Desert Safaris LLC Outfitter

Submitted by: Tim Herald

Review Submitted: Jul 31, 2009

Hunt Date: Jan 21, 2008

Species Hunted: Mule Deer

Days Hunted: 6

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain: Desert

Method: Rifle

Price Range: 5000-6999

I have hunted Aoudad (free range) and desert mule deer with Hunter Ross. I can not give highermarks. I have been 100% successful with him. He is very knowledgable, has great property with lots of animals, and is very organized. Hunter always has a nice clean place to stay and great cooks/food. If you want to hunt TX or old Mexico, Hunter is the guy to go with. Highest marks!

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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: R. Saunders on Apr 15 2010

Species Hunted: aoudad

Game Quality: poor

Accommodation Quality: good, hotel

Camp Condition: good

Food Quality: good

Guide Experience: fair

Other Personal Experience: n/a

Overall Impression: poor

Recommend: n

Reviewer Comments: Two other friends and I booked this hunt through a booking agent more then a year prior to the hunt date. We reviewed Desert Safaris web site where it outlines free range aoudad hunts on 201,000 acres of private land with some rugged terrain. We were looking for a sheep type hunt and that seemed to be what this outfitter was offering. The website outlined a backpack type hunt in 4000-7800 feet elevations. Two of our wives accompanied us and they toured the local area themselves while we hunted. This was all prearranged and discussed with the booking agent and the outfitter. Prior to arriving at our hotel we were informed that the outfitter,Hunter Ross, was in Mexico. We were met at the hotel by a guide who arranged to meet us the next morning to begin our hunt. He also said that the outfitter, who he called "Wayne" was away for a couple of days but that would not be a problem. We did not think anything of it at the time but the next day we determined that this was another outfitter and not the one we had booked our hunt with. Our guide indicated that these two outfitters work together.We then thought that there was a partnership, but since we had no way to reach either of the outfitters we had to carry on. One of my hunting buddies and I hunted with this guide (in truck) the next day and late in the day we located a group of about 30 aoudad which had two acceptable rams in the group. They were on a hillside and about 500-600 yards away. The guide said they were too far for a shot and we could not get up there. After some discussion my friend and I decided we should try to close the distance by walking another adjacent hill which we did very easily and my friend took one of the rams. Our guide was not prepared to walk up the hill and had no desire to walk at all and made that point clear to us. His idea of hunting aoudad was drive around these small hills and catch them in the bottoms or shoot long distances. The next day we returned to the same property and drove the property all day, but saw only a small group of ewes.(This property was ranch land with small hills on either end of the property. We hunted the hills on one end which was about 1 square mile) On the third day, we returned to the same property and again drove around. We voiced our concern about not walking and not seeing any game. It appeared as if we could see almost all of the hillsides by driving the bottoms but the guide would tell us we did not know what was on the top,so my friend and I said we would climb to the top and we did, in less than 30 minutes. The guide would not climb and stayed in the truck. We did not see any aoudad on our hike but the guide did spot some aoudad later that afternoon,from the truck. It seemed clear that this was the same group we had seen two days earlier and that this was the only group of aoudad on this property. It was on the third day of our hunt that we determined that we were definately hunting with ANOTHER OUTFITTER,not Desert Safaris, and they were not partners. We were to meet this new outfitter that night for dinner as Hunter Ross was still hunting in Mexico. We met Wayne Wiemers that night and asked to go to another location to hunt our last day because there was a lack of game on the property we had been hunting. He said he could not do that because he had paid the land owner to hunt that property and if he went elsewhere to hunt then he would have to pay a second land owner and he would loose money. He took us hunting the next day and we drove the same property. He did say that if we saw any aoudad up higher on the hills we would climb to them. When we asked why we were hunting with him and not Hunter Ross , he said that sometimes Hunter turns clients over to him and he does the same. They are friends and help each other. We did see that same group of aoudad late in the day and this time there was no shooter rams in the group. At dinner that night, we were joined by Hunter Ross, who had just returned from Mexico. We were very clear about our disappointment of the hunt and that we did not get what were had booked. We had been farmed out to another outfitter without any discussion and without our concent.We did not want a drive around hunt especially on such a small property.He blamed the booking agent for the confusion but agreed that he had not told the booking agent that we were to hunt with another outfitter He said he would make it right if we wanted to return. Once home, we contacted the booking agent and voiced our displeasure. He contacted Hunter Ross of Desert Safaris and reported back to me that Hunter had put us in this area because it was the best location for our wives to sight see. Why had he not discussed this with either of us or the booking agent? Why did he just move us to another outfitter without any discussion? The booking agent told me that Hunter had agreed to have us return. He would guide us himself and all he wanted was to have us cover his "hard expenses." A good gesture for someone who had handled the matter wrongly and unprofessionally. When I contacted Hunter for the actual cost of the return trip his DEAL was only $250 off what we had just spent for the entire hunt, with the exception that $1250 of it, was in the form of a trophy fee the second time around. If someone wants to cover their "hard expenses" a trophy fee should not enter into the equation Hunter Ross mislead our hunting group. He blamed the booking agent. He blamed the fact that we brought our wives, which was the original arrangement. He offered to have us come back to "make it right" if we covered his "hard expenses" and he reneged on that. He needs to only look in the mirror to find what went wrong here. We hunted free range aoudad where the aoudad were free range but we were fenced in!

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outfitter review submitted by: Vince on Nov 25 2008

Species Hunted: aou-dad

Game Quality: very good

Accommodation Quality: excellent

Camp Condition: very good

Food Quality: very good

Guide Experience: excellent

Other Personal Experience: excellent

Overall Impression: excellent

Recommend: yes

Reviewer Comments: 3 of us hunted with desert safaris this october 2008, we harvested a 30 3/4" ram and 31 1/2" ram, they were between 250 to 300 lbs, with big swollen necks since they were in the rut. The other hunter shot and did not connect on his ram. We also shot 3 nice javelinas and 1 coyote. the whole experience was 1st class from the lodge, the hunt, and all of the staff. the hunt was challenging and rewarding since these sheep live in some nasty terrain. It was definetly a "poor man's sheep hunt" which I would do again without thinking twice...

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outfitter review submitted by: John Mestrin on Mar 31 2008

Species Hunted: Aoudad

Game Quality: Poor

Accommodation Quality: Good

Camp Condition: Good

Food Quality: Good

Guide Experience: Good

Other Personal Experience: Good

Overall Impression: Poor

Recommend: No

Reviewer Comments: Hunter Ross of Desert Safaris advertises a 90% success rate on trophy "free range" Aoudad rams and charges top dollar for his hunts. My hunt was 1 on 1. There also was another 1 on 1 hunter in camp. I have hunted most all North American big game and am a very seasoned hunter with archery, black powder and rifle. In 4 days full days of glassing only young immature rams were found. This is not exactly what one would expect on a ranch being managed for "trophy Aoudad" sheep.

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