Hello everyone, I'd like to take the time to write out a fair and honest review of my recent hunt with Southern Ohio Outfitters This hunt was booked in February of this year at the [redacted] Outdoors Show in [redacted] , PA My father and I were looking for a place to go on an archery hunt in Ohio and spoke to several Ohio based outfitters set up at the show One of the nicest table setups we saw was that of Southern Ohio Outfitters The owner, Dave L [redacted] was present and spoke to us He was polite, pleasant to speak to, and had all the right things to say He described the hunt options (or day), the lodges, and the general hunting itself Dave told us that they have a rate of over 90% for shot opportunities on [redacted] class bucks (125") but that they enforce a minimum of 130" for buck kills He said that many hunters there pass up bucks of that caliber and hold out for 140"+ bucks because they hold many bucks of that size there, and that several [redacted] t class bucks had been taken on his properties I asked about the number of hunters and Dave said that he has lodges and a bunkhouse that can be rented instead of staying at the lodge Dave said he liked to keep the number of hunters at no more than per lodge so that they didn't get overcrowded and they didn't overpressure the deer Dave described to us the amazing food plots and nice comfortable [redacted] treestands that he was placing out for the upcoming season Dave told us that they have tons of trail cameras running and that they place their clients where big bucks are showing up in daylight Dave's operation sounded great to my father and I so we went ahead in placing a deposit and reserving our spots for a day bowhunt from November 1st to November 5th, arriving on Halloween and leaving on November 6th Dave said we would be contacted at a later time to tell us which lodge we were staying in and to give us further instructionsOn October 26th I still had not heard anything from Southern Ohio Outfitters about where I was going or any other info so I called the office The woman I spoke to asked me my hunt dates and I told her that I was supposed to arrive in days on Halloween She then told me that they had not yet assigned lodges for those dates yet, which confused me because it was only days away She assured me that someone would call me within the next day to let me know where I was going October 26th, 27th, 28th, and 29th went by with no call from Southern Ohio Outfitters so I called on the 30th and told her that I needed to know where I was going because I was arriving the next day I was then told I was going to the [redacted] Lodge and I was given the addressHalloween came and my father and I left early in the morning for our hour drive to Ohio We arrived at the lodge at about 3:40PM and were greeted by a polite young man named Matt who is one of the guides Matt offered to help us unload everything and he then followed my father and I to the archery range while we took some test shots with our equipment Matt pulled arrows for us and told us what was on the itinerary for the night We then moved all of our stuff inside to the room where we would be staying The room looked like a non-permitted addition that was added onto the side of the lodge There was no foundation and that portion of the building was suspended in the air on 4x4’s The floor was nothing but sheets of plywood and there were no heating or cooling ducts run to the room There were windows with no blinds or curtains at all The door to enter the room from inside the lodge was an exterior door There were electric space heaters in the room and dead bugs all over the floor and the beds There were bunk beds in the room The frames were beautiful log frames, but the mattresses were just thin mattresses placed on top of sheets of plywoodAt 6PM we had dinner cooked by “Miss Jen”, who was very friendly She made pork chops that I actually enjoyed and I am not a fan of pork chops We were told that after dinner we would have an orientation on the rules and then would be assigned to guides and they would go over our hunting spots and show us trail cam picturesOrientation started with a roll call and at that time we realized there were hunters in camp They introduced us to the guides, went over safety, and then moved more into SOO rules, such as you will NOT use any deer scent, you will sit in your stand for days and you will NOT ask to move to a different stand, you will NOT question the guides, etc Following the orientation my father and I were assigned to Ben as our guide Ben advised us that we would both be hunting on wooded ridges and our walks in would be about and yards Ben told my father that there would be a corn pile out in front of his stand I asked about trailcam pictures and what bucks we could expect to see and Ben was honest and told me that they don’t really have trailcams up out in the hills where the people at our lodge would be hunting because they “can’t really get pictures of deer out there” Hearing that definitely disappointed me, but I was going to give it a chance The rest of the night was spent talking to the other hunters and figuring out how to split the bathrooms at the lodge between guysNovember 1st comes and it is day of our hunt and it is pouring rain Breakfast was a tray that contains pop tarts, nutri-grain bars, granola bars, honey buns, and assorted danish’s There was a loaf of bread and some lunch meat out on the counter so everyone could make themselves a sandwich to bring with them for lunch Ben drove us to the trails that lead to our stands and gave us directions on how to get to our stands The walks in were mostly walking on logging roads that go through the woods so it wasn’t too complicated to find the stands even in the dark I get to my stand and hook up my safety harness and then I have to screw in a holder for my bow and another screw in hook to hold my pack as there are none in the tree I recognize the stand I am sitting in as the cheapest ladder stand you can buy (sells for $at both [redacted] and [redacted] under different brand names) It is one with a metal grate seat that doesn’t flip or fold up, and a very small foot platform that is about the same length as my size boots I have a couple of those same stands on my properties at home, but they are strictly for gun season and I would never bowhunt out of them due to the small foot platform At that point I check the time and see that I still have about hours of sitting in the rain before the sun even starts to rise (yes they brought us to the stands over hours before dawn) hours later as the sun is starting to come up and I could start to see my surroundings I was left confused The stand was placed on the side of a hill partially down from a ridge so I am facing a ridgetop that seems like a likely travel route for deer, but because the stand was placed partially down from it I was exactly eye level with any animals walking on top of the ridge and there was hardly any cover around the stand If a deer walked that ridge top I would have been nothing but lucky if I could get to full draw without getting busted I see no deer during the morning and close to lunch time I end up seeing small bucks (point and point) that came to the ridge top about yards away and then walked away in the opposite direction of my stand I then saw another deer walking about yards down the hill below me right at dark but it was too thick and too far to see what it was I get down and walk out and get picked up by Ben and then we head to pick up my father My father gets in the truck and says he saw deer all day but it was too far to see what it was Ben asked if it looked like any deer had hit the corn pile and my father said no, and Ben responded “yeah we just put that out yesterday” Now here in [redacted] *** it is illegal to even feed deer, let alone bait them for hunting, but even I know that you can’t throw out a pile of corn expect deer to be coming in to it the next dayWe get back to camp and change out of our soaked through rain gear and Miss Jen had some meatloaf with her own sauce recipe that was really good Everyone began trading their experience from the day and several people had seen zero deer, so I figured I was lucky to have seen A kid there from Indiana said he was put in a stand on a cattle ranch and his stand was surrounded by black angus that were laying down right under his stand He said there was a corn pile yards from his stand that was fenced in so the cattle couldn’t eat it but they were all drawn to it He also said that there was a fixed rifle rest on his stand that doesn’t move or come off and he doesn’t think he can even draw his bow in the stand He complained about this to one of the guides and their response was that “the deer in Ohio don’t mind the cows and will still come in”, which caused everyone to look at each other in disgust because this was obviously not true Later in the night the hunters in camp were all talking about how they had not seen any trailcams at all during their walks to their stands and that their stand locations did not seem very good It was hard not to talk about this because there is a “hit list board” of trail cam pics on the wall of the lodge so we had to look at all the recent daylight pictures of big bucks that none of us were huntingDay of hunting comes and we are brought to the stands hours before daylight again During the ride Ben gave my father and I sets of rattling antlers and told us to try to rattle and grunt a bit to see if anything comes in During my all day sit I ended up seeing a spike and a doe, both during mid-day, that walked by quite a ways down the hill below me I get picked up by Ben after dark and then we pick up my father who says that a spike came in to the corn pile in front of his stand and then later a point and small point came in to the corn pile We get back to the lodge and Miss Jen has made some homemade noodles and chicken that was delicious We then find out that one of the hunters in camp shot a buck, but it was a 110” young pointer and it was shot at a feeder that is basically behind the lodge and in view of the lodge We also find out that more hunters had arrived at our lodge, bringing the total to After dinner it seemed like everyone was starting to get a little more brave with what they were saying around the guides The kid from Indiana had been placed in the same stand on the cattle ranch and was surrounded by the cattle all day again He said he contacted his guide hours before dark and told the guide to come get him because he was sick of watching and listening to the cows, but his guide would not go and pick him up Many of the other guys that saw zero deer in their all day sits then began complaining that there were no rubs, scrapes, deer trails, or any other signs of deer near their stands and they felt like they were basically wasting their time Other guys who had seen some deer were complaining that the stands were busted and every deer that came in the area was staring at them and then going the other way At that point one of the new guys who had just arrived to camp told us that his friend had just been there for a hunt not long ago and gave him the same exact story The guides then started picking up on the fact that people weren’t happy and they started making plans to move people to different stands Some of the guys then started looking online and found reviews saying that only the people at the Masters Lodge get to hunt the best spots and that the biggest deer on the properties get reserved for the owner’s friends and bigwig repeat customers They also found a review from of a guy complaining that he was there for a bowhunt and was stuck in a stand surrounded by cows that had a fixed rifle rest so he couldn’t even draw his bow, which was the exact predicament for the kid from Indiana on days and On day of hunting I was moved to a stand overlooking a corn pile that they had thrown down in a clear cut that they made off of the logging road, and my father was put in a stand overlooking a feeder When I went to get into the stand it was again a ladder stand, but actually worse than the one I had been in before The foot platform was actually a few inches shorter than my feet, and as the stand sunk into place the seat had bent upwards and was tilted down away from the tree about degrees In order to be able to sit in the stand I had to loosen the ratchet strap and forcefully push down on the seat to get it as straight as I could and then ratchet it back to the tree At daylight fawns came in and started feeding at the corn pile which was 30-yards away (near edge to far edge) At mid-day a spike came in and fed from the pile That was my action for the day I got picked up and then Ben picked up my father My father said he saw zero deer all day and nothing came in to the feeder but birds Back at camp Miss Jen had made some kind of baked spaghetti This was the first and only time I wasn’t impressed by her cooking, but I am from an Italian family and have an Italian wife that make some great Italian food, so that may be a bit of harsh competition for Miss Jen After dinner things started to boil over with the hunting clients The kid from Indiana who spent days watching cows spent his third day surrounded by people riding wheelers Other people were still not seeing deer Two of the three new guys in camp were put in stands that other guys had been moved out of after not seeing deer Nobody had seen a buck even meeting the 130” minimum as of yet One of the new guys to camp then told everyone that he got down while it was still a bit light out because he had not seen a deer the whole day and his walk out was about yards He said that he took a wrong turn and followed the wrong flagging tape on his way out and he ended up at a beautiful food plot where he saw bucks fighting and other bucks chasing does around, and that there was an empty tree stand right in front of where this action was happening Hearing that caused some of the guys to start questioning the guides about why we were all basically thrown on a mountain where they had no trail cams and no deer sign, and why we couldn’t hunt the food plots and hunt actual deer that they were getting pictures of like what they advertise They told us that the different lodges have different allotted stands and that the places we were wanting to hunt were basically off limits to us Someone asked the guides how many people were in each lodge and we were told they were split evenly, so we all surmised that between lodges and the bunkhouse that they were running about hunters per week on their operation The new guys to camp then decided that they were just wasting their time there and that they were going to pack up their stuff and leave immediately The guides then called Dave to tell him that basically everyone at our lodge was unhappy and that guys were leaving After that one of the hunters decided that he was going to call Dave L [redacted] and ask him some questions on speakerphone so everyone could hear He asked Dave why we were thrown in random stands on a mountain with no signs of deer and no trailcams and Dave responded “I’ve owned that land for years, I know those are good spots” The kid from Indiana then asked why he was put on a cattle farm with cows underneath him and Dave responded that one of the [redacted] class bucks was taken on that cattle ranch, to which another hunter in camp responded that the buck was taken by a muzzleloader hunter in January when the cattle were not in the field The hunter who called Dave then asked how many hunters Dave was booking for the season, and for some reason that seemed to set Dave off and Dave then said “you know what, you can leave, now” and he blamed the guy for the other who had already left The hunter told Dave it was a several hour drive home and he would leave in the morning after getting some rest so he can make it home safely to his family, and that if Dave wanted him to leave now just for asking how many hunters he books per year he would have to come in person and tell him to leaveAbout minutes later as everyone was outside after saying goodbye to the group of who left, pickup trucks that were both loaded up with young men pulled into the driveway of the camp The occupants of the trucks stayed in the trucks, which naturally was causing everyone to wonder what was going on and who they were One of the guides went out and talked to them and then came back and told us it was all guys that work for Dave One of the other guides was shaking his head at that time and apologizing to everyone in camp for everything that was going on About minutes later Dave arrived and then everyone got out of the trucks and walked inside in front of Dave The first guy who walked in was swinging his arms around like he was loosening up and getting ready for a fistfight They came in and sat down at the tables and just talked amongst each other and basically ignored all the hunters in camp Dave did speak to me briefly but asked about my hunting back home in NY and didn’t ask how my hunt was going there in Ohio After a while the whole crew of guys got up and walked out One of the hunters asked the guide if they were leaving and he said yes The kid from Indiana and the guy who Dave told to leave then said they couldn’t believe that he wouldn’t speak to them and they went outside to try and speak to him At that point I went to bed so I’m not sure what happenedWhen I woke up the next morning I was surprised to find out that there were now only total people left at the lodge (including myself and my father) out of the One of the older gentlemen who was in his 60’s was walking out when I woke up and telling the guides that even though he still had days left to hunt he was not going to stay there and have a heart attack over a bunch of young men coming in like they were going to fight and scaring him Ben apologized about the events the night before and said that he had gotten the okay to move my father and I to really good spots on food plots My spot was a food plot on a hilltop surrounded by woods with a corn pile yards straight in front of me and a trail cam (yes a trail cam, the first one I had seen at SOO) pointed at the corn pile I ended up seeing a year old pointer that will be a really nice buck in a couple years, a couple of spikes, and a couple of does The pointer came in to the corn at mid-day and came back to the plot chasing does and grunting just before dark I finally felt like I was in a good spot, even though the treestand was still one of the $ladder stands After getting picked up I found out my father saw some does and bucks as well but nothing big He said he was actually in one of the nice [redacted] stands overlooking the food plot and had a corn pile at yards and a mock scrape with a dripper at yards We got back to camp after our all day sit looking forward to our hot dinner, only to find out that there was none Apparently it was Miss Jen’s day off and Dave’s wife was supposed to come and cook dinner for our lodge, but something had come up and she couldn’t make it there The guides were apologetic and hastily trying to figure out what they were supposed to do to feed us At around 8:45PM we finally got our food They provided us with cold leftover meatloaf from one of the other lodges that we had to heat up in the microwave We spoke to the other hunter left in camp and he told us he had seen a decent buck but it was not 130” He also told us that the only reason he was still there was so when he wrote a bad review Dave could not use the excuse that he left earlyOur last day of our hunt was basically a repeat of the prior day We saw some smaller bucks chasing does but nothing to write home about My father did see what might have been a good buck, but it was during that hours before daylight that he was in the stand so he could barely make it out in the moonlight Miss Jen was back that night and made fried chicken that was really good, and there was plenty to go around with only of us in camp I spent the time after the hunt speaking with Ben and Matt and learned they were from Pennsylvania and North Carolina and that both do other guide work for other outfitters as well My father and I then packed everything up and packed up my truck so we could leave early the next morningThe next morning came and we headed out I was kind of surprised that with everything that happened Dave never once reached out to us, but the more I thought about his actions with showing up there with the group of people like they were going to fight their own clients the less surprised I was This was my experience at SOO, and probably needless to say at this point, I will definitely not be going back I would consider myself pretty thick skinned being a combat vet who has been in law enforcement for almost years now, and I understand being fed a crap sandwich, which was exactly what our poor guides were fed by Dave, so I have no hard feelings towards them and I hope they can gain the experience they need to learn from Dave’s mistakes and start their own operations that run smoother than Dave’s Something I also think is noteworthy is that hunters in our camp were posting on the Southern Ohio Outfitters [redacted] page saying that they were not seeing deer and Dave was deleting their comments and blocking them from the page, while they were still clients at camp Also Dave changed his [redacted] page type from business to community, so all his bad reviews disappeared and now you can no longer leave reviews That is the person that Dave L [redacted] is and that is the type of operation he is running Beware
Hello everyone, I'd like to take the time to write out a fair and honest review of my recent hunt with Southern Ohio Outfitters This hunt was booked in February of this year at the *** *** Outdoors Show in ***, PA My father and I were looking for a place to go on an archery hunt in Ohio and spoke to several Ohio based outfitters set up at the show One of the nicest table setups we saw was that of Southern Ohio Outfitters The owner, Dave L*** was present and spoke to us He was polite, pleasant to speak to, and had all the right things to say He described the hunt options (or day), the lodges, and the general hunting itself Dave told us that they have a rate of over 90% for shot opportunities on *** * *** class bucks (125") but that they enforce a minimum of 130" for buck kills He said that many hunters there pass up bucks of that caliber and hold out for 140"+ bucks because they hold many bucks of that size there, and that several *** * ***t class bucks had been taken on his properties I asked about the number of hunters and Dave said that he has lodges and a bunkhouse that can be rented instead of staying at the lodge Dave said he liked to keep the number of hunters at no more than per lodge so that they didn't get overcrowded and they didn't overpressure the deer Dave described to us the amazing food plots and nice comfortable *** treestands that he was placing out for the upcoming season Dave told us that they have tons of trail cameras running and that they place their clients where big bucks are showing up in daylight Dave's operation sounded great to my father and I so we went ahead in placing a deposit and reserving our spots for a day bowhunt from November 1st to November 5th, arriving on Halloween and leaving on November 6th Dave said we would be contacted at a later time to tell us which lodge we were staying in and to give us further instructionsOn October 26th I still had not heard anything from Southern Ohio Outfitters about where I was going or any other info so I called the office The woman I spoke to asked me my hunt dates and I told her that I was supposed to arrive in days on Halloween She then told me that they had not yet assigned lodges for those dates yet, which confused me because it was only days away She assured me that someone would call me within the next day to let me know where I was going October 26th, 27th, 28th, and 29th went by with no call from Southern Ohio Outfitters so I called on the 30th and told her that I needed to know where I was going because I was arriving the next day I was then told I was going to the *** *** Lodge and I was given the addressHalloween came and my father and I left early in the morning for our hour drive to Ohio We arrived at the lodge at about 3:40PM and were greeted by a polite young man named Matt who is one of the guides Matt offered to help us unload everything and he then followed my father and I to the archery range while we took some test shots with our equipment Matt pulled arrows for us and told us what was on the itinerary for the night We then moved all of our stuff inside to the room where we would be staying The room looked like a non-permitted addition that was added onto the side of the lodge There was no foundation and that portion of the building was suspended in the air on 4x4’s The floor was nothing but sheets of plywood and there were no heating or cooling ducts run to the room There were windows with no blinds or curtains at all The door to enter the room from inside the lodge was an exterior door There were electric space heaters in the room and dead bugs all over the floor and the beds There were bunk beds in the room The frames were beautiful log frames, but the mattresses were just thin mattresses placed on top of sheets of plywoodAt 6PM we had dinner cooked by “Miss Jen”, who was very friendly She made pork chops that I actually enjoyed and I am not a fan of pork chops We were told that after dinner we would have an orientation on the rules and then would be assigned to guides and they would go over our hunting spots and show us trail cam picturesOrientation started with a roll call and at that time we realized there were hunters in camp They introduced us to the guides, went over safety, and then moved more into SOO rules, such as you will NOT use any deer scent, you will sit in your stand for days and you will NOT ask to move to a different stand, you will NOT question the guides, etc Following the orientation my father and I were assigned to Ben as our guide Ben advised us that we would both be hunting on wooded ridges and our walks in would be about and yards Ben told my father that there would be a corn pile out in front of his stand I asked about trailcam pictures and what bucks we could expect to see and Ben was honest and told me that they don’t really have trailcams up out in the hills where the people at our lodge would be hunting because they “can’t really get pictures of deer out there” Hearing that definitely disappointed me, but I was going to give it a chance The rest of the night was spent talking to the other hunters and figuring out how to split the bathrooms at the lodge between guysNovember 1st comes and it is day of our hunt and it is pouring rain Breakfast was a tray that contains pop tarts, nutri-grain bars, granola bars, honey buns, and assorted danish’s There was a loaf of bread and some lunch meat out on the counter so everyone could make themselves a sandwich to bring with them for lunch Ben drove us to the trails that lead to our stands and gave us directions on how to get to our stands The walks in were mostly walking on logging roads that go through the woods so it wasn’t too complicated to find the stands even in the dark I get to my stand and hook up my safety harness and then I have to screw in a holder for my bow and another screw in hook to hold my pack as there are none in the tree I recognize the stand I am sitting in as the cheapest ladder stand you can buy (sells for $at both *** and *** under different brand names) It is one with a metal grate seat that doesn’t flip or fold up, and a very small foot platform that is about the same length as my size boots I have a couple of those same stands on my properties at home, but they are strictly for gun season and I would never bowhunt out of them due to the small foot platform At that point I check the time and see that I still have about hours of sitting in the rain before the sun even starts to rise (yes they brought us to the stands over hours before dawn) hours later as the sun is starting to come up and I could start to see my surroundings I was left confused The stand was placed on the side of a hill partially down from a ridge so I am facing a ridgetop that seems like a likely travel route for deer, but because the stand was placed partially down from it I was exactly eye level with any animals walking on top of the ridge and there was hardly any cover around the stand If a deer walked that ridge top I would have been nothing but lucky if I could get to full draw without getting busted I see no deer during the morning and close to lunch time I end up seeing small bucks (point and point) that came to the ridge top about yards away and then walked away in the opposite direction of my stand I then saw another deer walking about yards down the hill below me right at dark but it was too thick and too far to see what it was I get down and walk out and get picked up by Ben and then we head to pick up my father My father gets in the truck and says he saw deer all day but it was too far to see what it was Ben asked if it looked like any deer had hit the corn pile and my father said no, and Ben responded “yeah we just put that out yesterday” Now here in *** *** it is illegal to even feed deer, let alone bait them for hunting, but even I know that you can’t throw out a pile of corn expect deer to be coming in to it the next dayWe get back to camp and change out of our soaked through rain gear and Miss Jen had some meatloaf with her own sauce recipe that was really good Everyone began trading their experience from the day and several people had seen zero deer, so I figured I was lucky to have seen A kid there from Indiana said he was put in a stand on a cattle ranch and his stand was surrounded by black angus that were laying down right under his stand He said there was a corn pile yards from his stand that was fenced in so the cattle couldn’t eat it but they were all drawn to it He also said that there was a fixed rifle rest on his stand that doesn’t move or come off and he doesn’t think he can even draw his bow in the stand He complained about this to one of the guides and their response was that “the deer in Ohio don’t mind the cows and will still come in”, which caused everyone to look at each other in disgust because this was obviously not true Later in the night the hunters in camp were all talking about how they had not seen any trailcams at all during their walks to their stands and that their stand locations did not seem very good It was hard not to talk about this because there is a “hit list board” of trail cam pics on the wall of the lodge so we had to look at all the recent daylight pictures of big bucks that none of us were huntingDay of hunting comes and we are brought to the stands hours before daylight again During the ride Ben gave my father and I sets of rattling antlers and told us to try to rattle and grunt a bit to see if anything comes in During my all day sit I ended up seeing a spike and a doe, both during mid-day, that walked by quite a ways down the hill below me I get picked up by Ben after dark and then we pick up my father who says that a spike came in to the corn pile in front of his stand and then later a point and small point came in to the corn pile We get back to the lodge and Miss Jen has made some homemade noodles and chicken that was delicious We then find out that one of the hunters in camp shot a buck, but it was a 110” young pointer and it was shot at a feeder that is basically behind the lodge and in view of the lodge We also find out that more hunters had arrived at our lodge, bringing the total to After dinner it seemed like everyone was starting to get a little more brave with what they were saying around the guides The kid from Indiana had been placed in the same stand on the cattle ranch and was surrounded by the cattle all day again He said he contacted his guide hours before dark and told the guide to come get him because he was sick of watching and listening to the cows, but his guide would not go and pick him up Many of the other guys that saw zero deer in their all day sits then began complaining that there were no rubs, scrapes, deer trails, or any other signs of deer near their stands and they felt like they were basically wasting their time Other guys who had seen some deer were complaining that the stands were busted and every deer that came in the area was staring at them and then going the other way At that point one of the new guys who had just arrived to camp told us that his friend had just been there for a hunt not long ago and gave him the same exact story The guides then started picking up on the fact that people weren’t happy and they started making plans to move people to different stands Some of the guys then started looking online and found reviews saying that only the people at the Masters Lodge get to hunt the best spots and that the biggest deer on the properties get reserved for the owner’s friends and bigwig repeat customers They also found a review from of a guy complaining that he was there for a bowhunt and was stuck in a stand surrounded by cows that had a fixed rifle rest so he couldn’t even draw his bow, which was the exact predicament for the kid from Indiana on days and On day of hunting I was moved to a stand overlooking a corn pile that they had thrown down in a clear cut that they made off of the logging road, and my father was put in a stand overlooking a feeder When I went to get into the stand it was again a ladder stand, but actually worse than the one I had been in before The foot platform was actually a few inches shorter than my feet, and as the stand sunk into place the seat had bent upwards and was tilted down away from the tree about degrees In order to be able to sit in the stand I had to loosen the ratchet strap and forcefully push down on the seat to get it as straight as I could and then ratchet it back to the tree At daylight fawns came in and started feeding at the corn pile which was 30-yards away (near edge to far edge) At mid-day a spike came in and fed from the pile That was my action for the day I got picked up and then Ben picked up my father My father said he saw zero deer all day and nothing came in to the feeder but birds Back at camp Miss Jen had made some kind of baked spaghetti This was the first and only time I wasn’t impressed by her cooking, but I am from an Italian family and have an Italian wife that make some great Italian food, so that may be a bit of harsh competition for Miss Jen After dinner things started to boil over with the hunting clients The kid from Indiana who spent days watching cows spent his third day surrounded by people riding wheelers Other people were still not seeing deer Two of the three new guys in camp were put in stands that other guys had been moved out of after not seeing deer Nobody had seen a buck even meeting the 130” minimum as of yet One of the new guys to camp then told everyone that he got down while it was still a bit light out because he had not seen a deer the whole day and his walk out was about yards He said that he took a wrong turn and followed the wrong flagging tape on his way out and he ended up at a beautiful food plot where he saw bucks fighting and other bucks chasing does around, and that there was an empty tree stand right in front of where this action was happening Hearing that caused some of the guys to start questioning the guides about why we were all basically thrown on a mountain where they had no trail cams and no deer sign, and why we couldn’t hunt the food plots and hunt actual deer that they were getting pictures of like what they advertise They told us that the different lodges have different allotted stands and that the places we were wanting to hunt were basically off limits to us Someone asked the guides how many people were in each lodge and we were told they were split evenly, so we all surmised that between lodges and the bunkhouse that they were running about hunters per week on their operation The new guys to camp then decided that they were just wasting their time there and that they were going to pack up their stuff and leave immediately The guides then called Dave to tell him that basically everyone at our lodge was unhappy and that guys were leaving After that one of the hunters decided that he was going to call Dave L*** and ask him some questions on speakerphone so everyone could hear He asked Dave why we were thrown in random stands on a mountain with no signs of deer and no trailcams and Dave responded “I’ve owned that land for years, I know those are good spots” The kid from Indiana then asked why he was put on a cattle farm with cows underneath him and Dave responded that one of the *** * *** class bucks was taken on that cattle ranch, to which another hunter in camp responded that the buck was taken by a muzzleloader hunter in January when the cattle were not in the field The hunter who called Dave then asked how many hunters Dave was booking for the season, and for some reason that seemed to set Dave off and Dave then said “you know what, you can leave, now” and he blamed the guy for the other who had already left The hunter told Dave it was a several hour drive home and he would leave in the morning after getting some rest so he can make it home safely to his family, and that if Dave wanted him to leave now just for asking how many hunters he books per year he would have to come in person and tell him to leaveAbout minutes later as everyone was outside after saying goodbye to the group of who left, pickup trucks that were both loaded up with young men pulled into the driveway of the camp The occupants of the trucks stayed in the trucks, which naturally was causing everyone to wonder what was going on and who they were One of the guides went out and talked to them and then came back and told us it was all guys that work for Dave One of the other guides was shaking his head at that time and apologizing to everyone in camp for everything that was going on About minutes later Dave arrived and then everyone got out of the trucks and walked inside in front of Dave The first guy who walked in was swinging his arms around like he was loosening up and getting ready for a fistfight They came in and sat down at the tables and just talked amongst each other and basically ignored all the hunters in camp Dave did speak to me briefly but asked about my hunting back home in NY and didn’t ask how my hunt was going there in Ohio After a while the whole crew of guys got up and walked out One of the hunters asked the guide if they were leaving and he said yes The kid from Indiana and the guy who Dave told to leave then said they couldn’t believe that he wouldn’t speak to them and they went outside to try and speak to him At that point I went to bed so I’m not sure what happenedWhen I woke up the next morning I was surprised to find out that there were now only total people left at the lodge (including myself and my father) out of the One of the older gentlemen who was in his 60’s was walking out when I woke up and telling the guides that even though he still had days left to hunt he was not going to stay there and have a heart attack over a bunch of young men coming in like they were going to fight and scaring him Ben apologized about the events the night before and said that he had gotten the okay to move my father and I to really good spots on food plots My spot was a food plot on a hilltop surrounded by woods with a corn pile yards straight in front of me and a trail cam (yes a trail cam, the first one I had seen at SOO) pointed at the corn pile I ended up seeing a year old pointer that will be a really nice buck in a couple years, a couple of spikes, and a couple of does The pointer came in to the corn at mid-day and came back to the plot chasing does and grunting just before dark I finally felt like I was in a good spot, even though the treestand was still one of the $ladder stands After getting picked up I found out my father saw some does and bucks as well but nothing big He said he was actually in one of the nice *** stands overlooking the food plot and had a corn pile at yards and a mock scrape with a dripper at yards We got back to camp after our all day sit looking forward to our hot dinner, only to find out that there was none Apparently it was Miss Jen’s day off and Dave’s wife was supposed to come and cook dinner for our lodge, but something had come up and she couldn’t make it there The guides were apologetic and hastily trying to figure out what they were supposed to do to feed us At around 8:45PM we finally got our food They provided us with cold leftover meatloaf from one of the other lodges that we had to heat up in the microwave We spoke to the other hunter left in camp and he told us he had seen a decent buck but it was not 130” He also told us that the only reason he was still there was so when he wrote a bad review Dave could not use the excuse that he left earlyOur last day of our hunt was basically a repeat of the prior day We saw some smaller bucks chasing does but nothing to write home about My father did see what might have been a good buck, but it was during that hours before daylight that he was in the stand so he could barely make it out in the moonlight Miss Jen was back that night and made fried chicken that was really good, and there was plenty to go around with only of us in camp I spent the time after the hunt speaking with Ben and Matt and learned they were from Pennsylvania and North Carolina and that both do other guide work for other outfitters as well My father and I then packed everything up and packed up my truck so we could leave early the next morningThe next morning came and we headed out I was kind of surprised that with everything that happened Dave never once reached out to us, but the more I thought about his actions with showing up there with the group of people like they were going to fight their own clients the less surprised I was This was my experience at SOO, and probably needless to say at this point, I will definitely not be going back I would consider myself pretty thick skinned being a combat vet who has been in law enforcement for almost years now, and I understand being fed a crap sandwich, which was exactly what our poor guides were fed by Dave, so I have no hard feelings towards them and I hope they can gain the experience they need to learn from Dave’s mistakes and start their own operations that run smoother than Dave’s Something I also think is noteworthy is that hunters in our camp were posting on the Southern Ohio Outfitters *** page saying that they were not seeing deer and Dave was deleting their comments and blocking them from the page, while they were still clients at camp Also Dave changed his *** page type from business to community, so all his bad reviews disappeared and now you can no longer leave reviews That is the person that Dave L*** is and that is the type of operation he is running Beware
I had a hunt scheduled for Jan6-I paid $in advance at days before I was to leave my vehical brokedownI labored on for days with no successI let the Outfitter know of my issues and notified the State and they understood my hardship and refunded my hunting licence feesI have tried and tried or more times to have my money refunded and can't get a return callThe # that I was given and sent payment to is no longer in serviceTheir were no contracts signed and no services renderedI want my money back in full the $
Bad communication, bad lodging, terrible hunting, promises and promotes trophy bucks but have only killed a handful 100"-110" deer this year, with 99% of hunters never seeing a single deer / seeing a buck over 110"Buyer beware, do not waste your moneyLeft before my hunt was even completed, sad part was I wasn't even questioned as to why I was leavingThe guides knew, and everyone else in camp knew exactly why$down the drainOld cheap ladder stands in terrible stand locations, over pressured and over hunted spotsWill never be back even if it was free, would never recommend this place to others
My trip to Southern Ohio outfitters started a year ago in November of when we thought we had booked the trip of lifetime, boy were we shammedWe arrived on November 2, to a Square foot log cabin that had Atleast a dozen or so cars in the drivewayWe thought hey we must be the last ppl here Come to find out there were hunters there already and the Of us made people plus two guides staying in a lodge not suitable for pplWe were then split up and one placed in a already crowded room and the other two places in a un finished room made of ply wood, that was covered in bugs and two small space heaters for heatNo working smoke detectors as the cover was off with no batteries , also it had no outlet covers A very serious and dangerous situation for the simple fact we were staying in a wooden log cabin with multiple smokers in campmen shared two bathrooms that week so I couldn’t imagine if a woman was thereI am guessing the owner is a sexist because it
A group of recently paid ($each) for a 5-day deer hunt with Southern Ohio Outfitters located near Jackson OhioThe cook and our guide was very friendly and wanted to pleaseWhen we arrived we suddenly realized that we had been misinformed about several thingsThe cabin was very small and there were hunters in this small cabinThere were as many as people to a small bed roomAlso guides slept in the cabin as wellThree other hunters arrived days laterThe small cabin only had two bath rooms to accommodate peopleWe were not offered a hot breakfast in the morningsSmall pastries and granola bars were laid out on a table each morning for breakfastYou had to make and pack your own lunch unless you elected to come back in for lunchFor dinner, we were given a hot meal served on disposable plates and plastic silverwareThe food was good but you had better get what you wanted the first round, because there was not enough for secondsWith only two bath rooms those that showered last got into bed late and there was no chance to take a scent free shower in the morningWith that many people in the small cabin the sewer system was overloadedYou could smell it outside and the toilets would bubble when flushedThere was no safety discussion concerning the cabinAs far as I could see there was one way in and one way out (door)We could reach one of the fire alarms and it had no batteriesI never saw or was told where a fire extinguisher wasThis needs to be reported to the Ohio State Fire MarshallWith this many people in this small cabin you got very little rest at nightThe guides were friendly and tried to please but each guide had at least hunters each to accommodateThe first trip out in the morning those hunters got on stand hours before daylight making the day extremely long and tiringThe guides only got picture updates every weeksThere were no cameras capable of sending pictures on any of the stands at least that was what we were toldMy guide after talking to him the first evening and showing him the deer that our group had killed in the past said, “I am afraid I will not be able to satisfy any of you”We paid for this hunt to kill trophy bucks not 120” deerThe web page and photos indicated that Southern Ohio Outfitters had trophy bucksWe were informed just the day before we arrived that this would be one of the better weeks and if any of us saw a 150” deer the first day we should pass on itNo one, hunters in our cabin, even saw a 120” deer the entire trip let alone a trophy buckThe tree stands are old, uncomfortable, and dangerous to set inMost were not strategically locatedAnother group of in our cabin complained after the first day of hunting of not seeing any deer at allOne of our guys complained as well and asked to be put where they had pictures of big deer and the owner told our guy “to pack his *** and leave”The owner then called the other two cabins and had all those guides come to our cabin to intimidate usOne of our party packed up and went home thenThe following morning myself and others elected to go home rather than hunt anymoreI will soon be years old and paid for this trip to hunt, not to get my butt kicked by a bunch of 20-year old’sI took the time to write this review hoping to save others from spending a lot of money and timeSouthern Ohio Outfitters shammed usThey do not and cannot offer what they are advertisingI would never go there on a hunt again even if it was free, it’s simply a waste of time and hard-earned money
Paid for services not renderedBooked and paid for a day deer hunt and was told to leave after 3rd day of hunt by owner Dave L***His claim that I was disrupting other clients could not be validatedHe also used intimidation tactics by bring truck loads of employees in to our lodge until 2am of the 4th morning of the hunt as a show of force
Southern Ohio outfitters could be a great place to hunt if it had different managementof us hunted there between separate trips and none will returnHead guide is fresh out of guide school and is years oldOther guides are about the same age and know nothing of customer serviceSecond day of the hunt we didn't hunt the morning due to the torrential downpourNo word or plan from our guide9:our guide comes out from his room and leaves in his truckNo plans for usI had to track him down and tell him we were hunting since the rain stoppedHe mumbled under his breath about us and lied to me when I asked what he saidTold me he was hummingAfter the hunt I requested to speak with him and he agreedOnce back at the lodge he hid from me for the rest of our tripThe owner was reached via email after our trip about our concernsHe became defensive and belligerent while blaming us for their incompetenceThe owner demanded we remove all comments, or else, on *** after he started another argument thereClearly they are not capable of running a first class outfitWe were expecting to send more hunter their way but not now
Hello everyone, I'd like to take the time to write out a fair and honest review of my recent hunt with Southern Ohio Outfitters This hunt was booked in February of this year at the [redacted] Outdoors Show in [redacted] , PA My father and I were looking for a place to go on an archery hunt in Ohio and spoke to several Ohio based outfitters set up at the show One of the nicest table setups we saw was that of Southern Ohio Outfitters The owner, Dave L [redacted] was present and spoke to us He was polite, pleasant to speak to, and had all the right things to say He described the hunt options (or day), the lodges, and the general hunting itself Dave told us that they have a rate of over 90% for shot opportunities on [redacted] class bucks (125") but that they enforce a minimum of 130" for buck kills He said that many hunters there pass up bucks of that caliber and hold out for 140"+ bucks because they hold many bucks of that size there, and that several [redacted] t class bucks had been taken on his properties I asked about the number of hunters and Dave said that he has lodges and a bunkhouse that can be rented instead of staying at the lodge Dave said he liked to keep the number of hunters at no more than per lodge so that they didn't get overcrowded and they didn't overpressure the deer Dave described to us the amazing food plots and nice comfortable [redacted] treestands that he was placing out for the upcoming season Dave told us that they have tons of trail cameras running and that they place their clients where big bucks are showing up in daylight Dave's operation sounded great to my father and I so we went ahead in placing a deposit and reserving our spots for a day bowhunt from November 1st to November 5th, arriving on Halloween and leaving on November 6th Dave said we would be contacted at a later time to tell us which lodge we were staying in and to give us further instructionsOn October 26th I still had not heard anything from Southern Ohio Outfitters about where I was going or any other info so I called the office The woman I spoke to asked me my hunt dates and I told her that I was supposed to arrive in days on Halloween She then told me that they had not yet assigned lodges for those dates yet, which confused me because it was only days away She assured me that someone would call me within the next day to let me know where I was going October 26th, 27th, 28th, and 29th went by with no call from Southern Ohio Outfitters so I called on the 30th and told her that I needed to know where I was going because I was arriving the next day I was then told I was going to the [redacted] Lodge and I was given the addressHalloween came and my father and I left early in the morning for our hour drive to Ohio We arrived at the lodge at about 3:40PM and were greeted by a polite young man named Matt who is one of the guides Matt offered to help us unload everything and he then followed my father and I to the archery range while we took some test shots with our equipment Matt pulled arrows for us and told us what was on the itinerary for the night We then moved all of our stuff inside to the room where we would be staying The room looked like a non-permitted addition that was added onto the side of the lodge There was no foundation and that portion of the building was suspended in the air on 4x4’s The floor was nothing but sheets of plywood and there were no heating or cooling ducts run to the room There were windows with no blinds or curtains at all The door to enter the room from inside the lodge was an exterior door There were electric space heaters in the room and dead bugs all over the floor and the beds There were bunk beds in the room The frames were beautiful log frames, but the mattresses were just thin mattresses placed on top of sheets of plywoodAt 6PM we had dinner cooked by “Miss Jen”, who was very friendly She made pork chops that I actually enjoyed and I am not a fan of pork chops We were told that after dinner we would have an orientation on the rules and then would be assigned to guides and they would go over our hunting spots and show us trail cam picturesOrientation started with a roll call and at that time we realized there were hunters in camp They introduced us to the guides, went over safety, and then moved more into SOO rules, such as you will NOT use any deer scent, you will sit in your stand for days and you will NOT ask to move to a different stand, you will NOT question the guides, etc Following the orientation my father and I were assigned to Ben as our guide Ben advised us that we would both be hunting on wooded ridges and our walks in would be about and yards Ben told my father that there would be a corn pile out in front of his stand I asked about trailcam pictures and what bucks we could expect to see and Ben was honest and told me that they don’t really have trailcams up out in the hills where the people at our lodge would be hunting because they “can’t really get pictures of deer out there” Hearing that definitely disappointed me, but I was going to give it a chance The rest of the night was spent talking to the other hunters and figuring out how to split the bathrooms at the lodge between guysNovember 1st comes and it is day of our hunt and it is pouring rain Breakfast was a tray that contains pop tarts, nutri-grain bars, granola bars, honey buns, and assorted danish’s There was a loaf of bread and some lunch meat out on the counter so everyone could make themselves a sandwich to bring with them for lunch Ben drove us to the trails that lead to our stands and gave us directions on how to get to our stands The walks in were mostly walking on logging roads that go through the woods so it wasn’t too complicated to find the stands even in the dark I get to my stand and hook up my safety harness and then I have to screw in a holder for my bow and another screw in hook to hold my pack as there are none in the tree I recognize the stand I am sitting in as the cheapest ladder stand you can buy (sells for $at both [redacted] and [redacted] under different brand names) It is one with a metal grate seat that doesn’t flip or fold up, and a very small foot platform that is about the same length as my size boots I have a couple of those same stands on my properties at home, but they are strictly for gun season and I would never bowhunt out of them due to the small foot platform At that point I check the time and see that I still have about hours of sitting in the rain before the sun even starts to rise (yes they brought us to the stands over hours before dawn) hours later as the sun is starting to come up and I could start to see my surroundings I was left confused The stand was placed on the side of a hill partially down from a ridge so I am facing a ridgetop that seems like a likely travel route for deer, but because the stand was placed partially down from it I was exactly eye level with any animals walking on top of the ridge and there was hardly any cover around the stand If a deer walked that ridge top I would have been nothing but lucky if I could get to full draw without getting busted I see no deer during the morning and close to lunch time I end up seeing small bucks (point and point) that came to the ridge top about yards away and then walked away in the opposite direction of my stand I then saw another deer walking about yards down the hill below me right at dark but it was too thick and too far to see what it was I get down and walk out and get picked up by Ben and then we head to pick up my father My father gets in the truck and says he saw deer all day but it was too far to see what it was Ben asked if it looked like any deer had hit the corn pile and my father said no, and Ben responded “yeah we just put that out yesterday” Now here in [redacted] *** it is illegal to even feed deer, let alone bait them for hunting, but even I know that you can’t throw out a pile of corn expect deer to be coming in to it the next dayWe get back to camp and change out of our soaked through rain gear and Miss Jen had some meatloaf with her own sauce recipe that was really good Everyone began trading their experience from the day and several people had seen zero deer, so I figured I was lucky to have seen A kid there from Indiana said he was put in a stand on a cattle ranch and his stand was surrounded by black angus that were laying down right under his stand He said there was a corn pile yards from his stand that was fenced in so the cattle couldn’t eat it but they were all drawn to it He also said that there was a fixed rifle rest on his stand that doesn’t move or come off and he doesn’t think he can even draw his bow in the stand He complained about this to one of the guides and their response was that “the deer in Ohio don’t mind the cows and will still come in”, which caused everyone to look at each other in disgust because this was obviously not true Later in the night the hunters in camp were all talking about how they had not seen any trailcams at all during their walks to their stands and that their stand locations did not seem very good It was hard not to talk about this because there is a “hit list board” of trail cam pics on the wall of the lodge so we had to look at all the recent daylight pictures of big bucks that none of us were huntingDay of hunting comes and we are brought to the stands hours before daylight again During the ride Ben gave my father and I sets of rattling antlers and told us to try to rattle and grunt a bit to see if anything comes in During my all day sit I ended up seeing a spike and a doe, both during mid-day, that walked by quite a ways down the hill below me I get picked up by Ben after dark and then we pick up my father who says that a spike came in to the corn pile in front of his stand and then later a point and small point came in to the corn pile We get back to the lodge and Miss Jen has made some homemade noodles and chicken that was delicious We then find out that one of the hunters in camp shot a buck, but it was a 110” young pointer and it was shot at a feeder that is basically behind the lodge and in view of the lodge We also find out that more hunters had arrived at our lodge, bringing the total to After dinner it seemed like everyone was starting to get a little more brave with what they were saying around the guides The kid from Indiana had been placed in the same stand on the cattle ranch and was surrounded by the cattle all day again He said he contacted his guide hours before dark and told the guide to come get him because he was sick of watching and listening to the cows, but his guide would not go and pick him up Many of the other guys that saw zero deer in their all day sits then began complaining that there were no rubs, scrapes, deer trails, or any other signs of deer near their stands and they felt like they were basically wasting their time Other guys who had seen some deer were complaining that the stands were busted and every deer that came in the area was staring at them and then going the other way At that point one of the new guys who had just arrived to camp told us that his friend had just been there for a hunt not long ago and gave him the same exact story The guides then started picking up on the fact that people weren’t happy and they started making plans to move people to different stands Some of the guys then started looking online and found reviews saying that only the people at the Masters Lodge get to hunt the best spots and that the biggest deer on the properties get reserved for the owner’s friends and bigwig repeat customers They also found a review from of a guy complaining that he was there for a bowhunt and was stuck in a stand surrounded by cows that had a fixed rifle rest so he couldn’t even draw his bow, which was the exact predicament for the kid from Indiana on days and On day of hunting I was moved to a stand overlooking a corn pile that they had thrown down in a clear cut that they made off of the logging road, and my father was put in a stand overlooking a feeder When I went to get into the stand it was again a ladder stand, but actually worse than the one I had been in before The foot platform was actually a few inches shorter than my feet, and as the stand sunk into place the seat had bent upwards and was tilted down away from the tree about degrees In order to be able to sit in the stand I had to loosen the ratchet strap and forcefully push down on the seat to get it as straight as I could and then ratchet it back to the tree At daylight fawns came in and started feeding at the corn pile which was 30-yards away (near edge to far edge) At mid-day a spike came in and fed from the pile That was my action for the day I got picked up and then Ben picked up my father My father said he saw zero deer all day and nothing came in to the feeder but birds Back at camp Miss Jen had made some kind of baked spaghetti This was the first and only time I wasn’t impressed by her cooking, but I am from an Italian family and have an Italian wife that make some great Italian food, so that may be a bit of harsh competition for Miss Jen After dinner things started to boil over with the hunting clients The kid from Indiana who spent days watching cows spent his third day surrounded by people riding wheelers Other people were still not seeing deer Two of the three new guys in camp were put in stands that other guys had been moved out of after not seeing deer Nobody had seen a buck even meeting the 130” minimum as of yet One of the new guys to camp then told everyone that he got down while it was still a bit light out because he had not seen a deer the whole day and his walk out was about yards He said that he took a wrong turn and followed the wrong flagging tape on his way out and he ended up at a beautiful food plot where he saw bucks fighting and other bucks chasing does around, and that there was an empty tree stand right in front of where this action was happening Hearing that caused some of the guys to start questioning the guides about why we were all basically thrown on a mountain where they had no trail cams and no deer sign, and why we couldn’t hunt the food plots and hunt actual deer that they were getting pictures of like what they advertise They told us that the different lodges have different allotted stands and that the places we were wanting to hunt were basically off limits to us Someone asked the guides how many people were in each lodge and we were told they were split evenly, so we all surmised that between lodges and the bunkhouse that they were running about hunters per week on their operation The new guys to camp then decided that they were just wasting their time there and that they were going to pack up their stuff and leave immediately The guides then called Dave to tell him that basically everyone at our lodge was unhappy and that guys were leaving After that one of the hunters decided that he was going to call Dave L [redacted] and ask him some questions on speakerphone so everyone could hear He asked Dave why we were thrown in random stands on a mountain with no signs of deer and no trailcams and Dave responded “I’ve owned that land for years, I know those are good spots” The kid from Indiana then asked why he was put on a cattle farm with cows underneath him and Dave responded that one of the [redacted] class bucks was taken on that cattle ranch, to which another hunter in camp responded that the buck was taken by a muzzleloader hunter in January when the cattle were not in the field The hunter who called Dave then asked how many hunters Dave was booking for the season, and for some reason that seemed to set Dave off and Dave then said “you know what, you can leave, now” and he blamed the guy for the other who had already left The hunter told Dave it was a several hour drive home and he would leave in the morning after getting some rest so he can make it home safely to his family, and that if Dave wanted him to leave now just for asking how many hunters he books per year he would have to come in person and tell him to leaveAbout minutes later as everyone was outside after saying goodbye to the group of who left, pickup trucks that were both loaded up with young men pulled into the driveway of the camp The occupants of the trucks stayed in the trucks, which naturally was causing everyone to wonder what was going on and who they were One of the guides went out and talked to them and then came back and told us it was all guys that work for Dave One of the other guides was shaking his head at that time and apologizing to everyone in camp for everything that was going on About minutes later Dave arrived and then everyone got out of the trucks and walked inside in front of Dave The first guy who walked in was swinging his arms around like he was loosening up and getting ready for a fistfight They came in and sat down at the tables and just talked amongst each other and basically ignored all the hunters in camp Dave did speak to me briefly but asked about my hunting back home in NY and didn’t ask how my hunt was going there in Ohio After a while the whole crew of guys got up and walked out One of the hunters asked the guide if they were leaving and he said yes The kid from Indiana and the guy who Dave told to leave then said they couldn’t believe that he wouldn’t speak to them and they went outside to try and speak to him At that point I went to bed so I’m not sure what happenedWhen I woke up the next morning I was surprised to find out that there were now only total people left at the lodge (including myself and my father) out of the One of the older gentlemen who was in his 60’s was walking out when I woke up and telling the guides that even though he still had days left to hunt he was not going to stay there and have a heart attack over a bunch of young men coming in like they were going to fight and scaring him Ben apologized about the events the night before and said that he had gotten the okay to move my father and I to really good spots on food plots My spot was a food plot on a hilltop surrounded by woods with a corn pile yards straight in front of me and a trail cam (yes a trail cam, the first one I had seen at SOO) pointed at the corn pile I ended up seeing a year old pointer that will be a really nice buck in a couple years, a couple of spikes, and a couple of does The pointer came in to the corn at mid-day and came back to the plot chasing does and grunting just before dark I finally felt like I was in a good spot, even though the treestand was still one of the $ladder stands After getting picked up I found out my father saw some does and bucks as well but nothing big He said he was actually in one of the nice [redacted] stands overlooking the food plot and had a corn pile at yards and a mock scrape with a dripper at yards We got back to camp after our all day sit looking forward to our hot dinner, only to find out that there was none Apparently it was Miss Jen’s day off and Dave’s wife was supposed to come and cook dinner for our lodge, but something had come up and she couldn’t make it there The guides were apologetic and hastily trying to figure out what they were supposed to do to feed us At around 8:45PM we finally got our food They provided us with cold leftover meatloaf from one of the other lodges that we had to heat up in the microwave We spoke to the other hunter left in camp and he told us he had seen a decent buck but it was not 130” He also told us that the only reason he was still there was so when he wrote a bad review Dave could not use the excuse that he left earlyOur last day of our hunt was basically a repeat of the prior day We saw some smaller bucks chasing does but nothing to write home about My father did see what might have been a good buck, but it was during that hours before daylight that he was in the stand so he could barely make it out in the moonlight Miss Jen was back that night and made fried chicken that was really good, and there was plenty to go around with only of us in camp I spent the time after the hunt speaking with Ben and Matt and learned they were from Pennsylvania and North Carolina and that both do other guide work for other outfitters as well My father and I then packed everything up and packed up my truck so we could leave early the next morningThe next morning came and we headed out I was kind of surprised that with everything that happened Dave never once reached out to us, but the more I thought about his actions with showing up there with the group of people like they were going to fight their own clients the less surprised I was This was my experience at SOO, and probably needless to say at this point, I will definitely not be going back I would consider myself pretty thick skinned being a combat vet who has been in law enforcement for almost years now, and I understand being fed a crap sandwich, which was exactly what our poor guides were fed by Dave, so I have no hard feelings towards them and I hope they can gain the experience they need to learn from Dave’s mistakes and start their own operations that run smoother than Dave’s Something I also think is noteworthy is that hunters in our camp were posting on the Southern Ohio Outfitters [redacted] page saying that they were not seeing deer and Dave was deleting their comments and blocking them from the page, while they were still clients at camp Also Dave changed his [redacted] page type from business to community, so all his bad reviews disappeared and now you can no longer leave reviews That is the person that Dave L [redacted] is and that is the type of operation he is running Beware
Hello everyone, I'd like to take the time to write out a fair and honest review of my recent hunt with Southern Ohio Outfitters This hunt was booked in February of this year at the *** *** Outdoors Show in ***, PA My father and I were looking for a place to go on an archery hunt in Ohio and spoke to several Ohio based outfitters set up at the show One of the nicest table setups we saw was that of Southern Ohio Outfitters The owner, Dave L*** was present and spoke to us He was polite, pleasant to speak to, and had all the right things to say He described the hunt options (or day), the lodges, and the general hunting itself Dave told us that they have a rate of over 90% for shot opportunities on *** * *** class bucks (125") but that they enforce a minimum of 130" for buck kills He said that many hunters there pass up bucks of that caliber and hold out for 140"+ bucks because they hold many bucks of that size there, and that several *** * ***t class bucks had been taken on his properties I asked about the number of hunters and Dave said that he has lodges and a bunkhouse that can be rented instead of staying at the lodge Dave said he liked to keep the number of hunters at no more than per lodge so that they didn't get overcrowded and they didn't overpressure the deer Dave described to us the amazing food plots and nice comfortable *** treestands that he was placing out for the upcoming season Dave told us that they have tons of trail cameras running and that they place their clients where big bucks are showing up in daylight Dave's operation sounded great to my father and I so we went ahead in placing a deposit and reserving our spots for a day bowhunt from November 1st to November 5th, arriving on Halloween and leaving on November 6th Dave said we would be contacted at a later time to tell us which lodge we were staying in and to give us further instructionsOn October 26th I still had not heard anything from Southern Ohio Outfitters about where I was going or any other info so I called the office The woman I spoke to asked me my hunt dates and I told her that I was supposed to arrive in days on Halloween She then told me that they had not yet assigned lodges for those dates yet, which confused me because it was only days away She assured me that someone would call me within the next day to let me know where I was going October 26th, 27th, 28th, and 29th went by with no call from Southern Ohio Outfitters so I called on the 30th and told her that I needed to know where I was going because I was arriving the next day I was then told I was going to the *** *** Lodge and I was given the addressHalloween came and my father and I left early in the morning for our hour drive to Ohio We arrived at the lodge at about 3:40PM and were greeted by a polite young man named Matt who is one of the guides Matt offered to help us unload everything and he then followed my father and I to the archery range while we took some test shots with our equipment Matt pulled arrows for us and told us what was on the itinerary for the night We then moved all of our stuff inside to the room where we would be staying The room looked like a non-permitted addition that was added onto the side of the lodge There was no foundation and that portion of the building was suspended in the air on 4x4’s The floor was nothing but sheets of plywood and there were no heating or cooling ducts run to the room There were windows with no blinds or curtains at all The door to enter the room from inside the lodge was an exterior door There were electric space heaters in the room and dead bugs all over the floor and the beds There were bunk beds in the room The frames were beautiful log frames, but the mattresses were just thin mattresses placed on top of sheets of plywoodAt 6PM we had dinner cooked by “Miss Jen”, who was very friendly She made pork chops that I actually enjoyed and I am not a fan of pork chops We were told that after dinner we would have an orientation on the rules and then would be assigned to guides and they would go over our hunting spots and show us trail cam picturesOrientation started with a roll call and at that time we realized there were hunters in camp They introduced us to the guides, went over safety, and then moved more into SOO rules, such as you will NOT use any deer scent, you will sit in your stand for days and you will NOT ask to move to a different stand, you will NOT question the guides, etc Following the orientation my father and I were assigned to Ben as our guide Ben advised us that we would both be hunting on wooded ridges and our walks in would be about and yards Ben told my father that there would be a corn pile out in front of his stand I asked about trailcam pictures and what bucks we could expect to see and Ben was honest and told me that they don’t really have trailcams up out in the hills where the people at our lodge would be hunting because they “can’t really get pictures of deer out there” Hearing that definitely disappointed me, but I was going to give it a chance The rest of the night was spent talking to the other hunters and figuring out how to split the bathrooms at the lodge between guysNovember 1st comes and it is day of our hunt and it is pouring rain Breakfast was a tray that contains pop tarts, nutri-grain bars, granola bars, honey buns, and assorted danish’s There was a loaf of bread and some lunch meat out on the counter so everyone could make themselves a sandwich to bring with them for lunch Ben drove us to the trails that lead to our stands and gave us directions on how to get to our stands The walks in were mostly walking on logging roads that go through the woods so it wasn’t too complicated to find the stands even in the dark I get to my stand and hook up my safety harness and then I have to screw in a holder for my bow and another screw in hook to hold my pack as there are none in the tree I recognize the stand I am sitting in as the cheapest ladder stand you can buy (sells for $at both *** and *** under different brand names) It is one with a metal grate seat that doesn’t flip or fold up, and a very small foot platform that is about the same length as my size boots I have a couple of those same stands on my properties at home, but they are strictly for gun season and I would never bowhunt out of them due to the small foot platform At that point I check the time and see that I still have about hours of sitting in the rain before the sun even starts to rise (yes they brought us to the stands over hours before dawn) hours later as the sun is starting to come up and I could start to see my surroundings I was left confused The stand was placed on the side of a hill partially down from a ridge so I am facing a ridgetop that seems like a likely travel route for deer, but because the stand was placed partially down from it I was exactly eye level with any animals walking on top of the ridge and there was hardly any cover around the stand If a deer walked that ridge top I would have been nothing but lucky if I could get to full draw without getting busted I see no deer during the morning and close to lunch time I end up seeing small bucks (point and point) that came to the ridge top about yards away and then walked away in the opposite direction of my stand I then saw another deer walking about yards down the hill below me right at dark but it was too thick and too far to see what it was I get down and walk out and get picked up by Ben and then we head to pick up my father My father gets in the truck and says he saw deer all day but it was too far to see what it was Ben asked if it looked like any deer had hit the corn pile and my father said no, and Ben responded “yeah we just put that out yesterday” Now here in *** *** it is illegal to even feed deer, let alone bait them for hunting, but even I know that you can’t throw out a pile of corn expect deer to be coming in to it the next dayWe get back to camp and change out of our soaked through rain gear and Miss Jen had some meatloaf with her own sauce recipe that was really good Everyone began trading their experience from the day and several people had seen zero deer, so I figured I was lucky to have seen A kid there from Indiana said he was put in a stand on a cattle ranch and his stand was surrounded by black angus that were laying down right under his stand He said there was a corn pile yards from his stand that was fenced in so the cattle couldn’t eat it but they were all drawn to it He also said that there was a fixed rifle rest on his stand that doesn’t move or come off and he doesn’t think he can even draw his bow in the stand He complained about this to one of the guides and their response was that “the deer in Ohio don’t mind the cows and will still come in”, which caused everyone to look at each other in disgust because this was obviously not true Later in the night the hunters in camp were all talking about how they had not seen any trailcams at all during their walks to their stands and that their stand locations did not seem very good It was hard not to talk about this because there is a “hit list board” of trail cam pics on the wall of the lodge so we had to look at all the recent daylight pictures of big bucks that none of us were huntingDay of hunting comes and we are brought to the stands hours before daylight again During the ride Ben gave my father and I sets of rattling antlers and told us to try to rattle and grunt a bit to see if anything comes in During my all day sit I ended up seeing a spike and a doe, both during mid-day, that walked by quite a ways down the hill below me I get picked up by Ben after dark and then we pick up my father who says that a spike came in to the corn pile in front of his stand and then later a point and small point came in to the corn pile We get back to the lodge and Miss Jen has made some homemade noodles and chicken that was delicious We then find out that one of the hunters in camp shot a buck, but it was a 110” young pointer and it was shot at a feeder that is basically behind the lodge and in view of the lodge We also find out that more hunters had arrived at our lodge, bringing the total to After dinner it seemed like everyone was starting to get a little more brave with what they were saying around the guides The kid from Indiana had been placed in the same stand on the cattle ranch and was surrounded by the cattle all day again He said he contacted his guide hours before dark and told the guide to come get him because he was sick of watching and listening to the cows, but his guide would not go and pick him up Many of the other guys that saw zero deer in their all day sits then began complaining that there were no rubs, scrapes, deer trails, or any other signs of deer near their stands and they felt like they were basically wasting their time Other guys who had seen some deer were complaining that the stands were busted and every deer that came in the area was staring at them and then going the other way At that point one of the new guys who had just arrived to camp told us that his friend had just been there for a hunt not long ago and gave him the same exact story The guides then started picking up on the fact that people weren’t happy and they started making plans to move people to different stands Some of the guys then started looking online and found reviews saying that only the people at the Masters Lodge get to hunt the best spots and that the biggest deer on the properties get reserved for the owner’s friends and bigwig repeat customers They also found a review from of a guy complaining that he was there for a bowhunt and was stuck in a stand surrounded by cows that had a fixed rifle rest so he couldn’t even draw his bow, which was the exact predicament for the kid from Indiana on days and On day of hunting I was moved to a stand overlooking a corn pile that they had thrown down in a clear cut that they made off of the logging road, and my father was put in a stand overlooking a feeder When I went to get into the stand it was again a ladder stand, but actually worse than the one I had been in before The foot platform was actually a few inches shorter than my feet, and as the stand sunk into place the seat had bent upwards and was tilted down away from the tree about degrees In order to be able to sit in the stand I had to loosen the ratchet strap and forcefully push down on the seat to get it as straight as I could and then ratchet it back to the tree At daylight fawns came in and started feeding at the corn pile which was 30-yards away (near edge to far edge) At mid-day a spike came in and fed from the pile That was my action for the day I got picked up and then Ben picked up my father My father said he saw zero deer all day and nothing came in to the feeder but birds Back at camp Miss Jen had made some kind of baked spaghetti This was the first and only time I wasn’t impressed by her cooking, but I am from an Italian family and have an Italian wife that make some great Italian food, so that may be a bit of harsh competition for Miss Jen After dinner things started to boil over with the hunting clients The kid from Indiana who spent days watching cows spent his third day surrounded by people riding wheelers Other people were still not seeing deer Two of the three new guys in camp were put in stands that other guys had been moved out of after not seeing deer Nobody had seen a buck even meeting the 130” minimum as of yet One of the new guys to camp then told everyone that he got down while it was still a bit light out because he had not seen a deer the whole day and his walk out was about yards He said that he took a wrong turn and followed the wrong flagging tape on his way out and he ended up at a beautiful food plot where he saw bucks fighting and other bucks chasing does around, and that there was an empty tree stand right in front of where this action was happening Hearing that caused some of the guys to start questioning the guides about why we were all basically thrown on a mountain where they had no trail cams and no deer sign, and why we couldn’t hunt the food plots and hunt actual deer that they were getting pictures of like what they advertise They told us that the different lodges have different allotted stands and that the places we were wanting to hunt were basically off limits to us Someone asked the guides how many people were in each lodge and we were told they were split evenly, so we all surmised that between lodges and the bunkhouse that they were running about hunters per week on their operation The new guys to camp then decided that they were just wasting their time there and that they were going to pack up their stuff and leave immediately The guides then called Dave to tell him that basically everyone at our lodge was unhappy and that guys were leaving After that one of the hunters decided that he was going to call Dave L*** and ask him some questions on speakerphone so everyone could hear He asked Dave why we were thrown in random stands on a mountain with no signs of deer and no trailcams and Dave responded “I’ve owned that land for years, I know those are good spots” The kid from Indiana then asked why he was put on a cattle farm with cows underneath him and Dave responded that one of the *** * *** class bucks was taken on that cattle ranch, to which another hunter in camp responded that the buck was taken by a muzzleloader hunter in January when the cattle were not in the field The hunter who called Dave then asked how many hunters Dave was booking for the season, and for some reason that seemed to set Dave off and Dave then said “you know what, you can leave, now” and he blamed the guy for the other who had already left The hunter told Dave it was a several hour drive home and he would leave in the morning after getting some rest so he can make it home safely to his family, and that if Dave wanted him to leave now just for asking how many hunters he books per year he would have to come in person and tell him to leaveAbout minutes later as everyone was outside after saying goodbye to the group of who left, pickup trucks that were both loaded up with young men pulled into the driveway of the camp The occupants of the trucks stayed in the trucks, which naturally was causing everyone to wonder what was going on and who they were One of the guides went out and talked to them and then came back and told us it was all guys that work for Dave One of the other guides was shaking his head at that time and apologizing to everyone in camp for everything that was going on About minutes later Dave arrived and then everyone got out of the trucks and walked inside in front of Dave The first guy who walked in was swinging his arms around like he was loosening up and getting ready for a fistfight They came in and sat down at the tables and just talked amongst each other and basically ignored all the hunters in camp Dave did speak to me briefly but asked about my hunting back home in NY and didn’t ask how my hunt was going there in Ohio After a while the whole crew of guys got up and walked out One of the hunters asked the guide if they were leaving and he said yes The kid from Indiana and the guy who Dave told to leave then said they couldn’t believe that he wouldn’t speak to them and they went outside to try and speak to him At that point I went to bed so I’m not sure what happenedWhen I woke up the next morning I was surprised to find out that there were now only total people left at the lodge (including myself and my father) out of the One of the older gentlemen who was in his 60’s was walking out when I woke up and telling the guides that even though he still had days left to hunt he was not going to stay there and have a heart attack over a bunch of young men coming in like they were going to fight and scaring him Ben apologized about the events the night before and said that he had gotten the okay to move my father and I to really good spots on food plots My spot was a food plot on a hilltop surrounded by woods with a corn pile yards straight in front of me and a trail cam (yes a trail cam, the first one I had seen at SOO) pointed at the corn pile I ended up seeing a year old pointer that will be a really nice buck in a couple years, a couple of spikes, and a couple of does The pointer came in to the corn at mid-day and came back to the plot chasing does and grunting just before dark I finally felt like I was in a good spot, even though the treestand was still one of the $ladder stands After getting picked up I found out my father saw some does and bucks as well but nothing big He said he was actually in one of the nice *** stands overlooking the food plot and had a corn pile at yards and a mock scrape with a dripper at yards We got back to camp after our all day sit looking forward to our hot dinner, only to find out that there was none Apparently it was Miss Jen’s day off and Dave’s wife was supposed to come and cook dinner for our lodge, but something had come up and she couldn’t make it there The guides were apologetic and hastily trying to figure out what they were supposed to do to feed us At around 8:45PM we finally got our food They provided us with cold leftover meatloaf from one of the other lodges that we had to heat up in the microwave We spoke to the other hunter left in camp and he told us he had seen a decent buck but it was not 130” He also told us that the only reason he was still there was so when he wrote a bad review Dave could not use the excuse that he left earlyOur last day of our hunt was basically a repeat of the prior day We saw some smaller bucks chasing does but nothing to write home about My father did see what might have been a good buck, but it was during that hours before daylight that he was in the stand so he could barely make it out in the moonlight Miss Jen was back that night and made fried chicken that was really good, and there was plenty to go around with only of us in camp I spent the time after the hunt speaking with Ben and Matt and learned they were from Pennsylvania and North Carolina and that both do other guide work for other outfitters as well My father and I then packed everything up and packed up my truck so we could leave early the next morningThe next morning came and we headed out I was kind of surprised that with everything that happened Dave never once reached out to us, but the more I thought about his actions with showing up there with the group of people like they were going to fight their own clients the less surprised I was This was my experience at SOO, and probably needless to say at this point, I will definitely not be going back I would consider myself pretty thick skinned being a combat vet who has been in law enforcement for almost years now, and I understand being fed a crap sandwich, which was exactly what our poor guides were fed by Dave, so I have no hard feelings towards them and I hope they can gain the experience they need to learn from Dave’s mistakes and start their own operations that run smoother than Dave’s Something I also think is noteworthy is that hunters in our camp were posting on the Southern Ohio Outfitters *** page saying that they were not seeing deer and Dave was deleting their comments and blocking them from the page, while they were still clients at camp Also Dave changed his *** page type from business to community, so all his bad reviews disappeared and now you can no longer leave reviews That is the person that Dave L*** is and that is the type of operation he is running Beware
I had a hunt scheduled for Jan6-I paid $in advance at days before I was to leave my vehical brokedownI labored on for days with no successI let the Outfitter know of my issues and notified the State and they understood my hardship and refunded my hunting licence feesI have tried and tried or more times to have my money refunded and can't get a return callThe # that I was given and sent payment to is no longer in serviceTheir were no contracts signed and no services renderedI want my money back in full the $
Bad communication, bad lodging, terrible hunting, promises and promotes trophy bucks but have only killed a handful 100"-110" deer this year, with 99% of hunters never seeing a single deer / seeing a buck over 110"Buyer beware, do not waste your moneyLeft before my hunt was even completed, sad part was I wasn't even questioned as to why I was leavingThe guides knew, and everyone else in camp knew exactly why$down the drainOld cheap ladder stands in terrible stand locations, over pressured and over hunted spotsWill never be back even if it was free, would never recommend this place to others
My trip to Southern Ohio outfitters started a year ago in November of when we thought we had booked the trip of lifetime, boy were we shammedWe arrived on November 2, to a Square foot log cabin that had Atleast a dozen or so cars in the drivewayWe thought hey we must be the last ppl here Come to find out there were hunters there already and the Of us made people plus two guides staying in a lodge not suitable for pplWe were then split up and one placed in a already crowded room and the other two places in a un finished room made of ply wood, that was covered in bugs and two small space heaters for heatNo working smoke detectors as the cover was off with no batteries , also it had no outlet covers A very serious and dangerous situation for the simple fact we were staying in a wooden log cabin with multiple smokers in campmen shared two bathrooms that week so I couldn’t imagine if a woman was thereI am guessing the owner is a sexist because it
A group of recently paid ($each) for a 5-day deer hunt with Southern Ohio Outfitters located near Jackson OhioThe cook and our guide was very friendly and wanted to pleaseWhen we arrived we suddenly realized that we had been misinformed about several thingsThe cabin was very small and there were hunters in this small cabinThere were as many as people to a small bed roomAlso guides slept in the cabin as wellThree other hunters arrived days laterThe small cabin only had two bath rooms to accommodate peopleWe were not offered a hot breakfast in the morningsSmall pastries and granola bars were laid out on a table each morning for breakfastYou had to make and pack your own lunch unless you elected to come back in for lunchFor dinner, we were given a hot meal served on disposable plates and plastic silverwareThe food was good but you had better get what you wanted the first round, because there was not enough for secondsWith only two bath rooms those that showered last got into bed late and there was no chance to take a scent free shower in the morningWith that many people in the small cabin the sewer system was overloadedYou could smell it outside and the toilets would bubble when flushedThere was no safety discussion concerning the cabinAs far as I could see there was one way in and one way out (door)We could reach one of the fire alarms and it had no batteriesI never saw or was told where a fire extinguisher wasThis needs to be reported to the Ohio State Fire MarshallWith this many people in this small cabin you got very little rest at nightThe guides were friendly and tried to please but each guide had at least hunters each to accommodateThe first trip out in the morning those hunters got on stand hours before daylight making the day extremely long and tiringThe guides only got picture updates every weeksThere were no cameras capable of sending pictures on any of the stands at least that was what we were toldMy guide after talking to him the first evening and showing him the deer that our group had killed in the past said, “I am afraid I will not be able to satisfy any of you”We paid for this hunt to kill trophy bucks not 120” deerThe web page and photos indicated that Southern Ohio Outfitters had trophy bucksWe were informed just the day before we arrived that this would be one of the better weeks and if any of us saw a 150” deer the first day we should pass on itNo one, hunters in our cabin, even saw a 120” deer the entire trip let alone a trophy buckThe tree stands are old, uncomfortable, and dangerous to set inMost were not strategically locatedAnother group of in our cabin complained after the first day of hunting of not seeing any deer at allOne of our guys complained as well and asked to be put where they had pictures of big deer and the owner told our guy “to pack his *** and leave”The owner then called the other two cabins and had all those guides come to our cabin to intimidate usOne of our party packed up and went home thenThe following morning myself and others elected to go home rather than hunt anymoreI will soon be years old and paid for this trip to hunt, not to get my butt kicked by a bunch of 20-year old’sI took the time to write this review hoping to save others from spending a lot of money and timeSouthern Ohio Outfitters shammed usThey do not and cannot offer what they are advertisingI would never go there on a hunt again even if it was free, it’s simply a waste of time and hard-earned money
Paid for services not renderedBooked and paid for a day deer hunt and was told to leave after 3rd day of hunt by owner Dave L***His claim that I was disrupting other clients could not be validatedHe also used intimidation tactics by bring truck loads of employees in to our lodge until 2am of the 4th morning of the hunt as a show of force
Southern Ohio outfitters could be a great place to hunt if it had different managementof us hunted there between separate trips and none will returnHead guide is fresh out of guide school and is years oldOther guides are about the same age and know nothing of customer serviceSecond day of the hunt we didn't hunt the morning due to the torrential downpourNo word or plan from our guide9:our guide comes out from his room and leaves in his truckNo plans for usI had to track him down and tell him we were hunting since the rain stoppedHe mumbled under his breath about us and lied to me when I asked what he saidTold me he was hummingAfter the hunt I requested to speak with him and he agreedOnce back at the lodge he hid from me for the rest of our tripThe owner was reached via email after our trip about our concernsHe became defensive and belligerent while blaming us for their incompetenceThe owner demanded we remove all comments, or else, on *** after he started another argument thereClearly they are not capable of running a first class outfitWe were expecting to send more hunter their way but not now