Endorse your Favorite AZ Businesses!

[CEI]

All right guys & gals, we hope we get a good turn-out from CouesWhitetail.com members.

 

We have opened the voting for the 2011-12 Arizona Outdoorsman's Top Picks. We publish the Outdoorsman's Resource Guide, which is basically a hunters phone book with other resources to help us while we are in the field. We started the Top Picks voting as a way for everyone to come & endorse their favorite Arizona hunting & fishing businesses. Last year we had 100 voters & this year we would like to bump it up to at least 500 voters; heck, 150,000 hunting licenses are sold in AZ, so you would think it would be pretty easy!

 

GO VOTE!!!

 

 

If your business is not listed or if you see a business that should be or shouldn't be, please shoot us an email. We just went through the Archery Shop list yesterday & it was a pain in the arse. In this economy & with just my wife & I going through these resources we are bound to miss a few. So, don't take offense if you aren't listed.

 

The businesses that win a category will receive discounts on future advertising & be promoted as an outdoorsmen endorsed business. Come voice your opinion when you get some time & tell a friend!

 

We will also be selecting a few voters in a random drawing for a subscription to next year's O.R.G.!

[CouesWhitetail]

Neat idea Craig. But you are missing most of the outfitters and taxidermists and even retailers that sponsor this website. You can find them by looking at the button ads on the right hand margin of the main page: http://www.coueswhitetail.com/

 

If you click on the buttons it will take you to their home page with contact info.

 

Do you require that businesses pay to be listed in your Guide?

[CEI]

Amanda, thank you! We added three guides & two retailers to the list, but we think everyone else is listed. Please check the individual Regions for taxidermists & meat processors. We don't have a category for listing out-of-state outfitters, we stay Arizona specific. All the online stores must have an online store front & be based in Arizona or have a store front here.

 

The text listing is FREE, but we do have to limit some of the categories due to space. We try to get as many people listed as we can because it's about putting out a good product that WE can use! We do list other businesses such as ATV Services, RV Services, Motels, & others we just don't vote on these.

 

 

FYI: Payson Outfitters is changing their name to Santana Outdoors.

[CouesWhitetail]

Thanks for your quick work! Your resource guide is amazingly thorough.

[CouesWhitetail]

If you guys didn't notice, you can vote for your FAVORITE HUNTING FORUM.....hmmmmm, which should you vote for??

[CEI]

Can business owners vote?

YES

 

Why do I have to enter my email address?

We don't want the same outdoorsman voting over & over again. We had to sort through IP addresses last year & that was very time consuming. Hopefully, this will eliminate most of the work & headaches...

 

When do you count the votes?

The end of April 2011.

 

If you have anymore questions, feel free to ask.

[catclaw]

I'm not sure that 100 votes is enough to really endorse a business. I saw one meat processor touted as the best in the area and they totally suck, in fact, there was a discussion about it on this website a few months ago. You should have better vetting before you put your name on something- when I saw that processor was #1, I totally disregarded everything else in the whole directory. I mean this place SUCKS!!! I hope you get 500 voters so that you can get some meaningful data. Less than 30-40 votes for one business is pretty meaningless unless you really know the voters.

 

Just my 2 cents.

 

good luck though

[AZLance]

I see you have Pusch Ridge outfitters on there, but he went bankrupt a year ago, see the article below...

 

http://azstarnet.com/business/local/articl...7a6e7daff6.html

 

 

[CEI]

Hey, guys we appreciate the information & the insight. We value these forums & your opinion, in fact we want more of it. We are just a small business trying to put out a quality product that will help us & the businesses that support us. We don't know every taxidermist, we don't know every guide & outfitter, but hopefully as we grow we will get more involvement & revenues to bring more votes to the table.

 

With these votes we aren't saying Craig Steele endorses them, that would be pointless.... I would just pick the guys I know & say here you go. My opinion is no greater than the next guy's. We just want to get as many votes as we can & reward the small businesses that our voters pick. We didn't want a review system; we didn't want a singular opinion from some so-called pro-hunter or group of EXPERTS. We just wanted to get as many opinions as we can, count them up, & endorse those businesses without bashing the next guy. Businesses & voters will have a chance to win every year & we hope we can get 150,000 votes!

 

We appreciate the critiques & we hope you guys find value in what we are doing. Just looked & we have 25 votes so far... Voting ends April 15, 2011!

[slopoke36]

Hey, guys we appreciate the information & the insight. We value these forums & your opinion, in fact we want more of it. We are just a small business trying to put out a quality product that will help us & the businesses that support us. We don't know every taxidermist, we don't know every guide & outfitter, but hopefully as we grow we will get more involvement & revenues to bring more votes to the table.

 

With these votes we aren't saying Craig Steele endorses them, that would be pointless.... I would just pick the guys I know & say here you go. My opinion is no greater than the next guy's. We just want to get as many votes as we can & reward the small businesses that are voters pick. We didn't want a review system; we didn't want a singular opinion from some so-called pro-hunter or group of EXPERTS. We just wanted to get as many opinions as we can, count them up, & endorse those businesses without bashing the next guy. Businesses & voters will have a chance to win every year & we hope we can get 150,000 votes!

 

We appreciate the critiques & we hope you guys find value in what we are doing. Just looked & we have 25 votes so far... Voting ends April 15, 2010!

 

+1

[TAM]

On page 37 of last years guide you have the Region 5 Outdoorsmans Top Pick in the taxidermist section listed as Trails End Wildlife Art. Do us all a favor and just don't list them in the book at all. Believe me when I say that listing them won't help your puplications credibility at all.

 

This past summer there was a discussion right here on CWT regarding this paticular taxidermist. I personally started the topic by posting a picture of a life size mountain lion that Greg Mcbride at Trails End Wildlife Art mounted for me and I asked for peoples opinions of his work. To say the response was OVERWHELMINGLY negative would be an under statement. In just a short time there were literally hundreds of responses all of which were in agreement that the taxidermy work not only sucked, but was also the worst that many folks had ever seen. Sadly the post had to be nuked because a few people got out of line, but before it was all over it was the largest topic ever posted in the history of the site.

 

Trust me on this one!!!

[bowhunter4life]

If you guys didn't notice, you can vote for your FAVORITE HUNTING FORUM.....hmmmmm, which should you vote for??

 

 

I think it is called coues....--- something, what was it again???

[catclaw]

On page 37 of last years guide you have the Region 5 Outdoorsmans Top Pick in the taxidermist section listed as Trails End Wildlife Art. Do us all a favor and just don't list them in the book at all. Believe me when I say that listing them won't help your puplications credibility at all.

 

This past summer there was a discussion right here on CWT regarding this paticular taxidermist. I personally started the topic by posting a picture of a life size mountain lion that Greg Mcbride at Trails End Wildlife Art mounted for me and I asked for peoples opinions of his work. To say the response was OVERWHELMINGLY negative would be an under statement. In just a short time there were literally hundreds of responses all of which were in agreement that the taxidermy work not only sucked, but was also the worst that many folks had ever seen. Sadly the post had to be nuked because a few people got out of line, but before it was all over it was the largest topic ever posted in the history of the site.

 

Trust me on this one!!!

 

 

I feel the same way about the butcher shop I used in Springerville... Couldn't have been worse!

 

[CEI]

TAM,

 

I am pretty sure we saw a picture of that mount & it did not look very well done. I have empathy towards your experience....

 

I had a similar experience with a Taxidermist & I would suggest reporting anyone that steals or operates a shady business to the Better Business Bureau. I will say my bad experience can be credited to not researching for a business oriented taxidermy service & paying alittle more for my pronghorn mount. I lost $350 cash, but thankfully I was able to get my hide & horns back. Make no mistake about it, it wasn't my fault that this happened but it was my own ignorance that led me to the situation.

 

A reputable taxidermist will want to show you their mounts & they will stand behind their products. There are many throughout Arizona & some weren't the Top Picks in this year's Outdoorsman's Resource Guide. I hope with more votes, revenues, & branding we can truly reward those who do good work. There are 130,000+ hunters in Arizona & everyone has a different opinion, which means we have a lot of votes to GET. I will say that many of my own friends choose to pick what I would call lower grade taxidermy services because of the price. That's okay, but I remind them to make sure they look at their previous work & ask them if they have a license & are insured.

 

We will look into this situation, as we don't want to support someone that is ripping outdoorsmen off, but we encourage YOU to pass this along & help us get someone on top that deserves it. I would have picked several of the categories differently, but again this isn't about my opinion, we are trying to bring YOUR voice to the table

[CEI]

We just checked today & we have reached 60 voters. We will be sending out some emails, advertising on other forums & we have a booth at the ISE Show, so hopefully we can reach our goal of 500 voters!