az guide license

[Lance]

Oh yea, D-az, I forgot to mention happy birth day!

[Diamondbackaz]

Thanks for the birthday wishes. I guess I should be more specific, my main problem is these guiding services who feels they own the land, takes a person out, points out the animal, and say shoot that one. That's not hunting. I agree that one can be hired to teach a hunter to get his own animal and that expertise should come with a price. This way a hunter can learn to hunt on his own. I have taken people out my self to show some friends some things, and my friends have shown me some things, however, we never charged anything for it. I have been blasted a couple of times through emails on this site because I gave out advice on places to hunt. Oh by the way, never have mocked a working man and never will.....

[DesertBull]

I have no problem with a person wanting to hire a guide. Especially an out of state hunter that has drawn a good tag that he may never draw again. Gas is too expensive now to be making multiple cross country trips to scout. Same for sheep hunters. That is a once in a life time tag and hiring a person who knows where the sheep are and how to judge them is probably a wise investment.

[missedagain]

With the price of all of the other licenses going up it only seems fair for the guide license to go up. I do agree that the g$f is out of control on the percentage increases for all licenses.

 

One of the things that bothers me about guides and guided hunting is in states like NM & WY were hunters using guides get preferential treatment for a public resource over those that are not guided. Also as previously stated a few bad eggs spoil it for everyone else when a guide acts like if he has a client in the area he has a superior right to be there and you are tresspassing on his public land.

[billrquimby]

"WOW!!! Thats not right! What's next? 25-06 said it all, it's becoming a rich man's sport which really sucks for me! I am surely not rich and I have only just started to hunt in the last three years!"

 

 

I just returned from Caborca, Sonora, where friends are setting up a desert mule deer hunting operation. At our hotel's restaurant this morning we bumped into Carlos Gonzales Hermosillo, one of the three biggest hunting outfitters in northern Mexico. He said he has booked 48 mule deer, 18 whitetail, and 9 sheep hunts this season. The going rate for hunts for these species in Sonora this year are $7,000 for either deer and $45,000 to $50,000 per sheep ... and the clients get no guarantees of success.

 

I did some quick math and came up with more than $900,000 in gross income for him this season.

 

Carlos then said he has more than 100 employees and owns and operates more than two dozen vehicles at his various camps. He leases the land he hunts and pays owners for each day his clients are on their ranches, as well as trophy fees on what they kill.

 

He also buys expensive advertising in magazines and has booths at four trade stows in the USA, as well as a couple of other shows in other countries. I don't know about other shows, but one small space at SCI's convention when I retired in 1999 was more than $1,200, and Carlos always took three spaces. I'm certain it costs more now.

 

He also has airfare, hotel and meal costs of attending these shows and printing brochures.

 

His home is in Mexico City, so he buys a lot of air tickets to Sonora and to visit potential clients all over North America. Each year after his hunts he charters a helicopter and surveys his hunting leases to learn his post-hunt animal population so he'll know how many hunts he can sell the next year.

 

And only God knows what he must pay government officials and departments just to operate in that country.

 

He and other outfitters down there are making money or they wouldn't be in the business, but there are a lot costs most of us don't think about that go with it.

 

Bill Quimby

[firstcoueswas80]

Thanks for the birthday wishes. I guess I should be more specific, my main problem is these guiding services who feels they own the land, takes a person out, points out the animal, and say shoot that one. That's not hunting. I agree that one can be hired to teach a hunter to get his own animal and that expertise should come with a price. This way a hunter can learn to hunt on his own. I have taken people out my self to show some friends some things, and my friends have shown me some things, however, we never charged anything for it. I have been blasted a couple of times through emails on this site because I gave out advice on places to hunt. Oh by the way, never have mocked a working man and never will.....

 

 

 

man, i have never been on or guided a coues hunt where it was as simple as saying "shoot that one" must not be guiding with/for the right people cause my hunts have never ever been that easy.

 

i do agree that some hunts are like that, but thats on species that are either more predictable or because of a guide who scouted his butt off and knew where the animal would be, isnt that a big part of hunting?

[COOSEFAN]

I am most likly a fool but this is why my lic is done this year. i told you all this in a post quit a few months ago.I knew about it a while ago. I will not pay a 200 rais in one year. So have at it all and have a blast guideing i have more things to do with my time. I will leav it all to the real pros like the mullins and the Mclendons. I will refer all my hunters from here on out the Jim and his clan. I am already injoying more time with my wife and kids and prospecting like i love to do.

 

Thanks very much for your support and your time is better spent with your wife and kids anyway

 

The price increase is way too steep in my mind. I could understand maybe $50 or less but not $200 It will hurt big outfits like USO but it hurts the smaller outfits like myself just as bad if not worse. I think something that most people don't understand, and something that Mr. Quimby pointed out, is that the cost of LEGALLY running an outfitting business is incredible! It always sounds like we make money especially when you see what most guys charge, but in reality most guys barely get by! I make all my money in the off season installing windsheilds, I "rat-pack" all my money and hope it's enough to keep food on the table during the hunting season and possibly have enough left over to hunt for myself. Nobody I know is getting rich off hunting, and 90% of the guides in this state have to have a second job just to stay afloat. With the price of gas, permits and now licenses.....it's very hard to come home from a hunt with much money in the wallet. Matter of fact.....I rarely ever make more than the guys that work for me.......and I don't have another job to go home to! I do it purely because I enjoy helping others experience what I love so much. When I looked over at my last client and saw he couldn't catch his breath and was shaking after taking his first 90" Coues, I thought......THAT is why I do what I do, no matter if I make money or not! That guy went home with a memory and a trophy that most likely would not have happened if it weren't for me! I take great pride in what I do and how I do it, I don't care if anyone dislikes me for guiding and trying to make a living at it. I do it legally and ethically and I have an incredible team working right along with me with the same values and passions. It sucks that we are getting hit with yet another added expense on top all the others but there's nothing we can do. The world is changing and mostly for the worse, live it up while you still can, you never know when we might be looking back remembering the good 'ol days when guides licenses were only $300 and animals were running freely and you could still draw a deer tag every year or two! "Enjoy every day in the field and make the most of it.............hire a guide" Thanks to all who don't resent my friends or myself for what we do, JIM>

[shortpants]

Yea! What he said!

[GRONG]

Very very well said Jim!!!! Dittos to everything you said!

 

Here's to going back to a real job after the hunting season is over...........