Musselshell Outfitters

note: The following reviews predate the numeric rating system and are not included in this outfitter's overall rating.

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outfitter review submitted by: Mike O'Connell on Sep 16 2005

Species Hunted: Elk/Deer

Game Quality: Large

Accommodation Quality: Verygood

Camp Condition: Verygood

Food Quality: Great

Guide Experience: Very Good

Other Personal Experience: Cook was four star!

Overall Impression: Excellent

Recommend: Yes

Reviewer Comments: Had big bull and deer action just about everyday. And the last half of the week was 95+out. Almost had a shot on two three fifty class bulls. Don't believe a word of the negative review's. This guy has a first class operation with plenty of animals. I hunted and shot Elk in unit 12 Colorado for years and never seen anything like at Randy's place. (Know wonder Chuck Adams took the last two world record's out of the same area!). The guy has sniper like tree stand set up's and invisable ground blind's. I had plenty of action but went there for one reason. To shoot a giant, and almost did. One guy in camp shot a solid 340 and another fellow choked on a five by. One of the other guy's knicked a absolute brute. If your after four hundred class bulls at a reasonable price forget NM/AZ the Bull Mountains of Montana has them. That's why I'm going back! I almost arrowed one. Randy's has a ton of property and don't let those guy's fool you on his public ground's either that's awesome property to. Limited access make's it public/private. If you spoke with these guy's that did not like Musselshell. You'll find that they compare it to penned hunt's sorry boy's that's not hunting. If your looking for the best kept big bull honey whole there is, Randy, sitting in the middle of it. Make know mistake about it these are wild animal's you have to hunt for them. These aren't penned up pet's. Musselshell out fitters is a first class operation with a professional ans friendly staff. I highly reccomend it.

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outfitter review submitted by: Ken Jackson on Mar 21 2005

Species Hunted: elk

Game Quality: very poor

Accommodation Quality: fair

Camp Condition: fair

Food Quality: fair

Guide Experience: fair

Other Personal Experience: FAIR

Overall Impression: extremely poor

Recommend: UNDER NO CONDITION.

Reviewer Comments: Randy either paid his references to lie about his operation or he had lost his good leases after they hunted with him. This was supposed to be a 90% shot success on trophy bulls for the past five years. Of the six hunters in camp only four cow elk were seen on his leases. The hunters were driven up to a tree stand(at a water tank) at 5:00 each morning and left until noon when the guide drove back up to the stand and took you to camp. These stands were for the most part located in wide open fields. We were taken back to a stand about 4:00 and left until after dark. The end results were: NO ELK WERE SHOT, NO ELK WERE SHOT AT, ALL SIX HUNTERS(FOUR OF US HAD ARCHERY HUNTED FOR ELK FOR SEVERAL YEARS) VOWED TO NEVER HUNT WITH HIM AGAIN. The group who came in next had an even worse expericnce than we did, they went to the trouble of contacting us to tell us about their experience.

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outfitter review submitted by: DeWayne Walling on Feb 10 2005

Species Hunted: Mule Deer

Game Quality: Below Advertised

Accommodation Quality: Tent Camp

Camp Condition: Good

Food Quality: Very Good

Guide Experience: N/A

Other Personal Experience: Good

Overall Impression: Terrible

Recommend: NO

Reviewer Comments: They advertise 25"-28" Mule deer are average. Out of 6 hunters, one deer was 26". Mine was second at 23", everyone else was well below that. We all shot the biggest deer we saw. The so called experienced guides consisted of 2 months of pre-season walking around the property observing the game. Two of the three "guides" had never hunted Mule deer before. They were all from the midwest looking for an adventure in the west. We later found out the reason for the guides pressuring us to shoot the first 4 point we saw, they had a contest going between them to see who could tag out their hunter first. Randy advertised you could Turkey hunt after you tag out. When I ask to go turkey hunting, he said he didn't really have a place, but I could go walk around on some state land and see if I could find one. I did not see any Elk nor any Elk sign, so I ask the guides how was Elk Season. They laughed and said out of 32 hunters, one guy got a shot. Randy was late picking me up and the motel in Billings. When he did get there, we stopped at Walmart where he said if I want anything to drink beside water or cool-aid, I needed to buy it myself. Two of our hunters were there for Whitetail. They were furious upon arriving at camp to find out that Randy lost the lease on his Whitetail ranch way back in the summer. Thing is, he failed to call and tell them. If you are interested in shooting a mule deer and don't care if it's smaller than some of our South Texas Whitetail, then go ahead a book with them. But if you want one in the 25"-28" range, go elsewhere.

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outfitter review submitted by: Warren Fane on Feb 3 2005

Species Hunted: Elk

Game Quality: None on property

Accommodation Quality: Good

Camp Condition: Guide's own truck

Food Quality: Good

Guide Experience: First season guiding

Other Personal Experience: Not impressed

Overall Impression: Total Rip-Off

Recommend: No Way

Reviewer Comments: The hunt was nothing like I was told it would be by Randy Higgins.I have filed a complaint on Higgins with the Montana Board of Labor.I encourage anyone else who was TAKEN by Higgins to do the same.From what I understand he has FOOLED alot of hunters.Do Not Book with this guy!

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outfitter review submitted by: Sam Fleiger on Feb 2 2005

Species Hunted: elk, deer, turkey

Game Quality: average to excellent

Accommodation Quality: nice and comfortable

Camp Condition: excellent

Food Quality: always looked forward to meal

Guide Experience: excellent

Other Personal Experience: professional

Overall Impression: great hunt, lots of fun

Recommend: I am

Reviewer Comments: I do alot of hunting in my home state as well as some other surrounding states. I live in Missouri and have hunted since I was 12. I found my hunt with Musselshell Outfitters to be alot of fun, and I missed a truly big bull at about 35 yards. I sat on water holes alot and I saw alot of game. I heard elk bugling almost nonstop from 6 am to 10 am. I did not see any of the problems that some of the others speak of. If I go back to hunt this fall and don't get a shot, I will still be happy. I know how elk travel so just hope to get in front of one, and give it my best. One thing is for sure, you can't hunt this outfitters area and see no game. We almost hit deer or elk with the truck every morning on the way to the ranch. I also met a local in town while I was hunting with Musselshell. He was mad because he said "Higgens has all the good places leased up" I didn't say anything at that time, but now I think it is very ironic with some of the negative reports on here.

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outfitter review submitted by: Toby Dellamano on Jan 26 2005

Species Hunted: Elk

Game Quality: poor on their land

Accommodation Quality: good

Camp Condition: good

Food Quality: average

Guide Experience: poor

Other Personal Experience: average

Overall Impression: Mislead, lied to, disappointed

Recommend: not even for free

Reviewer Comments: I hunted elk with Musselshell Outfitters the fall of September 04. I would like to start this report off first by telling you something about me. I am an avid bow hunter and have been very successful over the last 25 years. I have hunted and harvest animals all across the US, Canada, and Alaska. I have won several archery tournaments and bugling awards. Two years ago I became the youngest bow hunter to take the BIG 8 in Colorado. I take great pride in my sport, lifestyle, and fair chase! I don’t post this to brag or boast only to give myself credibility for what I am going to report. I have hunted and pursued elk all my life. However, the vast majority of the bulls we chase in Colorado are not that big. That is why I contacted Musselshell outfitters. Musselshell outfitters told me about 350 P&Y class bulls running around their land and being harvested every year with a 100% shooting opportunity. They even told me a 400+ class bull was shot just across the road. I told them I was an experienced archer and elk hunter and I was looking for a bull larger than 320 P&Y. They said their guides were experienced elk hunters, callers, and archers themselves. That was far from the truth. The guides calling ability was POOR at best, they were not archers and 2 of them didn’t even know the property boundaries very well or the lay of the land. At the beginning of the hunt, Musselshell started off with a group meeting stating that the best way to get an elk was to be patient and sit a water hole. Which I was totally willing to do to get a big bull. The first morning we started off trying to bugle a bull in, we following the heard about 1 mile as we walked along the fence just hoping we could get one to jump over. About 9am the guide took us over to the water hole and showed us the tree stand. We walked around the water hole and saw no track, I asked the guide, “did anybody sit this stand in the first group of archers?” He said, “Yea, pretty much everyday, but I think he only saw a doe and fawn.” We then went to look at other water holes, no track, no track, cattle tracks, lots of cattle at the tanks, lots of stock tanks on one property. When we asked the guide and Randy what made them think we should sit on one of the 6 stock tanks contained in less then 1 mile, they said “they got to drink somewhere!” Which is true, but they weren’t drinking on Musselshell’s property… the lack of tracks proves it! This was true on ALL of their properties; every stock tank we went to either had no tracks or 1 or 2 week old tracks. At which time I opted not to sit a water hole for endless hours. Four other archers in my camp sat water holes the entire time and every time they came back to camp they had their heads down, “no elk, no deer, just birds and lots of cattle.” “I’ve never been on a guide hunt with so little game around” While we were at the different water holes they showed the tree stands. They were not only in poor condition but dangerous! They used old dead branch for steps and access in and out of the stand was contorted and difficult. When I mentioned this to the other hunters in camp they would say “you should have seen mine, talk about dangerous!” They even had a Double Bull Bind, which was falling apart. The guide gave us the blind and said “this is the best one we’ve got” and 2 of the hubs were not working, the plastic nipples were broken off and we had to use our own rope to get it to work. Musselshell told us that they had aprox. 50,000 acres of leased property, what they didn’t tell us was less then half ever had an elk on it. A large majority of their property was burnt land with nothing growing on it, no trees, no grass, nothing. The rest of it was poorly grassed and over grazed by the cattle rancher. It seamed like every property they took us to we hunted the trees running right next to the fence. Another major problem is that other ranches in the area are planting elk feed and water tanks to keep the elk on their properties. We ran into a man from Texas in Roundup while we were eating lunch (lunch was at our cost, Musselshell provided ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo they never put in the frig) and he told us he was leasing up all the land he could (about 30K acres so far) and told us about all the great feed and water they had put on their land and they have elk all over. Musselshell’s guide showed us the Texan’s property and told us how it was getting to be a problem getting the elk to come off that property. The best pieces of property that Musselshell leased was PUBLIC, with other hunters on it! They said we didn’t have to hunt the public land, but when that’s the best of the worst what do you do? Yes we did see some big bulls, but they were across the fence on property we couldn't hunt. Musselshell even told us that if you shoot a bull and he goes across the fence we can’t get them…Don’t even try! We’ve lost bulls that way before, yet we hunted fences everyday just hoping a bull would cross. Nobody in my camp had a shot opportunity on any elk, bull or cow! Musselshell had another group of hunters the same week as us at a different location and they told us only 1 shot was taken, a young boy had hit a 5 point bull but they couldn’t find it. The week before us they shot one 5 point bull the last night. Musselshell’s web site still states: “Overall opportunity for bowhunters with us is about 95%. We very rarely have a bowhunter who does not have an opportunity. An opportunity is any time you are 40 yards or less from the desired game while in the field hunting… We use bugles and cow calls to bring them in close. We occasionally use stands and blinds. We also use natural wallows and food sources to our advantage. We are consistently producing 100% opportunity for our elk hunting guests. Many guests have had multiple shot opportunities at 300"+ bulls!” -- These claims are incorrect and yet he still promotes and publishes these as facts! I feel I was mislead and lied to by Musselshell Outfitters and I will gladly provide you names and numbers from the other 6 hunters in my camp that will fully substantiate my report. I know there are hunters from the group before us and the group after us, and some of those hunters were antelope hunters. (They sat antelope water holes for hours and days on end, yet never had antelope come in). There were hunters both antelope and elk hunters that did everything Musselshell asked them to do, they sat water holes for hours and days on end never seeing anything. The reason I am posting this is for my fellow archer. I have met some terrific people though bow hunting and some life long friends. I have purchased items from other Bowhunters off the Internet with the PROMISE of I’ll send you the check the same time you send me the item. If I only knew this information 1 year ago I could have made a wise choice. As I read through other past hunters reports on Musselshell Outfitters I have to ask myself, ARE WE TALKING ABOUT THE SAME OUTFITTER????? I’ll leave you with that thought, and a challenge, GIVE Musselshell your $4000+ dollars and he’ll prove to you that I am correct. Toby Dellamano

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outfitter review submitted by: Jim Duncan on Jan 21 2005

Species Hunted: elk, deer , antelope

Game Quality: excellent

Accommodation Quality: great

Camp Condition: excellent

Food Quality: as good as it gets

Guide Experience: first class

Other Personal Experience: all I met were super

Overall Impression: excellent hunt

Recommend: highly recommended

Reviewer Comments: I have hunted with Musselshell Outfitters several years. Great people, great operation. I have always seen good animals and had a great time. Bow hunting big elk is my passion, and that is why I hunt with Musselshell Outfitters. I dont hunt in canned hunt areas or fenced in African concessions. I also listen to my guide when I travel to hunt. Too many easterners are going west for the first time to hunt elk, then talking like they know more than the guide!!! You have to HUNT and enjoy being in the woods to be a true bowhunter. Its not for everyone.

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outfitter review submitted by: Danny Miller on Jan 15 2005

Species Hunted: elk, deer, antelope, turkey

Game Quality: saw some huge bull elk, and took a 16 inch antelope, took a 28 inch muley on first day of hunt

Accommodation Quality: first class camp, good people

Camp Condition: great, top condition , good ma

Food Quality: great

Guide Experience: guides were knowledgeabe and v

Other Personal Experience: cooks were exceptional and ver

Overall Impression: great operation

Recommend: I do all the time

Reviewer Comments: I have hunted this area with this outfitter many times, and I know the quality of game and of the operation. It has always been very consistent. I can not believe some of the whining and sniveling about this outfitter and area. If you didn't see any game in this outfitters areas, you are either blind, or you might as well give it up. It sounds like the whiners didn't kill an elk and got mad. Go to a pen and shoot your bull. Hunting wild elk with bow is only for true hunters. If you want to hunt big bulls with a bow Musselshell Outfitters would be very hard to beat. I know of several bulls over 400 inch class that have been taken in his area. You won't take one every time, you gotta be a true hunter in it for the long run and your opportunities will come if you actually hunt hard and work with your guide. I am from New York,(up state) and when I go to Montana I listen to my guide and do what he recommends. I see that many easterners go west and think they know more than their guide, after one day of hunting. They then whine after the hunt because everything was bad. I bet the anti-hunters love that too, because your playing right into what they say we are.

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outfitter review submitted by: Mike Frey on Dec 27 2004

Species Hunted: Elk/Deer

Game Quality: poor

Accommodation Quality: good

Camp Condition: good

Food Quality: good

Guide Experience: one guide was good/other 2 ter

Other Personal Experience: No other personnel

Overall Impression: Felt mislead and lied to

Recommend: NEVER

Reviewer Comments: I hunted with a group of 6 and none of us got a shot.3 never saw a bull. Was told that we would be hunting private property when in fact most of the time we hunted public land. 4 of us had hunters walk right by us. This hunt is NOT as advertised. Randy had 3 guides 2 of which were terrible. No experience as a bow guide. One of the guides was only in camp 3 weeks before we got there. Randy was supposed to be a guide and when we got in camp things changed. It was clear that the elk was not on the property that we could hunt.We would hear elk, but they were always on the other side of the fence. Everywhere we went there was a fence close by that we could not cross. 2 in our group saw some nice bulls but they were on the other side of the fence. They hunted 50 yards from the fence for the whole trip just hoping that one would cross. I don't believe Randy has all the property that he advertises, because it was obvious that all the elk were pushed off the property we had to hunt. We planned this hunt for 2 years and all I can say is that we feel robbed.I think Randy went 4 elk for 30 hunters in 2004.

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outfitter review submitted by: Mike Coppa on Dec 25 2004

Species Hunted: elk bow

Game Quality: saw one cow running away

Accommodation Quality: good

Camp Condition: good

Food Quality: good

Guide Experience: 2 of the 3 guides were in firs

Other Personal Experience: good

Overall Impression: paid for a guided hunt on private land but guide couldnt call and spent half the time on public land

Recommend: never

Reviewer Comments: this was my third year with randy the first two were for antelope and the hunt was ok but i cant beleive the hunt we had for elk six of us went out and two guys hunted on public land every day their guide had two weeks exp. but at least he could call. they saw elk all day every day but the elk were on the wrong side of a fence so no shots. myself and buddy had a guide with 2 weeks exp. guiding elk hunters and had never bowhunted before and couldnt even call. we spent half the time sitting over water holes and the other half on public land saw one cow elk. heard many bugeling but guide didnt know what to do. other two guys had a decent guide (mike) but they were also hunting public ground at times no shots until this year i would have trusted randy but never again do yourself a favor and find another outfitter

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