EP29: Sonora Outfitters (Outfitter Spotlight)

As a kid, Fred Clausen would only go out to the ranch with his father if he could bring a rifle. That deal on a cattle ranch near Coronel Suárez, in the south of Buenos Aires Province, started a career that became Argentina Top Hunts.His way into the business was a one week fill-in job at a goose hunting lodge, hired because he spoke English and the lodge manager was sick. He went home with a Texas belt and a hundred dollar tip, and with the realization that hunting could be a job. He finished a university degree in Buenos Aires first, then worked his way through duck and dove lodges and was managing his first lodge at 25. It took him roughly ten years of building a reputation before he moved from managing lodges to owning one.Today Argentina Top Hunts runs two lodges. Chischaca, in San Luis Province, is a big game operation on a large working cattle ranch. Amakela is a smaller ranch of about 2,000 hectares with dove and pigeon hunting alongside big game. Species include red stag, fallow deer, axis deer, water buffalo, blackbuck, wild boar, mouflon and four horned ram.Robbie and Fred cover:- Why water buffalo is Fred's favorite hunt, why he says it's underrated, and the shot advice he gives every client before going after an animal he says can reach eight hundred kilos.- A red stag hunt during the rut, with the hinds passing at twenty meters and a nervous hunter waiting on a roaring stag.- Why Fred thinks Argentina compares well with New Zealand and Europe for international hunters: shorter flights from North America, little time change, and a welcoming country.- Why dove hunting groups come back year after year, while big game trips tend to be once-in-a-while trips.- What Fred sees as the real difference between outfitters: long-term lodge staff, many with him ten to fourteen years, and a chef at every lodge.- Safety in Argentina, how his team handles travel and tourism from arrival to departure, and programs for non-hunting partners.- A new hunting property planned for 2028, about an hour from Amakela, combining big game with dove and pigeon.Hey, can you do us a favor? If you're enjoying the show, please give Let's Go Guided a rating. It's free to do and it'll help us grow our podcast :)Let's Go Guided:Website + email signup: letsgoguided.comInstagram: @letsgoguided_Facebook: Let's Go GuidedArgentina Top Hunts:🌐 argentinatophunts.com📸 @argentinatophuntsPhotography credit: Courtesy of Argentina Top Hunts

Cody Rhees never planned to become an outfitter. A Sonora ranch owner asked to lease him a ranch, then the neighbors started calling.Cody grew up in Ogden, Utah, following his dad on pheasant hunts and drawing his first mule deer tags at 12. One of those early tags taught him a lesson he still carries into every hunt, and a family friend taught him another he passes on to every kid he hunts with: pick your exit wound.His first trip to Mexico came in his late teens, starting on the Baja side before he moved over to mainland Sonora. About twelve years ago, a ranch owner reached out wanting to lease his ranch to Cody directly. Cody hunted it with his brother and a few close friends, word spread among the surrounding ranch owners, and Sonora Outfitters now hunts nine ranches. Robbie and Cody cover the questions people ask before booking a hunt in Mexico. Is it safe? Cody gets asked that constantly, and he answers it directly. How do you get there? A daily flight from Phoenix lands in Hermosillo at noon, and hunters are out on the ranch for the evening hunt that same day. Can you bring your own rifle? Yes, with a Mexican government permit that is best submitted early, since processing can take weeks.Cody explains why Sonora desert mule deer are judged on mass and age rather than tine length, why the deer are so nocturnal in the heat, how the season shifts from early hunts through the January rut and into the post-rut, and the role cholla cactus plays in where the deer feed. He also talks desert bighorn sheep hunting, including a 91 year old hunter who took his ram in Sonora. The conversation goes deeper than logistics. Cody talks about the page he wrote for wives and families who have concerns about a hunt in Mexico, why he restructured his pricing to encourage patience over shooting the first decent buck, and what keeps him outfitting alongside his home building business. Hey, can you do us a favor? If you're enjoying the show, please give Let's Go Guided a rating. It's free to do and it'll help us grow our podcast :)Watch on YouTube:https://youtu.be/V_Reim-4EgsLet's Go Guided:Website + email signup: letsgoguided.comInstagram: @letsgoguided_Facebook: Let's Go GuidedSonora Outfitters:🌐 sonoraoutfitters.com📸 @sonora_outfittersPhotography credit: Courtesy of Sonora Outfitters

James Pinfold shot his first red deer at 9, spent his teens and early twenties rodeoing, then came home to guide hunts on New Zealand’s South Island.Robbie sits down with James of South Pacific Safaris, an operation two hours north of Christchurch on the east coast, where the hunting country runs from the mountains down to the ocean. James’s then girlfriend’s parents had just bought the business. He came back to help them through one transition season and is still there eight or nine years later.James covers the species the operation hunts and how each one is accessed. Red stag, fallow deer, Arapawa rams, and feral goats are hunted on a 4,000 acre home property. Tahr are hunted on a 25,000 acre private land concession further south, and chamois with helicopter access. He explains why hunts run five days on the home property and seven when tahr or chamois are added, to leave room for mountain weather, and walks through a typical day, from sighting in on arrival to the evening meal back at the lodge.For hunters weighing a first trip to New Zealand, James talks about what he wants people to know before they arrive. He says it is safe and family friendly, with plenty for non-hunting partners and kids to do. He also covers bringing your own rifle versus using the lodge’s suppressed rifles, and how the property is set up for hunters with limited mobility. He explains why, outside the waterfowl and upland seasons, New Zealanders can hunt year round.Then the stories. A client pushes through two brutal days for a bull tahr. A drone delivers three rounds of ammunition to a hunter who has run out. And two red stags lock antlers and cartwheel down a hill in front of James and his client.When hunters at the shows ask what sets one New Zealand outfitter apart from another, James’s answer is the people you hunt with. He also explains why the trophy on the wall is really a reminder of the memory behind it.Hey, can you do us a favor? If you’re enjoying the show, please give Let’s Go Guided a rating. It's free to do and it'll help us grow our podcast :)Watch on YouTube:https://youtu.be/dvm1ZZrzoyYLet’s Go Guided:Website + email signup: letsgoguided.comInstagram: @letsgoguided_Facebook: Let’s Go GuidedSouth Pacific Safaris:🌐 safaris.co.nz📸 @southpacificsafarisPhotography credit: Courtesy of South Pacific Safaris

Two caribou tags, two filled, and a ten hour horseback ride just to reach the valley where the bulls were living. Robbie sits down with Iron North Outfitting guide Kaden Kwiatkowski and Colin to retell the Yukon hunt he shared with his dad, Rob Sr.The trip started with a three day drive to Mayo, Yukon and a flight into base camp. From there it was horses, rivers, a canyon route the crew had never taken before, and a saddle slip on the way in that could have ended the hunt before it started.Rob Sr.'s bull came early. A lone bull moving through tall willows, a short stalk, and one shot off shooting sticks. Up close, he carried double shovels that nearly interlock, still in velvet.Robbie held out for a skyline bull. They glassed one bedded on a ridge nearly two miles away, tied the horses in a circle on an open saddle, and climbed blind through scree. Caribou do not behave like other game, and this one ran straight toward the horses. Robbie made the shot off his pack at two hundred seventy yards, and the bull turned out older and heavier than anyone had judged from a distance. Back in camp, Rob Sr. had heard a shot and checked his phone. It was 3:08.Kaden brings the guide's side of it too. How to keep meat good in the alpine with no trees to hang it, why he likes clients who show up with simple rifle setups, why practicing off your pack matters more than bench time, and which rain gear stood up to a week of Yukon rain.For Robbie, it was a hunt of a lifetime shared with his dad, and he credits Kaden and fellow guide Gabriel for getting them through it.The full hunt film is coming soon on the Let's Go Guided YouTube channel.Planning a guided hunt and want to know more about how we can help you? Send us a DM on Instagram @letsgoguided_.We also have a couple of spots left on our 2027 South Africa group hunt. DM us on Instagram for details.Website + email signup: letsgoguided.com

Mitch Green runs the hunting program at Lake Hāwea Station in New Zealand's Otago high country, where red stag, tahr, chamois and fallow deer share sixteen thousand acres of free range mountain terrain above Lake Hāwea. He grew up chasing sika deer in the North Island, moved south at eighteen, and worked his way from fishing guide to head guide on one of Otago's best known hunting properties.In this conversation, Mitch walks through what separates a guided hunt from public land hunting in New Zealand: how the station manages its deer, chamois and tahr populations with no natural predators on the ground, why the red stag roar in late March and April is considered the height of New Zealand hunting, and how steep the country actually feels once you're standing in it. Mitch says he estimates that without predators, a New Zealand deer population can double every two to four years, part of why active management matters so much on a property like this. He also covers what it takes to bring a rifle into New Zealand as a visiting hunter, the accommodation options on station (converted century-old musterers' huts), and stories of a run of hunts with a repeat client that produced a trophy fallow buck, two red stags and a heavy chamois in the space of two trips.Whether you're weighing a first guided hunt in New Zealand, researching Otago's draw of red stag, tahr and chamois, or just want to hear what it's like to guide free range mountain hunting for a living, this one covers it.Let's Go Guided:Website + email signup: letsgoguided.comInstagram: @letsgoguided_Facebook: Let's Go GuidedLake Hāwea Station Hunting:🌐 lakehaweastationhunting.com📸 @lakehaweastation_huntingPhotography credit: Courtesy of Lake Hāwea Station Hunting

Andrew Pringle grew up hunting in South Africa, then spent a decade guiding whitetail and mule deer in Alberta before building Crusader Safaris into 800,000 free range acres back home. No high fences, no farmed game, animals living where they've always lived.In this conversation, Andrew breaks down what actually separates a free range hunt from a high-fenced one, why the majority of his clients come back within a few years, and how giving local communities a real stake in the wildlife has made poaching a non-issue in most of his areas. He also talks through the three conservancies (Umkomaas, Stormberg, and the Baviaansriver), what a first South Africa hunt should look like species-wise, and why he thinks it's one of the easiest, best-value first international hunts a North American hunter can book.Robbie also shares that Let's Go Guided is bringing a group to hunt the Baviaansriver Conservancy with Crusader Safaris in June 2027, with five-day and seven-day packages and room for a custom trip. Want in on it? DM us on Instagram (@letsgoguided_) or Email [email protected]. Come for the hunting, stay for the comradery, the filming, and an experience none of us will forget!Crusader Safaris:🌐 crusadersafaris.com📸 @crusader_safarisPhotography credit: Courtesy of Crusader Safaris

Rod runs one of Sonora, Mexico's larger desert bighorn sheep operations, and he guarantees hunters a shot opportunity on a ram. In eight seasons, that guarantee has only slipped twice, and both times the hunt was simply extended a day or two to get it done.He and his partner Gustavo started GURO Outfitters with two mule deer tags and nothing else. Rod grew up hunting in Mexico City, starting at four years old on whitetail hunts just south of the Texas border with his father. Gustavo's family had hunted the same Sonora ranches for generations, and after his grandmother's eightieth birthday, the two decided almost on impulse to start an outfit together. The first two years were rough. They couldn't sell their own hunts and survived by taking overflow clients from another outfitter. By year three they added desert bighorn sheep to the lineup, and the growth from there was steady.Today GURO runs two camps at a time, each with its own chef and guide team, and never mixes hunting parties. Sheep hunts run eight full days, mule deer hunts six, with clients typically picked up in Tucson and then crossed the border.Rod walks through what actually makes a sheep hunt hard, how "high racking" works for mule deer, why target acquisition, not marksmanship, is the biggest obstacle most clients face, and how Sonora's government uses a helicopter survey every three years to set sheep tag allocations. He also gets into the mule deer scoring standard GURO holds itself to, the toll a multi-year drought took on the herd, and the questions he thinks every hunter should ask an outfitter before booking.Let's Go Guided:Website + email signup: letsgoguided.comInstagram: @letsgoguided_Facebook: Let's Go GuidedGURO Outfitters:🌐 desertbighornsheephunt.com📸 @gurooutfittersPhotography credit: Courtesy of GURO Outfitters

Three generations, one concession in Cameroon, fifty five years of guiding the same wild country. Xavier Vannier of Faro Safaris joins the show to explain why the Lord Derby Eland has become the animal that defines hunting in northern Cameroon, and why it is considered one of the most difficult trophies to close on anywhere in Africa.Faro Safaris was founded in 1971 by Xavier's grandfather, who got his start in the bush with the help of Xavier's great grandfather, already working in Cameroon since the 1940s. Xavier's father took over the operation in 2003, and Xavier joined full time in 2016, having spent his entire childhood immersed in the bush. Today the family holds one of the smaller hunting concessions in Cameroon by size, seventy five thousand hectares, but by their own account runs among the highest quota density per hectare of any area in the country.Xavier walks through what actually makes the Eland so hard to hunt: a January to March breeding season unlike any other species in the region, a herd structure built around wary, watchful females, and terrain so unstable underfoot that a single misstep can end a stalk. He and Robbie get into what a twelve day tracking hunt actually looks like day to day, the physical and mental demands it puts on a hunter, and a couple of specific hunts that stuck with Xavier for what they taught him about patience and pressure.The conversation also covers the making of Eden, a documentary filmed on the Faro Safaris concession during the COVID years, and the conservation side of the operation: anti poaching patrols, community relations, and a nonprofit called the Faro Conservancy Project that runs on hunting revenue, a published photo book, paid conservation trips for non hunters, and international conservation funding.If you're weighing a first guided hunt in Cameroon, trying to understand what an Eland hunt actually demands physically and mentally, or just want a straight account of how a well run, multi generational African outfit funds its own conservation work, this episode covers all of it in detail.Faro Safaris:🌐 farosafaris.com📸 @farosafariclubcameroonLet's Go Guided:Website + email signup: letsgoguided.comInstagram: @letsgoguided_Facebook: Let's Go GuidedPhotography credit: Courtesy of Faro Safaris

Guiding hunters across Alberta and British Columbia for decades, Jeff Lander built his reputation on one rule: never oversell the hunt.Jeff Lander is the owner of Primitive Outfitting, based in British Columbia near McBride. He grew up hunting mule deer, elk, and upland birds in Washington State, then guided whitetail for years in Edmonton's Bowzone under outfitter Jim Hole Jr. From there he built his own archery-only mule deer operation in southern Alberta, ran it for decades, and sold it a few years back to focus solely on his BC operation.Today Primitive Outfitting runs spring black bear hunts out of a family-run lodge, where Jeff's wife cooks for the camp, and eight-day moose and elk hunts by jet boat and raft along a sixty-mile stretch of river that sees almost no other hunting pressure. Jeff has shot a longbow since 1985 and chased stone sheep with it six times; grizzly with a longbow is still on his list, not something he's done yet.In this conversation, Jeff and Robbie get into the landowner relationships that kept his Alberta operation running, the most common mistakes hunters make glassing open-country mule deer, how his team handles it when a hunt turns dangerous, and what he hopes clients say about him ten years from now. Jeff also gives his honest advice for anyone shopping for an outfitter: call the references who didn't fill their tag, not just the ones who did.Listen and subscribe to Let's Go Guided for more conversations with the outfitters and guides shaping western hunting.Let's Go Guided:Website + email signup: letsgoguided.comInstagram: @letsgoguided_Facebook: Let's Go GuidedPrimitive Outfitting:Website: primitive-outfitting.comEmail: [email protected]: @primtvePhotography credit: Courtesy of Primitive Outfitting

Lee Drescher didn't grow up hunting. His passion for the backcountry started after his father fell ill, and within a few years he had gone from watching Meat Eater videos in his living room to purchasing one of British Columbia's most remote guiding territories. Findlay Creek Outfitters operates 220,000 acres entirely within the Purcell Wilderness Conservancy, protected since 1974, with no motor vehicle access whatsoever. The only way in is horseback or boot leather.In this episode, Robbie sits down with Lee to talk elk, moose, mountain goat, and mule deer hunting in the East Kootenays, what it actually feels like to be dropped into nearly a thousand square kilometers of backcountry with no one else around for forty kilometers in any direction, and the story of his very first guided hunt: a six point bull at fifteen yards, called in on the last day, shared with a client from Idaho who later mailed Lee a laser engraved skinning knife with his name and the words Lee Drescher Outfitter.Let's Go Guided:Website + email signup: letsgoguided.comInstagram: @letsgoguided_Facebook: Let's Go GuidedFindlay Creek Outfitters:🌐 findlaycreekoutfitters.com📧 [email protected]📸@findlaycreekoutfittersPhotography credit: Courtesy of Findlay Creek Outfitters