Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Tipping,

Reminds me of what’s the difference between a Norwegian and a canoe. (The canoe tips.)

I normally tip waitresses/waiters. I had a waitress scream at me because I ate soup my kid didn’t eat and I didn’t order soup. She added the charge for the soup onto the bill. That woman may have been mental, I don’t know. But where it said tip, I wrote: “see back”. On the back I wrote: “Your tip paid for the soup, THANKS!!”

Tipping in the US has certainly gotten out of hand, I'm prompted every time I buy coffee "do you want to add a tip", No!, all she did was fill a cup and ring me up! I much prefer the European standard of a professional wait staff and not tipping. With the tipping model, you mostly get amateurs constantly interrupting you as you're trying to enjoy your meal and conversation. That said, in the service industry where tips are expected, I always do and on the high end if it's someplace I frequent as I want good service. On a guided hunt, if I tip is expected, I just plan it into the budget.

I hate tipping because I have social anxiety issues and just don't like weird dynamic of figuring out the correct tip.

- If the expected tip is certain (say a restaurant) I don't mind.
- I also don't mind where I am told ahead of time that the expected tip for good performance is $xx or xx%.

Well said, I always tip well. I’ve been on a few corporate leases. They had a guide in the stand that gave you the green light when a big buck came up if he was 5 yrs or older. We hunted 3 days, always gave the guy 300 bucks. When I’m gone I do not want to be known as a cheap MFer. If I’d shot a really big buck, I would have given him 500.

If anything i'd tip the owner less than an employee that worked for said owner, same for tipping any waitress/server more than the restaurant owner, employees have fewer avenues available for income.

Ok, now I am curious as to the tip percentage. Say you pay $5k for a 4 day deer hunt. You tag a buck on day 2 or 3; nothing remarkable but you had a good time and were successful.

Are you tipping the guide the “new standard” 20% of that $5k? $1000?

For me I will absolutely tip $500, (10-15%) without issue, but not a grand.

Not when when I likely already have $8k+ invested in the hunt between the licensing and tag, guide, and travel expenses. Hell, that’s doing it on the cheap these days! I agree that a tip is earned as part of services rendered and that one should be given but I am more in the 10% category when it comes to guided hunts.

I know a man who owns an auto detailing business, and is also an elected state representative to our state legislature. I've known him and his family for many years, and have used his detailing business on a number of occasions. Not only is he the owner, but he is the one who also does the work. All my life I've heard that you are only obligated to tip the employees and not the owner, so I never paid the guy anymore than he charged. I figure that when the owner sets a price for his service, he has already figured in his line of profit, so tipping is not required.

Anyway, to finish my story, it got to the point that this guy would not return my phone calls when I was trying to schedule my vehicle with him. So, I asked around and was told that unless you tipped him good, he didn't want to clean your car up. Also, unless you contributed to his political campaign, he wouldn't return calls to people asking for his help............something that I also know first hand is true.

My point in posting this is that while I tip in restaurants, and believe that I tip well, I don't really buy into the whole tipping thing. I'd much rather a business set a price for their services, and that includes restaurants also, and give me the opportunity to either use them, or shop elsewhere. I've never been on a guided hunt, so I'm not qualified to comment. However, if I did, I'd much prefer an upfront price that including everything, and let the owner pay any guide enough so that they would not need a tip to make a decent wage.

I tip my guide but never the outfitter. He/she was paid in advance.

It's no secret that guides live off tips, and the customary amount is not a secret either. If you can't or won't give the guide a decent tip (when it's deserved) then don't book a guided hunt.

I don’t know why y’all don’t tip the outfitter, every outfitter I’ve ever worked for has a golden horseshoe up his a$$ for luck, and usually has the best spots even if he has to bump a guide out! Thats’s gotta be worth something!!

I have always tipped based on guides, cooks, wranglers, etc., etc. performance. I don't go by any standard but my own. If the guy has a good attitude, works hard and is good company and generally not miserable the whole hunt, he gets a big tip. If he is lazy and miserable, he doesn't. Gratuities are performance based.

I've used several outfitters multiple times. If you are a generous tipper, you will find that you will get the best guides, the best equipment and the best locations on your return trips. That is no accident and generous tipping can work out to be a small investment on future hunts.

I have one outfitter that I use that is the owner/guide. I always leave him something, but not the same kind of money I leave for guides that aren't owner/operators.

Good discussion. I haven't gone on many guided hunts but on one of them, the guide was the outfitter/owner on a Dall Sheep hunt. At the time I didn't think really clearly through the issues but I was very happy with my experience so I tipped him and I tipped the packer as well. I will repeat that I was very happy with the service/hunt so I gladly tipped him.

I can see it both ways, but on this particular hunt I also felt the overall price of the hunt was very fair so that helped my mood as well

I've done less tipping since I quit the alcohol....

I'm going on a hunt next month and the written expectation is a 10 % (of the hunt cost) "tip". The "tip" is to be paid unless there is something wrong with the service, in which case the owner wants to know what was wrong. The so called "tip" is not really a tip in my book, but an expected part of the contract price, though perhaps unenforceable at law. Another hunt, the cooks implied that they hardly got paid anything and relied on the tips. Always wanting to know whether I liked the food they cooked (as if you can just say it was average!) and hanging around until they got their "tip". These are not inexpensive hunts, so I just consider the owner's are skimping on wages so the hunter helps pay their wages, via a so-called "tip".

The outfitters I’ve used don’t like it when I ask them: Isn’t Tipping a city in China?

My barber owns his own place. He sets his own price. I’ve always wondered why if his service was worth more than he priced it at, why he doesn’t just raise his price?

I’ve never been on a guided hunt. But my business partner and I did a DIY elk hunt (as most my hunts are as I’m not a wealthy man). A friend of my partner from the Corps put him in touch with a friend of his in the area who sometimes guides for an outfitter. He gave us a map, showed us some good glassing points, elk patterns he observed previous seasons, and even came up the mountain with us to show us an old mineshaft we could camp out of.

To top it off, the man drove six hours to meet us there! While we weren’t rich guys, we do own a custom knife business and make good blades if we don’t say so ourselves. We made him a custom 3V knife with a full-tang, guard, with a sheath that we would have sold for around $350-400. We also gave him a bottle of good bourbon worth $100. He was grateful and said coming was doing a solid for a friend and getting a chance to come see his friends in the area.

you should go to Africa where everyone expects a tip even the guy that rakes the leaves even those that you had no contact with

WTF? Their work is seasonal and tipping goes a long way to get through the year you tight fuqk... Geezzz.

I've heard this stated before by others....

Agree or not....

Tipping is a subject that shouldn't be.

Prices should be set and paid.
Employers should then pay their employees and the employee shouldn't have to worry if they receive a tip or not.

But then there are other views...none I will lose sleep over for either side

One of the problems with the "tipping culture" is the uncomfortable situation you're put in when the person expects a tip and they've only given a mediocre service. Not giving a tip creates hostility in a camp when you leave, and you're not going to be welcome back at that camp should you wish to hunt there again. I just came back from a hunt and was obliged to give the $1000 tip to a guide (an employee) that was inexperienced, had trouble spotting the game and was too slow in determining whether we could do better than the animal I shot. I still feel bad in giving that much tip to someone who really didn't deserve it, yet the outfitter (the guy who owned the business) was very good to me in every other way.