Harpoles Heartland Lodge
IllinoisWebsite Address posted for sponsors only
First off no one wants to discuss problems with the outfitter. Just one of those things where you did not want to take a chance of making matters worse. Gary will reply back to this with wind/weather and other excuses why our hunt was not successful but the bottom line is he is overpricing and does not have the deer he is claiming. The group that was hunting before our arrival only shot at one or two quality bucks, this group also had 12 to 14 people in it. I know this because one of the guys hunting with us was from that group. He came back because he is new at hunting and wanted to kill a big deer. He ended up shooting s small buck on day two and was very happy with it. He is a surgeon from Chicago with a lot more money than I have. We had 12 people hunting during my 4-day period (29-30 Nov - 1-2 Dec 2018). We had 1 person shoot at a Buck that was 140 and one other person that could verify another deer to score 140 and did not get a shot. 1st day on the stand I sat from 5:20 (hour before daylight) to 11:00, I went back out from 1:00 until dark. I saw nothing the 1st day. Day 2 through day 4, I sat from 5:20 until dark every day and saw 4 does and a spike. There were only 4 out of 11 hunters in our group that came in for lunch every day. 7 hunted all day. One of the guys only seen a couple of does during the trip. This was made worse by the quality of stands and tent blinds. I hunt on a $700.00 a year lease in Alabama and EVERY stand we have on our lease is much superior to anything I sat in at Heartland as far as safety and comfort. I'm sure Gary will reply back about conditions and how other groups had success and that's all good. What he needs to do is leave the comfort of the Cabin every now and then, spot check the stands that he is asking people to pay $4,200 to sit in.
Was the outfitter notified of problems? - NO
None to date. If you are the outfitter please email us.
Day 1 - No weather effect Day 2-4 - Windy conditions.