Vern Evans
The operator of the multi-state hunting operation Whitetail Heaven Outfitters was arrested and detained in Florida last month as a fugitive from justice. After more than two weeks in jail Tevis Q. McCauley was released for “time served,” prior to his originally scheduled extradition to Kentucky.
It’s the latest development in a years-long saga for 40-year-old McCauley, who bills himself as a premier outfitter service even as his business practices have resulted in scores of disgruntled former employees, dissatisfied clients, and shortchanged landowners.
Whitetail Heaven offers semi-guided and guided deer hunts on some 60,000 acres across at least four states — Kentucky, Kansas, Ohio, and Indiana — plus Osceola turkey hunts in Florida and a few waterfowl hunts. Because of its geographical and digital reach, it’s one of the biggest and most well-known outfitters in the country. Marketing photos online and on social media appear to deliver on the brand’s promise of high quality and low-pressure hunts, with images of happy hunters grinning behind record-class bucks.
But, some sources say, that success comes at a significant cost. Complaints about McCauley and his operation include unpaid salaries, dodged lease fees, false advertising, breached contracts, and over-harvested properties, among other issues.
Now, his latest arrest has onlookers within the Kentucky deer hunting community wondering if his sprawling empire is on the verge of collapse. McCauley dismisses rumors that Whitetail Heaven is going out of business.
“We have tons of satisfied customers and do a very good job,” says McCauley.
Tevis McCauley’s Arrest
McCauley of Nicholasville, Kentucky was driving in Flagler County, Florida just before 6 p.m. on March 17 when he was pulled over for speeding, according to a case report obtained by Outdoor Life. Officer Carter Bryan with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office clocked the Jeep McCauley was driving doing 67 mph in a 45 mph zone.
“He had some weird hits come back on his Kentucky license,” Bryan told the two officers who arrived as backup during the traffic stop, according to body cam footage. “I’m just trying to make sure it’s not one and the same [McCauley]. It might not be him but [unintelligible]. He’s got no paperwork on the car, apparently it’s a rental out of Kentucky. It expired on the fifteenth.”
Excerpts of the body cam footage, obtained by Outdoor Life.
Then dispatch called back: McCauley had an active warrant for “theft by deception” involving cold checks in Kentucky. Bryan returned to the Jeep to find McCauley hastily wrapping up a phone call. The officer asked McCauley to step out of the vehicle, then handcuffed him.
McCauley was “placed under arrest without incident,” according to the case report, though the arrest itself took more than an hour. Footage from the body cam shows an officer read McCauley his Miranda rights and McCauley answered questions, including about the contents of his vehicle. A search of the Jeep turned up prescription pills under someone else’s name, which officers seized. McCauley seemed civil to law enforcement, though he repeatedly asked if he could resolve the warrant with an attorney instead of getting bussed back to Kentucky.
“You’ve never seen anybody be able to solve it before having to get busted?” McCauley said from the backseat of a squad car. After learning he would have to face extradition to Kentucky and could not negotiate release in Florida, he asked, “How long do I freaking stay in jail ’til they bust me?”
“Whenever they schedule transport to come get you,” Bryan told him. “It could be a couple days, could be a week, could be a couple weeks. It really just depends.”
“Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, bro,” McCauley repeated. “Damn. That’s crazy.”
McCauley, who was wearing a Whitetail Heaven shirt at the time of his arrest, told officers that he had been in town for two weeks for turkey season. He also identified himself as an outfitter and stated that he had four hunting clients waiting for him at a restaurant.
That evening McCauley was booked as a fugitive from justice and remained in custody in the Flagler County Inmate Facility for more than two weeks with a status of “awaiting trial.” He was released Wednesday, according to Flagler County’s inmate search.
When OL reached Henry County sheriff Keith Perry on Friday, he was surprised to learn McCauley had been released. Perry had been planning to drive down to Florida to extradite McCauley himself. He says Flagler County law enforcement had provided him with an extradition deadline of April 14. McCauley’s father, he adds, had attempted to post bail while his son was still in Florida.
“If you have a warrant in Kentucky, another state can’t take bond money for Kentucky. We have to bring you back here,” Perry says. “Once we bring him back to Kentucky, he doesn’t have to go to jail. If someone comes and posts his bond, the courts will take his money and give him a court date and release him. But that’s the only way we can get rid of the warrant.”
A deputy at the Flagler County Inmate Facility said McCauley appeared to have been released for “time served, released from Kentucky.” They said they were not entirely certain whether the extradition period had expired or if some other arrangement had been made.
When reached for comment Friday, McCauley told Outdoor Life he was in Georgia hunting turkeys. Stories posted to his personal Instagram page in the last day appear to confirm this.
Bounced Checks and Unpaid Bills
That warrant for theft by deception had been active since August, when it was signed by a district judge in Henry County, Kentucky. It stemmed from a summons related to McCauley allegedly passing checks to a landowner “in the amount of $7,500 with the intent to deprive the affiant thereof,” according to a criminal complaint obtained by Outdoor Life.
Robbie Ethington, a grain farmer who operates in Henry, Shelby, and Spencer counties, filed that complaint in December 2023. He tells OL that McCauley wrote him three checks that bounced. Those unfulfilled payments were purportedly intended to compensate Ethington for crop damage on the roughly 1,500 acres he leased to Whitetail Heaven over the last seven years.
“They drove four-wheelers through my crops and made roads going every damn which way,” says Ethington. “I’ve been trying for three, four years to get my money … He owes me about $35,000 for all the damage to the crops. All I’ve collected is maybe $15,000 to $17,000.”
McCauley denies that the arrest in Florida was related to this issue. He says the arrest “didn’t pertain to anything that has to do with hunting or my business.” When pressed, he said, “It didn’t pertain to anything. It’s personal matters.” He denied that his hunters or guides had caused any crop damage.
Ethington’s situation is familiar to other landowners and Whitetail Heaven guides interviewed by OL. Several reported similar experiences trying to recoup payment from McCauley. Brent Bowers, a Florida real estate investor, says he finally received overdue payment Wednesday for allowing Whitetail Heaven clients to hunt his property recently.
“They did just reach out to me yesterday and pay me for using my land,” Bowers told OL in a Facebook message. “It took them three weeks to get back to me. And it was probably only because I gave them bad [online] reviews.”
Bowers did not remove his Google review after receiving payment. Another source, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, says three checks recently provided to them by McCauley also bounced.
When asked to comment on these accusations of delayed payments to landowners or employees by Whitetail Heaven, McCauley said “that’s not true.” He says he’s never missed or delayed payments.
“Every year I’m getting phone calls from [Whitetail Heaven employees] trying to come work here and not there because they’re not getting paid,” says another whitetail outfitter in Kentucky, who asked not to be named out of concern for his business. “They’re not getting paid their date rates. [Often] they’re living off of tips from hunters.”
This outfitter says he’s also approached by landowners every year who previously leased ground from McCauley but no longer wish to do so.
“The business aspect of outfitting is fairly simple. You receive a deposit from clients, you lease ground, and you pay for the ground off a percentage of that deposit. [McCauley] does not do that.”
Instead of paying landowners upfront to lease ground for client deer hunts, McCauley seems to arrange installment plans.
“He made multiple payments,” says Ethington, the grain farmer. “He never had the money. He was always, ‘I’d pay this next month,’ and next month turns into three months turns into six months. It was just a nightmare fooling with him.”
But the hassle wasn’t quite enough to make Ethington cut ties with Whitetail Heaven.
“You felt like you’d get your money back. You just kept hoping that you’d get things straightened out for the next year. He’d get you paid most years right before the deadline, before his time to lease another year. He called up the last two years right at the end before he had to sign a new lease and give you a damn payment. Then you was hooked into the damn situation again … He’s making all kinds of money doing what he’s doing, but it’s going to other uses [than landowner fees].”
This year McCauley finally missed his payment and renewal deadline of April 1 because he was in jail, says Ethington.
“It’s a big problem because he’ll send people out everywhere collecting as much ground as possible on a hope and a dream,” says the other Kentucky outfitter. “Landowners [are] saying ‘Yes,’ and he’s going in and killing as many [deer] as he can in the first week or two. And then [landowners are] not getting another payment from him. Then they’re sitting there like, ‘Wow, I could’ve got good income off this and now I can’t even get somebody to take it.’”
Whitetail Heaven Outfitter’s store in Nicholasville was named in a 2022 lawsuit brought by the Outdoor Group for purchasing more than $37,500 in sporting goods and failing to pay the account balance. While McCauley was named as manager in the suit, a judgment in February of this year determined his then-managing partner Casey Sheridan owed the outstanding balance, plus interest and fees. According to his LinkedIn profile, Sheridan is no longer with Whitetail Heaven.
False Advertising
One of the recurring accusations leveled against Whitetail Heaven is that McCauley overbooks clients. Multiple sources confirmed that Whitetail Heaven’s Kentucky operation would task a single guide with ferrying dozens of hunters each morning to and from properties that were too small to support that kind of pressure.
“They’re taking out a hundred and fifty people or more in the first week of velvet archery,” says the other Kentucky outfitter, who runs a one-hunter-per-guide ratio. “That’s where you get fifteen hunters on a thousand acres. And there might be one shooter on camera. They’re just stealing people’s money. It’s horrible.”
A weeklong Kentucky bowhunt with Whitetail Heaven starts at $3,500, and four-day rifle hunts cost $4,250.
“On opening day of rifle season I had to put my first client in the woods at 3:45 a.m., if that tells you anything,” says one former Whitetail Haven guide who dropped more than 30 hunters in the woods in a single day. “One thing, you’re gonna drive an hour both ways when you go to the property you’re going to hunt during deer season in Kentucky. There’s no homework, [we] just put people in stands with no [consideration for] wind or trail cam pictures.”
Whitetail Heaven touts its top-notch lodging, mouth-watering meals, world-class hunting, and — “when the weather cooperates” — a 60 to 70 percent shot opportunity rate.
“Little to zero hunting pressure on a lot of our properties allows us to continue to produce mature bucks every season,” reads the site. “Good genetics, a healthy well fed herd, intense management practices, age and very experienced, knowledgeable guides is what gets us the results we want every year.”
At least one lawsuit was filed in the last few years by a former client who considered all this false advertising after experiencing his hunt.
In 2022 a hunter from North Carolina traveled to Kentucky with two companions for a four-day rifle hunt during the rut that they paid $4,500 apiece for. After Whitetail Heaven switched his lodging days ahead of the hunt, according to the complaint, he was forced to share an Airbnb with hunters he didn’t know and didn’t get the chef-prepared meals he was expecting.
The hunting appeared equally disappointing. Here’s an excerpt from the complaint:
During the four-day hunt, the Plaintiff sat in a tree stand all day and saw only a handful of does and a few 4-point bucks. The first two days of the hunt, the Defendant put Plaintiff on a heavily wooded tract that had fingers of land that stretched out over very deep ravines on each side. Sight and shot range was severely limited and it was certainly no more than 40 yards in distance. During those two days the Plaintiff heard very few shots and all of those were in the far distance. The Plaintiff then asked to be moved to another farm with better “shot opportunity” as advertised by the Defendant. The last two days of the hunt, the Plaintiff was placed at the Bell farm. This location did afford opportunities for longer range shots, but again the Plaintiff heard very few shots and saw very few deer. … Defendant’s Website also advertises its hunting locations would reveal mixtures of high protein clover, soybeans and alfalfa along with the winter wheat, oats, snow peas and turnips. On the properties Defendant provided to Plaintiff, there were no crops, no deer food plots or planted clover. There were also no soybeans, alfalfa, winter wheat, oats, snow peas or turnips on either of these properties, as had been advertised. The hunting locations provided to the Plaintiff had a few producing hardwoods bearing acorns. The only food and deer attractants that the Plaintiff observed were corn piles between 30 and 70 yards from the hunting stands provided.
The hunter ultimately sued McCauley for breach of contract, fraud, misrepresentation and false advertising, detrimental reliance by the plaintiff, unjust enrichment, and breach of good faith and fair dealings. One source confirmed that they had never seen a food plot on the Whitetail Heaven’s hunting properties they had visited.
In other words, the suit argues, McCauley “knew, or should have known, that the statements and representations made, regarding the purchased hunt, were at best gross exaggerations and most probably untrue.” The case remains open.
“There has not been a resolution yet,” Robert L. Gullette, the hunter’s attorney, confirmed to OL. “It’s an active and ongoing piece of litigation.”
Whitetail Heaven Outfitters LLC is listed as “inactive” and in “bad standing” in Kentucky’s business entity database. The company was administratively dissolved in 2022 for failure to file appropriate paperwork.
WHO has a D-minus rating from the Better Business Bureau. That poor score reflects Whitetail Heaven’s failure to address five of the eight formal complaints filed against it in the last three years. It has an average customer rating of 3.69 stars, thanks to an extreme spread of five-star reviews and one-star reviews that detail a laundry list of complaints. Those include overbooked hunts, insufficient bathrooms and showers, shared lodging instead of private rooms, and frozen food instead of home cooked meals.
Sources say clients are required to sign a hunt agreement that they won’t write negative reviews about Whitetail Heaven Outfitters. Still, it hasn’t stopped many frustrated customers from taking to Google, Facebook, and other forums to try to prevent other hunters from booking with Whitetail Heaven.
“Some of the hunting guides were still intoxicated [from] the night before when taking hunters out,” reads one of the unanswered complaints registered with the BBB. (OL heard from sources that drugs and excessive alcohol use are common among Whitetail Heaven staff.)
Reviews also mention hidden fees. One Whitetail Heaven invoice for a $4,500 rifle hunt from 2021 included in fine print that hunters who harvest any deer will be charged a $200 handling fee. It also includes this disclaimer:
“Hunting is a sport and Whitetail Heaven Outfitters offers no guarantee of a successful harvest. Due to the fair chase nature of all Whitetail Heaven Outfitter hunts and uncontrollable factors such as weather, there is no guarantee of game sighting or shot opportunity. No refunds will be given.”
A Long Record
McCauley’s arrest in Florida last month was not his first. A check of his criminal history through the courts of Kentucky reveals at least 26 separate cases filed against him encompassing nearly 94 charges.
Many were for traffic violations, however more serious charges include driving under the influence, several marijuana possessions, public intoxication, disorderly conduct, terroristic threatening, resisting arrest, assault of a police officer, and assault in the fourth degree for domestic violence.
McCauley was found guilty of 26 of the 94 charges. Most were dismissed, including one prior theft by deception for cold checks in 2016, and 28 charges related to gambling. Those stem from a larger investigation into Whitetail Heaven for illegal raffling. In 2023 local news outlets reported that the outfit was under investigation by multiple agencies. Search warrants were executed at both Whitetail Heaven Elite Outdoor Superstore and Whitetail Heaven Outfitters.
Jessamine County Sheriff’s Office told WKYT at the time that they were “aware of many victims who have won raffles by paying money for a chance to win but never received a prize from Whitetail Heaven.” Officials also “found that Whitetail Heaven Outfitters was promoting gambling by taking in thousands of dollars, violating Kentucky gaming law.” (The Jessamine Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for a copy of that investigation.)
In 2019 Kentucky Fish and Wildlife served a search warrant at McCauley’s home and seized a set of 6×6 Kentucky elk antlers and two rifles, according to a local outlet in Pike County. The warrant was reportedly issued after social media posts appeared about his hunt there in 2018. (KFW did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the outcome of that investigation.)
In the early years of running Whitetail Heaven, McCauley also trained race horses, according to ESPN, which wrote in 2010 about McCauley working with one of the thoroughbreds his parents owned. In 2015 the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission charged him with multiple racing violations, including administering illegal drugs to a horse on race day. At the time, McCauley said the lies of a disgruntled former employee had led to the accusations.
Enough Happy Customers
One question that’s puzzled the hunting community is how McCauley has managed to remain in business for two decades. Despite all the negative reviews of Whitetail Heaven online, there are many more positive ones, and the company has still managed to book clients.
“I can tell you exactly how,” says the other outfitter, noting that McCauley did a good job marketing in the heyday of Facebook and the early days of Instagram. “If you’ve got a hundred people in a deer stand in the first five days of the season. You’ve got so many people in stands, deer are gonna die. That first week of velvet with [McCauley hunting] the amount of property that he was getting, whether it was paid for or not, you’re gonna have a picture of 20 men lined up with 20 giant deer and it’s gonna look amazing. You’re gonna post that picture and then you’re gonna spend money to boost it. And that’s what he was doing before anybody else. And it made him the biggest outfitter [in the area], if not the United States, for a long time.”
The hunt agreement clients sign also likely prevents negative reviews. And it’s no mystery why there’s a lack of lawsuits brought by former clients. Saving up to afford a $4,500 hunt is tough enough for many clients. Paying attorney fees and dealing with the legal system — often from out of town or out of state — likely isn’t possible for many, and creates a burden even for wealthier hunters. On top of that, the unpredictable nature of hunting makes it challenging to prove fault in court.
Many unsatisfied clients wrote in reviews that they decided to cut their losses and walk away.
The other Kentucky outfitter frequently guides former Whitetail Heaven clients, and while he enjoys helping them kill good deer, he’s troubled by the reputational damage to outfitting as a whole among both hunters and landowners.
“After he’s killed every deer other than a spike on the property, I’ll get a call from a landowner asking me to lease the ground because they get paid up front. And then what am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to lease the ground he’s killed out on? It’s gonna take me three to four years to build that property back up to even make it huntable at all.”
And at least one of the Whitetail Heaven lodges was recently sold. The company’s North Camp in Aberdeen, Ohio, which was owned by McCauley’s parents, sold for $1.1 million in February, according to Zillow records. The link to the Airbnb property listing through Whitetail Heaven’s lodging page has also been removed, though the property is still advertised on the site at press time. McCauley confirmed that the North Lodge had been sold, adding, “We sell and buy property all the time.” He says Whitetail Heaven is always in the market for property.
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McCauley denied any possibility of Whitetail Heaven Outfitters closing down.
“That’s not true at all,” says McCauley. “We’ve been in business 24 years and we’ll be in business the rest of my life. We have books full of hunters, and do a very good job.”
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