Wapiti Ridge Outfitters

Submitted by: Danny Tilley

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Review Submitted: Nov 10, 2011

Hunt Date: Oct 16, 2011

Species Hunted: Elk

Days Hunted: 7

Hunt Type: Guided

Primary Terrain: Mountain

Method: Rifle

Price Range: 4000-4999

Great wilderness elk hunt

This was my second general season elk hunt with JJ and it was even better than 1st. Was into elk everyday. Camp went 4 for 4 on nice bulls 300" or better. Very comfortable camp. Great stock and experienced hard working guides. These guys are no slackers and expect their hunters to be able to do their part. They really want their hunters to get big bulls. Best suited for experienced, serious hunters. Not good for the timid. A great hunt if your up for it.

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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: Scott Spencer on Dec 18 2009

Species Hunted: Mule Deer

Game Quality: Good

Accommodation Quality: Excellent

Camp Condition: Excellent

Food Quality: Excellent

Guide Experience: Excellent

Other Personal Experience: Excellent

Overall Impression: Excellent

Recommend: Definitely!

Reviewer Comments: My review may seem a bit "over glowing" but the truth is, this was a great hunt, with great people, and one of the best experiences I have ever had in my life. Justin, his guides, his stock, and his camp were all fantastic. There were 7 of us hunters that hunted the 5 day migration hunt in late Oct 2009. All 7 of us tagged out with deer from 130" to about 160". This is NOT a "trophy" deer hunt and Justin never professes it to be. Yes, a 180" buck can be killed on this hunt but this is a migration hunt with a lot of sitting, glassing, and hoping. These deer travel from Yellowstone so the timing is important and they don't hang around long. The food was great, the horses and equipment was great, and the ride into our winter camp was about 5 hrs long. We camped at about 8500 ft and hunted at what I guess was around 7500 for the most part. One needs to be in great shape for this hunt as this flat lander had a rough go the first 2-3 days!! :) I hope to be able to return and hunt with Justin again the near future. I also plan to take one of his fishing trips in the summer!

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outfitter review submitted by: Matthew Johnson on Dec 16 2008

Species Hunted: ELK

Game Quality: Average

Accommodation Quality: Good

Camp Condition: Great

Food Quality: Great

Guide Experience: Good

Other Personal Experience: Great

Overall Impression: Good

Recommend: Maybe

Reviewer Comments: Hunted the general elk season. It was a ruff week. We got snow the day before the ride in and it didnÂ’t stop until day 2 of the hunt. About 4 feet in all. The country is very steep and tough. You better be ready if you want to hunt here. JJ honestly wants people who want to hunt hard. The rest of the week was nice but the elk were not moving as well as they expected. The guides and the hunters were defiantly tired. My guide had been up there for 25 days or so and I just donÂ’t think he was into anymore. He did try hard but I donÂ’t think he wanted to be there. This country can bring a man to his knees. If youÂ’re not ready to suffer a little youÂ’re not going to like it. 2 out of 6 of us got bulls. One wasnÂ’t half bad. I missed an opportunity at a bull, hit a tree i didnÂ’t see in a burn area when I shot, wasnÂ’t a big bull but would have been nice considering the hunt. The camp and is great for being all the way up in the mountains. The cook was awesome. The horses and Mules were amazing. These animals were some of the best IÂ’ve seen. If anything they deserve all the respect. My only complaint was I think that JJ might take on a little too much and I think he might agree. The week hunted was rough and I donÂ’t think he has ever experienced a week that rough before. Things just werenÂ’t working. I had a little regret cause I was counting on JJ to call me about getting a mule deer tag and he never did, which meant i went without, and of course i saw a bunch of good bucks, that kind of pissed me off. Another thing is i wanted to hunt 1 on 1 with my guide but that never happened either. I had a chance at a good 5X6 but was told by another guide not to shoot because he wanted to see if another bull would step out for his hunter, needless to say that bull went into the trees and back up over the mountain. When i got back to town I was defiantly tired and would come back again maybe. My car got smashed and JJ said he would call me to talk to me about everything and he never did, I figured he would since I was talking about coming back in 09 for a antelope and mule deer hunt, but because he seemed not to care, not sure about that. Like I said I think he takes on a lot. It could be an amazing hunt though, and if youÂ’re in shape and like toughing it you will enjoy it. Oh and the boys/guides got some good tone to them, so if your into a polite and calm atmosphere these arenÂ’t your guys, they like to talk and its usually them mouthing off to one another. if you catch my drift. But itÂ’s funny to listen to.

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outfitter review submitted by: Danny Tilley on May 4 2008

Species Hunted: ELK

Game Quality: Excellent

Accommodation Quality: good

Camp Condition: good

Food Quality: good

Guide Experience: 1 good, 2 very good

Other Personal Experience: good

Overall Impression: great

Recommend: yes,

Reviewer Comments: Hunted general season 07 in wilderness camp. High, rough, country. Need to be in good physical shape and shoot well from 300-500 yds. JJ and guides work hard and want successful hunters.Most good hunters will get shot at a 300"+ bull. Good riding stock and good camp help. My hunt- 8 hunters took home 360", 310", 300", 280" bulls. Two other 300" bulls were missed. This is a great hunt if you are physically up for it. Some guys will quit early on this one!

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outfitter review submitted by: Mark Carter on Apr 9 2008

Species Hunted: Bighorn Sheep

Game Quality: excellent

Accommodation Quality: top notch

Camp Condition: good

Food Quality: great

Guide Experience: great

Other Personal Experience: great

Overall Impression: absolutely tremendous

Recommend: absolutely

Reviewer Comments: I purchased a Wyoming Governor's sheep tag and chose Wapiti Ridge Outfitters to guide me on this hunt. We saw over 45 rams in 7 days and counted eleven rams that were shooters! On day 7 of the 10 day hunt, J.J. and I agreed we had found what we were looking for and I killed a beautiful 9 1/2 yr. old Ram. A Top Notch Outfit I would recommend to anybody!

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outfitter review submitted by: Mark Leiker on Feb 4 2006

Species Hunted: Mule Deer

Game Quality: Poor

Accommodation Quality: Fair

Camp Condition: N/A

Food Quality: Fair

Guide Experience: Poor

Other Personal Experience: N/A

Overall Impression: Poor

Recommend: No

Reviewer Comments: What a train wreck. A friend and myself were hunting with Wapiti Ridge Outfitters (used to be Dean Johnson outfitting) for the first season Nov. 1-5, 2005 west of Cody. This is a migration hunt and thus is very weather dependent. Needless to say the weather didn't cooperate, but the outfitter can't be held accountable for that. However, on the third day of our "hunt" (sitting on the same knob waiting for deer to walk down the same migration trail five days in a row) the weather broke from sunny and mild to rainy. The problem was that our guide didn't want to hunt in the rain!! What the &*%?. It was drizzly and a light rain, not a downpour, but we went to the trailhead and he said it would be a "waste of time to go out in this weather, we should just go back to town and spend the day at the motel". I don't know about you, but I've hunted in a lot worse weather than we were in and didn't think twice. Plus I've never shot anything sitting in a motel! We asked the guide to take us to another spot if he didn't want to get wet (since the rain was localized). He said he didn't know anywhere else we could go because this is where they always hunt (public land everywhere). Needless to say he wouldn't take us anywhere else and dumped us off very P.O'ed in the motel parking lot in Cody (with the sun shining at this point)! I then tried to call the outfitter owner JJ. He was gone the day and called me back that night. I told him what happened and he agreed it was unacceptable not to hunt due to rain. I agreed but didn't make any demands as we had two days left to hunt. If we tagged out - no big deal. Needless to say, the hunting was horrible for the rest of the week also. I know the weather wasn't helping, but if the deer aren't moving on the trail you are sitting on, as a guide you had better try something different, not just beat the same dead horse over and over. Our guide wasn't a bad guy, just not really into fulfilling his hunters expectations. Although, the day after the cancelled hunt day he was very angry and rude to us because the outfitter chewed him out after finding out he didn't take us out in the rain. Now, the hunt is over and we have not even seen a buck worth shooting (even at 1000 yards!). So I call up JJ (owner) and tell him that I don't think it's fair to pay for a five day hunt and only get to hunt four days. I expected him to make the situation right since he agreed that not hunting a day just because of a little drizzle/light rain was "unacceptable". (If situations would have been dangerous or life-threatening due to weather I would NOT expect any sort of refund, but that was not the case). Needless to say, JJ (owner) said sorry you didn't get to hunt for the full five days, but you had a good guide and I'm not refunding any of your money. Talk about getting the short end of the stick. This was my first guided hunt and probably not my last, but definitely the last with this outfitter. Out of 12 hunters in camp with this outfitter the week we were there, only 3-4 shot deer and most of these were true dinks (barely legal 4 pt. bucks). No bucks were over 145 class that I saw or heard about. Stay away from Wapiti Ridge outfitters (unless you just want to see grizzlies - we saw three on our four days of a five day deer hunt).

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