Seven J Outfitters

Submitted by: Mike Argenta

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Review Submitted: Jun 3, 2015

Hunt Date: Sep 20, 2014

Species Hunted: Whitetail Deer

Days Hunted: 6

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain: Farmland

Method: Bow

Price Range: 2000-2999

Archery Hunting

I have hunted with Jeff and Deb Smith for 5 consecutive seasons now and don't think I could find a better run operation. There are plenty of deer and I have had success every year on both whitetail and mule deer. The staff and guides have all been great and the lodge is super comfortable. The deer are not giants but who goes to Wyoming to hunt giant deer? If you like seeing a lot of deer with a great chance at a 120-130 inch buck every season this is a great place. I have seen the negative review on elk hunts and I am sorry if someone had a bad hunt. The years I have been there the archery elk hunters have had solid success( better than 1/2 harvested)...seems pretty darn good to me.

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Submitted by: Jeremy Dotson

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Review Submitted: Oct 28, 2014

Hunt Date: Oct 22, 2014

Species Hunted:

Days Hunted: 5

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain: Foothills

Method: Rifle

Price Range: 5000-6999

Stay Away From Seven J - Worst Elk Hunt Ever

Stay away from Sven J outfitters in Sundance, Wy. They advertise 90% success rate for shots and 75% harvest rate for elk. The hunts are advertised as being conducted on large private ranches with resident elk herds where you sill see many elk and have allot of opportunity. What they do not tell you is that their leases are very small (2-3k acres) and that the elk do not reside on their leases, but on very large neighboring leases that have very low pressure, so basically the elk get pushed their and stay there. During our stay the elk hunters went 0 for 5 with no one even having a shot. No one even saw an elk on the leases that Seven J owns. Jeff Smith blamed the weather and said it was too hot, however you could glass the elk on neighboring properties and see they moving mid day so that was a lie. Half the time we drove around on public land as well, which we could of done for free. Here is a perfect example of how the hunt went. On the first morning of our hunt, out guide said a landowner called and said that they were seeing elk so we were going there to hunt. We did not see an elk, but did run into the land owner in the afternoon. The landowner said he had not seen any elk on his place for 3 weeks, so someone was lying to us. We were never asked once by Jeff or Deb Smith about how our hunt was going, if we were comfortable, enjoying our stay, etc. During dinners the guides sat at their own table and the hunters sat at their own, it was a really weird and uncomfortable interaction. These people cater to the big name hunters and rely on TV to sell their hunts. They do not care about the average joe that spends 6-8k with them. When we asked about not seeing an Elk even though they advertise a high success rate, we were told that is the way it goes and they met their end of the deal. The guide stated they were 100% on their elk hunts for the last 4 years until the week before our hunt and ours....I call shenanigans. Seven J oversold the hunt, and set expectations they could not meet. They do not clearly tell you about how much land you are hunting (they sated 180K acres but its more like 20K acres on 7-8 different ranches in 116 you can hunt). They stated the elk are resident hers but did not state they reside many miles away. They said we would see elk, but unless you call a tiny dot of an elk in bino's "seeing" them we did not see an elk...stay away from their elk hunts in area 116 its a complete rip off.

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Submitted by: Jeremy Dotson

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Review Submitted: Oct 28, 2014

Hunt Date: Oct 22, 2014

Species Hunted:

Days Hunted: 5

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain: Foothills

Method: Rifle

Price Range: 5000-6999

Stay Away From Seven J - Worst Elk Hunt Ever

Stay away from Sven J outfitters in Sundance, Wy. They advertise 90% success rate for shots and 75% harvest rate for elk. The hunts are advertised as being conducted on large private ranches with resident elk herds where you sill see many elk and have allot of opportunity. What they do not tell you is that their leases are very small (2-3k acres) and that the elk do not reside on their leases, but on very large neighboring leases that have very low pressure, so basically the elk get pushed their and stay there. During our stay the elk hunters went 0 for 5 with no one even having a shot. No one even saw an elk on the leases that Seven J owns. Jeff Smith blamed the weather and said it was too hot, however you could glass the elk on neighboring properties and see they moving mid day so that was a lie. Half the time we drove around on public land as well, which we could of done for free. Here is a perfect example of how the hunt went. On the first morning of our hunt, out guide said a landowner called and said that they were seeing elk so we were going there to hunt. We did not see an elk, but did run into the land owner in the afternoon. The landowner said he had not seen any elk on his place for 3 weeks, so someone was lying to us. We were never asked once by Jeff or Deb Smith about how our hunt was going, if we were comfortable, enjoying our stay, etc. During dinners the guides sat at their own table and the hunters sat at their own, it was a really weird and uncomfortable interaction. These people cater to the big name hunters and rely on TV to sell their hunts. They do not care about the average joe that spends 6-8k with them. When we asked about not seeing an Elk even though they advertise a high success rate, we were told that is the way it goes and they met their end of the deal. The guide stated they were 100% on their elk hunts for the last 4 years until the week before our hunt and ours....I call shenanigans. Seven J oversold the hunt, and set expectations they could not meet. They do not clearly tell you about how much land you are hunting (they sated 180K acres but its more like 20K acres on 7-8 different ranches in 116 you can hunt). They stated the elk are resident hers but did not state they reside many miles away. They said we would see elk, but unless you call a tiny dot of an elk in bino's "seeing" them we did not see an elk...stay away from their elk hunts in area 116 its a complete rip off.

Outfitter Response: Wow!! Mr. Elmer? Good people. Really enjoyed them being here. It would have been an easier issue to resolve if it was approached face to face instead of over the world wide web for everyone to judge. What is the world coming to? I know what I told you on the phone and it was more along the lines if the weather is cooperative. “The one thing we can not control is the weather.” It is quite an anomaly that we couldn't produce a first buck. However, it is not the second time that has ever happened. There have definitely been a few others over the 18 years I’ve been here. If you would look through the history of the weather to disclose the current conditions you will find that we received the following. Monday (1.5 inches rain) Tues 1.98 inches and Wednesday 2.83 est inches of rain. Roads were washed out all over. Tornados hit the city of Clayton which is just a few miles away. This typically results in extremely slow whitetail movement. Since God only controls the weather, we and every other lodge in America should not be judged on that. What a shame. Not only was it raining like crazy but it was extremely warm with heavy humidity. I am sure most, if not all of the 10 that were in here felt the same way Mr. Elmer does. Most of them left half way through the hunt to give you a general idea of how the weather was. I understand the aggravation of spending that kind of money and it not working out. However, IF it would have been handled directly to me personally while you were here at the lodge that you felt that compelled that it was our fault that the deer did not cooperate, we would have surely worked something out that would have been satisfactory for you and your very patient granddaughter. It is only a shame that the internet is used for a voice that will not speak for itself face to face. I bet if you asked his granddaughter if her experience was a good one, she would probably say heck yea. We did everything under our control to make a lifetime experience for JE. Let me tell you that it was extremely disappointing for our entire staff not to be able to make that happen. She saw about 14 deer that were all does best we know. That was actually pretty good viewings with the weather conditions. Some other deer were coming in right at dark. (This was 21-23 December 2015 FYI if anybody wants to research the weather for zip code 36089. Mr. Elmer? Great guy as far as I thought. My hat is off for spending that kind of quality time with his granddaughter. I think more should do the same. JE? She is a first class well raised young lady. It is just disgusting to find poor reviews on ANY outfitter where blame is to fall on no one. And, by the way, $ doesn't buy success in any endeavor in life. Sometimes the experience is worth more than a lifetime of $ to a child. If JE ever reads this email. I will say God Bless to you. Sorry things didn’t work out this time. Keep your head up and keep trying. I am glad to see you experiencing the woods. Our staff was blessed to have met you.

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Submitted by: Jeremy Dotson

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Review Submitted: Oct 28, 2014

Hunt Date: Oct 22, 2014

Species Hunted: Elk

Days Hunted: 5

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain: Mountain

Method: Rifle

Price Range: 5000-6999

Seven J - Stay Away

Stay away from Seven J outfitters, they mislead hunters and do not stand behind their hunts. The rifle Elk hunts in area 116 are advertised as high success rate (90% shooting opportunity and 75% harvest per their website), on premium private leases of around 180K acres. When booking the hunt, we were told to expect to see elk every day and that they always have many stalking opportunities. Seven J stated that in 2013 the only people that did not harvest an elk were hunters holding out for a 350+ bull and that they decided to go home empty handed but could have easily filled. We were also told that we could easily take a cow towards the end of the hunt if we so choose as elk were abundant on their leases, so this sounded like a pricey but great hunt so 3 of us booked with them for this fall (Oct 2014). The first day of our hunt, our guide said that we were going to a ranch where the landowner had called the day before and said that he was seeing elk. Our guide said he saw one (neither myself or my buddy could see it), and we did not see anything else the rest of the day. We ran into the landowner at the end of the day, and he told us that he had not seen an elk on his ranch for over 3 weeks. Fishy right? Of the 5 hunters in camp.....0 shots on day 1, and no one spotted an elk. The rest of the week went the same with none of the hunters seeing anything. We found out that the leases are not very large (multiple 2-3k acre leases make up their 180k of "premium" private ground, of which maybe 15-20k acres are in area 116 that we could actually hunt), and the elk do not reside on their leases, but on a very large ranch a few miles away close to their hunting leases. You basically spend allot of time driving around in a pickup looking for elk..hoping that they get pushed off of the other property which does not get any pressure so they stay right there. During the week we were at Seven J, none of the 5 hunters even got a shot at an elk. Pretty far off of their 90% shooting opportunity and 75% harvest rate they advertise. All of the hunters were upset with the hunt by the end of the week, it did not live up and Seven J was indifferent to how things were going. During dinner in the evenings the guides and owners sat at a table by themselves back in the corner of the lodge and did not mingle with the hunters or say much to us. I thought that this was really odd, as other hunts I have been on the guides and hunters mingled and had a great time. This made things feel really uncomfortable and had a weird vibe. The dinners were ok but not great, allot of boxed stuff. Jeff Smith (owner) blamed the weather and lady luck for our terrible hunting. We pointed out that we could glass elk on the neighbors mid day and that they were moving around, but he stuck to his guns and said elk were where we hunted but bedded down. This is complete bs....there was very little sign of elk even being on these leases. Another hunter came in mid week that had a cow tag for a different hunting area and he filled day 1, so that should also tell you that weather was not an issue, there were not any elk where we were hunting. At the end of the day this hunt was a rip off. We did not have access to as much contiguous land as we were led to believe. The elk were not staying on their properties like they stated. We got mixed stories from them which seemed liked someone was not being honest. When we brought this up to them we were told they lived up to their end of the bargain and thats hunting. These people cater to the big name hunters and do not care about the average joe, even thought you spend over 7k with them. They did not even thank us for our business, talk to us about not even seeing an elk (let alone shooting one), or say goodbye. They might be ok for other hunts, but these guys seems like they didn't care about us and didn't really care that we had a bad hunt, not to mention that the hunting was terrible and we felt lied to. We were told we are not the first folks not to fill a tag with them and won't be the last, that should tell you something. Stay away....dishonest outfitter.

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Submitted by: Kenneth Lancaster

Review Submitted: Feb 14, 2011

Hunt Date: May 15, 2009

Species Hunted: Turkey Merriam's

Days Hunted: 3

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain:

Method: Rifle

Price Range:

WY Turkey

These guys have a great success rate, I am pretty sure it is 100% on shots. I have always gone home with all my tags punched. The guides are very keen when it comes to hunting and really do there homework. The Lodge is very nice and the food is pretty good as well. The only part that I didn't like was traveling 20 to 30 min away from lodge to hunt, but when you heard all the gobblers at sunrise, that was not really a big deal anymore.

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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: Dorian McIntyre on Nov 23 2006

Species Hunted: Mule deer

Game Quality: very good

Accommodation Quality: top notch

Camp Condition: n/a, stayed at the lodge

Food Quality: quite good & lots of it

Guide Experience: high & client focused

Other Personal Experience: very experienced

Overall Impression: excellent & professional

Recommend: yes

Reviewer Comments: My guide Rob found a beautiful main frame 5X5 with kickers for me in less than desirable weather during the October '06 season. Jeff & Deb have productive areas that hold some really good mule deer and the guides know how to get them. I will be back to hunt with Seven J at my first opportunity.

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outfitter review submitted by: Jim McNeese on Aug 1 2006

Species Hunted: Antelope

Game Quality: Good

Accommodation Quality: Good

Camp Condition: N/A

Food Quality: Good

Guide Experience: OK-not great

Other Personal Experience: N/A

Overall Impression: Fair

Recommend: Doubtful

Reviewer Comments: Five of us friends hunted antelope @ 7 J in 2005. While we were all successful, we shared many of the same negative feelings about the experience. We stayed in their house/lodge in Sundance, WY., and while it was comfortable, we couldn't relax...we always felt like we were being watched so that no one would mess the place up...(example; no hunting boots allowed inside). Also, the meal schedule was way too inflexible (in the evenings we all like to get together before supper, have a "scorcher", recap the day's hunt and relax). Not here--"hurry up and eat"... Since this is the hunter's vacation time, and he's the one paying the bill, he should be allowed a little leeway. As far as the guides went, they were ok (but ours took a little too long looking at the animal thru the spotting scope-- while the animal's walking out of range). Our biggest complaint w/ the guides was that after we tipped them, they just about ignored us. A course in "people skills" would be useful for some of these guys. About the game seen; even tho we were antelope hunting, we visited one of 7 J's mule deer camps, saw racks left by previous hunters, saw lots of live mule deer, and lots of mule deer country during our travels. I'll say that we (remember, there were 5 of us) never saw a single buck muley (dead or alive) that would measure near what they claim to be their average muley taken (we were told the average score on bucks would run around 180"). The quality of mule deer they claim to have is very questionable. And finally, this rule requiring hunters to take all game into town for butchering stinks. What's going on here? Is everyone in Sundance making a living off the visiting hunters? Are the businesses and outfitters in cahoots w/ each other, all sharing in the proceeds? You get targeted by the police if you speed just a little, you get stuck w/ a game skinning/processing/skull cleaning/freezing & wrapping bill, even the local Fed Ex office charges an outrageous amount to ship your trophy home (and that will be cash please-no credit cards accepted). Sundance definitely did not seem like a "hunter friendly" town, and you'd think it would be since a lot of their annual income is generated by hunters. We felt "used" by the town of Sundance. All in all, our experience was not satisfying. We killed, yeah, but as all hunters know, a lot more is involved in a hunt than just pulling the trigger. We would NOT recommend this outfitter unless some of his guides have a "personality transplant", the "house" rules relax a little and the town eases up on hunters.

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outfitter review submitted by: Jon Munley on Jan 26 2006

Species Hunted: Mule Deer

Game Quality: Avg 140's or less

Accommodation Quality: less than avg

Camp Condition: na

Food Quality: avg

Guide Experience: less than avg

Other Personal Experience: na

Overall Impression: NOT LIKE SEEN ON TV

Recommend: NO UNLESS YOUR RICH AND THEY K

Reviewer Comments: JEFF IS THE BEST BULLSHITTER I EVER MET OR TALKED TO. I TRIED TO BOOK MY HUNT 1- ON 1 AND I WAS TOLD "DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY BY 2ND OR 3RD DAY EVERYONE IS 1 ON 1" WELL WHEN WE ARRIVED IN WY WE WERE SENT TO DIFFERENT OUTFITTER 100 MILES AWAY BELIEVING IT WAS TO BE A 2 ON 3 HUNT.AFTER DRIVING ANOTHER 2 HOURS WE WERE INFORMED BY OUR GUIDE IT WAS TO BE A 1 ON 3 HUNT.JEFF LIED RIGHT TO MY FACE.THE OTHER GUIDE WAS TOLD BY THAT WE REQUESTED THAT RATIO. ANYWAY DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY WITH THEM UNLESS YOUR A BIG OUTDOOR NAME.

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outfitter review submitted by: Jeff Stefanowicz on Aug 4 2005

Species Hunted: Mule Deer

Game Quality: No trophy quality deer were seen

Accommodation Quality: Hotel, Good

Camp Condition: NA

Food Quality: Poor, Equivalent to a Denny\\\

Guide Experience: Good, while they lasted. One

Other Personal Experience: NA

Overall Impression: Not a trophy hunt!

Recommend: No.

Reviewer Comments: Never saw the outfitter after he was paid. He said that we would see him throughout the hunt. Experience was nothing like what was seen on TV.

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outfitter review submitted by: Jim Bernardin on Nov 30 2004

Species Hunted: Whitetail Deer

Game Quality: Very Good

Accommodation Quality: Excellent

Camp Condition: Very Good

Food Quality: Very good

Guide Experience: Excellent

Other Personal Experience: N/A

Overall Impression: Excellent

Recommend: Without Question

Reviewer Comments: Jeff and Deb Smith run a top notch operation. They have a beautiful new lodge that is set up with the hunter's comfort and convenience in mind. Details such as a rifle range with solid, covered bench, sand bags, targets (they even provide ear protectors) is something not found at many hunting operations. Jeff has excellent leases that are not over hunted and most of the guides have been with him for some time. My guide was a rancher who knew the property so well that he could practically tell you where and when a particular buck would show up! I took a beautiful 10 point and you do have a realistic chance for a 150 to 160 class buck, although they are not overly abundant. You absolutely will not go wrong with these folks.

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