Quack Attack Guide Service, Arkansas

I would rather jump shoot two wood ducks out of a roadside ditch behind a Walmart somewhere than hunt with 98% of the guided operations out there.

I'm not a snob, and I'm not a jerk. But, most of them are assembly lines. They design the hunt for the lowest skill level hunter they get. Fully 1/3 of the hunters that show up for these things don't know how to load their guns.

So, my warning is: If you have high expectations, temper them. You'll have a better chance of success that way.

I have been on guided hunts from LA to Saskatchewan. Ducks and geese, all 4 turkey subspecies, whitetails, elk, etc. I've tried it all.

I had a turkey "outfitter" one time claim to have 100,000 acres under lease. He got us up an hour after sunrise and drove us 45 mins to a tent blind in front of a pile of corn (not legal) and told me to sit there and not call or move. "That's your best chance of bagging a Tom". I was like: Go frick yourself to death, and I mean that specifically.

I went on a "world famous" Stuttgart AR duck hunt once where they took us to the blind at 6:00 am and wouldn't bring us out until 3:30 pm. So they could show a higher kill number. Like, literally they would not take us back to the lodge. We were prisoners in a boat blind. With a sandwich and a pack of peanut butter crackers for all day. I actually dehydrated.

I've got like 20 stories similar to this. I am a huge fan of DIY. Almost always a better experience.

Did I mention the turkey hunt where you couldn't get to the woods before daylight? True story.

The thing about Sask is that it's basically open to the public. If you just go up there yourself you can stay in a motel and hunt anywhere -- as long as the land doesn't have Posted signs.

But, if you're an outfitter, it's totally different. Outfitters have to have written permission to hunt anyone's land.

So, out Sask outfitter picks us up at the motel and we drive 45 mins to a field. But we pass 10 fields and potholes full of thousands of ducks and geese. If we weren't with an outfitter, we could have hunted those places. But with an outfitter, we couldn't.

Sask is easier to do DIY than with an outfitter.

And don't even get me started with the "cleaning ducks and geese" scam. In summary: If you "give away" your ducks and geese, you have to pay for them to be cleaned to give them away. They don't tell you that on the front end. They just give you a bill at the end, for cleaning of birds you never see.

Total screw job.

You are correct. When our thief found out we brought our own guns and would not rent his for $50 per day; we had our own shells that shot well in our guns and we would not pay him $20 per box for his cheap Canadian shells, and finally told him that we preferred to pick our mallards as we did not want just the breasts(he refused to pick them) at $3.50 per bird we were persona non grata. I guess $2000 each for 2&1/2 days of hunting was not enough.

In our case, we booked with Cabela's. In discussions with them, they left out those details. You should take into consideration that outfitters in Sask. do not pay lease fees on the land they hunt. It is illegal to pay the landowner. Most in the US have to cover that cost in their fees.

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we preferred to pick our mallards as we did not want just the breasts(he refused to pick them) at $3.50 per bird we were persona non grata. I guess $2000 each for 2&1/2 days of hunting was not enough.

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At the beginning of the hunt, he asked if we wanted to keep our ducks and geese. And that he would give them away if we didn't want them. We kept 2-3 each night for the grill, and gave him the rest.

At the end of the hunt he handed us a bill for $2400 for duck/goose cleaning. Which was in the contract. But we assumed that since we told him to give them away, we wouldn't be paying that.

When he called in March to ask us about booking again, I told him No. And I told him I thought he wasn't honest with us, and that we would never recommend him because of that.

A year later I got a call from another guy who said my guy had gone out of business, and this guy had purchased his client list for $1500.

I would suggest OK or KS over Arkansas.

Just call tornado alley in emporia Kansas and be done with it.

Been hitting sask for the last 7 years on our own, no guide. Have never had a bad trip but fotta put in your time. Scouting is huge. We usually have a guy jump outta blind early and drive around and find birds. It is true u can hunt on most land but we always get permission from land owner or farmer. Nothin worse than pulling in a field and there is another group there. If u get permission at least u have leverage over the guys who just trespass.