Wayne HIll Outfitting Poor Hunting Guide Noxon Montana

I respectfully disagree with Gary from Texas. Wayne HILL Outfitting is a first class Outfitter. I’ve hunted with Wayne HILL three times, and I’ve killed a bull each time. Wayne has good clean equipment, a beautiful lodge, plenty of hot food, and a great hunting area. My guide each time has been Ray HILL. Ray is not only a great guide, but he is the best woodsman I’ve ever hunted with.

 I was on the same hunt with Gary. It was a five day rifle hunt in Idaho. Just prior to our arrival the area got hit with an arctic blast, and it left about four inches of snow. The snow was difficult to walk in. I was into elk the first three days. On day three I hit a bull elk. Ray and I tracked the bull for several hours. We went back on day four to see if we could recover the bull, but we had no luck. On day five it was cold and rainy, but Ray still tried his hardest to find me a bull. Finally we found fresh tracks. I killed a 5 X 5 in the final hours. Ray called for the other guides, and we packed out my bull in one trip. Four out of five days I was into elk. Ray and I hunted every day and all day. We left the lodge around 0530, and we didn’t get back until well after dark.

To hunt with Wayne you have to be good shape, and more importantly you have to be mentally tough to hunt the steep mountains of Montana and Idaho. Gary, I’m sorry but you did not seem to be ready to hunt Idaho physically or mentally.  I’m not sure about Jason, but after five days of hunting you see a huge Mule deer, and you don’t shoot? Also Wayne does not guide in Colorado.

 Does Wayne curse? Yes. But once you get to know Wayne he’s a super nice guy. Then you realize he’s only trying to get his hunter the best opportunity.  I would go hunting with Wayne anytime. If I can get out of work I'll go this year.

ya you flat landers dont know how to hunt or shoot a rifle i am 12 and i hunt those mountians easily without complaining its not his fault that you dont like cursing how about you stick to baiting and sitting in a tree

"Old fashioned way by truck and by foot."  Are you kidding me?  You call that old fashion?  Gee, wish I had a truck to poach elk by, then sneak up on a cliff for a long shot?  If you're going to criticize something you know nothing about (because you weren't there), then you've spent too much time in the mountain thin air.  If you're truly from Texas, know anything about Dr. Deer, Texas Trophy Hunters Magazine, North American Whitetail experts, then you should know the difficulty in taking a B & C or P & Y buck.  Have you ever attended Deer School taught by Prof. Kroll?  Didn't think so.  What about all the hunters who hunt crop fields, water, or study deer movement and place their stands accordingly?  Is that like a feeder? 

Do you hunt with a rifle or compound bow?  Is that "old fashioned" too?

Your criticism of you state legal hunting folks is outlandish.  Why don't you move to Wyoming and be in the snow and cold all the time, or would you give up like you did on your elk hunt?  No more sucking up to Wayne, okay?

I too hired Wayne Hill Outfitting to guide myself and my father to elk and mule deer hunt in Colorado. Annette was not kidding when she said to show up in shape, because the terrain is UNREAL. If you are not in shape, do not hunt with this outfit. I will say there are some similarities between the trip my dad and I had to the trip that Gary is complaining about. I struggled whether to take the time to write this report or not, but I would want to know more about the outfitter if I were to do it again.

Wayne is extremely foul mouthed. While my dad and I are not Saint's we didn't expect to be greeted by Wayne at the front door with, "Don't let you're f*#(ing suitcase scratch my f*#)ing wood floors. You're both in room # 8." The language got worse from there. It is definitley not a place I would take my wife to be exposed to language that is spoke that often as normal. The lodge was nice, with incredible mounts all over the walls and living space. It can be a little noisy if you are in room 8 because the living room is right below you and if the guides are other hunters have been drinking, they can get rather loud.

We had James and Chuck as our guides. James was my guide and is a younger guide that doesn't have a ton of experience. In fact, I learned on the last day of my hunt that James had never actually killed an elk himself and killed his first mule deer in 2009. He's a good kid, but he did smoke while we were in the truck on the way to the designated hunting area. The window was rolled partially down most of the time, but on occasion it was up. There were a few occasions where he smoked while we were hiking the game trails. I was gasping for breath trying to keep up with him and when I finally did I asked him, "How can you do that? I'm dying and your'e able to smoke. Don't the animals smell that?" His reply was, "We are playing the wind." I didn't buy it, but he knew where the truck was, so I kept my disapproval to myself. For the most part I held my own with James and was for the most part able to keep up. But like Gary we two did not start hunting any of the days we were out until 30+ minutes after daylight. We were never out of the truck 30 minutes after daylight and usually the call of nature hit James right after we got there and we were another 10 minutes late by the time he finished his business. We did see 1 elk on the second day, a calf, but she busted the rest of the herd getting away from us before we could get over to them. Whether it was our smell, smoke or sweat, or them seeing us, I don't know. That same day we say a mule deer doe, but she was on the move. 3 other days we had animals that you could here busting through the trees, but never saw because they smelled us. Contribute that to what you will, but I am a firm believer you don't smoke in the clothes you are going to hunt in, regardless if you are playing the wind. My dad kept up with Chuck and never stopped unless Chuck did, but I will say my dad (age 63) looked like a whipped dog after the first days hunt. One of the guys in the party killed a 5x5 opening morning, so James went to help pack it out. I was left without a guide so Chuck and I had dad sit on a point overlooking a clearing in hopes Chuck and I could push something his way. After walking down a flat trail for a couple of miles, getting closer to dad, we ran into some brush, so Chuck said let's go back. He wouldn't go through the brush to try to scare something towards dad. The second day after we all got back to the truck we decided to go look over a large burn area. We didn't see anything, but when we got back to the lodge, Chuck got royally rheemed by Whayne for wasting diesel. Dad and I looked at each other and said, I thought the whole point of them guiding us is to try to kill an animal. We appreciated that Chuck and James were trying to locate an animal in a different location.

The last day of the hunt, is what ultimately brought me to write this report. I was tired and whipped from 4 previous days of hunting hard. We were halfway up what has to be the worst mountain in Idaho and we had another animal bust out of the brush before we could see what it was. James and I sat down on a log and glassed an opening for a while hopeing to see whatever it was that made all the noise. We never saw it so we continued on the trail. About 100 yards further up the trail I heard antlers raking on a tree, so I stopped to listen. James never heard it and he, like Gary mentions has a bad habit of getting out in front of me. I got James attention, as he was 20 yards ahead of me and talked as lowly as I could, and asked him if he heard that. He shrugged his shoulders, so I pointed at a tree and motioned my head like I was rubbing it on a tree. He smiled and nodded like he had heard it. Come to find out later he thought I was pointing out 1 of 5000 rubs on the side of this mountain. Another 200 yards or so up the mountain James spotted a mule deer doe 50 yards from us on the trail. At this point I wanted to shoot her to have something to show for my efforts, but she wasn't in season yet. She moved on off the trail, so we proceeded on. When we got about even to where she was, I started to put 2 & 2 together and realized there's got to be a buck around here somewhere. I stopped and James kept walking. I started looking around and I finally saw the tail twitch about 50 yards ahead of us. I started trying to get James attention again, but he was a good 20 yards ahead of me. I whispered, "James, James." Then picked up a stick to throw it at him, but when I rared back to throw it at him the animal that moved stood up and I thought it was a bull elk and I dropped the stick. The animal walked a few steps away from us and turned back and looked and that's when I realized it was a huge mule deer buck. I started trying to whistle to get James attention, but was so excited I couldn't get my lips together to make the sound. NIGHTMARE!!!! I finally got the sound out to James and got him stopped. He looked back and I told him to stop. He did and I raised my gun and found the buck looking at me in my crosshairs with his neck exposed from behind a tree. I was going to have to shoot right past James so I made sure he was still where he had stopped, behind a tree and out of sight to the deer. So I clicked the gun off of safety and started to squeeze the trigger. James head appears in my scope. I nearly lost it. I nearly blew my guides head off and at that point started cussing like Wayne Hill for him to get out of the way, I nearly shot you. I told him to go to the left and he did, but he stepped out from behind the tree that was concealing him from the buck and the buck started to bolt. I threw my gun back up in the air, but didn't get the shot off in time and I couldn't swing on the deer, because it would have put James right back into the line of fire again. I missed, plain and simple, at a running target that I couldn't swing on. I WAS MAD. Partially because I nearly blew my guides head off and partially because my guide stepped between me and a legitimate 30" mule deer. After we looked for blood or hair and confirmed that I didn't hit the animal, I told him to get me off the mountain I was ready to go home. I was shook up, physically and emotionally exhausted and was looking forward to going back home. I will not be a repeat client for Wayne Hill Outfitting, although he gets several repeat customers. But of the total 9 clients there, 3 bulls were killed and one of them was by driving the animals out of the brush. There were also other clients hunting that were repeat clients that said they would not be coming back either, one that killed one of the 3 elk of the week. Even if I had killed the mule deer, I would not come back either. When I do go back, it will be me and my dad and no outfitter. He and I have the experience not to step in front of a loaded gun.

Also speaking of Gary's experience of the guides going balls to the wall up and down the mountains, instead of stalking, this was mine and my dad's experience as well. The animals we did see, we were stopped and looking. I am convinced we walked past several animals, that waited until we past and then got out of dodge. I've got no complaints about beer, because I didn't bring any. I had enough of a hard time keeping up with James as it was, I didn't need anything else weighing me down. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing James. He's a great kid, but he was trained to hunt the way he does and that smoking on a trail doesn't matter, and hauling butt trying to bust something out of the brush is the only way, and that not getting out before daylight into the woods, is all ok. In closing this long winded report I will repeat what my dad told me on the 3rd day of our hunt, "We've been had."

What passes for "hunting" in Texas. They put out a deer feeder for months in advance of deer season. After ol' bambi gets use to getting deer corn, they lay in wait and blast away. That's real sport.

Last time I went to Wyoming to hunt elk, after three days of humpin' hills, the afternoon before we left, I spotted a large bull. I didn't feel like shooting him. What with 28" of snow on the groung and 20 degree weather and 40 mph winds.

I wasn't up to dressing him out and humpin him down the mountain. But that's a different way of hunting. We were gonna rent a bell ranger to get us in and out but passed due to the weather and did it the old fashion way. By truck and by foot. I think they call them flatlanders.

There was no time set for him to come back. And since I am physically at the lodge from 4:30 am until 7:30 pm, I know that most days they did not return to the lodge until well after 5 pm. And since I cook their breakfast, I know what time they left to go hunting, and they left before 6 am, every day.Gary could not physically hunt after 11:am. Complained he couldn't handle any more walking every day. He is from the flat land. We are not.

The week before his hunt we took 8 elk for 8 clients.The week of his hunt we had three clients; one client took one very large 4x4 bull, shown on our website, one passed on two bulls, and then there was Gary. When the guides tried to get him to go where he needed to be to get into elk, he refused, saying he didn't want to go any further.

It is true we walk up and down the mountains, that's all there is here. There are no open fields, no big wallows to sit over. The two other hunters here were doing a film on our outfit, and the feature did air on national television, with the host of the show having nothing but good to say about us. We feel Gary is unhappy because he did not kill and elk.

Not everybody does, that's why we call it hunting. He did however go to a game farm and kill a deer and sent us a picture. We were impressed. The young man that guided Gary doesn't smoke. He is also a very good guide and has produced many elk and opportunities for our clients. The same guides as named on our website under our archery reports were the guides that guided Gary.

One can read the reports and see that he is the only one that thinks this way about our guides. This is the first I've heard anything about beer. I didn't know preacher Gary even drank beer. I didn't see him with any, but if the guides took his beer, it was because they didn't realize it was his. Everybody puts their beer in the same refridgerator. Maybe he drank some of theirs as well. The way you hunt depends on the area you hunt. We don't hunt the same in Montana, and Northern Idaho as you do in Texas, Wyoming, or even Colorado.

Since we have a very high success ratio we feel the methods we use are very effective.