Can't Frickin' Believe This Ranch!!!

[TX Outlaw]

I don't really care to hear the ranches side.
Using road conditions as a reason not to take Wounded Warriors on a hunt is total BS.
I can assure you that they have experienced much more "HAZARDOUS ROAD CONDITIONS" in a foreign country fighting for this land owners rights. Pfftt!!!

I think they can probably handle a little mud on the drive around the ranch.

Good try though. Keep your excuses.
I hope those Corporate boys had fun!!!!
Does it always have to be about the money??? SMH..

Well said

[Thegutman]

After reading this I'm just glad your friend came through and it worked out in the long run and you all got to sit around a fire in the outdoors and tell some tales, cause that's what it's all about.

[BuckTag]

Can't Frickin' Believe This Ranch!!!

Haven't been online in a few days from hunting down south...

Not sure what to add to the personal friend to the owner. I've said my piece and it's 100% exactly what happened. If someone else wants to come on here and spin it, then so be it.

I come out of this thread with a clear mind. I didn't embellish anything on what I said. Was I ticked off for how things happened? Heck ya, who wouldn't?

I'm just glad that I was able to scramble and get those Wounded Warriors on another place for some hunting and down time, and that's what matters the most to me.

When I get back from Afghanistan in a few months I will be doing another hunt for those guys, they truly deserve it!

BuckTag out!

[Darton]

Im not sure which half of this post to believe. If you know the story, spit it out. The vagueness of your post makes it worse.

I must agree

[CastAndBlast]

So, I guess there is no more to the story! I will put this ranch on the "do not hunt" list. To the OP, thank you for helping these guys get in the outdoors! My hat is off to you.

[BuckTag]

Looks like a friend of the ranch is putting in his .02's in over on 2cool...

"False Allegations about El Quinto Ranch

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The purpose of this post is to address the inaccurate statements made by user 'bigtek' on January 7th and 8th as well as the comments that followed on the 1st thread (which is now closed).

El Quinto Ranch did not and will never cancel an event for veterans "because of a corporate thing going on there." As user LazyL suggested, the Ranch would have let Tek and his group join the other group(s) without hesitation.

Unfortunately and as Tek failed to mention, we did not receive the documents we requested regarding the status of Tek's charitable organization. The Ranch currently does business with many charities (over $10,000 in hunts donated to the March of Dimes and STARS Scholarship Fund in 2013) and cannot afford to do business with an unverified/fraudulent non-profit organization.

Furthermore, the Ranch's walking paths/roads were completely torn apart due to a large rain 2 weeks ago as well as the fact that the Ranch had just finished blading the roads prior to the rain. Given the lack of sidewalks around the lodge as well as the rough roads, we felt that the injury risk was too high for Tek and his group.

Once these two issues are addressed (the sidewalks were just finished), we will be more than happy to have any organization supporting wounded veterans out at El Quinto Ranch.

Now, to address the comments that followed the original thread:

To the user who posted the following:

"They are across the highway from my place, never met the guy...

[from the pictures it doesn't look like you are missing much besides a nice lodge]"

Stop by the next time you're at the ranch. We'd love to show you what you're missing.

To the user who posted the following:

Dam......that's a bad deal. Sounds like Mr. Mandel needs to learn a little manners and have a little more respect for the individuals that fight to provide him the freedom that he obviously abuses and/or manipulates in order to make a dollar or two. He aught to be ashamed but odds are.....he isn't.

Not only was Mr. Mandel's father a Marine and his grandfather a member of the US Army, his private security company is one of the top employers of veterans in California, Arizona, and Texas.

If you would like to speak to Mr. Mandel or if you have any other questions/comments regarding the clarification of this allegation, please contact us at admin@elquintoranch.com. We also ask that you contact us first before you attempt to publicly defame us in the future.

Thank you and God Bless America.

--EQR"


Below is my reply.

Well I just got off the phone with the SNCOIC for the WWP there at Fort Sam Houston (BAMC), and they said that the form you stated is not a mandatory form. Also, they stated that it can be provided when requested. If you would like to talk about that form let me know and I can give you the contact information to the MSgt. on location for the WWP.

This form was only brought up after the fact being told by the friend that married the niece of this ranch owner. That friend was in contact with the ranch owner throughout the whole ordeal. A couple of days before cancelling the hunt the owner wanted to know if the Wounded Warriors needed wheelchair access and I informed him that they were mobile.

I have records of the texts from the friend saying that the wife told him it had to be cancelled due to a corporate thing. If you want I can provide every text on here... Just say the word, I have them on standby.

The friend married into the family told me these excuses for the ranch...

First - Hunt was cancelled due to corporate thing told from owners wife (CFO).

Second - Hunt was cancelled due to roads, and corporate thing was cancelled also.

Third - Hunt was cancelled due to roads, there was never a corporate thing, and I didn't have some paperwork (first that was mentioned about needing some paperwork).

So after I was given all of those excuses.... What the heck am I suppose to believe??? I'm just telling everyone exactly what happened. If it was due to the roads, then why wasn't that the first excuse given?

I'm not trying to bash or tell lies about some place. Everything that I've stated happened and in that order. If anything, the friend that married into the family is a pathological liar or the ranch is back peddling.

The only thing that I care about is and was taking care of those Wounded Warriors and letting them get on somewhere to hunt and have a good time.

I'm headed back to Afghanistan next week and when I get back in a few months I'll be taking out some more Wounded Warriors, but I can tell you one thing.... I'll never set up anything with this place or the "friend" that is either a liar or covering up for this ranch.

Not sure what else I can say about that.

[deer99hunter]

Looks like a friend of the ranch is putting in his .02's in over on 2cool...

"False Allegations about El Quinto Ranch

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The purpose of this post is to address the inaccurate statements made by user 'bigtek' on January 7th and 8th as well as the comments that followed on the 1st thread (which is now closed).

El Quinto Ranch did not and will never cancel an event for veterans "because of a corporate thing going on there." As user LazyL suggested, the Ranch would have let Tek and his group join the other group(s) without hesitation.

Unfortunately and as Tek failed to mention, we did not receive the documents we requested regarding the status of Tek's charitable organization. The Ranch currently does business with many charities (over $10,000 in hunts donated to the March of Dimes and STARS Scholarship Fund in 2013) and cannot afford to do business with an unverified/fraudulent non-profit organization.

Furthermore, the Ranch's walking paths/roads were completely torn apart due to a large rain 2 weeks ago as well as the fact that the Ranch had just finished blading the roads prior to the rain. Given the lack of sidewalks around the lodge as well as the rough roads, we felt that the injury risk was too high for Tek and his group.

Once these two issues are addressed (the sidewalks were just finished), we will be more than happy to have any organization supporting wounded veterans out at El Quinto Ranch.

Now, to address the comments that followed the original thread:

To the user who posted the following:

"They are across the highway from my place, never met the guy...

[from the pictures it doesn't look like you are missing much besides a nice lodge]"

Stop by the next time you're at the ranch. We'd love to show you what you're missing.

To the user who posted the following:

Dam......that's a bad deal. Sounds like Mr. Mandel needs to learn a little manners and have a little more respect for the individuals that fight to provide him the freedom that he obviously abuses and/or manipulates in order to make a dollar or two. He aught to be ashamed but odds are.....he isn't.

Not only was Mr. Mandel's father a Marine and his grandfather a member of the US Army, his private security company is one of the top employers of veterans in California, Arizona, and Texas.

If you would like to speak to Mr. Mandel or if you have any other questions/comments regarding the clarification of this allegation, please contact us at admin@elquintoranch.com. We also ask that you contact us first before you attempt to publicly defame us in the future.

Thank you and God Bless America.

--EQR"


Below is my reply.

Well I just got off the phone with the SNCOIC for the WWP there at Fort Sam Houston (BAMC), and they said that the form you stated is not a mandatory form. Also, they stated that it can be provided when requested. If you would like to talk about that form let me know and I can give you the contact information to the MSgt. on location for the WWP.

This form was only brought up after the fact being told by the friend that married the niece of this ranch owner. That friend was in contact with the ranch owner throughout the whole ordeal. A couple of days before cancelling the hunt the owner wanted to know if the Wounded Warriors needed wheelchair access and I informed him that they were mobile.

I have records of the texts from the friend saying that the wife told him it had to be cancelled due to a corporate thing. If you want I can provide every text on here... Just say the word, I have them on standby.

The friend married into the family told me these excuses for the ranch...

First - Hunt was cancelled due to corporate thing told from owners wife (CFO).

Second - Hunt was cancelled due to roads, and corporate thing was cancelled also.

Third - Hunt was cancelled due to roads, there was never a corporate thing, and I didn't have some paperwork (first that was mentioned about needing some paperwork).

So after I was given all of those excuses.... What the heck am I suppose to believe??? I'm just telling everyone exactly what happened. If it was due to the roads, then why wasn't that the first excuse given?

I'm not trying to bash or tell lies about some place. Everything that I've stated happened and in that order. If anything, the friend that married into the family is a pathological liar or the ranch is back peddling.

The only thing that I care about is and was taking care of those Wounded Warriors and letting them get on somewhere to hunt and have a good time.

I'm headed back to Afghanistan next week and when I get back in a few months I'll be taking out some more Wounded Warriors, but I can tell you one thing.... I'll never set up anything with this place or the "friend" that is either a liar or covering up for this ranch.

Not sure what else I can say about that.

Your good bro, you've done all you can do. Don't let this incident bother you any more, just carry on with setting up hunts for the WW's.

Move forward, don't look back

[BuckTag]

Your good bro, you've done all you can do. Don't let this incident bother you any more, just carry on with setting up hunts for the WW's.

Move forward, don't look back

Roger that! You're 100% right deer99hunter. Carry on!

[Envy1824]

All of this is my own opinion and everyone else has his/her own.

Two weeks of no rain is plenty of time to dry up and make things drivable and walkable. I have a 60 acre ranch and after about three days after a real heavy rain you are fine driving and if you decide to walk you have no problem and this is on a dirt road. We have not done any maintenance to the dirt road besides cutting branches and cactus getting close to the dirt road. We have nothing paved or any sort of base, rocks, gravel nothing just dirt.

According to the web site they say it has luxurious facilities and amenities. If that was so you would think 2 weeks of a dry period would not affect the ranch that has claims of this. They also claim the ranch has several nature trails and you can hop in one of the ranch's recreational vehicles to explore its terrain. They also have a release of liability form that makes them free of any and all charges incase someone gets hurt. If you also go to the web site and click on the link that say "the lodge" they show pictures of what I assume is the lodge with sidewalks gravel and it all looks like maintenance is happening. They state on the post BuckTag put "Given the lack of sidewalks around the lodge as well as the rough roads, we felt that the injury risk was too high for Tek and his group". False advertisement from site to post in my opinion.

One would come to the conclusion they are full of BS and trying to cover their behind. If the site says one thing and the post says different, to me this is shady and I think they got greedy and took the corporate hunt because they saw big $$$. If this was not the case why would you take so long to respond especially knowing that your reputation is on the line. Especially with such a weak defense.

My opinion is I would never recommend El Quinto Ranch.

[EQR]

Hey folks, El Quinto Ranch here. Our apologies for not responding to this issue sooner, we did not find out about this post until this Sunday after our charity hunt with the March of Dimes. In addition, we still needed to create an account on TBH and were just validated this morning.

Now to address the false allegations at hand as well as the comments made on this thread that came as a result of a bad game of 'telephone.' Unfortunately, all of Tek's information came second hand, so there is "the rest of the story."

El Quinto Ranch has not and will NEVER cancel an event for veterans for a "corporate thing" OR "because we cherish the almighty dollar" or "because we're greedy." What do you think we are, stupid??? First, the Ranch was never built to be the primary source of income for the owner. His success as a business man has allowed him to build this place with the sole intention of providing a unique outdoor experience for families, non-profit organizations, etc. and without the need for Return on Investment. Second, there wasn't even a corporate event booked for that weekend. Even if there was, we would have let Tek's group join us without hesitation. The Ranch can sleep up to 40 guests and feed 120, so space is rarely an issue. Again, a bad game of telephone is at the root of this problem. If Tek would have spoken to us DIRECTLY, none of this libel would have happened.

Now that the ridiculous "money" issue has been addressed, let's move on to our next topic: Tek and his failure to provide the documentation we requested. When companies give to non-profit organizations, they usually require verification of that organization's 501(c)(3) status. So before this event occurred, we asked Tek to provide the documentation that proves the non-profit status of his company and/or a letter that showed that this hunt was booked through the Wounded Warrior Project. We received neither of them. After an inquiry with the IRS, we discovered that Roby Outfitters was not a 501(c)(3) and after an inquiry with the Wounded Warrior Project's San Antonio office, we were told that no hunt was booked though this organization, but the copyrighted name has been thrown around loosely as of late. Actually, we were told that the Wounded Warrior Project doesn't even book hunts through outfitters, they book hunts directly with the landowner.

So what actually happened? Tek more than likely went through the Soldier & Family Assistance Center at BAMC and slapped the WWP tag on it which, with the exception of inappropriately (and possibly illegally) using the WWP name, would have been fine for us except for the fact that we still needed the documents from SFAC that Tek "just now" found out about (which surprises us.)

Next, we move on to roads. Throughout the last weekend in December, the ranch got absolutely poured on. This occurred right after we had bladed the roads which, if you know anything about land management, makes getting around a lot tougher. We tore up the roads that weekend during that storm, leaving the ranch in disarray. We also tore up the walkways to the front the lodge as well as the sides that lead up to the handicap ramps (we have sidewalks on the backside only), making it tough to get from your car to the front door of the lodge (that's if you survived the trip down the main road to the lodge in the first place). One week was not enough time to repair these roads so in spite of that as well as the above, we decided to cancel the event.

Because Tek did not speak directly to us, we cannot be sure of exactly how and when the information was disseminated from us to him. All we know is what you see above.

Last words:

We love veterans. The owner's father was a Marine and his grandfather was in the Army. The owner's business actually is one of the top employers of veterans in the states of Arizona, California, and Texas. As a matter of fact, we just got off the phone with the Warrior Outreach Coordinator for WWP-San Antonio and will be partnering directly with WWP for hunts in the future. For those of you who believed this libel and have been disparaging us, e-mail us and we'll have you out to the ranch during these hunts to show you what we're all about. We're giving people. We gave over $10,000 in hunts in 2013 to the March of Dimes and the STARS Scholarship Fund. If you have any questions, want to speak to us directly, or are thinking about publicly defaming us again, please message. We promise we'll get back to you ASAP and address any issues you have.

Thanks for your time. God Bless America, Texas, and TBH.

--EQR

[JSquaredDaddy]

I am not going to take sides on this but the one thing I do see common is that it appears the OP never talked to the Ranch directly and only went through the friend. Even if the friend never meant to cause any problems, it sounds like all of the information never got passed. For instance, news of the cancellation, " I heard it from my friend who heard it from the owner's wife", who may be involved with the operations or may not. I see one of those instances where you tell the first person that the car is red, by the time it gets back to the first person it is that Pluto is no longer a planet.

[BuckTag]

Can't Frickin' Believe This Ranch!!!

I do appreciate your response above EQR.



I went through the Wounded Warrior Battalion on SAMMC, Fort Sam Houston.

The hunt was organized through a MSgt. Scott, MSgt. Gomez and SSgt. Molina.



I'm not a land owner and I was able to easily set this up for some Wounded Warriors...



I spoke with Scott Mandel a couple of months back and talked about bringing hunters there and all seemed fine. From that point the WW hunt was setup through Michael who was in direct contact with Scott the WHOLE TIME... He's married to the niece of the ranch owner.



Below you will read the exact texts sent to me the evening before I was to pick up the Marines and head down to the ranch. Like I've said before, I'm not sure who or what to believe since I've heard several excuses for this foul up... So it's either the ranch or Michael that is lying, and I've stated that before. To stay away from dealing with this cluster'F I'll take my business elsewhere.

And yes, immediately after the first text from him I was on the phone with him and got the same story...

[T.J.Hunter]

that's awesome of you to take those Devil Dogs hunting, and your buddy rocks as well. Glad y'all found a place. Semper Fi!!!!

[boh347]

That's a horrible excuse not hunting because of muddy roads.pfffffff

[AddisonOil]

Ohhhhh dear. It wents from hearts to sharts real quick.....