Pa Ko Plantation
Pa-Ko Plantation
Rated 4.75 out of 5.0 based on 59 Outfitter reviews.
Contact: J. Paul Taylor
Location: Midway, Alabama
Species Hunted: Whitetail Deer, Turkey, Quail
State(s) Hunted: AL
Comments & Special Offers: High quality lodge hunts
note: The following reviews predate the numeric rating system and are not included in this outfitter's overall rating.
outfitter review submitted by: John Collier on Mar 5 2009
Species Hunted: Whitetail Deer
Game Quality: Good
Accommodation Quality: Excellent
Camp Condition: Excellent
Food Quality: Excellent
Guide Experience: Excellent
Other Personal Experience: Good
Overall Impression: Excellent
Recommend: Yes
Reviewer Comments: I arrived just before noon on Sunday November 16, 2008 and by 3:00 J. Paul had me settled into my climber. It was an excellent location but I didn't see anything but turkeys that first afternoon. The weather turned terrible overnight. A cold front had moved through and it was windy everyday until my last day there. The wind died down and the deer started coming out of the woodwork. It was fun watching them but none came within bow range. I am already making arrangements to schedule another hunt. In my opinion the facilities and staff are superb.
outfitter review submitted by: Rip Steele on Dec 3 2008
Species Hunted: Deer
Game Quality: Good
Accommodation Quality: Excellent
Camp Condition: Excellent
Food Quality: Excellent
Guide Experience: Excellent
Other Personal Experience: Excellent
Overall Impression: Excellent
Recommend: Yes, No Doubt
Reviewer Comments: I arrived on a Friday afternoon. After eating a quick lunch and saying hello to everyone I took to the field about 2:30. After sitting in a well built box blind looking over a green field for about thirty minutes I shot a nice eight point and the does wouldn't stop coming out. So I did the only thing I could think of shot a doe to. You are allowed to shoot one mature buck and two does and I could have ended this hunt in the first thirty minutes of the hunt!!! I didn't shoot my third doe so I could hunt some. I had also took my bow for some challenge and I'm an avid bow hunter. Long story short. It rained the whole weekend never the less I still spotted deer. I seen six deer total, all were does except the buck I shot. There were two other hunters that seen other bucks and does and one shot a nice eight and a doe also. Accomodations were first class and the best food I've ate in a long time. Everyone was very friendly and the owner knows the land, and the guides will take you to and from the stand and debone your meat for you. I can't say enough about this place. The same day I got home from my trip I called and I'm trying to get back down there in the next couple weeks. Any questions just e-mail me.
outfitter review submitted by: Scott Jones on Dec 1 2008
Species Hunted: Deer
Game Quality: Excellent
Accommodation Quality: Very Good
Camp Condition: Excellent
Food Quality: Very Good
Guide Experience: Outstanding
Other Personal Experience: Very Good
Overall Impression: Excellent
Recommend: Yes
Reviewer Comments: I saw game every day, and harvested an 8 point buck on the last evening hunt... the outfitter goes the extra mile to give his hunters their best chance to succeed. This was my second trip, and I will go again in 2009.
outfitter review submitted by: Jay Bell on Nov 1 2008
Species Hunted: Whitetail Deer
Game Quality: Mature Bucks
Accommodation Quality: Excellent
Camp Condition: Excellent
Food Quality: Very Good
Guide Experience: Fair
Other Personal Experience: Good
Overall Impression: Excellent
Recommend: Yes
Reviewer Comments: I was there 10/08, second weekend of bow season. The acommadations were excellent with one drawback in that the cabins, lodge, and dining hall were too spread out. I harvested a nice 8 point buck about 3 1/2 years old and weighed about 180 lbs. The overall experience was very good although they forgot to take me and one other person out one morning, but that was quickly taken care of with a phone call. There not really set up for bowhunters so you really need to take a climbing stand.
outfitter review submitted by: Charles Hill on Oct 26 2008
Species Hunted: Whitetail Deer
Game Quality: NONE
Accommodation Quality: OUTSTANDING
Camp Condition: OUTSTANDING
Food Quality: OUTSTANDING
Guide Experience: POOR
Other Personal Experience: FAIR
Overall Impression: NOT IMPRESSED
Recommend: NO
Reviewer Comments: I arrived on Thursday (23 Oct 08) around 2 p.m. and left Sunday @ noon. The reason that this trip was so cheap is because it was booked through a local archery shop. The cost was $400.00 a hunter, 20 hunters use 2 consecutive weeks, 12 hunters the first week, 8 hunters the second; the owner told me that he gave us a "discounted price to try to get more bow hunters to come to the PA-KO plantation". On the Friday morning after it quit raining, we were taken out and told to scout and find a suitable tree to put our climbers on. The next day, Saturday, they forgot to arrange for someone to take us out. We had to call the Manager, who called the owner. He and his son took 2 of us to our stands. I arrived at my climber @ 6:10 a.m. After talking to some of the other hunters, on Sunday I talked to the owner of the PA_KO Plantation (J.Paul Taylor), which was the day I left, to discuss some issues that arose during my stay. He told me that he was not really set up to handle bow hunters. The statement on his website about the "1000" acres set aside for "BOWHUNTERS ONLY" was and 8-9 years old statement and he needs to delete that off of the website. He rotates locations for bow hunters around the 5000 acres that is part of the plantation, so the bow hunter area this year might be a gun hunter area next year. He also stated that "gun hunters are how he makes his money". Every stand/location that I was put in/on had a shooting house less than 100 yards from it and someone had sat there the week before. Our guides, were NOT GUIDES, but people that work for him on the plantation, they are NOT BOW HUNTERS and the owner stated this fact to me. One member of the hunting party was taken out by the plantation manager, but when asked about wind direction and hunting/stand placement the manager stated "I don't know anything about that what do you guys think". When asked about the ladder stands the owner (J.Paul Taylor) stated that the stands are geared more towards the gun hunter. I asked him about a lock on climber that I sat in that had grown into the tree, J.Paul told me that the stands pays off year after year and as long itÂ’s a live tree there was no reason to move it or do maintenance on the stand, 2 out of the 8 hunters were successful in taking an 8 & 9 point (one doe was never found). The food, room & lodge were OUTSTANDING. I would NOT recommend this outfitter to a bow hunter. I would recommend it to a gun hunter.
outfitter review submitted by: Brooks Stahlnecker on Jan 17 2008
Species Hunted: Deer
Game Quality: Good
Accommodation Quality: Excellent
Camp Condition: Excellent
Food Quality: Excellent
Guide Experience: Excellent
Other Personal Experience: Excellent
Overall Impression: First Class Hunt
Recommend: Absolutely
Reviewer Comments: Just got back from our hunt. This was my second time down and took a lot of first timers. A great time was had by all. Although I did not shoot a deer I got a real nice bobcat which made my day! This is a wonderful place and I'll be back. It's a relaxing vacation and if you get a deer then its a bonus. The attention to detail and the work these people do to make their guests feel welcome is second to none. Everyone should have the opportunity to visit PAKO!!
outfitter review submitted by: Keith Holland on Dec 3 2007
Species Hunted: Whitetail Deer
Game Quality: Excellent, 7 racked deer
Accommodation Quality: Excellent
Camp Condition: Excellent
Food Quality: Excellent
Guide Experience: Excellent
Other Personal Experience: Excellent
Overall Impression: Wonderful place to hunt
Recommend: Absolutely
Reviewer Comments: I hunted Pa-ko last year and shot a mature buck. This year my wife and i went for an anniversary trip. We felt like we were staying at a bed and breakfast. Everything is top notch and well thought out. This place is great for a group of hunters or a weekend getaway for a couple. My wife wants to return next year and she doesn't even hunt. I took a nice 8 point on the last evening.
outfitter review submitted by: J. Scott Jones on Nov 25 2007
Species Hunted: Whitetail Deer
Game Quality: Excellent
Accommodation Quality: Excellent
Camp Condition: Excellent
Food Quality: Very good (Southern fried phea
Guide Experience: Outstanding... they know ever
Other Personal Experience: Very skilled... I will hunt wi
Overall Impression: Extememly pleased... I will hunt with Pa-Ko again next year.
Recommend: Yes - without hesitation.
Reviewer Comments: On the morning of November 18th, I harvested a 170 lb seven-point buck. The stand I was hunting from was perfect - it backed up against a swampy area that was loaded with wood ducks. After watching four does enter, traverse, and then leave the clearing, the buck entered and worked his way carefully through the trees. The buck fell where he stood. I shot him through the neck as he moved from one clump of trees to another - he fell immediately and without a kick. I paced off the distance from the stand to where he fell - 112 steps up a gradual slope. This was the most exciting hunt I have ever been on.
outfitter review submitted by: James Kyle on Nov 25 2007
Species Hunted: Whitetail
Game Quality: Healthy
Accommodation Quality: Exelent
Camp Condition: Top shape! everything you need
Food Quality: Good
Guide Experience: Very knowledgable
Other Personal Experience: Everyone there was very happy
Overall Impression: I will be going back!
Recommend: I'm going back again during ne
Reviewer Comments: Everyone at the hunting Plantation, from the owner to the help where very nice and helpful with everything. Great cabines to stay in with no security problems at all. All my hunts where great with on site transportation there and back at the times I requested! I loved my trip and plan to go back next bow season. Oh ya, I did see good deer each time out, but no bucks on this trip that fell in the recommended requirements to be harvested. The other hunter next door did see 5 different eight points during his hunt.
outfitter review submitted by: Andrew Reid on Feb 4 2007
Species Hunted: White tail deer
Game Quality: 4 shooters out of 18 deer
Accommodation Quality: excellent private clean hot sh
Camp Condition: very well kept
Food Quality: never ending, excellent well u
Guide Experience: personal attention, owner and
Other Personal Experience: very good
Overall Impression: excellent ****
Recommend: Yes
Reviewer Comments: I could go on and on about eating deer sausage, quail, and pork, or the accomedations with hot showers and bon fires, but what is important is the quality of the hunt. This hunt included numerous does, black headed white fox squirrls and nice bucks. In fact I had three legal shooters on the green feild when I shot a large heavy mass nine point that weighted over 200 pounds.
Alberta Hunting Information
Alberta is a large, diverse province with rolling prairies, farmland, river bottoms, Boreal forests, and large expanses of the northern Rocky Mountains. Many species of big game, waterfowl, upland game and predators inhabit Alberta. Long known for monster whitetails, Alberta also is home to big mule deer, pronghorn antelope, elk, black bear, cougar, Canada moose, and bighorn sheep. In fact, 7 of the 10 largest bighorn sheep in Boone and Crockett record book are from Alberta. In addition to big game, Alberta offers some top notch bird hunting. Serious waterfowlers know about the large flocks of ducks and geese that call Alberta home or migrate through.
Illinois Hunting Information
Illinois is widely known as a top trophy whitetail destination. Illinois also has some great waterfowl hunting, especially in southern portions of the state.
Manitoba Hunting Information
Manitoba is known as a top destination for avid waterfowl hunters. Huge flocks of ducks and geese can be found from the Arctic coast of Hudson Bay to the prairie potholes on the southern border of this Canadian province. There is no legal requirement for non-resident waterfowl hunters to use a guide, but many are available and a high percentage of non-Canadian hunters utilize them. In addition black bear, Canada moose and whitetails are hunted throughout the province.