Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting guide tipping?

You can break it down any way you like but it looks like it was a $5000 hunt to me. Sounds like you don't need a guide if you "helped skin and pack my buddies elk out, glassed just as hard and spotted just as many elk" as your guide. Next time just look for a voucher and go at it yourself.

I don't need the tip money when I guide a hunt and it's not why I'm there. It is nice though to be able to cover gas, oil and other associated maintenance costs for the $40,000 personal vehicle I provide to hunt with. Our equipment is abused and our time away from family is worth something to me. I always tip between 10% and 20% for the guided/semi guided hunts I have gone on

If I'd ever hire a guide for a hunt, I'd be tipping at least $100 a day.

One thing I'm not trying to do is complain�. I want an honest answer as to what one should tip. It's hard to dig thru what is right, fair & BS. I have heard cooks get 100 and guides get 150. But its all what I've heard. Then when you ask the guide he just said what ever you think is right. When you have never done anything like this before its hard to know the right thing to do.

Had a DIY hunt lined up and those guys backed out twice the last minute. The guy I went with wants to go where he can shoot an animal with good odds so does not want to do DIY. I tell him we can find elk but he has been on to many unproductive trips with others that he is hesitant to try it again.

I need another partner is what I need�. thats a whole different story�...

One thing I never see in these "Tips on Tips" is whether anyone ever sends a belated check off after the hunt is over, after an exceptional time is had? I know I would.

I hunted at a deer camp in Pa. and some pretty wealthy guys went to Africa, shot a whole bunch of animals which they paid for and gave the PH and trackers a baseball cap with our gun club logo on it and that's it! I left the club but my father is still in it and said that they have been back two or three times. I guess that's why they are wealthy, they don't part with their money!

The whole tipping thing is stupid. You pay a bunch of money for a hunting trip and then are expected to pay some nebulous sum on top of that? You tip the pilot, the cook, the dishwasher?

What is the point? Whoever hires those people should be responsible for paying them and, if they don't perform adequately, fireing them.

You think tipping is innocent? It really isn't. It's like being nice to the bears and feeding them. Pretty soon the bear expects food and becomes cranky when it doesn't get any. When you pay a tip or a bribe, pretty soon those getting said tips or bribes expect them and don't do their job well unless they get them.

And for those poor underpaid guides; if an outfitter doesn't pay you adequately, don't work for him/her.

Do you tip a waitress when you go out to eat? I believe part of the guide/cooks/wranglers salary is based on tipping.

I typically tip waitresses 20%. I don't need waitresses on my hunts, so don't use guides. If I did, I'd tip them or not go.

A guide tipping thread started by a guide.....classic. Huntsnora- you say that you don't do this for the $, but yet are going to pass off a client cause he didn't tip like you want.....ha! If guiding is so hard and takes you away from your fam and abuses your gear then why keep doing it? Cracks me up to read threads like this and them lambast a guy who doesn't like tipping......hypocrites.

I tip alot-





Oops, sorry, wrong thread.

$150 a day for guides, $75 a day for cooks and help

From what I've seen on our Montana elk hunts the standard tip is 15% of hunt cost. 10% to guide if you are happy, and 2.5% to cook, 2.5% to wrangler.

That's why I stopped guiding....because I got tired of babysitting guys that think they know more than they actually do!!
Show up to hunt 50-60lbs overweight and can't keep up with a 10 year old kid.....and the guides to blame?.....Thanks but no thanks.

When I talked to my buddy he had told them that "he'd get 1500 a week for guiding them".....so I guess I was a bargain..ha ha

I don't rely on tips for a living, I make a dang good living doing what I do as a profession, I was trying to give back to those that let me have the "keys" to their ranch.

Just curious, what do outfitters typically pay their guides? I am sure this is a fairly broad question, and can vary by region.

My guess is Drummond guides because he loves to do it. He stated plainly that he doesn't guide for the tips, but they are welcome. Neglecting to tip somebody that just worked their butt off for you is a pretty poor demonstration of character, and that alone would be enough to make some guides not want to work for a certain hunter a second time. You can get off your Soapbox now, Annakin.

Tanner

THen why don't you pay the landowner and include it in the price of your hunt? If you think you're worth $3000 then charge $3000, not $2500 and beg for a $500 tip. You are setting the price, so set it at what it's worth. Waitresses don't get to pick how much they get paid like a guide does.

To the guy who said that he wouldn't guide a guy after he didn't tip the year before I say that you are in the wrong business!

LOL, c'mon Reel, beggin? You know tipping is an uneasy subject for outfitters, guides, and clients. I like to give clients a little control over their hunt cost, and frankly, you can never pay a good guide what they are worth. I cannot believe how much whitetail outfits charge, holy smoke! Those guides make what ours do and do 1/10th the work, not saying they are lazy, just different dynamics of hunting.

On a related note, I'll be doing a one day, guided bird hunt next month. The guy I'm going with, from all appearances, is a one man show. He's owner/operator and guide. Do I tip him?

I offer, some take one, some won't, some get slipped a bottle if I know what they prefer.

Generally, the same 10% rule usually works.

Also on a related note, should you tip for a drop camp hunt? If so, whom and how much? I've not done a drop camp hunt, but I could envision a scenario where you may have different folks packing you in, doing mid-week checkup, and packing you out--should they all be tipped?

Only if they took great care to pack your breakables and endless amounts of extra gear. Only if they bring you in more beer during your stay. Only if they take care not to get your meat dirty, and placed out of the sun.