Guide tip amount??

Johnksully

Lil-Rokslider
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Jun 27, 2018
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147
My son and I are going on our first guided hunting trip. It will be a mule deer hunt. What is considered a good tip these days to the guide? And would you tip the same if you tag out on the first day vs. the seventh day?
 
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Mojave

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Jun 13, 2019
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Don't eat Yellow Snow!

Beyond that tip what you can afford.

My personal rule of thumb.

10% of the cost of the hunt for hunts below $10,000
5% of the cost of the hunt for hunts $10,000- $20,000
Never been on a hunt that cost more than $12,000 though.

I do not include the cost of trophy fees into the tip calculation no matter where I am.

Game ranch hunts in Texas I tip $50-100 a day to the guide. If I am paying a daily rate, hotel fees and they are providing food I just give the guide $100. I went on one where it was $500 a day for guide, food and lodging plus trophy fees. The guide got $200 at the end of 3 days, the cook got $100.

Hunted another ranch and I stayed on ranch but I provided my own food. Tipped the same $200 for 3 days to the guide.

My tip cap is $1000 for the guide, just what I am comfortable with and can afford.

On a horseback hunt, guide gets 60-70% total tip, wrangler and cook split the other 30-40%.

On an African hunt, guide gets 75% cook, skinner, house boy, tracker all them get the other 25% split evenly. Or based on performance.

Guide pissed me off, cook sucked, and the house staff was awesome.

This is really relative on what went into your hunt.

There are people that tip 15-40%, I am not one of those as I can't afford it.

If the deer hunt cost $5000 and you give him $300-600 thats a nice tip.

If you give him more, then that is a really nice tip.

I always hand them an envelope with the money in it and their name on it. I tell them this is what I can afford and feel comfortable with tipping.

There will be entitled guides that think they need more, and cause a problem. There will be guides that have a good atitude and will happily take your mony. The odds against having a professional guide that this is his only line of work are very low. Even if Africa most of them do something else during the non-hunting season.
 
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Johnksully

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jun 27, 2018
Messages
147
Don't eat Yellow Snow!

Beyond that tip what you can afford.

My personal rule of thumb.

10% of the cost of the hunt for hunts below $10,000
5% of the cost of the hunt for hunts $10,000- $20,000
Never been on a hunt that cost more than $12,000 though.

I do not include the cost of trophy fees into the tip calculation no matter where I am.

Game ranch hunts in Texas I tip $50-100 a day to the guide. If I am paying a daily rate, hotel fees and they are providing food I just give the guide $100. I went on one where it was $500 a day for guide, food and lodging plus trophy fees. The guide got $200 at the end of 3 days, the cook got $100.

Hunted another ranch and I stayed on ranch but I provided my own food. Tipped the same $200 for 3 days to the guide.

My tip cap is $1000 for the guide, just what I am comfortable with and can afford.

On a horseback hunt, guide gets 60-70% total tip, wrangler and cook split the other 30-40%.

On an African hunt, guide gets 75% cook, skinner, house boy, tracker all them get the other 25% split evenly. Or based on performance.

Guide pissed me off, cook sucked, and the house staff was awesome.

This is really relative on what went into your hunt.

There are people that tip 15-40%, I am not one of those as I can't afford it.

If the deer hunt cost $5000 and you give him $300-600 thats a nice tip.

If you give him more, then that is a really nice tip.

I always hand them an envelope with the money in it and their name on it. I tell them this is what I can afford and feel comfortable with tipping.

There will be entitled guides that think they need more, and cause a problem. There will be guides that have a good atitude and will happily take your mony. The odds against having a professional guide that this is his only line of work are very low. Even if Africa most of them do something else during the non-hunting season.
Thanks guys!
 

jzeblaz

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Mar 23, 2012
Messages
276
Location
Santa Rosa, CA
I have always gone with 10% unless there were "circumstances". If you're happy, the guide will usually be happy with that. What others have said, plan for that, adjust accordingly and with what you can afford. I plan for 10% in the budget and it usually comes out just right.
 

MattB

WKR
Joined
Sep 29, 2012
Messages
5,415
This has been covered may times and you will get a wider breadth of opinions via the "search" function..
 

Mojave

WKR
Joined
Jun 13, 2019
Messages
1,684
I am looking at baited bear hunts in Alberta and Saskatchewan for 2023/2024. I was thinking based on my own experience that the hunt cost $5000, so I'd probably split the tip as $300 to the guide and $200 to the cook. Or 50/50. As this is a cooking intensive type of a hunt, and the guide is just dropping you off. If the skinner was a different person than the guide, I'd probably do $100 to the skinner.
 
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Oct 8, 2019
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Strongly recommend using the search function. However, take the "guides are gods and deserve that level of pay" posts with a lot of salt. Despite what many WKRs profess, not all guides are the same and therefore do not deserve the same tip percentage. Do be prepared to do 100% of the work yourself as many "guides in name only" are basically babysitters in camo.
 

Rich M

WKR
Joined
Jun 14, 2017
Messages
5,107
Location
Orlando
I used to feel obligated to tip everyone and generously. Not so much anymore. Also not afraid to say "your service sucked".

Find that the best thing to do is to have a chat about expectations and such at the beginning of the hunt, that way no-one is surprised. Ask em how they do stuff and gently go from there. No-one wants to be told how to do their job, but some guys don't like shooting critters out of a pickup truck window either.
 

WCB

WKR
Joined
Jun 12, 2019
Messages
3,250
Whatever you can afford and feel comfortable with. 10% is the general base line.

As far as killing 1st day vs 7th day it all depends. As a former guide I would scout after clients would fill out or on any "off" days for my next clients coming in. Something to say about preparation IMO.

Someone above said to throw out the "guides are gods" thoughts and can't say I don't agree...but also don't go into it with some of the guys mentality on here that they automatically know more than the guide and don't need a guide to kill animals....well if you are using a guide or a packer then obviously you need them for that hunt and treat them accordingly.
 

GSPHUNTER

WKR
Joined
Jun 30, 2020
Messages
3,907
I have been on hunts and had friends hunting with me ask how much I planned on tipping. My response has always been, tip what you feel is appropriate, not based on what I decide to tip. It's a personal Decision. Your experience may have been different than mine, either for the better or worst.
 

grfox92

WKR
Joined
Mar 14, 2017
Messages
2,397
Location
NW WY
We are going to need a separate sub forum for 'How much to tip a guide' threads.

Sent from my SM-G990U using Tapatalk
 
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