Cribbs Creek Outfitters I Would Not Buy A Turkey Hunt a Second Time Polkton North Carolina

 Cribbs Creek, Polkton, NC Outfitter Review; I would not invest a second time in a turkey hunt from Cribbs Creek Outfitters. I believe we received the minimum effort required from the guide service to hunt turkeys. We were given land. To be fair, we requested a semi-guided hunt. We, however, had a reasonable expectation for the service to do the job of scouting and locating and to have the most up-to-date information on turkeys. The evidence says they did not do their job. We met Brandon on our evening of arrival. Nice young man in his early twenties. Brandon is the son of Greg Lynn, apparent owner of Cribbs Creek. Brandon booked our hunt and was the primary contact. Prior to our arrival Brandon said they had plenty of turkeys and had been watching a big tom on one of their leases. When we arrived, Brandon drove us to 3 different parcels he indicated we could hunt. One of them was the tract where the “big tom” was seen. It was a planted pine stand. My hunt partner asked Brandon when the last time the tom was seen. Answer; No one’s hunted here in about 2 weeks so I’m not sure. Brandon asked if we had seen the video of the big tom that he posted on their website. We had not. He showed the video on his phone while we sat in the truck. In the video the turkey is casually walking by a hog blind that they are sitting in while hog hunting. My partner asks; When was the video shot? Answer; About 35 days ago. Hmmm. We ask where the turkeys were roosting. Answer; I would guess between the ground blind and a tower blind about a hundred yards farther down the road. We asked where the turkeys tend to feed. Answer; They might be anywhere in the pine stand. We saw one cross the road out of here a couple days ago. Brandon was insistent that one of us needed to get that big tom because no one else had hunted him. OK, If you turkey hunt like we do, you’re getting the idea. We headed to the next tract. Deep draws with some cut over surrounded by near mature grain fields. Question to Brandon; Where do the turkeys roost. Answer; I don’t really know. He tells us that what he thinks we should do is set-up in the edge of the grain field at daylight and call to see what happens. And by the way, I need to tell you there is a corn pile at the bottom of the draw we put out for hogs. I’ll show it to you. Just know where it is so you don’t hunt over it (FLAG!) On the third tract, we could tell Brandon had no clue where the turkeys were or had been. He was just confident we would find them. He did say there was a big creek along the property line and the turkeys tend to be in the hardwoods on the other side. He indicated we had about 50 yards along the creek we could walk, but we’d have to call the birds off the hill and over the creek to us. We realized there was no need to ask more questions. Brandon was telling us what he knew about turkey conditions, and it wasn’t much. My partner and I decide to each take a tract and strike out at daylight and hope for a gobble. I took the “big tom” tract and my partner chose the deep draws. 5 hours we sat, listened, scouted and walked-n-talked with various calls. Not a turkey sound, not a feather and not a track for either of us. It rained the night before so we expected at least a track somewhere. None. We took a noon break and returned about 3:30 for four more hours till the sun went down. Same results. Not a sign. We changed tracts for the next morning and same thing. I walked on our 50 yard side of the creek and sat yelping occasionally. Not a gobble, track or turkey sound. We invested over 24 hours in the woods total. Look, we don’t mind hunting hard, but there has to be some evidence there’s a bird to hunt. We left Cribbs Creek without as much as a sound or sighting. A few days later, I called Brandon and left a message on his voice mail. Greg, the dad, called me back. Said Brandon was in class and didn’t want me to have to wait for a return call. I told him our experience and I was honest; that Brandon was not very knowledgeable about the turkey situation. As a result, we found ourselves blind calling hoping to pick up something. Greg seemed shocked that we saw or heard nothing. He reiterated that there are plenty of turkeys there. Said that’s why he doesn’t like to sell hunts without his guides (first I heard of that, heck, they sold us two!) He wasn’t mad or anything, just seemed shocked. He said it was his job to make us satisfied and asked what he could do to make it right. I told him I thought a 50% refund would be in order. He was reluctant at first, but then said if that’s what you think is fair, email me your contact information and I’ll send you a check for 50% of your hunts. I took his email and already had Brandon’s and I emailed the details. No check. I called Greg 3 weeks later and he answered with “you didn’t get a check yet?” I thought Brandon took care of that. I’ll get with Brandon when he gets in and see what happened.” 3 more weeks passed, still no check. I called and left a message. I expected that if Greg was going to honor his promise, he would have done so. He did not and I won’t be calling again. At the end of all this, If I could have read a detailed review like the one I’m writing, I would have chosen another outfitter. These folks seemed like nice people. But that’s not what you pay an outfitter for. You pay for the hard homework required to know the game and the current conditions. I conclude we did not get that. Look, birds and conditions change, but guides are at the least required to have the latest info. To add insult, we were made a promise by the owner to send a refund. Whether he agreed or not with our assessment of the service, he made a promise. And, he broke it. That speaks volumes. Decide for yourself.