I went with Olympic Mountain Outfitters for a guided hunt this 2024 Elk season. It is run by Mike Vaughn, originally out of Elm, currently out of Kansas. He comes in to town for the hunting Seasons. He runs his hunts out of a local Centralia Motel(King Oscar), he provides a room, simple meals(breakfast sandwich), packed lunch, and prepares dinner each day out of a large hotel room. Simple accommodations…He has access to 100 acre lot in the Chehalis River Valley (46.49094, -123.11318), the lot has tree stands, blinds,…mixed terrain. It is bordered by private properties to the North and South, to the West is private Weyerhaeuser forest, to the East is public accessible Sierra Pacific forest. Apparently there are several herds that frequent the valley…
For guided it is 6k$, unguided 3.5k$…
I was told there was a herd of 40 Elk, with 6 shootable bulls seen in the neighbors property and headed their way. I signed up for a guided hunt, wanting the highest chance to be put on Elk and have shot opportunity…I was taken to the property pointed out the stand/blind locations, pockets and fields to check. Each day provided a motel room, breakfast, packed lunch, then essentially dropped off at the property…picked up when ready, and advised to “shoot straight”. To this guy, that was a guided hunt.
I never saw an Elk, nor Elk sign…not even in the greater valley…I asked did he have access to other leases…”No”…I asked about access or intel on other areas/opportunities…he seemed to have little to no knowledge about other opportunities…
The guy is wrapped up in his “social conquests” and conspiracy theories based, flat-earth life…which was non stop…and has no focus on contributing to the hunt success of his clients. I did not get the guided hunt experience I paid for… I expected him to know where Elk were, guide me to opportunities, and if no Elk, cover ground... BTW, if he has other hunters, you will be another hunter sharing 100 acre lot…While I was there, there was a guy with his 2 sons, and a young Marine also hunting the property…This was an expensive and disappointing experience and a mistake …it was top dollar paid, for a minimum delivered experience…
Avoid this business…avoid this person…
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