Desert Pheasant Recreation "HORRIBLE"

[Big Browns]

A few weeks ago I booked a Pheasant hunt with Desert Pheasant Recreation in Coolidge for my son and 2 friends of mine. This past Saturday we arrived for our hunt. This was the WORST hunting/shooting experience of my life!

 

We arrived at the location given to us at 2pm. There was a gentleman waiting for us. He was nice, but was not dressed in a professional manner. He told us to follow him to the field location where we would hunt and meet our guide and dog handler.

 

When we arrived to the field we “met” out guide/handler. He didn’t introduce himself and was again dressed in a very unprofessional manner. As we got our stuff ready the first guy we met took the birds out of the cage and stocked them into the field. Once the birds were stocked the bird guide said let’s go and started walking into the field. I stopped the guide and asked if he would please give the kids a quick briefing on the rules. He looked surprised, but did as I asked. During his briefing he stated his dogs were “champions” and were very expensive and to not shoot them or Dad would be paying for them.

 

Once the briefing was over we headed into the field looking for the birds. The dog was very excited and started running all over the place. When the dog went somewhere the Guide/handler didn’t want him to go he “YELLED” at the dog. The dog was not whistle trained. At first this didn’t bother us, but after 30 minutes this got “VERY” annoying, because all the handler did was “YELL” at the dog. The dog rarely listened. It only took a few minutes and the dog found the first bird. The bird flushed and my son got his first Rooster Pheasant. I was very excited and couldn’t wait to see his first bird. When the dog brought the bird to us I was shocked to see the condition of the Rooster. It was an exciting few minutes; unfortunately that’s when the excitement and fun ended!

 

A few minutes later the dog had another bird pointed out. My friend’s son Lucas was next in line so he took the best shooting spot. Once we got close to the bird it started running. The handler told Lucas to run after the bird to get him to flush up. Lucas chased the bird for 50 yards before it flew up. Thankfully Lucas made a great shot and got his first pheasant. It was funny to watch, but kinda sucked the bird wouldn’t flush. After another few minutes the dog had another bird pointed. My buddy Bernie was next to shoot. This time the bird flushed, but Bernie missed. The bird only went about 50 yards and landed. Unfortunately the dog got to the bird as it landed and grabbed it. He brought it back to the handler and the handler dispatched it and placed it into Bernie’s bag and said congrats! I was thinking why did he say Congrats. This is when it really started going downhill. The next 3 birds the dog grabbed without us shooting. Then a few birds flushed way early and out of range. They flew into the sunset never to be seen again. A few birds were shot, but didn’t go down. The dog was able to recover them. We ended the day with 11 birds. We only shot 7 of them. The rest were grabbed by the dog.

 

We were honestly shocked the dogs were able to find any birds, because they were running all over the place. They didn’t appear to have any direction or knowledge of how to find any birds. They did not act like “championship dogs”. The handler spent most of his time yelling at the dogs. At one time he switched out the dogs for fresh dogs. The fresh dog got into the field and started pointing instantly. After a few minutes the handler had to put that dog away, because he was so excited he wouldn’t stop pointing at NOTHING! It was very, very frustrating!!!!! The handler spent so much time yelling at the dogs he spent literally no time talking to the kids. He was very unprofessional!

 

After 3 hours of this we had enough! We walked back to the truck and I asked how much we owed him for the birds we actually shot. I fully expected to say something or apologize for the conditions, but he said nothing! I was so furious I just paid him and we left!

 

When I booked the hunt we arranged for everyone to shoot 5 Roosters. We obviously wanted roosters, because they are beautiful birds. Unfortunately these were not beautiful birds. Every rooster had less than a 3 inch tail. They had colorful heads and bodies, but they were small and had no tails. I asked the owner why the birds didn’t have tails. He said the weather was too warm and insects had gotten to all his birds. He didn’t mention any of this when I booked the hunt. If I would have known this we would have just paid for hens or hunted Chucker.

 

I knew going into the hunt the birds were not wild and would be planted/stocked when we arrived. We didn’t mind that, because we just wanted to have fun shooting some birds and socializing with our kids. We did not expect to meet unprofessional guides and to take part in a horrible experience! Everyone we met was very unprofessional and did not know how to create a fun environment for clients.

 

When we drove away Bernie said something to me that I will never forget. He said “education isn’t free”. I was definitely given an education that day I will never forget!

 

The total cost for 3 shooters was $505……. It was not worth one penny of that money! I HIGLY recommend you never go to this place!!!!!!!!!

[wish2hunt]

Wow that sounds like a very bad experience, that's to bad.

[Couzer]

Dane you should have asked here before you went. I had a even worse experience back in 2002. Yea it's the worst ran place ever!!!!

[ready2hunt]

Thanks for sharing. I would been pretty mad too if I had paid that money and had that experience.

[Big Browns]

I had a few people tell me it had changed and gotten better so I was hopefull. Apparently it's still just as bad now as it was in 2002!

[1denogean]

dang that sucks to spend that kinda money and that happen very sorry to hear

[azpredator@work]

Wow

[6ANut]

That sucks Adam. Make that Pheasant hunt in Yuma look like real nice now.

[Viper]

I hunted that place several years ago, and had a similar experience...not as bad as yours though. I didn't know better because it was my first time hunting pheasant. The birds were in decent shape, but you had to kick at them to get them to fly. We wore irrigation boots do to the wet, muddy field. The YMCA club up near Prescott is WAY better. You are hunting natural desert and the birds are stocked ahead of time.

[Zeke-BE]

I went to the other place and i don't remember what it was called. It was a single guy who owned it and he used to work there, but has his own fields in Maricopa. It was alright, and I took my dad with me and the birds looked like in the same condition you were talking about. He hired some extreme red neck young couple to help them out. I notice the same thing when he said "once the bird flies and lands its a dead bird" so you shot at it anyways even if its a bad shot! Dogs kept pointing a dead feathers and one bird couldn't even fly. Once I plucked the feathers off I knew why! There was almost no meat on the breast. It didn't even have enough muscle to fly. I bagged out and my dad got two. Over all it was alright but nothing great. It was more of a "just to say we did it" kind of thing.

[cjl2010]

I hunted that place several years ago, and had a similar experience...not as bad as yours though. I didn't know better because it was my first time hunting pheasant. The birds were in decent shape, but you had to kick at them to get them to fly. We wore irrigation boots do to the wet, muddy field. The YMCA club up near Prescott is WAY better. You are hunting natural desert and the birds are stocked ahead of time.

I've been to the one in Prescott as well. Had a great time and the birds were beautiful. They also have a wicked cool clay pigeon setup.

[tomharveyb]

my 2 cents- the one called high desert hunt club near mayer is well run. my grandson had a great time and the dogs were well trained

[trphyhntr]

i would have gone with the lowest of expectations to something like that so i dont think i would have been as upset as you. but dang for $500 you could have flown round trip to south dakota

 

 

i thought the point of these places was to run your own unexperienced dogs mainly

[yotebuster]

We raised pheasants for years and it's really hard to keep multiple birds together without them trashing each other. I would say the odds of getting a taxidermy quality bird at a put and take preserve is Non existent. Also unless they have good flight pens they will most of the time run or get caught by the dogs. They haven't flown their whole life so why would they when they are thrown out in the desert. Fly up to ND, I can point anyone in the right direction to shoot wild birds till you're sick of it. Although if this winter doesn't ease up we may not have any left.

[azbirdhunter88]

Dang dude that sucks but those places are all a joke. Nothing like the real thing. Better off just coming to Kansas with me in November from now on. I'd only make you buy me a case of beer lol.