Brad Gervin

Me and three other guys booked a (what was supposed to be guaranteed, 100% success rate) cow elk hunt with this outfit months in advance for a November, 2013 hunt. After we booked our dates, and paid, nothing but crickets from them. Once our hunt was approaching we had to call multiple times just to get the paperwork for our license and tags sent. One week before we were scheduled to leave we had still not heard from the outfitter. We finally contacted him and he wanted to push back our dates. Now, we all have jobs and families so pushing back dates might be easy for him, but not when we have vacation time at at work scheduled and extended family coming to help out while we are gone. We all managed to settle on new dates and rearrange our plans for late December, the week before Christmas. One week before we were scheduled to leave the second time - same thing, he wanted to push back our dates into January. This time we could not accommodate, our plans were made and we were going. We drive from California to Roosevelt, Utah and meet our guide at the Pelican Cafe for lunch. Little did we know we'd be eating at this greasy spoon for 90% of our meals the next few days. The menu isn't very large so you quickly grow tired of eating the same things over the course of a week. After lunch the guide led us out to the ranch where we'd be staying. It's a compound consisting of a mobile home and a couple of sheds with space heaters. Nothing glamorous, but we didn't care. We were there to kill elk and fill our freezers. We did neither of those things. In fact, in five days we never saw a single elk. Not one. We payed hard earned cash for what was supposed to be a sure thing! Nada. At the end of our trip, the guide seemed to legitimately feel bad about what had happened. He was a likeable guy and we all got along well - we kinda felt bad for him too. After all, this is his livelihood and he is certainly not getting any return customers at this point. He then tells us we can come back the following year, on him, but we'll have to pay for our tags and license. We were impressed, and appreciative, for his offer and said we accepted and would be contacting him for a fall 2014 hunt. A few months go by and we start calling to try to book dates. No return calls. We email. No response. Call and call and call and call. Nothing. Obviously this guy fed us a line. H&S has lost four hunters that were willing to give them, and their ranch, a second chance.