If anyone is thinking of hunting this year, in the future or for that matter ever with Brent Barton of Dakota Adventures (South Dakota Adventures, also) I would think again and would absolutely require he put in writing anything you agree to with him. While his game and leases are great, he is not.

We hunted with him in '03 and had a wonderful time. So much so we went back in '04 and this time had such a TERRIBLE time with him doing what we agreed to that we were forced to file a complaint with the Office of the Attorney General, Division of Consumer Protection in Pierre, SD. Up to this point the use of the "Consumer Protection" portion of the title of the office where the complaint was filed is at best seriously in question. We are not optimistic that anything of value will come from our filing a complaint. However, if anyone is interested they should be to get the details of the complaint and results through the Freedom of Information Act. File No: 0627-05.

Again, get it in writing from him as our putting it in writing appears to have been of no value when dealing with issues such as these.

Lessons learned: Profit in the future from mistakes made in the past.

May I ask, what happened? What was different from one year to the next?

Sorry I took so long to reply, but I was on vacation.

The outfitter is a victim of his own success. We signed up for and paid our inital deposit for a 3 day antelope hunt. The antleope lease he had was cancelled two weeks before we were supposed to leave, due to poor herd conditions. When he told us we gladly said send our money back and we will look at next year. He offered a 4 day mule hunt (same hunt we did year before) at no additional charge if we would come this year. We said that would be fine and rebooked our flights and rearranged our schedules. When we got there, he was WAY overbooked, WAY short of help and basically blew us off; sent us out on our own 2 of the 4 days without guides to still hunt for white tail deer, not hunt Mulees on ATV's as we were supposed to do, put us up at a less than adeqaute facility compared to his lodging when we were told we would bunk at the lodge, and the final straw was charge two of the four an extra days hunt ($1000 total) when we had it in writing we were there to hunt four days for mulees on ATV's. Unfortunately, the guy wrote the check for the full amount without disputing the charge until after we had left.

Possession is 9/10's of the law and he has the money.

I'll update this post when the final word from the state comes down on what they decided and can't do for us the consumer.

Well sports fans the results are in. The Division of Consumer Protection for the Attorney General's Office is SD has said they can't play judge and jury, therefore there is nothing they can do about this unforuntate situation. They did indicate that small claims court was an option, but a quick response to the affect of winning the battle while losing the war seemed to be understood. They also said that their database would now reflect one formal complaint filed against the outfitter, not really sure where that comes into play. They almost seemed apologetic, but that didn't ease the displeasure of the end result. It left a very empty feeling and one of the system doesn't always work.

Lessons learned will hopefully avoid future contractual disputes in similar situations. If nothing else make them put it in writing.

It is hoped that this post will alert prospective hunters to the reality that not all outfitters are what they appear to be. It is extremely unforutnate that a handful of scum sucking outfitters such as Dakota Adventures give the industry a black eye and undermine the trust we expect of sportsmans, hunters and outfitters alike.

Feel free to alert friends and family of the underhanded business practices of this SD outfitter.

Sorry to hear about your unfortunate hunting experience. Where was this guy based out of/where did you hunt? Hopefully you won't judge the awesome hunting here based on one terrible experience...

They are based out of Mina, SD and have many outstanding leases on Indian Reservations including Standing Rock, which is why this whole issue was so disappointing to me.

I certainly would come back to hunt SD again as I really like the terrain if I can find the right outfitter. I have done some additional research on other outfitters, but have turned up anything as of yet. Probably won't for a while as I will be busy hunting other places over the next couple of years.

Never heard of that guy, kinda weird because I have lived within 10 miles of Mina for most of my life. The leased reservation land kinda raises my suspicion, as it has been my experience that this type of thing doesn't usually occur. I'll spread the word around about this loser. Maybe he'll even go out of business.