Outfitter Review - Revelation Mountain Outfitters

Outfitter Information

Outfitter Name: Revelation Mountain Outfitters

Outfitter / Contact: Tony Dingess

Location: Alaska, USA

Hunt Information

Animals Hunted: Brown Bear

Game Quality: Doesn't really apply

Game Quantity: Terrible - 1 bear in 7 days

Accomodations: Lousy but as advertised

Camp Condition: The first tent leaked water th

Food Quality: Poor selection of Mt. House fr

Guide Experience: Asst. guide was fine...he had

Other Personal Experience: There were no other personnel

Review Information

Hunter: Len Anderson

Phone: 520 297-7780 or 5

Email:

Would Recommend: Absolutely not.....save your h

Overall Impression: The worst hunting experience I have ever had.

I arrived in camp at the same time as the outfitter and guide and I had to help set up camp. That didn't bother me but a client should arrive at a camp that is already set up. There was no pre hunt scouting so finding bears was purely by guess and by golly. After two unproductive days, the asst. guide and I were moved a few miles up the coast and were left with a small tent and some cooking equipment. We did not see the outfitter again for the next 6 days and we could not communicate with him because of the poor satellite phone system. We literally had to call his wife in West Virginia...leave a message....and then call again the next day to hopefully get a return message. The bears were not anywhere near the coast or salmon streams yet we did not have the ability to move our spike camp inland. We literally were stuck on the coast and had to hike 4-5 miles through alders and uphill to possibly find a bear. On the 6th frustrating day my guide and I finally found a bear appx. 6 miles inland but we had no provisions to spike into the area. There was no packer and not enough gear, food, or fuel to be able to stay in there for more than a few hours. It took half a day just to get ourselves into the area where there might have been bears. After the 7th day of a 10 day hunt, the outfitter (Tony Dingess) showed up in a small boat...loaded up our gear....and motored to Nelson Lagoon. Never was I asked if I was ready to call it a hunt. It had been called for me. I was confused. I thought we would be going to another area. Wrong! Instead, I was going home whether I wanted to or not. There were other hunters as well who opted to go home early because in the same hunting time, they had seen ZERO bears. I was not ready to go home. I had invested literally thousands of dollars for a 10 day hunt and I got 7 days of nothing but misery and a totally unproductive hunting area. The entire hunt was totally unorganized. It was not just my opinion either. Each of the other hunters as well as some of the asst. guides were completely disgusted with the organization or lack of it.Prior to this bear hunt, I had put down a $1000 deposit (with the same outfitter)for a 2008 Moose hunt. I have demanded this money to be refunded as there is no way I will ever hunt with this outfit again. As of today (April 11, 2008), and 6 months since the early October bear hunt, I have received only half of the money back. He not only has the balance of the moose downpayment, but he also owes me for the 3 missing days of the bear hunt. The man says that he will pay me back for the 3 days but I have not seen a dime yet and I have not gotten the balance of the $1000 either. If you access his website (Alaskahunts.net), you will not find my name on the reference list. That is because Tony Dingess has removed it. You will also read that he says he will scout for the bears and know where they are before you arrive in camp. That was not my experience at all. It was just the opposite. He had no idea where any bears were because he had not scouted the area at all. So, do not believe what he says on his website. Except for the camping provisions. That was as advertised. Primitive and very uncomfortable. I could handle that and was prepared for those conditions. That was acceptable to me as long as I had a chance to find some game. As I said, 1 bear 6 miles from camp....in 7 days, is not my idea of a productive hunting area. This is just a small sampling of the problems incurred during this horrible hunting experience. I strongly advise any of you guys out there to not book a hunt with Tony Dingess of Revelation Mt. Outfitters. I would like to add that I have been hunting big game for over 40 years. I am in very good shape and being poorly prepared either mentally or physically was not a factor. I have hunted in Alaska for caribou with different guides so I have something to compare this outfit to. In short.....there is no comparison. The other camps and guides were far superior to what you will get with Revelation Mountain Outfitters. As a side note, I feel so strongly about this negative experience, I will be contacting the Alaska Professional Hunter's Association and any other agencies such as the Alaska Hunting Forum that I can. This man should not be running a hunting guide business.

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