I once had to go out to a guy's home and appraise a bunch of rifles. He owned a township (36 sections) where this home was as well as homes in Miami, New York, and London. He had some nice but not spectacular, guns. Anyway, I showed up early in the morning and was about halfway through the list by noon. He invited me to lunch and I was anticipating a pretty good feed. I got Campbells tomato soup and some crackers. At the end of the day, he handed me a hundred dollars for the day. He was a cheapskate but, apart from that, he was a nice enough guy and the visit was a change from another day in the shop, where I would have earned about four times as much, minus the lunch.
I came out better than one of the salesmen from the store I contracted to. He went out to the home of another very wealthy industrialist and spent a full day chronographing and testing rifles in preparation for the gentleman's trip to Zimbabwe. At the end of the day, he was packing up his gear and the client reached out and tucked a bill into Buddy's pocket. He didn't even look at it; so as not to appear too crass. On the drive back to town he reached into his pocket to pull out what he was sure was going to be a hundred dollar tip. He was brought down hard when he unfolded a nice five dollar bill!
On the other side of the coin, I once guided a couple of elk hunters, just ordinary guys, hardwood loggers from back east. We had packed in to one of the spike camps and, after I got them settled, I hiked back out (about four miles) and packed in a case of beer for them. One of them had cooked up some sausage and beans while I was gone and when, after we had eaten, I unwrapped that case of beer, I thought they were going to cry. At the end of the hunt, during which they shot no elk but saw a lot of game (including a really big grizzly, close up), they tipped me way beyond what I thought they should. In truth, the hunt had been so enjoyable, I felt they should not have paid at all. GD
