Tipping a hunting guide

[badams14]

I was in NL 2 weeks ago, I tipped $500 US dollars for a $4500 hunt. The weather sucked and we hunted through it, the guide was great guy and shared a lot of knowledge about moose and the area we were in.


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[MtGomer]

I have made factual statements, as well as given my opinion, based from personal experience on both sides of the guide/client relationship, as well as given someone suggestions on currency in Canada.
What do you view as your contribution? Someone asks what the appropriate tip amount is, and you’ve turned the thread into you trying to make the argument that it shouldn’t be done, although you know and everyone knows it is the SOP at nearly every hunting and fishing lodge, camp and charter, restaurant, and valet lot around the world.
Maybe you are too poor to afford to go on these hunts. Maybe you are too lazy to be a guide. Maybe you’re the hardest charging badass tradbow ram and goat hunter on the mountain, I don’t know, but you sure seem to have some angst at the system and think not tipping someone making $5 an hour is going to solve it.
I rarely use a guide, but when I do, I’m going to tip them unless they are totally worthless piles, which will very, very likely not happen, if you do your research. You are free to do whatever you like. Like stated earlier, it’s your reputation. Do with it what you like. You won’t need help from the internet to be degraded.

 

[mlgc20]

My wife and I go to Paris every Spring. I strongly prefer their system for dining where tipping isn't really a thing. It's already factored into the price. You might leave a couple of Euro's. But, nothing like what we do here. And this is true across most of their culture. Tipping just isn't a cultural norm for them. However, here in the US, it is a cultural norm. The tipping system has been in place long before any of us were born. It isn't new. Again, I don't like it. I would prefer that my meal or hunt just have a price (even though it would be more than it is now). And that would be the end of it. But, my personal distaste of it doesn't change the fact that things are the way they are. Certain workers like wait staff and hunting guides have tips figured in as part of their normal compensation.

 

[foldem_aug]

I have personally guided a ton of fishing trips and a few hunts. Being a guide part time has given me some personal feelings from my experiences; so when I hire a out of state guide for any tag I draw I use how I felt for my tips I give. I would agree with 10% is a good starting point and the average tip one would receive for an average experience. If the trip goes good and you get an experience of a lifetime 10% is not a lot for a hunt under 7k. I would feel like OK the hunter just feels like he had to give me 10%. I've received any where from 5% to 35% from what
I would says is as good as it gets experiences. If your unsuccessful and the you feel the guide worked his ass off 10% I would feel that is normal and i would be happy with it. If its a bad experience and your guide was bad don't tip he needs to know that you can't get away with that. Also if i'm guiding a 20 year old who saved up his money to go on this trip i wouldn't be excepting a huge tip. That's the way it is and you know that going in as a guide I remember when i was young. If you make six figures and you let your guide know that during the hunt and have every expectation met I think 10% would be a less than average tip usually I will receive or give 15% to 20%. I hope that helps

 

[the_bowhunter]

6 years of guiding for me. I was invited on a guided elk hunt in September which was my first hunt to actually be guided on. Long story with that hunt but I tipped my guided what I would consider a very good tip. The week after I had a client tip me the exact same amount and the following week I received a very large tip from a guy who guides himself.

Headed up to Colorado to guide 1st and 2nd rifle hunts!


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[Pepe55]

Many people bust their ass every day for years working for some one or themselves and just expect to be paid what they're worth, never expecting a dime in Tips. Do your job and that's what keeps customers coming back so you keep your job.

 

[wind gypsy]

Billy Bob's Outfitters Price Structure:

7 Day Elk 1x1 backpack hunt (Tips not included): $7,000
*7 Day Elk 1x1 backpack hunt - Cheap Ass option: $7,700

* for hunters who wish to disguise their selfish cheap assedness as a disagreement with the cultural norm of tipping.

 

[Pepe55]

It's obvious some have way more money than brains

 

[wind gypsy]

Many people bust their ass every day for years working for some one or themselves and just expect to be paid what they're worth, never expecting a dime in Tips. Do your job and that's what keeps customers coming back so you keep your job.

Not sure what your point is here. What makes you think guides (or any service based tipped worker) will choose to keep working for what amounts to sub minimum wage without tips? That’s kind of the point, their expertise is worth more than peanuts.

Let’s pretend an outfitter decides he wants to pay his guides more to match the value of the services they provide and tell his customers not to tip. I’d bet a whole pile of money that the people who bitch about tipping would be the ones less likely to book with said outfitter once his prices are now 10-15% higher than the competition.

 

[Pepe55]

That is the point, the outfitter, does he really need to make a years wages for a four week season. The man guiding is doing all the boots on the ground work. If you want $2.00 an hour guides working for you, you deserve what you get. Stuff a little less in your pocket and pay them what they're worth. I duck hunted with a guide on reel foot lake for a few years and we tipped him well,but I quit because it was the same blind in the same spot with the same decoys, not top of the line stuff, half the decoys were black 2 liter bottles. Yes we killed ducks eight guys in the blind at $250 a day , do the math, $2000 a day for a 50 day season. Wish I only had to work 50 days a year

 

[kiddogy]

That is the point, the outfitter, does he really need to make a years wages for a four week season. The man guiding is doing all the boots on the ground work. If you want $2.00 an hour guides working for you, you deserve what you get. Stuff a little less in your pocket and pay them what they're worth. I duck hunted with a guide on reel foot lake for a few years and we tipped him well,but I quit because it was the same blind in the same spot with the same decoys, not top of the line stuff, half the decoys were black 2 liter bottles. Yes we killed ducks eight guys in the blind at $250 a day , do the math, $2000 a day for a 50 day season. Wish I only had to work 50 days a year

what makes you think they don't work the rest of the year??????????????
I know a lot of guides and would wager they work harder throughout the year then most of the buffons they guide do.

 

[CApighunter]

I only do a semi guided hog hunt once a year. Long weekend of ranch access and getting driven around and dropped off in your hunt area. This year the main guide hardly even showed up. His helpers did all the work and the one that I rode with is a good buddy and he gave me a hand skinning it out and offered to process it for free. I threw him a 25% tip,9 and I’ll bring a case of beer when I pickup the meat. Good work/going above and beyond deserves recognition. Half the guys in the group left without even saying thank you or shaking hands. He told me this and said he never expects tips but at the very least a handshake and a thank you.

 

[Where's Bruce?]

There are two kinds of people in the world...those who have worked for tips and those who have not and have no clue how vital gratuities are to a person's financial survival. 80% of the population fall's into the latter group and I swore when I was young I would never become one of the asshats who didn't tip appropriately.

10% is a STARTING POINT. Say you pay $5K for a guided hunt, your guide busts his ass everyday for ten days and gets you multiple shot opportunities. Odds are that guy saw the smallest percentage from the outfitter, your tip could easily be 25 to 75 percent of his total pay. If you tip him $500, he busted his ass for you for fifty bucks a day. Would you do that? Twice I have tipped guides $1500. for ten hard days because they earned $150/day. You think Swaro optics, dozens of game cams and days spent scouting are free? These guys are so undervalued. Don't be the typical asshole...tip em well when they earn it. They aren't living lifestyles of the rich and famous...most are living very humble lives. Be the 20%.

 

[WannabeHunter]

Getting back to the OP's original question... seems like 10% is about average for tip. Increase it for excellent guiding/awesome person.

He asked how much to tip, not if he should tip. Get over yourselves.

 

[Pepe55]

So I'm on the guides side and already said I tipped even asshole guides but do you really think with that Billy's bobs price increase of $700 that outfitter would share a dime of it with the guide. Not a chance

 

[elkduds]

For those so cheap they don't factor a reasonable tip into the budget for a guided adventure, try this. Explain your tipping policy to the guide, the outfitter, the cook, the wrangler before your hunt. If you aren't ashamed to say it out loud.

 

[Ratbeetle]

There are two kinds of people in the world...those who have worked for tips and those who have not and have no clue how vital gratuities are to a person's financial survival. 80% of the population fall's into the latter group and I swore when I was young I would never become one of the asshats who didn't tip appropriately.

10% is a STARTING POINT. Say you pay $5K for a guided hunt, your guide busts his ass everyday for ten days and gets you multiple shot opportunities. Odds are that guy saw the smallest percentage from the outfitter, your tip could easily be 25 to 75 percent of his total pay. If you tip him $500, he busted his ass for you for fifty bucks a day. Would you do that? Twice I have tipped guides $1500. for ten hard days because they earned $150/day. You think Swaro optics, dozens of game cams and days spent scouting are free? These guys are so undervalued. Don't be the typical asshole...tip em well when they earn it. They aren't living lifestyles of the rich and famous...most are living very humble lives. Be the 20%.

Lol.

"I got out of bed and showed up today, therefore I demand at least a 10% bonus."

Wonder if the guy who saved for 15 years to go on that hunt got to make the same demands at his job.

 

[AKBorn]

Maybe it's different in the lower 48 - if you do guided hunts in Alaska (unlesss you go with one of the select high priced outfits), you have a fairly decent chance of hunting with an assistant guide who is from the lower 48, who has never been to the spot where you're hunting, and who may not know the AK hunting regs as well as they should. In that case, what "expertise and knowledge" is the guided hunter paying for?

I did 4 guided hunts in Alaska for moose/caribou/bear back in the early 2000's, when I thought I wanted to shoot a grizzly. Turns out I enjoyed hunting moose and caribou more, and wasn't terribly impressed with those outfits' ability to keep the verbal commitments they made when the hunt was booked, so I scrapped the guided hunt route, started recruiting friends or hunt partners from sites like this, and have been hunting Alaska unguided since the late 2000's.

On the 4 guided hunts I went with 2 well known and (supposedly) reputable outfits, and 2 smaller lesser known outfits. With the smaller outfits, I didn't tip once because the equipment provided wasn't up to par and that impacted our ability to hunt, and they had advertised as having top notch equipment. On the other hunt they didn't make any big boasts, and the assistant guide did all he could, so he got a tip.

On the bigger outfits, one did not deliver the type of hunt I was promised, so no tip. I made very clear that I had no desire to be in a camp with other hunters and guides, I wanted to be dropped where it was just the guide and me, even if that spot had less chance of success. On fly-in day he master guide gave me a sob story about having some guides quit in the middle of a float hunt, so I was dropped into a camp with one other hunter and guide. When the other hunter shot a wolverine (as he should have) when we had a 65" bull moose coming to a call, that impacted my hunt about as much as it could - that moose snuck off after the shot, and we never got another chance at him. No tip, and some choice words for the master guide about being careful not to make promises you can't keep.

On the other hunt with a better known outfit, it was ME who spotted the bull moose that I shot, and ME who spotted the grey wolf that I shot, and ME who packed out 5 of the 10 loads back to the top of the ridge where the plane could pick it up. I still gave that guide a tip, as well as my antlers, because he worked hard and did everything he could. I'm pretty sure he would have spotted the moose and wolf, I just happened to be looking in their direction when they showed up.

4 guided hunts, 4 very different circumstances, 2 tips, 2 no tips. That's why people claiming that someone who doesn't tip is cheap, and that you should always tip, are over the top in my opinion. There are just too many circumstances around the hunt quality and guide quality to make blanket statements that don't always fit real world scenarios.

 

[4dcfries]

10% of the Hunt is fair. Just a suggestion, a Guide can do a lot more with $$$ than he can with a new knife, or a pair of binoculars, or anything else you want to part with. I have seen hunters think they were so generous when they gave the guide a "Custom Handmade Knife" for a tip instead of cash. The Guide acted really gracious, but he probably went home and threw it in a box with the rest of the gifts he has received over the years. My opinion only, YMMV. "Custom knife" is an example only, you can insert any piece of equipment in there, but remember cash is king.

i am laughing here because I did in fact give a guide a custom knife from Daniel Winkler.....and 700 bucks. When I came across him years later I asked how he liked the knife and he said "What knife?"

 

[4dcfries]

If the guide is the owner of the outfit then what??? You have paid a full price for the hunt and is it expected you will up that as a tip? I always did but there was always a question...