Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Tip$ for a guided hunt

Hunt is based out of a lodge, so staff tips will be separate.

Is 10% + of the cost of the hunt appropriate?

depending on service yes give or take

I've seen this come up a few times and thought 15% of the hunt cost was the norm. Most of it goes to the guide but anyone that provides a significant service like a cook or wrangler should get a share as well.

We always tipped the guide and the cook.

Since it's out of a lodge, I tip the guide 10-15% depending on the job he did. Lodge staff tips are separate.

What if the hunt is 3 days and ends the first day with a harvest. Guide gets the same amount of tip for 1 day as 3 days?

If you're fortunate enough to make meat the first day, I sure as heck would.

We just got 2 moose in Newfoundland. I tipped our guide 10% and a quarter off one of the moose.

Yep, that's what I am planning to do. Thinking I may just tip him the first day for the entire hunt.

Yes. All dependent on service and effort. I tipped fairly heavily a couple years back when it took us 11 days to score a good bull on what was to be a 6-day hunt.

Two questions:

How much do you tip when your guide is the outfitter who collects all of your money?

How much do you tip on a southern whitetail (stand) hunt when your "guide" only drives you to the stand and picks you up?

These questions come up all the time when you're in camp.

Agreed this question comes up at the time. Simply put it’s no different than a good meal. 15% is the average. Start there and evaluate your experience.

dont do that.......what if he is an lazy...arrogant etc jackass....make him work for it....bob

I hunted bear in Canada a few years back and spent time talking to a very wealthy hunter who just loved bear hunting. He showed me pictures of his brown bears, polar bears and grizzly's so he wasn't full of crap. When the question of tipping came up he said that you never tip the outfitter even if he guides you. This guy made a point of NOT tipping his guide/outfitter even though he was well to do. That's why I asked in my post above.

I have received decidedly poor service from guides on occasion. I feel obligated to tip them even when I know they don't deserve it. It like eating in a restaurant, you always tip even when service is slow or substandard.

Why do people feel the need to tip a crappy waitress.
Food speed and quality aren't her lane, but crappy service is.

The whole tipping thing is supposed to drive a waitress to do a good
job. But this tipping thing has gone nuts.

People trying to be the big tipper.
Trying to fele like a big philanthropist. (Ain't I just a great guy)

I've had servers that weren't worth the $3/hr their boss paid.
Didn't stiff them.
Left an insulting little tip instead.

Dillon,
I hear and get where you're coming from. There is an exception to this....In the last year, I've had poor server service not b/c they were lazy, it was the contrary. They were the only ones working while everyone else was at home receiving .gov handouts. They had double-triple the tables to service and were busting a$$ and service was still not good. They get more than the 20% from me as they're getting it done.

On hunting guides, I've found 10-20% the norm.

Absolutely.

A serious attempt is good service.

I have a hard time understanding a 10-15% of the total costs of a hunt. Why would someone tip a guide on the fuel or plane owned by the outfitter yet is part of the total costs of a hunt? A $30K sheep hunt guide is going to get $3-4K if he meets or exceeds expectations?

I typically tip the guide $150 a day for the total number of days the hunt is for. A 10 day hunt would be $1500 whether I killed on day 1 or day 10. Maybe this is cheap but I've talked to other hunters who have hunted all over the world and this is what they have stated but maybe things are changing and I need to re-evaluate.

I have never hunted with an outfitter, but that seems very reasonable.

My hunt is 3 days and I was planning on giving the guide 100.00 per day, which is is a little over 10% of the hunt.

Yeah, same here. We tip waitresses because they rely on service tips for their income. Neat little trick restaurateurs have going, guilting consumers into paying their labor costs.

Are we to believe outfitters pay their guides the same, i.e., pay their guides almost nothing and expect customer tips to make up the bulk of their earnings?

Maybe so, I don't know.