Southern Ohio Outfitters

Submitted by: Matt Miller

Review Submitted: Jan 17, 2011

Hunt Date: Jan 8, 2011

Species Hunted: Whitetail Deer

Days Hunted: 4

Hunt Type: Semi-Guided

Primary Terrain: Foothills

Method: Muzzleloader

Price Range: 1000-1999

Looking forward to my next hunt with Souther Ohio

I hunted the late muzzleloader season with S.O.O. for a second year in a row. I have booked an archery rut hunt withh S.O.O. in 2012. My first year I harvested a buck and two does. This past year I did not harvest any deer but two other hunters that were in camp took mature bucks. I am looking forward to my hunt in 2012 because I know and have seen the quality of deer that S.O.O. has to offer. Dave Lusk, owner of S.O.O. is a professional outfitter that has made the success of his hunters his top priority. The guides at S.O.O. are professional and know the land and the mature bucks that you will be hunting. They spend hours scouting, glassing, setting up and maintaining feeders, and placing stands to give their hunters the best opportunity possible to harvest a mature whitetail buck. The lodging accomodations are top notch and you will never go hungry at S.O.O. I highly reccomend this hunt to anyone who wants a fair chase shot at a trophy of a lifetime!

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Submitted by: JUDE Lawless

Review Submitted: Dec 30, 2010

Hunt Date: not provided

Species Hunted: Whitetail Deer

Days Hunted: 5

Hunt Type: Semi-Guided

Primary Terrain: Farmland

Method: Bow

Price Range: 1000-1999

SOO

I personally have been to Southern ohio outfitters and have not a single complaint. I have not only hunted with them in the past but hunted this year, booked for next year, and 2012 as well. One of my biggest recommendations is if your going to hunt with them book well in advance because most of the good weeks are booked for next year and they are booking for the year after as well. I shot a monster this past year and it couldn't be recovered and we looked for 3 and a half days. I didn't get my buck for no lack of effort. Its a great hunt and I would highly recommend it.

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Submitted by: Brad L.

Review Submitted: Dec 30, 2010

Hunt Date: not provided

Species Hunted: Whitetail Deer

Days Hunted: 5

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain: Farmland

Method: Muzzleloader

Price Range: 2000-2999

awesome

Had an awesome hunt at SOO. I was very impressed with the quality of deer, the properties, and the had stands for any wind direction. Great Great hunt and I would highly recommend it. I stayed at the main lodge which is very very nice, and the food is awesome

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Submitted by: James (Bubba) CLARK

Review Submitted: Dec 29, 2010

Hunt Date: Nov 10, 2010

Species Hunted: Whitetail Deer

Days Hunted: 5

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain: Farmland

Method: Shotgun

Price Range: 2000-2999

SOUTHERN OHIO OUTFITTERS (DAVE LUSK)

I hunted with soo during the first week of gun season this year and was very dissapointed with the whole operation as it related to hunting. The first morning of the hunt i had to reset the ladder styx and the tree stand in the dark they were both loose, and i only saw 4 deer the first morning that was it for the week. The locale people i met during that week all exspressed there dislike of soo and dave lusk for one reason or another. there were 9 hunters in camp that week and all but 2 seemed to have problems with the whole operation. Not one person even saw a good shooter buck the whole week. I am not a hunter with a chip on my shoulder but i feel that i could have given these hunters a better chance to kill a deer on the farms i hunt in nj. IT FELT LIKE DAVE LUSK AND HIS GUIDES SAVED THE BEST HUNTING SPOTS FOR THEM SELVES, i think if you were anyone who does alot of hunting you would see right through this whole operation, and would not recomend this hunt to anyone. This hunt was LIKE A BOOK YOU CANT JUDGE IT BY ITS COVER its not all its cracked up to be, i could have spent my money better elseware!!!!!!!!

Outfitter Response: I'm just going to nip this in the butt right now.......I'm a straight shooter and never tell hunters anything but the truth. We are NOT a high fence operation. We hunt fair chase whitetail. We have recently had a few bad reviews from a group of hunters in shotgun camp that have felt the need to come on here and spread lies about us. Jim Pochus, Fred Beynon, Willim(Billy) Spolar Jr, and (Bubba ) Clark were all in the same camp. ALL these hunters have called each other as you can see from their reviews and made sure that their stories matched some what, but were yet a little different in their own ways........I would HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend calling our references. We have a TON, and are not afraid of anything and have nothing to hide. So, we urge you to call these hunters and you will find as many references who rebook and haven't killed a buck as you will hunters who have killed bucks. Let me explain the circumstances that surrounded several of these hunters. First, Jim Pochus. Jim smoked in his treestand which is highly highly looked down upon at SOO, and if you get caught smoking in your stand, you will stay in that stand. Jim also got down out of his treestand and walked around which is the second biggest cardinal sin at SOO. If your caught walking around the properties, which is extremely unsafe, your hunt is over. Jim also fired his firearm one morning before it was even daylight out of his treestand. Two of my guides Dave and Zach went to the stand to check on jim to make sure he didn't shoot himself. On top of this, Fred Beynon, which is Jim Pochus hunting buddy, pulled my Guide Kevin Ray to the side in the morning while kevin was taking jim to the stand and told kevin, and this is his exact words" DO NOT PUT ME EVEN REMOTELY CLOSE TO JIM, HE WILL F*** my hunt up" and that's when he told Kevin that Jim was smoking in his stand. Jim also seen 4 shooters the first morning with 2 chasing a doe and one walking broadside at 70 yards in the middle of the "cattle pasture", and jim just felt that "he couldn't make the shot" ......Jim forgot to mention this. You can tell by Jim's immature review, calling me a michael waldell wannabe, the type of guy he is.....Jim also forgot to mention the fact that he got in my guide, Kevin rays truck and started kicking the inside of the truck, why? because he said it was too small on the inside, mind you kevin has a full size 1500 dodge ram pickup truck....that's right, I couldn't make this up even if I tried. We gave Jim multiple chances to do the right thing and he should have been sent home early but we try to let individuals such as jim finish their hunt out even though he did everything we asked him not to......we have hundreds of pics of bucks from the farm Jim and Fred was on, big bucks and that's why they were their, but if you do the things they were doing you aren't going to see them As you can see, all of these hunters says that I personally had maps out looking at them and trail cam pictures.....Seriously? Not a single of us killed a buck during shotgun season, nor did I see a buck. Its hard to believe though that I wasn't around Fred or spoke to him, but yet he was close enough to me to see trail cam pics and maps that I was using to "supposedly" use to hunt big bucks with. I'm not a new outfitter, we have an awesome reputation, and was voted number #1 by deer and deer hunting magazine. I don't do things like this, and never have. If you come to SOO its not hard to see who we are working for, our hunters. You can tell this by talking to our references, and again, we have a ton of them. Jim and his buddy Fred upset two of the hunters SO bad that one of the hunters, ED, flipped jim off, and the other told them that when they book a hunt, they aren't buying a buck, they are buying the experience and the chance to harvest a mature buck. These hunters did not say a word to me about any of this, or it could have been addressed there at the lodge. They wait to say all this when they get home, behind the net, where no one can dispute what you are saying. Anything can get said on this website by anyone, keep this in mind. There are no check systems for these hunters, and fabracated lies can be told, and the outfitter is pretty much defenseless. Fred says that we wouldn't move him, that's a lie as well....if you are unhappy with your stand we will move you ONCE we have given it a chance to produce, however, hunters such as Fred wants to set in a stand only once and its very hard to kill a buck that way. As for Billy and BUBBA, these two guys came together as well.......as you can tell by Billy's comments such as we don't know how to gut a deer and our stands our unsafe, how fabricated these comments are......Do they realize how many we gut a year? and the most outlandish part of it, is that Billy gutted his own deer even though guide Dave Larkin told him he would.......so, how can we do a bad job of gutting billy's deer when he gutted his own deer? and as you can tell from BUBBAS review, him and Billy just so happened to have almost the exact same story. Anyone knows that an outfitter isn't the most popular person in the area. We lease massive amounts of land and don't let the locals hunt it. Its a given. However, I would love to know what the locals have to do with the hunt he had? it has no bearing on his hunt, and actually does not concern him at all. Our stands are not unsafe and he did not reset our stand and ladder stix's.......so, coincidently, billy and bubba who both came together got unsafe stands, in which our stands have 2 sometimes 3 rachets on each one, not counting the stix's.....again, call references, or look up anything about us on the net and you won't find this....bubba forgot to mention that our guide was glassing while he was setting in a stand, and tony stewart seen a big shooter ten and 2 does skirting the field edge heading right toward bubba, they went right past his stand, tony heard NO shots, why? because bubbba had already gotten out of his stand long before dark and was waiting on tony to pick him up because he didn't think he would see anything........We've had Drury, Realtree, Ted Nugent, BackWoods life, Outdoor Journal, etc, etc, etc,.......all contact us wanting to hunt and I have turned 90% of these shows away because our hunters come first...these shows call only the best of the best.....I also would not have taken the time to reply if I didnt care, but SOO has been in business for a long time now, and I'm not going to let hunters who should be in a high fence operation spread lies about us without addressing them........its true Billy and bubba has been to at least one operation before ours, it was in the Dakotas, and it was high fence.......they all went on a whitetail highfence hunt in the dakotas, they were successful and came to camp bragging about the big bucks they shot there.....well sirs, anyone can kill a pet deer. I don't make claims that everyone in camp is going to kill a big buck, but I do tell our hunters that we will try our absolute hardest to get them on one. These hunters are mad because a big one didn't fall into their lap. This is a fairchase operation and we try our hardest, that's all we can do.

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Submitted by: Ralph Centhrow

Review Submitted: Dec 26, 2010

Hunt Date: not provided

Species Hunted: Whitetail Deer

Days Hunted: 5

Hunt Type: Semi-Guided

Primary Terrain: Farmland

Method: Bow

Price Range: 1000-1999

southern ohio outfitters

Had a great hunt at southern ohio outfitters. The thing that impressed me the most is the vastness of everything, were as in jersey its mostly small wood lots, so, that was a nice change. Seen alot of good bucks but didn't get a shot, but I would go back anytime I could afford it

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Submitted by: Gage Lewis

Review Submitted: Dec 26, 2010

Hunt Date: not provided

Species Hunted:

Days Hunted: 0

Hunt Type: Hunt Type

Primary Terrain:

Method:

Price Range:

SOO

I hunted bow at daves camp and had a great time. I seen alot of bucks and deer in general and shot a respectable buck. The lodging is great, the food is even better and I would recommend to anyone

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Submitted by: Vince Miraglia

Review Submitted: Dec 26, 2010

Hunt Date: Oct 17, 2010

Species Hunted: Whitetail Deer

Days Hunted: 5

Hunt Type: Semi-Guided

Primary Terrain: Farmland

Method: Bow

Price Range: 1000-1999

2010 bow hunt

This was my firts ever semi-guide hunt and it mey all my expectations. Dave his his guides were very professional and did their homework. I saw more deer in five days then i've seen in two years in NJ. Somewhere between 60&70 deer. I had an opportunity at a great 8 pointer if it was for two small trees blocking my shot at 30 yards. I would recomend SOO to any hunter that is looking for a great experience.

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Submitted by: Larry Hudson Jr

Review Submitted: Dec 21, 2010

Hunt Date: Nov 29, 2010

Species Hunted: Whitetail Deer

Days Hunted: 5

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain: Farmland

Method: Shotgun

Price Range: 2000-2999

southern ohio outfitters

I also hunted the Ohio shotgun season with SOO. I had a very nice hunt at Dave's place. Great lodge to stay in and his wife is a wonderful cook. The guides are very professional and I can still see Zach jumping over tops coming down where my buck was. They also got my deer taken care of for me super quick so we could head back for jacks meeting.

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Submitted by: Greg Sawyer

Review Submitted: Dec 21, 2010

Hunt Date: Nov 29, 2010

Species Hunted: Whitetail Deer

Days Hunted: 5

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain: Farmland

Method: Shotgun

Price Range: 2000-2999

GREAT HUNT

I hunted at southern ohio outfitters during the shotgun season this past year. It was a great hunt, and I loved every minute. I think Dave and his guides do an excellant job of staying on top of the deer activity, and while it is true that there is alot of shooting, that's ohio, that's their shotgun season. I couldn't help but notice a couple of the other reviews from this past shotgun season and all I can say is wow. If any knows Dave and how he is, they know that he is honest and loves doing what he does, to call him a Michael Waldell wannabe shows this hunters lack of respect and immaturity. Infact, I was in camp with these three guys, and a high fence operation would have been much better suited as the one hunter forgot to mention that he passed on 4 shooters the first morning, was smoking in his treestands, kicked the guides truck, walked around on the premises which is a direct violation of SOO rules, his partner Frank was talking bad about JIM behind his back, and the other hunters in camp couldn't tolerate him one even flipping him off. You cant always believe what you read and some hunters you will NEVER please, and for anyone that has never been in a deer camp, you will have one in camp, trust me..I would recommend SOO anytime, and its a great hunt for the price. The accomadations is nice, the land is nice and the staff and very respectful and even helped me carry my totes in(all 5), haha. Call the references, he has a ton

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Submitted by: Fred Beynon

Review Submitted: Dec 21, 2010

Hunt Date: Nov 29, 2010

Species Hunted: Whitetail Deer

Days Hunted: 5

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain: Farmland

Method: Shotgun

Price Range: 2000-2999

Southern Ohio Outfitters South Webster Ohio Dave

Hunted the Ohio 2010 firearms season. There was 8 of us in camp and another 4 in a DIY camp. The outfitter gave a very encouraging speech the nite before the hunt and assigned guides to the hunters. Most guides had 3 hunters. That was the last time he spoke to any of us despite the fact that he was in camp everynight looking at maps and trail camera photos of areas he was going to hunt the next morning. Don't ever hunt at a place where the guides are hunting the same time. Who do you think will get the premier spots? We booked this hunt based upon Southern Ohio Outfitters website. It showed all sorts of croplands and food plots. Upon arrival, all I seen for 5 days was an open pasture with cattle grazing and a wind that blew directly into adjoining woodlots. I asked about moving to another area and was told they didn't have anything else. SOO advertises 6000 plus acres but all I seen was a 400 acre cattle farm. SOO guides and owner kill nice bucks in bow season which makes me wonder who they are working for. The biggest problem I see with SOO is the fact that they have an assortment of farm leases which is mainly open areas surrounded by woodlots that are owned by others and hunted by others. We were surrounded by other hunters and essentially shut off. SOO does not have enough continuous acreage to offer good gun hunts. Archery may be different. 2 out of 8 hunters shot small buck. Most hunters had very limited sightings and mostly doe. I saw 5 deer the first day and that was it. Ohio gun season is a zoo. Brown its down is the motto of the locals. SOO has a lot of interference from locals that despise his operation and are out there trying to interfere with your hunt. While the opportunity was there to see a huge buck, this hunt is only worth room and lodging and a $250 trespass fee. Recommend not booking with SOO.

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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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