Guiding & Making a Living

[gbflyer]

It can be done. You’d better have some serious energy and a willing partner. I have friends who are a couple who have 2 young children. They make their living guiding. She was born into it, and they have a big ol’ boat. Everyone goes. And they have a Nanny and homeschool the kids. They charge enough to make it work successfully. They are wonderful neighbors. They make me tired just to look at them though. I couldn’t do it. Everyone is different.

 

[kentuckybowman]

If you are going to make a living you have to own the car wash not dry them off at the end of the line.

 

[Sccritterkiller]

No way not with wife and kids, even if you could manage it financially you will never see your family...I have guided on an off for years, whitetail, bear, turkey, quail...never gotten rid of my full time job and usually accept access for payment for guiding, except tips i keep those...thats beer and ammo money!

 

[WCB]

I know a couple that are true full time guides....You either have to start basically in AK then down through different states jumping around from season to season to stay employed the majority of the year. Then they do some guiding for fish (fly fishing). Guys that don't do the fishing thing travel over seas to guide whether it be New Zealand or some Stan country for sheep and Ibex....

Also, plan on giving up hunting for yourself if you want to make money at it. It is kind of like guys who think being a Conservation Officer is a good job because the hunt/fish....guess when you are busy....hunting season/fishing.

Most guys that identify as full time guides do some sort of trade in the off season (concrete/construction) You are going to have more problems with the wife/kids angle than finding guiding work if you are willing to travel.

 

[CApighunter]

Friend of mine who guides for hogs locally drives truck and does equipment work in the summer. Makes a good living for himself but his hunting season is the “slow” time for him.

 

[Deadfall]

So far the replies are about what I expected... unfortunately ha ha
What my ideal situation would be is to have an income for 9-10 months of the year, and for the fall months to be able to hunt for myself and guide for 4-5 weeks. I guess if I find that job it’s the golden ticket! If anyone has a job like this or knows someone who does I’m all ears for ideas.

Haha....funny...Goodluck with that...

 

[*Mountainhunter]

I enjoyed reading the replies. There is nothing I could offer that hasn't already been said. If you don't own the outfitting business and have the involvement of your family in the business I don't think you would ever see them.

 

[Kjenkins011]

I know a guy that did it for 2 years. Left because it became work and didn’t like irregular income.

 

[Outdoor Writer]

Hey everyone,
I’m interested to hear of you or anyone you know that has been able to “make a living” out of guiding that a wife and kids would be ok with. Particularly what you do during the off season to help with income. I know several guides, but not very many that sound like it is something they want to sustain as a career. Whether that be not enough income in the off season, or spending too much time away to make the money they need, it seems rare to find someone that has actually made it work. Just looking for any opinions of what you have been happy doing, or what the ideal setup would be.
Thanks

Unless YOU are the main man, i.e. not guiding for an outfitter or such and can find a way to fill many days with clients, guiding is a low-paying way to spend a lot of hours outdoors.

I spent a couple years making money as a guide in different ways when I lived at Vallecito Lake in Colorado in the mid-70s. It was a way to supplement the income from our resort that was a basically a 3-month long producer, but it was never really on a full-time basis.

In the fall months I worked for an outfitter, guiding deer & elk hunters. Then in late spring to early fall, we took folks on summer week-long horseback trips into the Weminuche Wilderness for fishing or whatever met their fancy. I was paid by the day & with tips for both the hunting/fishing gigs.

When I wasn't in the high country, I took out fishermen on the lake to chase northern pike by the full or half day. This was my own side business, so any money I made was mine, and a one-day outing usually earned me more than a week guiding for the outfitter.

But...none of the above guiding gigs earned enough to take care of all the bills & raise three kids. I was also writing part-time, and after the hunting seasons, during the colder months of Dec., Jan., Feb., Mar. & Apr., I hammered nails as a finish carpenter, which was the best paying work of all. And my wife also worked full-time jobs during the winter months, and part-time ones during the summer when our resort was open.

So I guess the moral of the story is: You'd better have some fall-back money and plan for some lean years until you can get established.

 

[Deadfall]

Unless YOU are the main man, i.e. not guiding for an outfitter or such and can find a way to fill many days with clients, guiding is a low-paying way to spent a lot of hours outdoors.

I spent a couple years making money as a guide in different ways when I lived at Vallecito Lake in Colorado in the mid-70s. It was a way to supplement the income from our resort that was a basically a 3-month long producer, but it was never really on a full-time basis.

In the fall months I worked for an outfitter, guiding deer & elk hunters. Then in late spring to early fall, we took folks on summer week-long horseback trips into the Weminuche Wilderness for fishing or whatever met their fancy. I was paid by the day & with tips for both the hunting/fishing gigs.

When I wasn't in the high country, I took out fishermen on the lake to chase northern pike by the full or half day. This was my own side business, so any money I made was mine, and a one-day outing usually earned me more than a week guiding for the outfitter.

But...none of the above guiding gigs earned enough to take care of all the bills & raise three kids. I was also writing part-time, and after the hunting seasons, during the colder months of Dec., Jan., Feb., Mar. & Apr., I hammered nails as a finish carpenter, which was the best paying work of all. And my wife also worked full-time jobs during the winter months, and part-time ones during the summer when our resort was open.

So I guess the moral of the story is: You'd better have some fall-back money and plan for some lean years until you can get established.

Amen to that. Tough way to scratch it out money wise

 

[Idaho Brad]

So far the replies are about what I expected... unfortunately ha ha
What my ideal situation would be is to have an income for 9-10 months of the year, and for the fall months to be able to hunt for myself and guide for 4-5 weeks. I guess if I find that job it’s the golden ticket! If anyone has a job like this or knows someone who does I’m all ears for ideas.

Get into union construction powerline work. You can make in 4 months what most make in a year. Work your ass off for 4 months, make 100k+ and split until you need to go back to work. This is easily attained once you're a journeyman. Downside is you'll have to travel to California for it and live in a travel trailer.

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[coldchow]

Hey everyone,
I’m interested to hear of you or anyone you know that has been able to “make a living” out of guiding that a wife and kids would be ok with. Particularly what you do during the off season to help with income. I know several guides, but not very many that sound like it is something they want to sustain as a career. Whether that be not enough income in the off season, or spending too much time away to make the money they need, it seems rare to find someone that has actually made it work. Just looking for any opinions of what you have been happy doing, or what the ideal setup would be.
Thanks

I've used 30 or more guides since tha late 70s for elk, moose, bear and other game. Every one had a primary job, with guiding being their favorite 2nd job. Many worked construction. My guess is that very few live off the proceeds from guiding, rather they guide for the supplemental income and because they enjoy the work. Ymmv.

 

[AKSandman]

@Bowhunter3 My opinions are from my experience and don’t necessarily apply to you and your unique situation. However, what I have observed is that if you really want to make it work you can. But you have to live and breathe it and be creative about how you go about it. If you just want to guide hunts and never evolve into anything more than that it will likely be a bit more challenging and may not work so well long term for you. Someone on here mentioned Billy Moles as an example of a guide that had a family. He is the real deal and he is a good dude, but he was very smart about how he built his business. Look at his website and see how he has diversified his guiding income to include things that don’t require him to be in the mountains to make money. He also probably did or does work in the off season doing seasonal work of some type (I know a few guides that swing hammers when they aren’t guiding) If you are single and want to make a go of it, it is possible, but you have to be smart about how you build a business the brings in money year round. If you have a wife, she has to be ok with you being gone a lot. Some women handle this fine, others just can’t hack it. If you have kids (this is just my observation not personal experience) it gets harder and harder for guys to up and leave their family each fall and spring to go guide.

From my personal experience I would say it is challenging, but not impossible if you are willing to be creative in how you diversify your income streams. (Example: Save money when you are young and build rentals in the off season so you can have rental income year round and guide in the spring and fall, book speaking engagements, write magazine articles, turn yourself into a brand that people will buy logo w from, build your business into something that requires more than just you guiding, etc.)
The holy grail setup for being a guide is having a wife and a pickup truck that both work!

Today isn’t the golden age of big game guiding, but if you are willing to be creative and build a life that can be compatible with guiding (example: instead of getting a massive mortgage on a home, build yourself a house as you can afford building materials while living in a cheep apartment) then it is possible, but still challenging. Only you can make the choice for yourself and listening to all the people that just say it isn’t possible will likely lead to you regretting you didn’t take the risk to do something your really wanted to do all because the people you listened to didn’t want to be responsible for advising you to take a risk that may not work out for you, so instead they advised you to take the safe route and be comfortablyfailing in life (ie. Working an average job, with an average life wishing you weren’t stuck in the rat race but in too deep to get out)

In short, you can make it but you have to be smart and creative in how you go about it.

 

[Squincher]

I've had a couple of guides that might have been on work release. Probably a lot easier to make it work when your room and board are provided for.

 

[def90]

Big game guide in the fall and a fly fishing guide the rest of the year. However with the Colorado real estate market the way it is it is becoming increasingly less possible to make any kind of living with these kinds of jobs unless you are ok with sharing a run down trailer home with a couple other guys.

 

[Deadfall]

I've had a couple of guides that might have been on work release. Probably a lot easier to make it work when your room and board are provided for.

Ahhhh...haaajaaaahaaaahaaaa....thats very true

 

[grfox92]

I know a few. The one I know with kids and a family guides elk and deer on the fall, ice climbing and cross country skiing in the winter bear in the spring, and fishing in the spring and summer. And also fits float trips or white water in there somewhere. Talented guy so he's doing more then Hunting. Pretty much a year round gig for him.

Another guy I know who guided hunters in the fall would do spring and summer pack trips in the mountains for families. I think you can do it if you are willing to diversify.


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[GSPHUNTER]

My take on it is, once you take something you love and turn it into a job, your love for it dies. I have hunted with several guides who no longer hunt themselves, It became a JOB.

 

[dtrkyman]

My take on it is, once you take something you love and turn it into a job, your love for it dies. I have hunted with several guides who no longer hunt themselves, It became a JOB.

It can happen, never made me quit hunting, however after a couple months straight looking for deer I wanted nothing to do with them for a while!

However ducks were in serious trouble!

 

[Rich M]

If you enjoy hunting - make it so you can go hunt.
Get a good job with nice benefits (Newberg is a CPA for example) or start a landscaping/tree trimming business, drum up some business and run 2 or 3 crews so they'll still be working when you go hunt.

There's ways to do it where momma won't get tired of it and the kids will remember what you look like.