Chama River Outfitters

Submitted by: Chris Yates

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Review Submitted: Oct 6, 2011

Hunt Date: Sep 10, 2011

Species Hunted:

Days Hunted: 5

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain: Mountain

Method: Bow

Price Range: 4000-4999

great hunt

I booked a hunt with Bob early in the year and with this being my first elk hunt i had alot of questions.He told me to call him with any questions no matter what.We had a wonderful hunt even though we were a little early and the rut was a little behind this year. I passed up several small bulls and had bulls bugling on every huntI think i gained about 10 pounds from eating so good.The guides were all great guys. my guide [leroy] was great and had me on bulls everyday but its still bowhunting. I am looking foward to going back next year.

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Submitted by: DAVE SHICK

Review Submitted: Feb 17, 2011

Hunt Date: Sep 9, 2010

Species Hunted: Elk

Days Hunted: 6

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain: Mountain

Method: Bow

Price Range: 3000-3999

archery elk

WILDLY OVERSOLD HUNT. TOO MANY HUNTERS IN CAMP. GUIDE HAD NEVER BEEN THERE. WE WERE TOLD WE WOULD SEE 300 CLASS ELK. DID NOT SEE HARDLY ANY ELK LET ALONE 300 CLASS. GO ELSEWHERE. THESE GUYS ARE FULL OF IT. SPEND YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY WITH SOMEONE WHO CARES, AND TELLS THE TRUTH. I HAVE BEEN HUNTING OUT WEST FOR 15 YEARS, THIS WAS THE WORST.

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Submitted by: Donie Thames

Review Submitted: Nov 6, 2010

Hunt Date: Jan 8, 2010

Species Hunted: Elk

Days Hunted: 5

Hunt Type: Drop Camp

Primary Terrain: Mountain

Method: Bow

Price Range: 4000-4999

Not many elk seen ,area was not as big as was told. Outfitter not very truthful about what was expected. Would not recommend this outfitter! Hunter beware.

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Submitted by: Mark Cuilla

Review Submitted: Sep 17, 2009

Hunt Date: Sep 17, 2009

Species Hunted:

Days Hunted: 0

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain: Any

Method: Rifle

Price Range: Any

We booked our archery hunt with Chama River Outfitters and hunted the first season which ended last week 9/14/09. All I can say was we were not impressed and very disappointed with our experience that we had while hunting with Bob and Chama River Outfitters. Our guide had allegedly guided for Bob for over 15 years, he was in bad health and was a chain smoker. On our first hunt after taking a shower and trying our best to get scent-free we jumped into our guide's truck only to have him light up a cigarette on the way up the mountain. After we got on the mountain the guide continued to smoke while trying to call in elk into archery range. This went on for about two days and that is when things got bad. When we requested that our guide not smoke while we were driving up the mountain he got really pissed and threw a fit. He agreed not to smoke in the truck but continued to smoke on the mountain while trying to call in elk into bow range. On the third day we were working a big 6x6 that paced the edge of the meadow for 20 minutes and never came out. When I turned back to look at the guide about 75 yards back he was sitting under a tree smoking a cigarette. He often smoked and called down wind which was a big wast of our time if you know what I mean! It was at this point that we lost it. Our guide was more concerned about his next cigarette break than trying to put us on elk. When we went to Bob Ball about this he said he had been hunting for 40 years and that smoke did not bother the elk or any wildlife. He went as far to say that when he was a guide he used to light up a cigarette on a mountain to see which way the wind was blowing. Bob was very argumentative and did not offer to give us another guide through the remainder of the hunt. We have been bow hunting for over 8 years and have never had any experience like this with any other guide or outfitter we have hunted with in the past. We actually ended up leaving a day and a half early because it got so uncomfortable in the camp with Bob and one of his lead guides who continued to chastise us. Our guide was a chain smoker and was completely out of shape and could barely walk half a mile. He spent most of our hunts looking for his next smoke break. While they did have in our opinion a few guides who were worthy to guide bow hunters, two of them had never guided on this lease. As a matter of fact none of the guides were allowed to come up to scout out the lease before we arived which we thought was really odd. We were also encouraged to shoot black bears without a license, they said if we killed one that one of the guides would go into town and get a tag. While Sheila and the people in the kitchen were incredible cooks and the scenery was breathtaking, we would never recommend any bow hunter to book a hunt with this company. They are more geared towards rifle hunters which is evident in the fact that 3 of their guides were rifle guides and they only had 1 guide with bow experience.

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note: The following reviews predate the numeric rating system and are not included in this outfitter's overall rating.

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outfitter review submitted by: Paul Taylor on Oct 25 2009

Species Hunted: Elk

Game Quality: Many fair bulls, a few real good ones

Accommodation Quality: Simple but comfortable

Camp Condition: Good

Food Quality: Excellent

Guide Experience: Ours was great

Other Personal Experience: Very experienced

Overall Impression: Very good

Recommend: Yes

Reviewer Comments: Good safe operation with lots of game. Ours was a rifle elk hunt. 10 hunters took 9 bulls on this hunt. One 315 6 X 6, another real nice 5 X 5, the others were adequate 5 X 5's, 5 X 6's... typical bull is small 5 X 5, anything over 300 is considered exceptional for this tract, elevation of camp is 10,200 ft., you need to allow an extra day for meat processor in town to process kill as no processing or caping is done in camp, friendly camp staff, Bob & Sheila are accomodating and knowledgeable.

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