I grew up in the same town as Mr. Carr. My brother still lives there and has hunted the same areas for over 30 years. Mr. Carr does ok for the area, but as Ross alluded to above, the terrain and game populations are not good. My brother normally gets an elk, but he hunted 40 days this year, and although he saw some critters he was unable to connect. He said the locals now leave NW Montana if they really want to get something. It certainly isn't as good as it used to be. The wolves have decimated the elk and deer herds.
In short, your money would probably be more effective elsewhere.
he gets about 50/50 reviews on bow site. Thats pretty piss poor. He also runs a ton of hunters through, every review mentions 6, 8 10 guys in camp. Those two things alone would be enough for me to stay clear.
Were your buddys the guys that were trying to film last season during rifle? If so, they were in the other camp. Supposedly a little easier terrain and higher elk population than the Trout creek area. So if they didnt see much, you can imagine how it is at trout creek. lolI hunt with a couple of guys that hunted with CC, they speak highly of him. 3 guys went elk and deer hunting with him for a total of 6 trips. They harvested 3 bull elk and 0 mule deer although there were a couple of misses. One elk was a decent 6x7. They hunted public land which tended to be straight up or down. They only saw a couple of elk each trip. Not my cup of tea.
I think you had to be at least 2-3 miles in to have much hope of seeing game in November. The road hunters took care of most of the rest of it. And the ones walking the gated roads for the first mile or so.Tough country. Not the toughest I have seen but its up there.
I am an amateur hunter, last season was my first real year getting after it. I hunted that area pretty hard. I know I am a beginner but with the time, miles and effort I put in, I expected to see a little more activity. If I was coming from out of state, I would pick a different unit.