Jeffery Peeler booked two Mexico Desert Mule deer hunts with Blair Worldwide hunting (if my memory serves me right, approximately 2 years ago). During the time of his booking we operated mule deer hunts in Mexico and Blair Worldwide hunting booked them with us. Approximately 1 year after the booking, our Coues deer hunting business in Mexico increased to the point that we decided to drop our mule deer hunting program. Upon doing this we contacted Mr. Peeler and told him we would no longer be conducting the mule deer hunts in Mexico and he could have the following options: 1) Transfer the deposit to a hunt we still offered 2) Receive his deposit money back 3) Hunt with the Mexican Outfitter who would be operating on our old ranches. Upon receiving these options, Mr. Peeler decided that since he was taking his son on his first big hunt that he wanted to stay with the mule deer hunt and hunt with the Mexican outfitter. I transferred his deposit to the new outfitter and also sent his balance payment as well. We stayed in the mix to make sure that everything went as planned. There was a difference in arrival and departure dates since the Mexico outfitter had a different schedule than we had and we helped Mr. Peeler get those differences handled. Other than that Pusch Ridge Outfitters had no part in the hunt. This was FULLY understood by Mr. Peeler when he made his decision to go. Pusch Ridge Outfitters is not responsible for this hunt and Mr. Peeler knows this. I was made aware of his complaint and referred him to Mr. Garibay in Mexico. Based on what I have been told from Mr. Garibay and other hunters who were in camp that he and his son shot at and missed several bucks. If the trophy quality was what he claims then I would like to know why they were shooting at deer. If Mr. Peeler has a problem with his hunt, then again, he needs to contact Mr. Garibay. Going against Pusch Ridge Outfitters (who did nothing but try to accommodate him) is nonsense. I am sure that after talking to Mr. Garibay and other hunters in camp, he is embarrassed to try that avenue. Pusch Ridge Outfitters has been in operation for close to twenty years with NO negative hunt reports. During this time we have run in excess of 6000 hunters. NO negatives in that many hunters is one of the reasons we were awarded the SCI 2007 North American Professional Hunters of the year award. This complaint is fully without merit, and Pusch Ridge Outfitters will not be held accountable. Mr. Peeler has all the contact information for Mr. Garibay and needs to rectify any complaint (which I feel he has none) to him. Please verify with me that you are in receipt of this email. Thank you, Kirk Kelso Pusch Ridge Outfitters

Additional Comment by Jeffrey Peeler:

After reviewing Mr. Kelso's rebuttal, I find that his good memory ends when he remembers the date that I booked my hunt. I contacted Blair about the mule deer hunt after reading in The Hunting Report that Pusch Ridge was "no longer offering hunts for desert mule deer" in Mexico. I was the one contacting people not Kelso calling me to inform me of this. Blair told me they were sure there would be no problems because of the quality of hunt Pusch Ridge runs. I was never offered the three options that Mr. Kelso refers to in his rebuttal. I was told that the person who had been running his hunts in Mexico for the last several years would still be running this hunt. In reference to helping me straighten out my flights, it was only confusion from Mr. Kelso and his wife that caused flights to have to be changed, and I did it all myself. I discussed this with Blair at the time and they helped get the date mess straight. In reference to shooting at and missing several bucks, my son shot at one early in the hunt in heavy brush. The guide found the bush where the shot was deflected. He shot another time and killed a coyote with one shot. He then shoots a deer at about 170 yards offhand hitting it with the first shot. The guide continued to tell him to shoot which he did shooting two more times. The last two were unnecessary as the first shot hit and killed the deer. Those are the only shots that were fired in Mexico by my son except at the makeshift range sighting in our guns on arrival. Matt had hunted for aoudad with a well known guide and I think this guide would give him excellent marks for hunting and shooting ability. I discussed my problems with Blair when I got back, and they contacted Mr. Kelso and still no mention of this hunt being transferred to another outfitter. I also talked to Mr. Kelso and he said nothing except he would check into the problems that I told him about on the hunt. Much later when he finally returned my call, he told me everyone that he talked to (Garibay and one other hunter) said we appeared to be having a good time on the hunt. I explained to him then that I have been in hunting camps where other hunters sat around and griped all the time, and I had seen them make everyone else miserable. I was not about to ruin the hunt of others. By the way, my hunt can be booked for about $1,500 a hunt less with this outfitter than what I paid to Pusch Ridge for the hunt. I wonder where that money went. I am not embarrassed to contact Mr. Garibay about any aspects of the hunt as Mr. Kelso states. My contract was with Pusch Ridge and that is where I plan on taking actions to recover damages. This is not what I was seeing from the beginning, as my original report only said I would not recommend this hunt again because of no trophy animals. I did not open up these subjects Mr. Kelso refers to, but since his comments are so incorrect I must correct them. We will see what merit this complaint has as we proceed through appropriate channels.

I booked this hunt during the SCI Convention in January 2001. During the convention, I spoke with Kirk Kelso about available openings, hunt conditions, the number of hunters in camp, size of the range, trophy quality, etc. Based on this discussion, I selected an early December hunt. Many Coues deer hunters prefer December to the January rut, because the bucks can be spotted, and will bed down and tend to stay put. In January they appear to spend more time wandering in search of does.

Kirk ran two separate camps with four or five hunters per camp. The camps were many miles apart. The series of ranches that we (four hunters) hunted totaled about 17,000 acres. The roads were in surprisingly good shape. The accommodations were very nice - hot shower, brick bunkhouses, and a common eating area. Food was good also.

Kirk is an advocate of using high-powered glasses to spot, and then stalk your buck. He, and some of the other hunters and guides, use 15x or 20x binoculars on tripods. They also use 6-20x riflescopes on 300 Weatherby's in case a very long shot is needed. Kirk spotted my buck at about 900 yards with a spotting scope. I carried 10x Swarovskis and found this to be acceptable (although I plan to upgrade to 15x for more patient glassing).

The hunt began on Sunday afternoon and ended on Friday around noon. The first afternoon, my guide (Alex) and I were dropped off along a relatively high ridge and spent the afternoon ghosting along and glassing likely areas. We saw a few deer, but nothing notable.

On Monday, Kirk, another hunter and our two guides, piled into a Suburban (well maintained) and spent the day glassing various canyons. We saw 29 bucks, but none that approached the 100-105 SCI point range (many were estimated to be in the mid- to high 90s). I had indicated that I would be pleased with a buck in the 100-105 range.

On Tuesday, Alex and I started early. Almost immediately we spotted two bedded bucks, but the biggest was about 95 SCI points. We spent the day in a series of connecting ridges and canyons and saw 22 bucks. One was a true trophy, but we jumped him at about 60 yards or so, and he took off into heavy cover and ran up and out of the canyon.

That evening it snowed and at first light the fog had settled into the canyons. Again, there were two hunters, two guides, and Kirk in a suburban glassing from many advantage points. About 10 a.m. the fog was burning off and the snow was starting to melt. We were seeing many deer, up and feeding (particularly under the oak trees). One of the guides, Alex and I believe, had spotted a buck on a hillside as we were driving along. We stopped and piled out of the Suburban to glass. He was small, and we continued to glass. That's when Kirk spotted "my" buck. Using his spotting scope he confirmed that the buck would go about 115 points. The buck was up and moving, two canyons away.

Kirk told me to go with Alex and his brother Jose, have them find the buck, laze him and kill him. It took us a while to cross the first canyon and as we approached the ridge, we turned to look back to the Suburban. Kirk and the other hunter signaled that we should move further down the ridge before topping out. As we topped out, it took Jose and Alex about five minutes to spot the buck. He had bedded almost directly across on the other hillside, up against a rock ledge. It is volcanic rock in that area, and with the overcast, their naturally gray-brown coats, it took me a full 15 minutes to pick him out of the gloom. He was 266 yards. I moved into a comfortable prone position (I use a Harris bipod) and touched it off. He gross scored 117 3/8 with a net of 110 2/8 - a real trophy.

The other hunters had similar luck that week. We took four other bucks ranging from a low 99-plus (this was a buck with three main beams) to 113-plus. The average gross score was about 110. Quite a week.

As I stated at the beginning, this was an excellent hunt - good camp conditions, good food, good hunting companions, lots of deer, etc., etc. The only negative aspect was the amount of travel time involved. At a minimum, there are four days of travel for five days of hunting. We were asked to be in Tucson in time for a charter flight to Hermosillo that left around noon. We then spent the night in a hotel in Hermosillo and drove about five hours the next morning to camp. In my case, I flew to Tucson the night before the charter, as there was only one direct flight on the day of the charter, and if that was delayed or cancelled, I would miss the charter. I would much rather fly directly to Hermosillo and either drive to camp or spend the night.

In any event, I took a trophy of a lifetime!