Anyone ever used a pack in service?

[Jasher]

How much should I expect to pay? We have all of our gear but didn't know if it was worth it or not. I couldn't find much about packing in services when I googled it. I found one place that advertised it for $275 plus $100 per horse and each horse could carry up to 150 pounds. If this is the normal charge it would be well worth it to me because last year I almost blew out my knee after a little over a mile in from the up and down and side hill.

 

[Gunner46]

I'd be interested in knowing as well.

 

[Goatshoes]

That seems maybe a little high compared to my experience but I am sure that depends what part of the country you are in and how far they are taking you and the difficulty of the trail etc. Does the $275.00 include the guides horse, or is $275.00 plus each additional horse? If it includes the guides horse I'd say you are right in the ball park.

 

[utah400elk]

I used a pack service in Utah one year and we went in about 12-14 miles from trailhead. You need to do your homework. I was not happy with ours. (U-Bar Ranch). The hunting was great and we were able to get two bulls down out of three archery hunters. My good friend took his first bull elk (a little 5x5) at less than three steps. Great hunting in an area we had found by google earth scouting. The issues were with the pack out. We had made previous arrangements for the cost to pack out animals. They tried to jack up the prices A LOT! Two of the three of us hiked out to trailhead to tell them we had two elk down. Each with a large (60 + pound pack). When the packers arrived they tried to triple the number of horses needed for the pack. Again we already had two hunters and a single pack horse worth of gear out. We had pre arranged one horse and a half horse per elk for the pack out (two elk should have been three horses). The packers took four horse per elk and tried to demand extra money. They claimed a pack horse could not handle more than two front shoulders a piece and a single hind quarter per horse. It was very ugly on the mountain. We were able to keep them to the contract but it did not go well and was very uncomfortable. I would be very leery of doing that again. They made it clear that we were at their mercy on the mountain.

I believe the cost was about $300-$350 a person

If you do it...Make sure the contract spells out the cost per animal for the pack out. Also take your contract with you. We had ours and it helped a lot. Not fun to have to pack your contract with you but...It was worth it for us.

 

[Jasher]

I just talked to a place that doesn't it in the area we want to hunt. $1250 a person and that's 1 pack horse per person and you have to walk!!!! No thanks I hope to find something more reasonable. I can buy a horse for that much.