Has anyone used Barry's Property Evaluation Consulting Services? If so, please provide your take on the service.
Thanks,
jimmyZ
TTT
A friend of mine used him a few years back. He said it was worth it. Barry did say it was some of the toughest country to hunt and figure out. (Foothills of the Rockies west of Cazlgary) We don't have the deer density like some of you guys do in the states.
I did his "Boot Camp" and it was an eye opener!
What was so eye opening about the "boot camp", never heard anything about it?
You'll have to pay for that Todd, Haha.
I've been hunting with those guys for alotta years. It always amazes me how Barry can "see" what the deer are doing in any area we've hunted from Montana to Alabama.
He's a close friend of mine so this endorsement may not seem genuine but I'm telling ya, the man is the best I've ever seen at dechipering the local bucks and their travel routes. You'd be years ahead by letting him walk the place and make suggestions.
After reading both guys books, I can tell you I gleaned a ton of information from just reading. I can't imagine how a hands on walk through would help if I had a real piece of property to manage. I have never used their service, but after hearing them speak a couple of times, they are the real deal. Look what they have done with their property in Iowa, and then Montana before that. Pretty smart (old) dudes :)
Thanks for the nice comments guys. I really do get a lot of self-satisfaction sharing my theories. I should mention a couple points though. The consulting service thing is pretty seasonal. I prefer doing them after season on bare ground but before spring green-up. I usually average about 200 acres of huntable terrain to assess per day. I also like to walk the piece alone at first so I can put all the pieces of the puzzle together. Then after I finish I walk it with the landowner and explain my reasoning for treestand placement. I also prefer consulting on types of terrain I'm familiar with. In otherwords, I don't think my assessment is worthwhile in areas like the Texas brush country or a Florida swamp. But the midwest and/or northern turf that is readable is pretty educational, interesting stuff. I've had families and/or hunting buddies or clubs split the cost in order to share the info for generations to come. Fun stuff. Thanks. BW
A friend and I thought about the consulting thing but then decided to do the boot camp just to see what kind of areas Barry and Gene would hunt compared to what we hunt. Biggie is right in saying Barry can "see" what the deer are doing. I guess to rephrase that, we can all see what the deer are doing but Barry can see the fine detail that is over looked by most of us. The fine detail and amount of time spent hunting it makes a big difference. I thank you Barry for sharing your knowledge with us. Oh and its not just any day that Barry will let you push/pull his truck out of the mud! His knowledge of the whitetail is great but parking spots?
Yeah, I should have known better on that. Ha. When we went into the farm the ground was frozen solid. After spending a few hours walking around the ground thawed. My truck went right up to the anxles; the one we used to try to get mine out got buried; then another, etc.. I can't remember but I think we had three out of five trucks stuck. I had to call the landowner and tell him we turned over his field for him but wouldn't charge him for it. Another side note, that landowner Gun spoke of above in Alberta emailed me the next fall to tell me he was sitting in one of the trees I ribboned off for whitetails and had a 330 inch elk walk by and he got him. I usually pick the stand locations because of the terrain features so you never know what might walk by. BW
Barry it was 356 and change. I measured it. You should have sent him a bill for the bonus animal. Ha