Heade to Iowa next Fri. Questions

[warden]

Looks like timing is perfect again. Hunting the Misouri/iowa border. Hope this season is s good as the last few. This place is tops $2000 includes beer , food, lodging. decent guides buts its more like you have the run of the place. You pretty much have to pick out your spot as the stands that are set up seem to always be spooked. Every time I move to a differnt stand site where there was no stand I see nice bucks. Lst two years our group had about a 70% kill ratio of quality bucks.
Is this a good price? or are there better deals out there? Shouldn't the guide be glassing while I am hunting? Is the tip based on the kill, willingness to find a good spot or based on amount of trip? What if you scout yourself, pick out your own spot. Set up your stand and kill a deer the first sit. How much do you tip then since the guide hardly did anything except drive you out to stand in the morning?

As a note the first year I was there got a really nice 9 tipped $300
Last year I unfortunatly wounded (not fatally) a really nice 8 tipped $300

Is that the right amount?

[Inatreeandhappy]

Im not sure but can you share the info on the place, it sounds pretty good.

[warden]

Sportsman lodge Iowa. Clarke phone# 641-344-8480. Just spoke with him guy killed a 244" last week.

[LUCKY7]

Tips should never be based on kill success. The tip should be based on how hard the guide worked for you. Your guide should do everything in their power to put you on a quality animal and possibly teach you something about deer hunting, that is where the basis for the tip starts. If a hunter screws something up, is it the guide's fault? And should his tip reflect that? Take into consideration how effective the guide was, and how hard they worked for you (gutting, skinning, butchering, etc.) when deciding on what you feel comfortable tipping.

[fatboy]

That is a good deal.

[bighunter301]

how many days?? License included?? I pay 400.00 a day down S.C. we hunt boar and deer from the same stands. 15 guys in camp max. almost 400 stands to choose from great southern guys work hard for the hunters. I tipped 200.00 for a three day hunt.

[warden]

7 days of hunting something like 20,000 acres to choose from but no one ever goes more than a few miles from lodge. Guides are very curtious but leave a bit to be desired on the scouting and glassing part. they killed a 244" deer there last week. License is $175 i think.

[HUNTIN-NUT]

First question is what zone. Yuor comment about 70% last 2 years seems odd to me- With limited tags to non residents it is virtually impossible to draw 2 years in a row with archery. I hunt zone 5 and you now need a minimum of 2 points and current app to draw in that zone so you are only bowhunting every 3 years at best.
Second - sounds like more of a drop camp kind of deal if you are finding your own spots and such. Fully guided hunts will rarely if ever let you do that. The guides as you say are scouting other areas, hanging stands, moving stands and doing everything possible to get their hunter on a good buck - you are paying for them to do that unless of course you are semi-guided in which case they hang some stands, show you around and then you are on your own.
$2000 for semi-guided is a so-so deal. If fully guided is a real good deal. The guy I hunt with is now $3000 for 6 full days, fully guided, you bring yourself and your gear. Iowa tags are about $450 or so- I can't remember the exact dollars. I leave on the 15th to hunt out there for 7-10days.
Now if you are hunting Missouri they are over the counter tags so you could be hunting every year. I would say if your group is running 70% in archery you should be recommending the place rather than asking about it. Most archery outfitters run only about 25-30% success at best with bow.

[Barrell]

I looked into Alberta this year at $6k to 10K I also researcherd Ilinois at $k to $8k so if theese guys have leased a lot of private land thats a bargain. It sounds like a semi guided deal where you are steered but yoiur hand is not held.

[warden]

First question is what zone. Yuor comment about 70% last 2 years seems odd to me- With limited tags to non residents it is virtually impossible to draw 2 years in a row with archery. I hunt zone 5 and you now need a minimum of 2 points and current app to draw in that zone so you are only bowhunting every 3 years at best.
Second - sounds like more of a drop camp kind of deal if you are finding your own spots and such. Fully guided hunts will rarely if ever let you do that. The guides as you say are scouting other areas, hanging stands, moving stands and doing everything possible to get their hunter on a good buck - you are paying for them to do that unless of course you are semi-guided in which case they hang some stands, show you around and then you are on your own.
$2000 for semi-guided is a so-so deal. If fully guided is a real good deal. The guy I hunt with is now $3000 for 6 full days, fully guided, you bring yourself and your gear. Iowa tags are about $450 or so- I can't remember the exact dollars. I leave on the 15th to hunt out there for 7-10days.
Now if you are hunting Missouri they are over the counter tags so you could be hunting every year. I would say if your group is running 70% in archery you should be recommending the place rather than asking about it. Most archery outfitters run only about 25-30% success at best with bow.


You are correct lodge is in Iowa. Hunting ground is in Missori. The lodge is on border. You can Hunt the Iowa side if you get a lincese for Iowa. Howver the entire ranch runs on the border so the deer are the same.

They have about 100 stands set up but they rarely get moved. I was asking about the place just the price and tip for guidesbased on the service. The guides are very friendly the owner is great. My question was is this about right for the service and how much should I tip if the guide is not glassing while I am hunting. If you don't speak up they will let you sit in a bad spot the whole 7 days. Its probally got the best quailty deer around if you spend some time setting up your spot. I just feel that if I am paying they should have that ready when i get there so I only tip $300. I don't want to be considered cheap. I would gladly tip $500 or more if I had 3 unhunted stands that were scouted and waiting for me when I got there.

Again the place , gudies and owner are the best. Just a lack of service IMO. But from all the other posts I guess I should be really happy based on the price since the deer quality is supperb. Just rquires a little work. I treat any such travel as vacation time so maybe I expect too much. They do handle all the after kill stuff great and will go to town to get you anything. It seems like they are the best guys in the world except when it comes to prescouting. Maybe they are spoiled since thay hgave so many giant deer running around,

And yes its about a 70% kill rate. About 40% on real monsters. Plus the guys who go every year are friends and its really fun hunting when 80% of teh hunters are fisherman from cape may and you know them all.

So am I tipping right?

Thanks

[HUNTIN-NUT]

I guess tips can get out of hand. There have been several threads on this topic on other boards and the generally accepted practice is 10% of the hunt cost for the guide so your $300 is really good for a $2000 hunt. Then you go up or down depending on your experience - for me if fully guided and I have to set up anything myself or if I am not seeing things in one spot and they aren't actively making moves then the tip goes down. Now as tips go you also need to be tipping the cook and anyone else other than the outfitter (owner) himself if they provided a good service. Tips can get to the point of running 20-25% of the hunt cost depending on the experience, # of people.

Sounds like you found a real hot spot there. I usually hunt Iowa in zone 5 near Centerville which is probably 2 hours east of you and same with Missouri near Memphis in Scotland County. Outfitter is the same jstrophyhunts.com. They are currently updating their new website so not many pictures up - in Iowa they are consistently taking 140's and better but they actually take more B&C bucks in Missouri for some reason.

[WavRidr]

How was the hunt?