Never book a hunt at Hawkins Lodge

My daughter and her fiance won a silent auction for a 3 day hunt at Hawkins Lodge just outside of Eufaula, AL. It was absolutely the worst hunting experience that I have ever had. First afternoon hunt we are dropped off and told to how to find shooting house. Given a chair since there was only one chair in house. Get to house, and look over green field, only winter rye grass is planted, no sign of grazing. Get inside house, 4'x4', and open bag chair, and it is in three pieces, completely broken. I throw it about 20 yards out the window into the pines. My daughter has to sit on the floor the entire afternoon, even after I text the owner of lodge asking him to bring us another chair. They have known for 2 months we were coming, and yet they cant put an extra chair in house prior to our arrival. The other couple, a grandfather and his grandson, didn't even get a chair, he had to sit on his grandpas lap the entire afternoon.

After the first hunt, we sat down for what could have been the blandest food I have ever eaten. I would not have fed it to my dog, seriously. I told my daughter, that we would try it one more time in the morning and if it wasn't any better, we were loading up, bidding fairwell and headed home. Needless to say, I am at home typing this post.

Not one sighting, by anyone. Food plots were pathetic. No game cameras pics, before or during season. One of the guides, if you can call him that, told us they had 10 hunters so far this season and had only taken one doe.

If you are considering a hunt here, DON'T GO!!!!!! If you want to get sucked into shooting an elk or fallow deer or a ram inside a high fence for $2,500 after not seeing a deer, knock yourself out. Or if you want to pet a camel, kangaroo or llama and even a new pet skunk that arrived during our brief 1 day visit, this is the place for you.

I felt so bad for the guy from Anniston that paid $1800 for his grandson to kill a buck, two doe and a hog that I offered to have them come our club. I actually considered reporting them to Better Business Bureau. Just can't believe there is an operation in this area that conducts their business like this and pretends to be "Hunting Lodge".

Stay home and do honey do's or rake leaves, wash your truck but whatever you do, Don't book this hunt.

Ruh roh raggy!!!! Hate y'all had a bad experience and wasted your time. Maybe this post will save someone else from wasting their money..

Dang, Muzzie, that's horrible!
Who are the owners of the operation?

My brother owns and runs Hawkins. He hasn't shut up since y'all left about how awful you were the whole time you were there.

Somebody pass the popcorn

oh shoot.

oh hail yeah......it's on.

This has got some real potential.

Can't just leave it at that. Please do tell.. is there really only rye planted? Do they not keep up with their shooting houses? Was there honestly not a single deer sighting the whole time he was there?

Sea bass time

Oh snap. Muzzie been a member since 02. Better see some pics of biologic real quick!

I'm in.

Johntravis will be a nobody after this is over.

I'm not buying it

They're on the line. Set the hook and start reeling.

Website makes the place look nice

His brother must have a different last name than him....

Doesn’t pass the smell test

Hahahaha dammit ya got me. Zero association with Hawkins Lodge whatsoever. Never even heard of it until this thread. I just saw an opportunity to take some attention off poor ol JT over in the perdido thread. That was fun.

Muzzie - Sorry y'all had such a bad experience, and for the thread derail.

Alright, let’s go.

Awesome troll

You can’t have nothin

Dang it man. Wish you would have let it ride just a little longer.

That was pretty good. You got me! I knew that sounded to good to be true

Haha I thought about doing that but started to feel bad.

Damn you. I think you could have gotten at least 3 pages before coming clean.

Present and accounted for!

Dang. I took it hook line and sinker!

They have lots of 5 star reviews and 1 that says exactly what you described

One of our past presidents knows one of the owners. He asid they called him in for some consulting. He says it has a nice camp house and is on 5000 or so acre. He said it should have potential but they dont really know how to inner act with their deer with the number s of people coming through there. Hopefully they can improve.

Welp. If i owned it id sure be on here trying to get my customer back and make things rite. Cause i wont take the chance and spend my money there after reading this about them. If i was ever planning a paid hunt. Sounds like the customer might be rite. Im sure that lodge has an owner or employee that reads Aldeer. Dang, thought we was gonna have a good old fashion show down. At the Aldeer corral.

Cald, Cald, and more Cald!!!

That one was pretty funny though. The owner accused the hunter of smoking pot during the hunt.

what is the proper way to inner act with all those deer?

All those dead mallards outta be a dead giveaway this place is a hoax.

Looks like they really put a hurtin on the green heads over at hawkins ridge...

Shooting farm raised ducks could be gayest hunt ever invented.

For a place that's been around since 87 they sure don't have a lot to show for it. A few good ones butnot a lot.

Well played.

Well fellas, I just got back from Hawkins Ridge in Eufaula tonight. Was able to get a good one right before dark in a Rye field. Climbed out of the stand to take a leak and here he came. He must have been 300 yard but I found a broken chair about 20 feet in the pines to prop up on and let her fly.
Here is the link if someone can post the pic for me. I'm too excited from the hunt to figure it out. https://imgur.com/a/JRBUu

OK. First you never drive up close to where your goint to hunt. After the first weekend of hunting season the deer are patternig you. They har a four wheeler, truck utv and they are paying close attentios. So, we walk into our sets, most of the time wearing a Ghilley. This way if you happen to bump a deer you just stay still and they will not spook. Lets just say you have a heeter doe (doe in eastrus) and she is working her way to the field your going to hunt, then you drive in close to the fiels. She gonna hear that and go elsewhere. Ive actually used this as a tactic several times, but I used it in reverse. I will drive a wheeler to a field, park and then double back to an opposite field basically tricking the deer. Ithink if people took way more precautions coming and going from their stands they would be amazed how much it affests the deer. There is a reasonthey are more active in the night,its cause hunters dont take more care how they inneract during the day. Companies cant sell products about how you come into your stands so they trick hunters into buying all these silly other things. Indians killed plkenty of deer by just knowing how to inneract with the land and they just knew what worked for them.

yall jacked this one way up.


somebody get the real Hawkins redneck on the phone and see 3hat the hell happened.


BOOOM

Well said, bill.

Dang man nice buck! What are y'all eating tonight to celebrate? Rice cakes or saltine crackers?

Try this guys. Act like the deer were hunting you. Seriously. Act like if you make a mistake your life yould end. Apply that to your hunt and see how you inneract with the woods. Probably do things differently wouldnt you? If you do this, you will likely kill big deer, and see more deer. We do this and we just know what works for us.

A few pics are worth a 1000 words of the what we experienced.






After looking at the OnX hunt app, it was obvious that they owned about 400 acres and leased the balance of the hunting land from Plu Creek or other lessors. The most disappointing thing was that I always felt there was a good deer population in this area near Clayton. I actually saw two deer tracks, so I least I know they have a deer. Quite frankly, if I owned the place, I would be ashamed and embarrassed to allow hunters to pay me for an opportunity to hunt there. When looking at the guest book, there was not one single entry of a hunter being there. They were all family reunions or birthday parties. The owner even admitted that when the economy tanked, he was forced to look at alternative methods of producing income, such as the petting zoo and the Pumpkin Patch. I don't fault him for doing what he has to do support his family who are all very pleasant and helpful but I do have a problem with him, in my opinion, intentionally deceiving hunters.

How much to kill a camel?

Forget about the popcorn! Where's the beef? While Muzziehead is away, well the wife will play! Muzzie is not being completely upfront! I'm giving Hawkins place 5 stars because not only did my husband go but so did my daughter and I was in complete control of the remote control, the TV, The air, the heat, the covers, the bathroom with no terrible smells- why I felt like I was in heaven!!!! When they sent me camel pics - I thought it was right up National Geographics Ally and the goats... have y''all noticed the ways those animals were looking at my family? Nothing normal about those looks! Same look I give when Muzzie is a home !

Oh boy

Beat me to it.
Kept thinking of the scene from “Jarhead” where the guy asks “You ever see what a .40 will do to a camel’s head?”
IMHO I’d skip all these pay hunt places. If I were going to spend money on a hunt, I’d go on one of the school hunts like the Gordo hunt advertised on here.

You know how when Christmas comes, most men don't read the directions when they are putting the kids toys together? Well what would you like to bet that Muzzie nor My daughter read about Hawkins place??? I will bet you if I looked around in his truck there would be a unopened yellow envelope that said " Congratulations, you have just won a trip" for you and your child to come ride a real live hump backed camel, feed the goats, and see a albino skunk that don't stink! Guess why he does not notice me writing on here??? I asked him to please put up my new clock that reflects the time on the ceiling. He didn't have the box opened 2 minutes b4 he said where did you buy this piece of junk from? I bought it from Dillards! That's a reputable place right? There's no doubt he didn't read the directions Again! I am betting on Hawkins being a nice family little farm & not a hunting place. Oops he's up & about, better get out of here! Merry Christmas!

This is weird.

Yep pretty much

Sorry fellas. Ms Muzzie got on here while I was installing this stupid clock for her. Last time she got loose on here, it ended up as 5000 post topic. Of course, most of those post was Ms. Muzzie talking to herself for over a week while I was hunting hogs with some other aldeer members.

Can you post a picture of the clock? Hahaha

We are the blue dot, clearly on Plum Creek property. I wasn't aware that you couldn't offer commercial hunting on leased property, but it would not surprise me if that was in the lease somewhere.

i don't know if their lease allows it or not. The leases ive had a whole section prohibiting it.

Did u stop by Bass Pro on the way home? Bwhahahaha

Should've just shot #1190

Speaking from my experience with winning donated hunts, the guides aren't expecting huge tips and they want to save the best places for high rollers. My brother won a donated hunt for two that was an archery javelina hunt in AZ. Great time in beautiful country but neither of us scored. We were really used for scouting. The outfitter tried but it was pretty clear he was in new territory scouting for future hunts. All other aspects, food, camper, etc. went well. For what it cost us and what the outfitter got out of it, we had no complaints.

I was lucky enough to win one of the Kentucky trips from the Deer expo. But I never got to go on it .Every time I called to set the trip up. They were in a meeting or driving and they would call me back.
Then I won another hunting trip on a Church camp up above Guntersville . Even donated the 1st moneyv from the 3d shoot back to the camp. And never got the call to go on that one either...

Honestly even if I won a trip to an outfitter in Alabama I wouldn't waste my time going to hunt unless it had a five start lodge with great food and I was just going to relax and eat good.

I agree totally. If I won it I'd see if I could transfer it to a kid or special needs person. The ones I know about, inside and outside of Alabama, are grossly over hunted. I've seen some public land with less hunting.

Sorry you had a bad experience. I bought a hunt at a fundraiser a couple years ago for a lodge in Alabama. It was a really nice place but the "only dates that were available was the first two weeks of December". Probably would have been a great hunt had we been able to go in January.

Chit just got real. Mrs. Muzziehead done showed up.

Leesa, you have to stop being a stranger. We now have the perfect picture of da Muz!

That's funny chit right there!

I would think that all the Plum Creek land is now Weyerhaeuser, I would be surprised if it was within company policy to allow commercial hunts on their land. In that area of Barbour county there should be plenty of deer.

My son's school had a field trip to Hawkins for their pumpkin patch. They had a bunch of pen raised turkeys somewhat loose walking around. I didn't get a chance to study them too much, but they looked like easterns for sure. I remember thinking, "I wonder if those are for any spring turkey hunts"

I didn't see any deer either, but I was with 50 6-yo's.

I have been there several times, only once to hunt. That was a quail hunt. That hunt was ok. Nothing special, but fair to the price we paid.

I've heard similar stories to Muzzy's on other deer hunts. Not surprised by his comments.

I wish I would have known you were down there and unhappy. My place is just a few miles from there and hasn't been hunted all season. I would have gladly shown y'all in.

Yes! I was just thinking this the other day. If the deer would hunt you back you would be a lot more careful.

Once again, a couple of the most sensible, rational posts in a thread have come from Whild Bill.

we're living in Bizarro World

You're right. We are, but...

Whild Bill had one thing in one of his normal rambling BS posts I wanted to address. Getting to a stand.

I hunt with a guy in Dallas County some who drives his truck almost to every stand to drop hunters off (pay hunts). This works for him mainly because they farm all this land and the deer see that truck in and out 52 weeks a year.

I THINK it also works because deer may see or hear the truck come in, but they also would presumably see or hear it leave. They see or hear you walking in (and you stay) and they KNOW you're there imho. I'd be curious as to others experiences in this. I personally believe every stand (on a plot) should be OFF the plot 10-40 yards and accessible (by a trail cut out of sight of the plot) without spooking deer in the field.

[quote=Rebelman]I have been there several times, only once to hunt. That was a quail hunt. That hunt was ok. Nothing special, but fair to the price we paid.

I've heard similar stories to Muzzy's on other deer hunts. Not surprised by his comments.

I wish I would have known you were down there and unhappy. My place is just a few miles from there and hasn't been hunted all season. I would have gladly shown y'all in. [/quote

I appreciate That. My daughter wanted us to go on this trip because she is getting married on the 29th and was trying to do something special for ole Dad. I hadnt Planned on hunting at all. I was Just going to sit with her and hope she got a chance at a good buck, since I usually Bow hunt anyways.i even told Hawkins that I wasnt Interested in shooting a doe or a hog and was really there for my daughter. I was More upset because I know She felt she had let me down. But we ended up getting to talk a lot and laugh a lot Ben in the stand because it was very apparent we weren’t going to see any deer.

But to pay $150 a night for her to sleep on a rock hard bed and eat terrible food (great southern cooking) is what upset me. It really made me appreciate the place I hunt And realize how hard work and managing a place can pay off.

I remember that. I bet she still can’t cook.

Neat perspective on a fair chase hunt. I think I would have looked at it as an opportunity to spend with friends and family with the bonus of the "possibility" of a fair chase deer. Clearly you might have a slight temper considering your reaction to the chair was to throw it out of the stand and from there it seems your hunt went down hill. How about set a better example for the kid and overcome the challenge? Maybe you should consider a luxury high fence hunt with luxury stands in the hopes that your unrealistic expectations of perfection in a deer hunt can come true. That way the kid can remember how everyone can get a trophy, instead of the adult acting like a spoiled brat.

It's back on!

aw hell.....

Wow.

Lol well it ain't me this time!

Pile, I just know how to kill big deer and there is a way to go about things if you want to really hunt and just not drive to a stand. I have to agree with Happy. Maybe the guy should have called the lodge and asked some questions and also maybe told them what his expectations was. Maybe do a SWAT analysis before you go somewhere or something to help understand what your getting into. I wonder what the weather was too, temps, thermals, barametric pressure, moon phase, rut stage, ect could have all played a part in the deer movement. Iwould have asked for a set in the woods too. Hopefully he will get on a nice one before the season is over. At lest he got to go hunt, I dont even have a lease/club this year.

I think the term you're looking for is SWOT Analysis...

Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats

^^^^^^

I know a guy who went to the one up 82 towards Maplesville.

said that a guy backs up to the pond with a truck with a big cage on the back and literally opens it up and shakes it until they fly out.

No, no its a SWAT anaylsis. We came up with it last year at our clup

Security - Identify where the deer are using safe areas
Weather - IS weather affecting normal patterns
Awareness - How are you the hunter affecting/inner acting with the enviroment
Timing - How close to the rut is it?

A SWOT analysis really wouldnt have helped here Pile.

When the hell did WB start making sense?

RobD, i find your posts to be boring uninformative and useless.

I'm tellin' ya man.....Bizarre World

8th post and coming in strong

You're a genius, Willy

Ha!! I dont think so, i was barely in the top half of the slow class, but I just know what works for us.

I started interacting differently with my property this morning. I dropped a great 130-140 class running at about 400 yards. Thanks for the tips Bill. Was using my Dad's new mathews helix, that bow is nice.

The kid that you are referring to is my 26 year old daughter. I wasn't acting like a spoiled brat, just an upset man who had just entered a stand for the first hunt of a 3 day hunt and immediately realized that I had already wasted about 12 hours of mine and my daughters time. I would have preferred to have wrapped that chair around someones neck or shoved up someones a$$ but they weren't there to wear it.

Happy Hunter, I know that you and I could never be friends.

The mental image of a grown man throwing a fold up chair out of a shooting house is hilarious to me

Whild Bill do me one favor. The word you're looking for in some of your posts is INTERACT. If I read "inner act" one more time my eyes are going to bleed.

Naw dude, it's inner act. This is some next level, deer whispering type stuff you just can't comprehend.

I will admit we had a lot of laughs while there. One was that once we did get a chair for our second set, my daughter opened up the chair and when she sat in the chair, her line of vision was about 10 inches below the shooting house window.

There were several other moments that lightened the mood, but if I had actually paid for a full price hunt, there would not have been much laughter. Such as this report on what we shared seeing from our second hunt:

OMG ... MS MUZZIE IS BACK.

This has so much potential, like 575 duzen sanctuaries worth of potential.

Wonder if the act of physically chunking a bag chair out of the house negatively impacted yore deer sightings?

I thought they were hunting whitetails. I didn't even know we had yore deer in Alabama.

So you went home early on a 3 day hunt do to a folding chair and bland food. That is a shame. I dont remember asking you to be my friend, I was just pointing out that every day is one closer to your last and you are willing to spend that time in a way that is less than desirable, then you get on the internet looking for confirmation of your temper tantrum that got the better of you. You will never know if that buck of your daughters lifetime was just a day away. You just know you had a broken chair, balnd food, and the foodplots were not up to your liking. Learn to make the best of what you have, you will be happier, and we wont have to listen to this crap on a hunting forum. Here you have a whole thread on how you didnt get what you wanted and therefore the hunt was no good. Maybe you just need all of those comforts to hunt, maybe you are lacking the skill it takes, and due to your failure you are just pushing the blame elsewhere. Either way, I sure hope your next hunt goes better or maybe it will be the weathermans fault because he was off a few degrees, or it rained for a bit at your club, or maybe your hardees biscuit was to greasey and you had to make an emergency exit. Could be your truck doesnt get good enough gas mileage and you had to stop to get gas and the pump was slow so you didnt get there at the right time.

You just confirmed my initial thought, Snowflake

Da Muz ain't no Willie off the pickle boat, Mr. Happy. If he didn't put sugar in his hushpuppies, he would be normal as can be.

100% owns or works at this lodge.

Just to be honest, I didnt really care at all about the hunt or how he acted. I just thought that the other guy that said his brother owned that place gave up to early.

You never know, we might be really good friends some day. I do have bland food, folding chairs are for suckers, and crap food plots are a waste of time. Better luck next time, and Merry Christmas!

$10 happys gots sumpin to do wiff hawkins lodge.

I can appreciate the OP's frustration but Alabama hunting lodges are only about running as many people through camp as they can. They all advertise "great southern cooking" and "great" hunting, but rarely live up their claims. As long as your expectations are not set high, you can't be disappointed. It ain't Texas or Midwest giants your hunting. The quality of the deer will be about the same as a good hunting club and they will be highly pressured due to the large numbers of hunters.

Turkey Neck, I had never even heard of Hawkins lodge, and havent even made the effort to google it. I have done a few paid hunts in Alabama, near Pine Apple I think. Nice looking property but didnt kill anything. The food was excellent though. I also hunted near Auburn once, maybe that was Camp Hill. I did get a nice doe there bow hunting. No food there and the stands were questionable at best. It is hard to beat your own set up.

I was just yanking his chain. Thanks for playing.

Inneract (inner-act): the process of communicating or getting something accomplished.


"We were in her bedroom about to inneract when her mama knocked on the door."

I hunted at Hawkins yrs ago...can see things haven't changed and if they did it was probably for the worst..just my 2 cents which is what I thought the experience was worth.

Free.

Please bring Ms Muzzie back, that's the only way to get this back on track (briskly rubbing hands together)

Wtf is balnd food?

Shameful posing as a hunting lodge

Hell I would be mad at my best friend if he sent me to a shooting house with no chair. Not to mention a for profit hunting lodge. That's as shitty as it gets. At that point it's more about the disrespect for your time and money than it is about hunting.

When I lived in Eufaula didn't seem like many people liked the Hawkins. I drive by the lodge all the time on my way to our club.

A day or two ago one of my old classmates was piddling around in his gillie suit when he heard a loud "clank", then here comes a 150 class buck running from that direction. The deer stopped to look back in the direction of the loud noise and my fried raised his crossbow and killed the buck. He said he heard faint giggling coming from a shooting house while he was dragging the buck out. He lost his rangefinder and went back later that night to look for it and stumbled across a broken folding chair in the woods.
Waiting for pics of the buck.

Damn, this went to 6 pages fast!

I think we need to send a spy to said lodge for a review I will donate 6 dollars towards the fee

For those that don't already know, most your pay to hunt places in Alabama are not going to be any better than what your experiencing else where in this state. I feel like most people hunt at these places thinking they are hunting some sort of 5 star resort and see deer every trip out and have a chance at a decent buck. That's the furthest thing from the truth. I was a guide at one for several years and they all operate at the same pace. For what you would pay to hunt three days, you could get in a small lease for a year and have better odds. I needed to put this out there. Sorry for the derail.

If they advertise others will come...if you want to be satisfied..who cares. Well thank goodness suckers are born everyday.

Hate that Muzzie as I understand completely the frustrations. If I did not have the Lord in my life I would look at a lot of things differently. I know all things work for the Good therefore in these situations I look for lessons to teach my son. I have threw my fits and been negative, gone in depression etc. over hunting and places. I thought I would of learned my lesson my in Kansas with outfitters, but I decided to go in bama last year and paid for a 2 day hunt for my son. Needless to say it was a donation and nothing more. The Lord knew the right timing and had it all planned out for my son, and after 3 1/2 years he finally killed his buck.
I am truly skeptical on outfitters and honestly look at DIY, except Tara over here in Mississippi. I love that place and looking at taking my son there one day.

Now that's funny as tits on a boar hog...http://www.aldeer.com/forum/images/icons/default/sleep.gif

Is it just me or has this place not been fricken awesome the last couple of weeks?

Must be you, Lectrode.

Probably just my warped sense of humor but yall are killen me!

Me, too. Kidding earlier. Got some real wienners on here. Uh, winners.

Inspiration ...

Damn, I thought about that when Muzzie told about throwing the chair.

Red and white color scheme, too!

You gotta be careful hunting in Barbour County, it's like the Bermuda triangle. Lisa Theris was lost there for almost a month, and she's a Hooters girl.

Cracking me up Clem!

That just came out of your mouth.

Guess it's better than. You just pull that one out of your ass?

Debatable and funny as hell.

Muzzie, get your azz back up to the ceiling and fix the damn clock.

Get the damn directions, read them carefully, take your time, do the job right and

Leave your phone where Mrs. Muzzie can access it.

Mrs. Muzz needs an account. I'll pay for her to have a Silver Membership.

WTF ?!?!?!

Poor Muzziehead! He makes the mistake of telling me some of what's said on here & retreats to the bathroom to guess what???? Weigh again & it's not like he's dieting! We both passed 'chunky dunkin' at least 10 years ago! For some reason, he decided to weigh yesterday for I guess the first time in 2017 & he tore up the whole cubicle size bathroom finding the scales! Hah, I can't tell you his weight nor mine, but combined maybe 1 person could fit on an elevator before it beeped the "GET Off" tone! But here's why I'm on here besides being on my vacation. Muzziehead is actually a little depressed & he didn't get that way until he got on those darn scales!!! Now why did he do that during the holidays & he's gone like 24 hours with nothing really palpable for his gut. Well now that's a fib because we stopped at McDonalds yesterday in Dadeeville with him just griping at how awful this was for his diet. Of course all he had was fries, but I do want to say this. The KEY to a healthy marriage is sheer laughter & NOT EVEN Trying to make someone laugh!!! I have to tell on him and y'all he was serious! Immediately after figuring out he had gained another 18 pounds.... guess what he said after all his whining? He said "I can't believe I've gone and gained me 18 pounds of muscle!!!!" Hah! lmao ,,, and he's actually put on my daughter's black skin tight under armor gear & I wish I knew how to send a pic! Of course it was by accident so he could run out to his truck w/something on & then he asked if this shirt was mine??? Best compliment from him in a long while , but even I could not wear that! Thank God he's not into Speedo's! Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!

Guess I'm talking to myself again. He must be doing something besides weighing, probably brushing his teeth! But between the obvious weight gain & throwing chairs & defending his position for everything from being a Georgia fan, always right ,18 pounds of muscle and his hunt at Hawkins place & someone saying he was a newbie hunter when the boy knows nothing but.... it's been a tough week for Mr. Muzzie! War Eagle Muzziehead!!!

????

Lol you will have pleny of numbers in bound for pics to post.

Muzzle needs a beeper where people can let him know when his phone has been hijacked.

Haha the pics would be great

For the win!

So guys, believe it or not, I have actually been to Hawkins Ridge on a paid turkey hunt. My business is a member of a barter / exchange company where you offer goods / services for the barter companies "currency". Hawkins Ridge is a member of the same barter / exchange company. Last spring, I had a couple thousand dollars worth of currency and decided to book a hunt with my best hunting buddy who is also an aldeer member. I can tell you that our experience was not much different than the OP's experience.

My buddy and I have some solid turkey hunting properties but we figured it would be fun to try a guided hunt and based on their website, we figured that we had a decent chance to kill 4 birds between the two of us on the 3 day hunt and it would be good times. Boy were we wrong........

Day 1: We arrive midday and the "guide" shows up. At about 1:00PM, He takes us to this property about 15 minutes away and says "We picked up this property this year, I haven't had the opportunity to scout it yet but its some good ground." Me and my buddy make discrete eye contact and look at each other like "WTF??" He drops my buddy out on a road and tells him to walk about 100 yards down the road and there is a field back there. Tells him to just set up on the field. He told him not to go too far off the field because the property lines weren't far from the field edges. It turns out to be a rye grass field that is about the size of a bathtub...... Seriously it was about 30 yards X 30 yards. We drive about 400 yards up the road and he drops me off and says "There are about 100 acres right here. You can walk the roads and find a place to set up." I get out of the truck and walk up to the top of a hill and realize that my 100 acres is a fresh clearcut. My buddy doesn't see or hear a thing all afternoon. I found a couple fresh tracks on a road and set my decoys up and set up and cold called every 15-20 minutes. After about 2 hours, I got lucky and had a gobbler come in and killed him.

Day 2: We each had a guide that took us to different places. We hunted until lunch and neither of us saw or heard a turkey. In talking to my "guide" I found out that he was just a neighbor that Hawkins asked to "guide" on occasion. This guy had no clue about the property we were hunting and they had not had any trail cameras out or done any scouting of the property. It was basically "wake up, drive to one of our leased properties, go listen for birds, if we don't hear any, go set up somewhere nearby and sit for a couple hours." Second afternoon was the same as the first except neither of us saw or heard a bird. Not only that, but most everywhere we went, there were minimal tracks or sign.

Day 3: The same thing as day 2 except my buddy heard a bird that was on someone else property. It gobbled a couple times. When we met back up for lunch, my buddy and I decided that we were done. We had one afternoon hunt and one morning hunt left but we decided that we had a way better chance of killing a bird if we drove back to south Alabama and hunted our own ground.

We had fun hanging out together at the camp but DANG!!! There is nothing worse than deer hunting turkeys in my opinion. And thats what we did with theses guys. And unfortunately, it was not because they knew where the birds were going to come. It was because they didn't know what else to do.

The most disappointing thing was that the guides were not turkey hunters, and they had done absolutely ZERO work to prepare for us being there. Craig was a nice guy but it was a very underwhelming experience. When we told them that we were leaving, they basically just said "Alright, see y'all later."

All that to say, I think that OP is legit in his frustration and just like him, if I had paid full price like the father and son that were in camp with us, I would have probably raised hell.

Geeeeeez that sucks. Sorry to hear that.

Homeboy. What were your expectations? Was the guide supposed to call one in for you? If thats the case, then yes I would see your frustrates?

Me's guess, is whild bill is not a turkey hunter.

Whild Bill I can answer that. No the guide wasn't expected to call in a bird at all. In fact I'd much rather them not call at all but rather them just put me in the vicinity of birds or a place where they know birds have been recently. I did not feel like that most of the time.
I've been to outfitters in Kansas, Missouri, and Wyoming. I've had places that work their tails off preparing and places that don't do as much. They just didn't know their property and where the birds were as much as I would have liked.!i know the 3-4 places I lease much better than they knew theirs in my opinion. They didn't even know for certain all the property lines. Were expectations to high on our end; yea probably so, but that's what happens when you sell it the way they do online. I've been in the service industry a long time and they could really use to underpromise and over deliver more so than over promise and under deliver. The owner was a nice guy in my opinion and we liked hanging out and talking but that's not why we went. I did enjoy their company but I don't really have days to just "hang out" during turkey season. Lastly, we make mistakes with customers way too often ourselves but we work hard to fix it and make it better. From the sounds of Muzzies trip that doesn't seem to be happening and that's unfortunate.

Oh here we go a lodge that can't provide deer or turkey. Something seems fishy here.

One hump or two?

please don't feed the trolls.....

Camel hunting only allowed on Wednesday.

Wednesday is bow only for camels, but you can use a gun... if you go with JT.

@Grant_UAB I think you mean inner acting.

Does the toe cost more?

The toe always costs more!

The toe is undefeated!

Wednesday is the Walker County special day with all the goats and the camel. Puts a new meaning to HUMP day.

I emailed them asking how much for a camel hunt. I can hunt whitetails anywhere, but camels are hard to come by.

I see what you did there.

If you go to a lodge in bama, what you find out is that you know 100s more about hunting then the kid who drops you off at a shooting house as he makes a loop to drop off 6 other hunters. The majority of lodges are setup for a yankee to come experience southern hospitality and maybe 1-10 will have a deer to walk out on a greenfield. THAT IS THE PREDOMINATE LODGE TRIP IN BAMA.

JallenCrockett is spot on. It isn't what you think it is.

You ain't kidding

Y'all going to the wrong lodges. There are some great outfits in Bama!

JAC is spot on but that is what I have always believed the vast majority of Alabama outfitters do.

Without slapping my on butt Im not the average hunter but in my experience even folks who have hunted vastly less then me, for the most point if they have grown up hunting in bama, then most lodges will be a disappointment as they are in my experience really not setup or made for the average bama hunter.

I’ve never understood why someone who hunts every year in Alabama would want to go hunt at a lodge in Alabama...and expect it to be different.

Go somewhere other than Bama and be amazed at how good deer hunting can really be.

^^^^ This!

Your chances of killing a deer are better at a WMA and a lot less costly. Of course you will have to bring your own sandwiches

Do you even have to ask?

I don't blame you for throwing the damn chair. I'd probably had thrown in the crappy foodplot. Not a childish move at all. It's childish to run a business in the manor that they have. Phuckem

Duh.....Because you can hunt camels there...

I'd much rather see toe than turkey. One way or another it aint free

I just wasted time reading through this one again. Fun thread.

if you live in Alabama or an adjoining state, go to TX or KS or Iowa. especially in rut- we never see what a real rut and chase looks like for the most part here. Seeing the different type of country and that behavior makes the trip for me.

I went there many years ago. Never again!