I will definitely want to hear about your antelope/recurve hunt. That hunt will be a challenge and any antelope you get wil be a trophy.

In what part of KS are you hunting?

The saying is defintaely true that "you can't believe all you hear". My Father and I had booked a Wisconsin hunt that had sparkling refrences, read several articles by a very prominant outdoor writer whome I respected greatly(until I met him) and the outfitter even had videos of bucks in the area. Even the claims of how many hunters are in camp was total bull.

When we arrived, he had no place to check rifles, the 6 in camp went up to 16 in camp. The amount of food was horrible. One night was soup only and another we had only one eye round roast for 16 guys. Hunters were set up practically on top of each other and on the first day of the season, our guide packed a rifle himself and took a post approximately 150 yards away from me and shot a respectable 8 point that morning.

To make matters worse, the cook got drunk one night and left us without lunches for the next day and on the 4th day, we were waiting for the guide to show up midday to check on us and possible move us or put on drives. Midday came and gone and darkness fell. Finally, the outfitters kid came and picked us up since our guide quit in the middle of the day and left us out in the field and the outfitter had to guess where we were by where he knew we weren't.
It hurts me to say this since I am an outdoor writer and guide myself, but you can't believe everything some outdoor writers say. In this case the writer in question had great things to say about the outfitter, what I didn't know until it was too late was he got free hunts and the best locations. Out of the 16 guys in camp 3 guys killed deer, two were nothing special, especially for Wisconsin. The biggest buck was shot by the son of the one you can probably guess.

The guys are right, success rations are a joke. A prime example is a guy I just finished guiding for turkeys. He's been hunting with me for three years, a total of 12 days hunting and has yet to kill a bird. In the three years he has hunted with me, I called in 17 birds to near or in gun range. Each and every time he moved at the wrong time which made the bird run off or not make that final approach to within gun range. I called in others, but some of those came in silent and came in from behind us which I don't count as reasonable opportunites for a kill. Most of the other birds would have been dead birds had they been with a more experienced hunter, but since he never hunted turkeys before let alone shooting one he makes mistakes. Sure it can be frustrating for the guide, but like was said in a previous comment- that's hunting.
He keeps hunting with me since he sees alot of birds and realizes that he SHOULD have killed one by now and knows his time is coming.

Bottom line is be careful and do a lot of research about the outfitter in question. Sucsess rations, shot opportunites and even refrences can all be skewed. Espessially since most outfitters aren;t going to give you a complete list of past clients. Only those that he's confident were happy withthe hunt will make the list. It is still imprtant to do some research about the area as if you would be hunting on your own and be able to "read" a person doesn't help to decifer between fact and fiction on the outfitters claims.

Some of the best hunts I've been on were the guys the said the least about their operation.