Ram Creek Outfitters

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: Mary Ann Smith on May 10 2010

Species Hunted: Moose, Sheep, Bear

Game Quality: Outstanding / Saw everything

Accommodation Quality: Outstanding tent camps

Camp Condition: All like new

Food Quality: Very Good provisions

Guide Experience: 4 very experienced, ambitious,

Other Personal Experience: Excellent packer, great cook!

Overall Impression: Fun, Fun, Fun! Outstanding, succesful hunt

Recommend: Highly recommend, women welco

Reviewer Comments: I don't know what people expect on a remote hunt but the reality is your 65" trophy moose won't be tied to a tree waiting for you no matter how much or who you pay; neither will your full curl ram or your 9' bear. These huge old rams, bulls and boars are trophies because there isn't one standing on every peak or hiding behind every bush for every idiot that can afford to get there! You have to hunt, hunt, hunt and you have to be willing and able to shoot, shoot, shoot and be responsible for what you shoot! I'm an avid, experienced female elk hunter from Montana and what I saw at Bill Burwell's moose camps in 2009 was nothing but professional and skillful hunting and camping. I witnessed the demise of 1 full curl ram, 1 9' Bear and 5 nice but not record breaking moose during the 2009 ten day hunt. One Arizona hunter was set up on a huge moose 3 days in a row and due to his poor shooting skills couldn't manage to get him killed but that's not the guide or outfitters fault! 24 miles from the middle of nowhere we had 4 Polaris Rangers, 8 gentle horses, and a Piper supercub. Fresh eggs were 10 minutes away! Everybody had new tents, lanterns, stoves and plenty of grub and hot coffee! Nobody flew and hunted the same day and nobody directed guides or hunters to game from the airplane. Sure, there were a few resident hunters that toodled up the river past base camp (they've got more right to be there than anybody) but the place is so vast they never hunted in our way or anywhere near Burwell's spike camps. One thing ticks off Bill Burwell though. He expects his clients to arrive in a fit physical condition or at least below 250 pounds and be prepared to hunt all day. When you arrive obese and out of shape he can't fly you safely in the little airplane, you are an over burden to his trusty horses and you probably aren't going to hunt away from your tent. Then you'll go home and cry, cry, cry to anyone who'll listen about how it's the outfitters fault you you didn't get the trophy of your dreams that you paid for. I personally would hunt with Bill Burwell any day, any where for any big game. I know I would enjoy a safe, courteous and successful hunt! Bill should specialize in guiding women hunters. If a woman wants to hunt she'll show up a damn site tougher and better prepared than the rich sissy boys that go home and cry, cry, cry about not getting a big enough trophy.

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outfitter review submitted by: Paul D. Farr on Jun 7 2009

Species Hunted: Moose, Bear

Game Quality: Poor

Accommodation Quality: Fair to Poor

Camp Condition: Fair to Poor

Food Quality: Fair

Guide Experience: Fair

Other Personal Experience: Fair

Overall Impression: Poor

Recommend: No

Reviewer Comments: Burwell is a great sales man, but buyer be ware. Bill over books hunts so if your one of the lucky ones to get a good hunt you may score. Other wise your horse back hunt may be on foot. You may not have much food. You may not get one or more of the hunts you paid for on a combo hunt. You may hear I will personally guide you ha. In a effort to make good on a bad hunt you may be offered another hunt for an additional 7000.00. This is the scenario I have heard from a number of other hunters who booked with Burwell. I had a 10 day moose combo hunt did not see a legal bull in 8 days. Did not hunt bear one day. I believe the guides in camp were drinkers and could not get them out of bed in the mornings. I got up at day break, hiked to the nearest ridge and glassed while waiting for the rest to get out of bed. We usually left camp around 10:00 am. If you are on a limited budget and every dollar counts don't waste them like I did on a hunt with Bill Burwell.

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outfitter review submitted by: Kent Karolik on Dec 11 2008

Species Hunted: Dall Sheep

Game Quality: marginal

Accommodation Quality: good

Camp Condition: good

Food Quality: good

Guide Experience: poor

Other Personal Experience: n/a

Overall Impression: poor

Recommend: Don't do it!

Reviewer Comments: I booked an 8 day hunt. Only stayed 5 as we hadn't seen a legal ram and my guide was the strangest person I'd ever encountered. It was so bad that I'd lost all trust in him and therefore ended my trip early. I've hunted all over the world and this was the first time I've ever had such an encounter. There were no other guides that I could have switched to either. Also, none of the other sheep hunters before me had connected and I was the last hunter. It's my understanding then that Ram Creek Outfitters took ZERO sheep for 2008. Extremely disappointed.

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outfitter review submitted by: Frank A. Lopez on Apr 16 2007

Species Hunted: Moose & Grizzly

Game Quality: Poor

Accommodation Quality: Acceptible Tent Camp

Camp Condition: Good

Food Quality: Good

Guide Experience: 1-good, 1-poor, 1-new

Other Personal Experience: n/a

Overall Impression: POOR

Recommend: DEFINITELY NOT - filing a comp

Reviewer Comments: DO NOT trust Bill Burwell. He will tell you whatever you need to hear to book a hunt. He can talk a good talk, but in the end he’ll take your money and leave you wishing you had gone elsewhere. I hunted moose and grizzly with Bill in the fall of 2006. Let me start off by saying that even though I did harvest a moose, to this day this hunt still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I checked his references. He provided the names of about 8 references. I think only one was a legitimate reference. Four could not be reached. I later found out that one is a friend from Montana, one hunted client from 10_ years ago and one was his guide who happened to be a client at one time. After my trip was paid in full, I never heard from Bill again. I was not able to reach him for the entire 3 months before my trip. I left for my trip thinking I had been ripped off. Bill is about as disorganized as they come. Five hunters hunting 1x1, but only 4 guides including Bill. Not to mention the camera crew filming a TV show for the Outdoor Channel. Only one guide was one of Bill’s regular guides. One guide was a complete idiot that had no business being a guide and my guide who was one of his sheep hunters who stayed over from his hunt to fill in guiding. My guide was a nice guy and worked hard, but I specifically told Bill to I wanted to be booked with one of his regular guides or I’ll wait till next year. There were things that happened in camp that were unethical and some that I think were flat out illegal. Two hunters in camp shot sub-legal bulls during my trip, one with Bill guiding. Bill left his client alone and the client shot the “wrong” bull. The second was with the dunce guide who told his hunter that the bull was a definitely a 60” bull with 4 brows. After the hunter repeated asked, the guide insisted the bull was a definite shooter. This bull ended up being a 45” bull with 3 brows. Everything was confiscated by AK F&G On the fourth day I switched guides to his only regular guide since he was no longer guiding the TV crew. I specifically told my guide that since I would most likely only be able to do this kind of a trip once in my life and that I would rather hunt all the way to the end and go home empty handed that to just shoot a just legal bull so that I wouldn’t go home empty handed. Later that day I harvested my bull. Before the shot, my guide indicated that the bull would go 60”… but it was barely legal… 51”. I was basically stranded in base camp for 3 -1/2 days, not due to weather, but because of a shortage of guides, moving camps and bringing the TV crew in/out. At the end of the trip I was taken back to the air strip in Slana a day early Bill was in a hurry to get his stuff moved for another hunt. Total BS. In the end, I watched two illegal bulls harvested and confiscated, a TV celebrity shot grizzly cub get shot on camera which I am certain will never be aired on TV. I watched as Bill would fly his overhead and spot game from the air and radio it to his guides. My trophy of a lifetime turned out to be barley legal and I paid for 10 days of hunting and only received 6 days with tags left in my pocket. Bill’s area is directly accessible from the hwy and is heavily hunted by locals on ATVs. One day I counted 6 different groups of ATVs drive by our spike camp. To top everything off, all but one hind quarter of my meat disappeared from Bill’s meat locker. The story I was told that it must have been mistakenly confiscated by F&G. If I thought I could take him to court to get some of my money back I would. I'm certain a judge would rule in my favor, but I don’t think I would ever see a dime of that money. Since then, I have attempted to contact Bill Burwell over a dozen times. To date I still have not received a return to my phone calls or emails.

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outfitter review submitted by: Bill W. Hill on Jul 23 2006

Species Hunted: Grizzly / Sheep

Game Quality: Poor

Accommodation Quality: Very Minimum

Camp Condition: Fair

Food Quality: Fair, instant oatmeal, peanut

Guide Experience: Limited - arrived same day I d

Other Personal Experience: Mostly young with limited expe

Overall Impression: An Absolute Scam

Recommend: No. Have filed complaint with

Reviewer Comments: My hunt was a 10 day Sheep / Grizzly hunt. After the hunt was paid in full, the outfitter would not return my calls for information. My guide arrived same day as I. No pre-scouting or locating game prior to my arrival. After 3 days of sheep hunting only saw 2 legal rams on last day with no possible shot. After 7 days of Grizzly hunting saw no bears. My main purpose of hunt was to take a Grizzly and I was told by this Outfitter I would see one or two good bears every day. I found out later that they had no success with bears the year before. Don't waste your money with this outfitter. He is an absolute disgrace to every professional outfitter in the business. Has a fancy web site "ramcreekoutfitters.com" but don't be fooled as I was.

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