Outfitter Review - Sweetwater Creek

Outfitter Information

Outfitter Name: Sweetwater Creek

Outfitter / Contact: Jim Bob Little

Location: TX, USA

Hunt Information

Animals Hunted: Exotics

Game Quality: Fair

Game Quantity: Good

Accomodations: Excellent

Camp Condition: Excellent

Food Quality: NA

Guide Experience: Fair

Other Personal Experience: NA

Review Information

Hunter: Curtis

Phone:

Email:

Would Recommend: NO

Overall Impression: Poor

The lodging is top notch and the ranch is very pretty. Very poor quality blackbucks and Red Deer. The hardest animals to hunt on the ranch are the whitetails and the Aoudads. I took a small Axis on the third day of my hunt trip. The biggest blackbuck I saw was a 14" Blackbuck and a 9 pt. Red Deer. Fallows were the most plentiful on the ranch along with the rams. There are several things I did not care for on this ranch. One is the fact that they have too many fallow does. When they put you in a stand they throw out a lot of corn around your stand. The problem with fallow does is that they easily tame down and they come to get the corn along with the Sika does. I counted as many as 15 does near my stand each time I hunted. When you drive up to the stand you see the animals waiting just a few feet off the road waiting for the corn. The same places have been hunted so much that these does know they are not being hunted and they all wait for the hunter to come by and for the guide to throw out the corn. From just a few seconds to never longer than 3 minutes you will see does come out to get the corn and sometimes they come running in. You are not allowed to hunt does, only hard horned animals.A lot of the stands are only 8' high. I always prefer to be at least 12' high. I also did not like the stand locations. There was very little to no brush in front of it to hide my presense. I was on a 8' ladder stand stuck to a tree that has no shooting lane. I mean everywhere you look you had a shot given if the animal was there but they see you too easily because your too low to the ground and there is no brush hiding you. Too many animals and either the ranch manger did a poor job or there are soo many animals that they have eaten too much brush down. When we talked to the ranch manger he told us that he was not a hunter himself. From that I concluded that is why these stands are placed so poorly and there are so many animals. Yes you get to see some hard horned animals and maybe get a shot, if your lucky they don't see you. There are so many animals that are looking at you that it makes it nearly impossible. And even then, as far as quality of animals and considering trophy quality, the few that I saw were barely scratching the surface. I'm not talking about seeing record animals everywhere. I just mean that I saw very few quality animals that I consider good and mature enough to take. I feel the stands were not brushed in well at all and a better job could have been done on that. There are ladder stands(most being 8' but a few that are 15'-16') and 8' tripods. No stalking is allowed until after 11:00 am. Then the hunter must walk back to the ranch lodge. However, you can choose to stalk if you so desire until about 3:00 pm. I didn't like that idea because you don't know where the other hunters are hunting at and I don't like the idea of interfering with other hunters hunts or someone with mine. Which in my case happened on the second day when a hunter walked through the woods about 50 yards from me. Hunting is hunting and I know things happen, but in a ranch operation as this the ranch manager should be doing a better job. It has a lot of potential but has a long way to go and a lot of items to improve on.What made me mad the most about this place is that when we heard a hunter had wounded an animal and the rancher did nothing about it. They let it go and did not let the hunter continue. The hunter had misplaced the shot and did not effectively kill the animal. The ranch let the animal wander off and nobody knows if it died or not. This makes me wonder how many animals have been taken off this place that some other hunter has already paid for to hunt and may have wounded? I feel this was not fair judgement by the rancher because it allowed a wounded animal to go free. That is not ethical hunting to me. Not for a ranch like this. They took the hunter out in the truck after they had told him about it along with a few other hunters from the lodge. Everyone agreed that the animal was wounded and it may die. The rancher could have dispatched the animal by rifle in the least. The decision was made and everyone else seemed to not agree with it. This would have at least ensured that the animal was finished off and not allowed to suffer more. I don't think it would have made it a can hunt in any way, but more of an ethical solution to helping a wounded animal and at least the hunter leaves with the game. On the other hand, the hunter could have just went down to the creek and washed the blood off his arrow and broadhead and nobody would have even known. At least the hunter was ethical enough to tell the ranch owner.

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