Magnolia Outdoors Outfitters

Beautiful place out there very quiet and peaceful and if you love the country this would be the place to get away too

I wouldn’t recommend this place for turkey hunting. I hunted hard for 3 days all day and never heard a gobble and never saw a track. The only turkey activity I saw was a lone hen pass through a field. There were two other hunters at the lodge the same time I was there and were hunting a different property, and they never heard a gobble or saw a bird. There simply wasn’t any birds frequenting the property. Maybe there had been before, but definitely not while I was there. The guys were nice guys, but they didn’t have an answer for the lack of activity. The lodge is fine, and although it’s a little dated, it’s more than adequate for a hunting lodge. The food that was cooked was pretty good, no complaints there. The land isn’t really managed well in my opinion. It is primarily a pine plantation with head high privet all throughout the property. The only management that appeared to be happening was the planting of small food plots with no attention given to 98% of the property. They did offer to allow me to come back for free which was a nice offer, but it seemed pointless when there were no turkey. My intention with this review is not to harm their reputation, but to give warning to anyone else who may be looking to book a turkey hunt.

Magnolia outfitters is not a place I would recommend anyone coming to that has a higher expectation of being successful. We came from utah and wyoming at the beginning of December for a 4 day 3 night hunt. On their website it states that one doe and one buck maybe taken. The week leading up to our trip we were informed that the harvest of a doe would not be available but would be able to take a “cull buck”. When asking how many cull bucks were located on the property we were told 5-6 and that the guide would be able to provide pictures once we arrived to the outfitter lodge. Fast forwarding to the arrival to the lodge we noticed that all around the property the guide service had scheduled logging the whole week prior to us hunting. We then find out that the original guide and the cook are no longer employed by magnolia outfitters which was no problem other than there was no information transfer between new and old guide. When asking to see pictures of what is considered a cull buck the guide was not able to provide a set standard for was considered a cull buck. Throughout the course of our hunt we were placed on food plots with brand new box blinds. Which resulted in us seeing only 3 doe deer. And they were skittish at the sight of the new blinds we continued asking the new guide about trail cam pictures which the deer were feeding in the dark not in the daylight. We asked about a between area from food and bedding to be placed and with no avail, we were continuously placed on food plot stands. Upon the end of our hunt we were able to talk with albert and he kindly offered us the availability to come back for free in January if we provided our food, for compensation of a poorly executed hunt. Which was fantastic until we arrived. We arrived on the specified day only to be told we showed up a day early repeatedly which in fact we had not. The guide informed is he had prior engagement the upcoming day at mid day which was no problem with us. He adjust graciously and had us out in blinds that morning which we decided as a nice jester as he had plans we would walk back to the lodge that morning. Around the time for the evening hunt we had not heard from the guide so we placed ourselves in the closest stands to the lodge and walked back after the evening hunt was over. Around 8 pm the guide came to the lodge and apologized and all was well until he said that we were there for free and were on our own. To me we weren't just there for free were there as we payed money for a guided hunt that was not fulfilled the first time around. So we continued going out with very little information until the end. Needless to say we will not be back and will be recommending to anyone not to go here.

Thank you to everyone at Magnolia Outdoors Outfitters. My 13-year-old son and I had a very fun and successful three-day hunt. This is a real deer hunting outfitter operation!!! They maintain good food plots and feeders. They have game cameras everywhere. All of the cameras are integrated so that the outfitters can use their iPhone to know where the deer have been active. They know which deer stands have the best probability of success. We never hunted in the same deer stand twice. This is the way to hunt. All of the deer stands were excellent quality. Every stand I hunted in, or saw, had stairs with a handrail, except for a tripod I hunted in once. The tripod, with a swivel seat, was great. I'm sure that if you can't climb a tripod, the outfitter will not send you to that type stand. This was my son's second deer hunt. On his first deer hunt, at a different place, he texted me a picture of some does and asked if they were big enough to shoot. For that reason, on this hunt, I paid a little extra for him to have a guide with him on every hunt. It was worth much more than I paid for. The guide, Robert, was very nice and taught my son more about deer hunting than I could ever teach him. Also, at mealtimes, Robert answered all of my deer hunting questions. Robert also showed my son how to clean and quarter a deer much better than I know how, and much better than I have ever seen. He explained the anatomy of the deer. He did much more than simply quarter the deer. He skinned it so my son could latter process the hide. He cut out the back-strap and explained the other cuts of a deer. If you don't know much about deer hutting outfitters, choose this outfitter. You won't be disappointed. I have been to outfitters with great web-sites. But, they only put deer stands in the woods (where they may be clear-cutting the pine) and in their cattle pasters (after rotating the cattle off of that grass), without any food plots, feeders, cameras, etc. I asked my son what he wanted me to put in this review. He said, "the people are very nice, they care about you, and they want you to shoot deer." He is very happy with Magnolia Outdoors and had a lot of fun hunting with Robert. Also, Robert seemed to enjoy hunting with my son and teaching him. The living arrangements are excellent. It's like being in a 5-star hotel that feels like home. If my wife and daughters had come with us, they would have loved sitting on the front balcony and reading a book. They would have enjoyed waking on the lodge grounds and fishing in the pond. Amanda and Jeremy (a married couple) put a lot of effort into upkeeping the place. They are both very good cooks. I told Amanda that she is really a chef, not a cook. My son told her that staying there was like being at home because Amanda cooked like his mother. That's a tremendous compliment to Amanda because my wife cooks better than most expensive restaurants. We're from south Louisiana. In addition to this being a real deer hunting outfitter business that puts tremendous effort into putting you on the deer, Robert, Amanda, and Jeremy are very nice people that we enjoyed being with. These people obviously love their job and their customers.

This property is absolutely AMAZING! The new management is making huge improvements to the property and each building on the property. I cannot wait to go back.