Guide

Originally posted by Elk Guide
hi steve.......there are currently i beleave 42 registered elk guides in michigan but all this means is we are registered with the state no license or any thing and the state doesnt want to get involved with registering us.....there are also another 40 who guide from time to time that are not registered and the state does suggest you go only with a registered guide but does nothing to stop the other guys from guideing......i am trying to get all the guides together that are registered so we can come up with some form of certification but most of them still say if the state doesnt push it we arent going to do it......i have about 8 who are interested but this has been a very slow road to go down......i dont know what the state is up to with the elk herd lately i can't get the info i was geting.....i hope the bear guides get better results than i am from the state

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Just because you are listed as an official guide doesn't mean you are not a scammer. Back in 2000 during my elk hunt, I had set out trailing a herd. I had just left my truck and turned to head in the woods when a "guide" who is listed on the states list pulled up and introduced himself to me. He asked if I had seen any elk and I showed him the tracks. He then had the nerve to ask me if I would take his hunter in there with me so he could shoot one. Well to make a long story short the hunter managed to stay behind me about 50 yrds. I just ended up pushing the herd in some thick stuff and then picked them up in the morning and eventually shot one. Now the story on the hunter was that he only had a few days to hunt. Was I greedy by not being cordial enough to take his hunter in? Were they just my elk seeing how I was on state land? I don't think so, but they were no more his than mine. I guess it just really surprised me to see this official guide wanted his hunter to get one so bad that he had him follow me.

Originally posted by stevebrandle
Big Game,

A "paper" guide wouldn't be worth much if he didn't have some ground to hunt on. Are most of the elk on private or State land?

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If you spend some time up here around the elk you will find that they roam from area to area, depending on food, females, cover and pressure. I'll tell you what. Those elk that spent all fall in my father-in-laws field would spend the afternoon feeding. We watched them many nights and got to recognize the antlers of a few of the bulls. I talked to a logger logging some state land a few miles away and he described the number of the herd along with the antlers of the bulls. According to him the herd hung out in the mornings around the tree tops and then moved onto our property as the day got later.

This whole thing about guides registering is a bunch of hog wash if you ask me. Most locals want the elk shot and don't want to have to register or take classes to be an "officiail" guide. If they weren't allowed to have people on their land to shoot elk because they aren't guides would be crazy. The locals don't do it for the money as most probably don't charge anyways. I guess my whole idea is that this is some way to make guides mandatory here in Michigan and to make the prices the same across the board. The way I look at it if you have a tag and waste it because your guide was a slob than that is the hunters fault. Tags are hard enough to come by here and if you don't do your research your the one who wasted it. I mean come on most DNR officers will take you out and show you an elk if the season is nearing an end. You don't need a guide to be successful here in Michigan. All you have to do is get out there and get away from the people (including most guides) that drive the road and look for elk to shoot at. Do your scouting and get to know the area and you will find elk. This is not out west where you need to look for miles and miles to find elk. They are concentrated in a small area here.