Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting How much to tip a guide?

Which is as it should be...

If your guide works hard for you, tip him what you can. It doesn't necessarily correlate to score or even if you kill an animal, sometimes the guide works the hardest on hunts where nothing dies. Let him know that you appreciate his hard work and it will go a long way. In this day and age "most" guides have "decent" equipment-cash is king! A new buck knife won't feed the kids. Now if you want to tip and give the knife as an extra gesture, that shows some of that appreciation. As in everything, not all guides are modern day Jim Bridger, but please don't listen to some of the previous posters, and go into your hunt with a chip on your shoulder about a tip, you'll have a more enjoyable experience and your guide won't take you on a death march everyday and show you nothing......well maybe not!!!!! LOL

I'd say your outfitter underpaid you.

You got $1K of the $14K (7% of the proceeds), and including scouting time made less than $100 a day.

That's Burger King money.

Personally, I'd like to see more guides working for themselves, taking clients to scouted areas on public land, for a much lower cost, where the guide is recouping a much greater share.

My .02c.

I've done more than a few full seasons out on the ocean guiding fishermen. The standard tip for a 12-14 hour day is $100-$150, split between the 4 guys on the boat. That is about 10-15% of the cost of a charter.

I don't think that "only" and "$500" should appear in the same sentence.

Free and appreciated is better than cheap and unappreciated.

Grumlickin can't afford me, and would be best to stick to the barefoot trackers that are beaming for $5 and a swig of warm water.

2 ways to look at this. One, the guide was a dummy for taking a low paying job. The other.... the hunter was a cheapskate. The second is my choice. You invest 20,000 bucks, and the ONLY guy that made it work so that you got a 371 PY gets ONLY 500 bucks?..... Works for me.

Best tip I ever saw, a 4 door slighty used Chevy 1 ton truck.... hunter was a used car dealer, gave the guide that plus shipped it from FL to his house in TX free.....about 8K miles on it IIRC.
I got a complete rifle once.

I know two African PH's who've been given .470 Nitro-Express double rifles as tips--and one of those has gotten TWO.

Tips are indeed optional, and there really are no rules. One that has been suggested in recent years is distributing 10% of the initial cost of the hunt among the guide, cook and whoever else is involved--except the owner/outfitter.

Tips vary, however, throughout the world, and depend to a large extent on where. At the end of the hunt I once bought my PH and his wife a very nice four-course dinner at a top shoreside seafood restaurant in South Africa, including and two bottles of fine wine. The service and food were both great so I added a 20% tip. The exchange rate was great then and the WHOLE meal, with tip, came to around $35.

The waitress (a very cute young woman) started flirting with me big time as soon as she saw the tip. It got so bad that eventually I was informed by the PH that 10% was a TOP tip in that part of the world, and obviously I was her new love interest....

Jordan,
I just retired after 30+ years as a commission paid salesman, for the most part.
Your analogy doesn't quite fit. No commission I ever recieved increased the cost of the product after it was quoted to the buyer. Commission come out of the bosses end. Tips are tips.
Your good service created a return customer. You should get a bigger slice from the outfitter. And a tip from the customer!

The tip is "quoted" to the client when the outfitter is filling him in on the fees and costs of the hunt.

A variable-based pay is essential to incenting the guide to work his bag off. Either the outfitter can charge the client more and then give the guide a "commission" based on the client's feedback, or the client can expect to pay a good tip for a guide that goes above and beyond to make sure that he (the client) gets when he came for.

Not any job is the same. Comparing paid salesmen to guides to waiters etc.... isn't apples to apples.

One has to make the situation fit.

I can say, as I've heard many guides say before.. I'd rather see excitement in a guys face and little or no tip, knowing he is a blue collar hard worker type like I am and just being delighted to make his day, than to shoot the biggest buck out there with a client that dumps me 500 bucks cash(never happened to me anyway) and bitches about wanting a bigger one or in a hurry to catch his next flight.

Maybe not, but people are generally the same. If you're working in a job, you will do better if you are personally compensated better.

I like to see a client smile as much as anybody, but a smile doesn't put food on the table...

I'll stand by my statement that the concept of tipping guides is both out of control and has no clear consensus. Most of the guides with whom I've had the pleasure of sharing a hunt with were family men in need of and expecting fair payment for their time and effort. It is for this reason I appreciate knowing up front what's expected of me. If I don't think I can carry the load, I don't go. I will not cut corners at the expense of some guy trying to make a living. On the other hand I will not be taken advantage of either, at least not twice.

I've had hunters tip me 20% of the cost of the hunt but most of the time it is around 10-15%. My daily pay was from $125-150 per day. My day started about 4:30 and usually included making breakfast for clients, planning and packing the lunch cooler, driving my own personal rig to the hunting area (outfitter paid for fuel), hiking and hunting hard all day, skinning and caping for an hour or two after dinner, and then hanging out with the clients till 10:00 or so. If the hunter killed something early in the hunt, then I'd take them coyote hunting, pheasant hunting, shooting prairie dogs, killing rocks, whatever.

I've been fortunate to have guided some very fine men and women from damn near every level of the socio-economic spectrum.

I've found that guys who have worked hard tend to appreciate someone else's hard work.

Brian

I'm an inshore saltwater guide. I can agree with this sentiment, because it's how I feel. Fishing vs hunting; not precisely apples to apples, certainly not in the aspect of price for service, but it's still guiding and the knowledge of the fish, water, and area for given conditions is no different than the knowledge of the game, terrain, and area for given conditions. I charge what I consider a fair price that covers my expenses and compensates me for the knowledge and effort I put in to staying on top of the fish, etc, etc, etc. If the blue collar guy with the grin on his face doesn't tip me for a huge snook he caught, that's fine. Maybe he's already paid as much as he can afford, just to go. He's still grinning from ear to ear and can't believe how "worth it" it was to pony up my fee and go. That is gratifying and satisfying. I also know he's going to go tell all his buddies how great it was and I'll end up with more business down the road from him and them. Works for me. Two of my regular customers vacation in the area every year. They book me for 3-4 trips every time they are down for a week or more. Neither of them tips, and why should they? They are paying me more than enough in 3-4 trips and obviously, they appreciate my ability and effort. If they let me know me far enough in advance, I will clear my calendar for the period they are here, just to accommodate resets for bad weather, etc. Happy to do it.

By the same token, I once took a guy back to the dock and told him he owed me nothing, just to get him off my boat. I expect he was one of the wealthier people I've ever had aboard, but he was a World Clazz Jackazz. Nobody pays me enough to treat me like a servant and call me "boy" on my own boat. There are people in the world who simply are not worth the hassle. I know guides who will tell certain repeat clients they are booked and refer them elsewhere, too.

Tipping is not mandatory and should not be considered so, but it is a courtesy and consideration that ought to be extended whenever one can do so. I do it when the shoe is on the other foot and I always will, and I try to be generous with it. I can tell when a guide is working his tail off to get me a fish and when a guy is just going through the motions to collect his fee and go home. For a one time trip, if I put you on the biggest snook or tarpon or redfish that you ever caught in your life, and you can afford to tip me, are you really going to withhold that gesture because you think you're already paying me "enough"? C'mon. If the conditons on our trip are forecast to be adverse, I will tell you so ahead of time and give you the opportunity to reschedule. I get that you may not be able to, and we'll go anyway if you want to. If we do, and I work my butt off fighting the weather to get you a decent catch, then yeah, a tip goes a long way toward making me feel you appreciated that effort. I'm happy with making my fee, but I'm also very happy to get a nice tip from the guy that can afford it and recognizes my time, knowledge, and effort. The largest tip I ever received was on just such a day. The client told me straight up when we got back to the ramp that he fully expected me to hide from the weather and just hit a few soft spots to get us through the day, but he wanted to go anyway just to get out. He said he fished with guides all over the world and that's what most of them would have done that day. When I didn't do that, he was surprised and impressed and he compensated me in kind.

This idea that "expected" tipping is out of control makes me laugh, but I get that some of you are talking about a whole different realm of fees and tipping and I don't work for an outfitter, I work for myself. I can't afford many guided trips, nearly none in fact, but those I do get to go on, if the guide does a good job, I'm not going to penalize him/her for the outfitter being heavy on the fee and light on the payroll. Of course, I also will never book a trip with an outfitter who has built in the tipping to the fee.

As for the OP's question: 5-10% for effort appreciated, plus whatever you think the guide deserves if you had a fantastic experience.

Best -
Andy

Tipping is a touchy subject! Hunting is hunting, nobody can control the animals or the weather, if your guide works hard and you appreciated his services then tip him whatever you feel is right but no guide would want to break a guys bank. Do what you can afford. Tipping based on harvest is ridiculous IMO. Trust me, my work is a LOT easier when animals are moving and conditions are perfect! The hard work comes when nothing seems to be going right and you are trying to pull a rabbit out of your hat so to speak

I've been tipped thousands of dollars and I've been stiffed and everything in between. The greatest thing is when you have somebody that sincerely appreciates your work and lets you know. I will always tell my hunters that tipping is unnecessary to give them the opportunity to not tip. Its an awkward moment for me as I do feel like I am being paid to do a job. I also become good friends with a lot of the guys I hunt with and I hate taking money from friends. That being said, its not easy on equipment and when I take time away from other jobs it can cost me money. I do it because I absolutely love to do it

Yall tip what you want, but there is no animal on earth worth $20,000 of my money, & I don't consider myself poor.
$2,100 dollar tip for a $14,000 hunt.. Not me... Im looking for the $2,100 hunt!!! lol

-

maddog plus 2 on that I would say amen (so be it) I am out of here.
Cheers NC

I started going on guided hunts after reaching 50 but I've yet to go on a guided deer hunt. I have gone on what other may described as high dollar hunts.

I'm guilty of tipping relative to how much I like the guide. The percentage has ranged from 7% to 50% depending on how you look at it. The 7% was on my most expensive hunt and the tip was greater than what the locals made in several months - I resented the outfitter expected me to pay the help, he provide zero pay to the camp staff. On the other hand, the 50% was based on the guide's daily pay, provided by the outfitter, and it was the best hunt I ever experienced. I didn't think giving a gentleman $50 for a full day's work was excessive. He invited me to come back and hunt with him for no charge, I took him up on the offer but arrived at a deal that I felt good with.

I've been around guides that were no better than a cook and with guides I left in camp.

I've also "guided" for friends and family. Spents weeks scouting and locating game only to have them do all the shooting and leaving me with the camp chores. Never had a one give me a dime and only once had one take me on a crappy hunt.

My advice, "do what makes you happy, don't worry about what other's think, and don't let others tell you how to spend your money."

Well, it looks like we've all come to a clear consensus on the issue...