunt was to be at The Split Rock Ranch in Wyoming at a cost of $8000. For us this was a stretch and the most we had ever paid for a hunt but we had been promised by Mr. Smith a legitimate chance at a 160 or better mule deer. He even said he would let us come back for free if we didn't get that chance. We were promised the maser suite with a Jacuzzi (which we would never use) and the website showed an immaculate ranch and lodge. What we were promised and what we recived were totally different. We pulled up to a weed filled over grown ranch house with a bug filled dirty Jacuzzi that looked like it had been hurriedly cleaned. Our guide informed us we would have been amazed at the amount of mice and mouse terd they had removed before we got there. Not what my wife wanted to hear. We were hunting in a desert with 4 pivot, 3 of which did not work, and only 2 had crops. The place was full of giant antelope but whe never saw a 160 in the pivots. My wife ended up trying to kill a 2x2 which was maybe 140. On the second day I was taken to a ladder stand in the dark (that my guide couldn't find at first) and given some pruners as he said there may be some limbs in the way. That was an understatement as there were limbs everywhere and it was virtually unhuntable by a bow. I did see 2 nice mule deer in the distance which took me 2 more days to pattern by myself and I did my best to figure out a way to try to get a shot. Our guude was an older man who had only elk hunted the ranch a few times and who had never guided on that ranch before. So this left me and my wife who are from NC to try to figure out how to kill a mule deer. Our guide Ray and our cook Craig were extremely nice and accommodating. The food was excellent. Mr. Smith promised us he would be our guide but we ended up on a at best semi-guided $8000 hunt which was not what I paid for. I emailed Mr. Smith twice, once during the hunt and once after about my concerns and about the promises that weren't kept. I got no response either time in return. I have been on several hunts on which I have not killed an animal so this is not about that but I have never been at an outfitted hunt that was as poorly prepsared and with as little realistic chance to kill an animal as this hunt. Mr. Smith arrived the night we left when a TV show was coming in but we never saw him or heard from him at all on our hunt. My wife and I were extremely disappointed and shocked at how this entire hunt/vacation turned out and although Mr. Smith seems to have a good freputation and his other camp in Colorado may be top notch this ranch and this hunt could not have turned out much worse from a hunting and ranch quality standpoint. Again the cooking and personal were super nice but not $8000 nice. So I write this long winded explanation to say I would never recommend this outfitter at this ranch to anyone and I hope this saves someone the money and disappointment we had. All we wanted was a fully outfitted well prepared hunt and ranch and reasonable chance to kill a trophy mule deer. We did not receive that. Sincerely, David

Was the outfitter notified of problems? - YES