outfitter ethics

[Stiknstring]

I recently got in a pissing match with a guy that has a "guide" business here in Washington.
Now, Washington state has no license requirements to be a guide, but in order to operate you have to have a business license, insurance, and appropriate permits from the landowner to operate for a profit.
This guy had some pictures of some pretty impressive animals, so I checked them out.
When I asked him where he operated, he pretty much said Washington State from the pacific coast to Idaho.
He charges $7500 for a 6 day "trophy" (300") Roosevelt elk hunt, and I asked him what units, because animals of that caliber are few and far between.
He called me a "weekend warrior" and a few other derogatory statements because my hunts are for "any legal" and I was part of the reason that 300" bulls were few and far between.
I countered with the fact that population dynamics limit the numbers, public access influences harvest, and the fact that I am only permitted for a certain area restricts my ability to be selective.
He said I had a good area, there were lots of "trophies" and he just was better at it than I was...
Then I found out the pictures on his website were taken from the internet, and only a few were actually a result of his efforts, some even photo shopped.
Another poster chimed in saying a picture he had was of their brother and friend, no connection to his service, and he was false advertising.
I then pointed out to him that guiding w/o a permit in someone else's area was not only illegal, but unethical.
He cried to the admin, our exchange was deleted, and the post only covers his "Bragging" about his success picture.
So, in conclusion, research any outfitter/guide to think about booking with, and if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

 

[katqanna]

Here is an online program I have had to use to check for pirated pics that were used in such a manner. Some pics are public domain, but you can at least see where they came from and when.
Tineye Reverse Image Lookup Just right click on the pic, click on "copy image location". Then in the Tineye Enter Image Address window to the right, right click, paste or click and CTRL + V (which pastes). Then hit the search button.

If the image is from the internet, other locations pop up in the results. For example: this sage grouse image used at wyofile.com on 1/6/2013, was first crawled on the net on 11/7/2009 from game bird hunts.com. 4 days later a much higher resolution image appears at the 12 Volt Blog. That guy is probably the owner, who uploaded the tiny pic at the first site, or he has some fine software that will enlarge without pixelating.

At any rate, this can be used to help track image sources. It doesnt tell you if there is pirating, you'd have to check with original image source to see if permission was granted. Nor does it tell you if thr image was piated, then altered. If they altered it, it wont show up on Tineye. Thats another program to see if an image has been altered.

 

[dan.kirkpatrick]

no need to pay for a outfitter////i have more fun doin it d i y,,,from research of areas, to applying,to the actual hunt,theres alot of gratification to do it d i y. oyoa rules.