How much to tip a guide?

[elkstalkr]

I am going on my first moose hunt at the end of this month and was curious what is a normal tip for a hunt like this?

First time I have ever hired a guide for a big hunt like this, so I am kinda clueless.  I was thinking 10% of hunt cost, is this too much?  too little?  Just need some help here.

[Graybeard]

If you are successful and get a really nice moose and if you think the guide went over and above in making that happen  and if you can afford it then sure that's not an excessive tip I guess. But if all he does is his job and no more and/or if you're not successful in getting one or if he causes you to shoot a much smaller one than you expected then a LOT less would be more appropriate to my mind.

I'm really not much on tipping for service I paid for already to be honest and figure that to deserve a tip someone must go over and above just doing their job. In restaurants where the waiters have been particularly snotty or not done even their job I've been known to stick a single penny on the table for a tip so they don't think I "forget" but so they KNOW I meant it to be a non tip.

[elkstalkr]

Graybeard,

Thanks for the honesty.  I agree a tip is something "to be earned" not a given.  Of course if I don't feel like the guide has earned it, he won't get it.

[The Sodbuster]

I've never gone on a guided hunt; and, while I'm no Miss Manners, I know it's bad form to tip the owner.  You tip employees, not owners.  I suspect most self-employed guides would disagree with me.

[Huntz]

I have tipped a Guide who busted his butt trying to make it happen,but could not through no fault of his own.After the Hunt I had a phone call from him.He offered me a Hunt the next year for free if we did not connect.I came back and he made it happen.Integrety.

[kiddekop]

You set your tips based on the service your guide gives you a few years ago on an az elk hunt I stepped on an az igneous roller rock and went airborn landing on my back injuring it and damaging my scope but did connect with a cow elk  but was unable to retrieve it my guide did it for me so I tipped him  several hundred dollars.I was scheduled to return this fall but that's not going to happen ,ended up with a sore knee xrays revealed cartilage has been degraded and I have to have a new knee implanted ,recovery time about 5 months.

[charles p]

Don't forget to tip the camp cook also.  If there are wranglers who handle the horses, light the stoves in the mornings, and skin and retrieve the game, I've seen tip pools set up for them to divide.

[Dand]

great topic.  I live around some guides but have never hired one - now they are all out of state. I found this topic 'cause I will go on my first guided hunt for a bison and I don't want to stiff anybody. Out here I've heard some of the high end clients ( park their lear jet on the runway for a week) have tipped BIG - probably way more than I can afford. 


Any of you dealt with guides in Alaska? - all  our prices can be way off the scale of the "real world". My bison hunt base price is in the $3,500 range, no lodging, lunch but not other meals. We'll be doing day hunts from along the highway.  But he may use his plane if needed.

So guidance would be helpful.  I too was thinking I should take care of assistant guides for sure and all depending on actual service.

[Empty Quiver]

We tipped our packers.  This was a drop camp with little to no hunting help past a pointed finger and small talk of elk hunting.

The Lord smiled on us and we were 5 hunters with 5 bulls down. The packers got $30 per animal, and the "cook at the lodge got $40 for cleaning up after our showers and a sandwich.

I would agree that the owner would have to do something pretty darned special for a tip. He has already set his price and doesn't expect a tip for contractual services, at least he shouldn't. The hired help however can be as good or lousy as they want to be, and the owner won't be the wiser till it's too late.

We return to this outfitter, and I would like to think the tip ain't hurting how the meat is being handled at the lodge. The use of the showers is only more work for the cook and not a part of our arrangement, the sandwiches were a kindness too.

[billy_56081]

If you are successful and get a really nice moose and if you think the guide went over and above in making that happen  and if you can afford it then sure that's not an excessive tip I guess. But if all he does is his job and no more and/or if you're not successful in getting one or if he causes you to shoot a much smaller one than you expected then a LOT less would be more appropriate to my mind.

I'm really not much on tipping for service I paid for already to be honest and figure that to deserve a tip someone must go over and above just doing their job. In restaurants where the waiters have been particularly snotty or not done even their job I've been known to stick a single penny on the table for a tip so they don't think I "forget" but so they KNOW I meant it to be a non tip.

Guides are paid pretty poorly, the good ones make thier money by working hard and getting tips. I worked as a guide in my youth and the tips were the thing that made it pay. But it is pay if you can, the best client I ever served was an old sick crippled WW2 fighter pilot. He was happy that I had even got him into position for a shot at an elk (which he missed). At the end of the trip he offered me his rifle which I at first refused, but when he insisted I take it as he would no longer be able to hunt I relented. I had told him his company and the stories of his past were worth more than anything material. It is a nice model 70 in 30-06 caliber, pre 64.



Bill I have at one time left the one shiny penny myself. I hte poor service.

[drdougrx]

Great topic.....I generally tip from $50 to $250 depending on alot of things....and I tip the cook help seperately....sometimes I think they work harder than the guides. 

If I'm hunting a preserve or high fence operation...I'll tip $100 - $150 to a guide if we have to work to get a particular high scoring trophy.  I've chased various animals around a 2K - 5K acre high fence operations for a couple of days and maybe I get the animal desired, maybe I don't.  Most if not all, have quick access to pick-ups so there's no carrying, butchering, etc in the field.  If it's a very quick hunt...just a couple hours and we're done...maybe $50.  I look at it this way...a 5K animal on a high fence operation is a purchase no matter how hard you work to get it.....I know...not everyone's cuppa but that's how I see it (and I've NEVER spent anywhere near that amount).

Wilderness hunts are a different story.  I tipped my guide in Newfi when I was moose hunting $250.  I did get a moose and I didn't have anymore $$ to spare cause the outfitter instituted a "portage" fee to fly meat out and the butcher "went up" on his prices for packing and wrapping.....seems the owner "forgot" to mention this.  I tip Maine bear guides $100 if I don't get a bear and $150 if I do.  No reason for it....they carry baits in every day, drop me off to sit for several hours...if I get a bear "WE" carry it out and dress and skin (and I do mean WE).  Montana Pronghorn/Mulie....hunted with the owner and tipped the skinner and the cook...$100 each.  New Brunswick deer camp guides....usually tip $150US whether I get a deer ot not.

I understand that guides work for tips....10% of a hunt that costs 3-5k is the price of frieght on meat back to home....and all of this....including taxidermy deposits must be accounted for.  IF you can swing 10% of the hunt as a tip...and you feel OK that the experience was worth it....I think you'll be good.

JMHO........

[S.E.Ak]

I've found most guides are not the owner. In Alaska a master guide may well be working for two hundred a day and packer and cook fifty a day.Pitching in with chores is a good starting tip.Get to know the folks you are hunting with and little things you don't think about may well be a nice reward for crew members.Something like a knife for the cook or packer or your extratuff boots or waders,how about the box of shells you only fired two rounds out of.Sometimes these folks don't get back to town till season is over and footware today is better than fifty bucks to spend a month down the road.In many other countries something like the cheaper modle shotgun you brough to pot a bird or two if time permited makes a great gift that last for years and you don't have to haul it back home