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Does this mean I'm famous now?

Must be , Po dunk lewis county boy recognized ya.

An interesting thread. I've been on three guided hunts, mule deer in CO, S Africa, and NV antelope. All were a bit different. On the CO hunt, it was the owner with his mom doing the cooking, Africa of course was what you would expect, guide was co-owner and there was a cook, trackers, skinners, housekeepers, etc. NV was owner/guide but I provided my own camper and food.

By and large I don't need anybody to babysit me or hold my hand. Most of what I need is someone's knowledge of the game and area and perhaps some logistical help.

My first comment would be that folks with my level of inexperience with guided hunts are hungry for good information regarding how to approach tipping. I knew and agree with/accepted tipping as an industry standard so that wasn't a big deal and I figured it into my budget. The "fuzzy part" is when there are multiple staff with multiple roles. As Travis mentioned with his "total package" comment to Calvin, I'm all about making it simple, 'cause that's me, simple.

My second comment would be to thank those that have shared their thoughts and experiences, both those in the industry and those with a goodly amount of guided hunt experience. I greatly appreciate having folks like Phil, Drummond, Greg W, and Tanner here; all I considering first-class people. It's obvious conversations can get contentious at times, but like the truth, the best information rises to the top and is pretty easy to pick out.

I will offer up that on two of the three hunts the owner/guide shared anecdotal stories about tipping the cook or help.....my thought, please don't insult my intelligence with this nonsense. I like both guys a lot and got along very well with them, but was somewhat offended with this type of behavior. But I'll also say it's water under the bridge and would hunt with either again.

My NV antelope hunt was last minute and a rushed deal because of me starting a new job. Several of the outfitters I spoke with said I needed a good 5 days to cover the unit and look over antelope; I booked for a 3-day hunt which I knew was a gamble with a top notch tag. I probably could have waited a bit longer, but shot an 80 incher on the second day and was very happy. AFTER I shot my antelope and decided to head out the 3rd day, my guide shared that he would be able to take his 4 year old daughter to the annual state fair. After tipping him, he let me know he saves all his tips for his daughters college fund. He's a fairly unique individual, but I'll hunt with him again in a heartbeat.

I've kind of rambled off topic just a bit, but my position is I will do my best to tip graciously (think more than 10%) as long as I feel the guide/outfit did everything they could to make the hunt fun, enjoyable, and successful. Regardless of whether I killed or not.

BTW, Starsky, you're worldwide famous....I'm sure!

I've been on both sides. I've been given scraps by guys that could afford prime rib (went above and beyond with that guy, letting him use my personal gun when his got messed up, of which he scratched the living chit out of my gun and missed a very nice buck). And i have been very well taken care of by guys whom were not wealthy.

When I've tipped, I've always given the maximum amount that I could possibly do. For the life of me, I can't tell toy if that was 2%, 5%, 10, or 20%. It was what I could do at the time, and, to the best of my knowledge, everyones was happy, myself included.

After having taken about a dozen hunters a year over the past 10-12 years, I'm through with that gig. We will only take a couple of mule deer hunters per year from here on out. We had some great people show up in camp for sure, as well as our share of idiots. Some tipped, some didn't. We generally gave all of the tips to the ranch foreman, who was our real ally in making sure the hunter/landowner relationship always worked out, and it did/has.

My favorite was the moron from Dallas, some lardasss attorney who eventually wound up burning Big Al's ATV to the ground because he like to ride the foot brake while mashing the gas. He was warned about it several times. After his hunt, he had the cahones' (stupidity) to ask for a partial refund since he didn't kill a buck, and bitch and moan because his shooting sticks burned up with Big Al's atv.......he never mentioned the atv BTW.

Dang, you'd never expect that from a lard ass Dallas attorney .

Agree 100%. People borrow money for things a lot more frivolous than a guided hunt. Sometimes I wish I'd spent more on stuff like that when I was younger. Or better yet, done what Tanner's doing.

Looking at what's going on with African hunting today I'm very happy my wife and I took our 25th wedding anniversary trip in 2014 to Africa to hunt for 2 weeks.



I have to go in dept each April as I apply for non resident pronghorn, deer and elk for my wife and myself.

Same thing......time vs money

On one guided hunt I took my son-in-law also. I found both and showed them to the guide. We helped drag the pronghorns to the truck. We had to skin and quarter our animals.

After John killed his and it was in the truck I told the guide I glassed up a good one about 1/2 mile on the other side of the hill. The guides wanted to go get some lunch so they didn't even take a look at it.

Needless to say I didn't offer a tip.

Sounds like you should've offered a tip:

"You may want to check into another line of work."

The handful of guided hunts I've been on, I've spotted my game, caped, boned, packed saddled my horse, cut wood split wood, cooked etc. I don't purchase guided hunts to be treated like a princess and be pampered and have my hand held. The hunts I've purchased are to collect animals I wouldn't normally have the chance to kill, i.e. Mtn caribou and oryx. Every guide made the comment they were surprised, as most clients they've had were lazy, and wanted everything done for them. I've made some great friends and tipped everyone of them, also giving them a gift, which in both cases were knives. If I wanna relax I'll simply roll to Hawaii with the commander and exercise my liver...

I don't do it to be treated like a princess either, but if a guide is content to let me spot the game, skin it, and haul it out he won't be maximizing his earning potential. So he might want to consider that in his long-term financial planning.

Pretty much an ideal client, it's always a nice reprieve to "guide" a guy like that, in my limited experience. Hard to believe you actually get paid, at the end of a trip like that. While I would be very surprised if a hunter was outspotting or out-hiking me, or wanting to cape out his own critter, it really is nice when a guy can hunt hard and well.

As to Greenhorn's comment about "having to really like the people I'm with during that time of the year", that certainly weighed on my mind when I began guiding, but I've been pleasantly surprised and have thoroughly enjoyed my time with just about every single hunter I've guided thus far. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I hope that continues...

Tanner

Ya caping is just something I do, not that I'm any better, just wanna do it. My mtn caribou had a hole chewed through a ear by a marten, hung the cape in a tree and the bastard got ahold of it. Taxi fixed it pretty good. I don't base my tip on caping, etc, I base it on if he's a good sumbitch or not, which is why I booked in the first place after numerous phone calls and if I'm sucking down ibuprofen nightly. I'm betting a guy would get his $$$ worth outta tanner or Drummond ....

PS, on my AK trip last year, I split all the firewood and wrangled all the pack animals. I know Tanner can appreciate that. I also carried as much weight as I could on the trip out, but that still left the guide with a monster load.

With the amount of firewood in that country, I can't imagine having any energy left after splitting wood, much less enough to wrangle all the ponies!

Downright woodsy up there!



Tanner

That's the way it should be, I bet your guide liked you a hellava lot better than a do nothing city slick puzzy! I'd love to do a dall sheep hunt someday....

You'd get a heck of a tip, if you were my guide, and also carried some good beer to that campsite.

Those rocks were a lot softer than they look

I normally opt for whiskey or 'shine on those hunts, they seem to pack a little better punch for the weight... grin

Tanner