How much to tip a guide?

Bates7 · Jul 10, 2021

Hey MM family. I finally drew a unit 1 late bull tag after 7 years of no luck. This is the first year that my partner and I are hiring a guide. We have chosen Arizona Custom Hunts. I have read a lot of stories about hunters tipping their guide after the hunt. My question is what is a customary tip amount?

SHB · Jul 10, 2021

About $300 a day.

Bates7 · Jul 10, 2021

SHB said:
About $300 a day.

Holy cow! He's not feeding us. We are sharing provisions and bringing our own accommodations. I guess I should have stated that in my original post.

Utah400Elk · Jul 10, 2021

I have done several guided fishing trips and single-day bow fishing guided hunts. I have always tipped 20% of the total cost.

I have gone on one big game guided trip and also tipped 20%.

FWIW

Horniac · Jul 10, 2021

A common rule of thumb is 10%-20% of the hunt cost…

Horniac

LivingTheDream · Jul 10, 2021

I was going to say 10%.

OutdoorWriter · Jul 10, 2021

There's no need to pay for the guide's kid to go to college. A respectable tip is 12-15% of the total hunt cost, and don't forget a little something for the cook & other camp help/wranglers.

Blank · Jul 10, 2021

This is such a subjective topic, it is brought up every year, and seldom answered very well. The quoted 10-20% of the total cost is usually pretty close. Break it down, as YOU see fit! Overseas, money is a lot scarcer and means more to the people you're spending time with. Here, too many of those providing their efforts expect and will almost demand a larger tip.

There are so many things take into consideration, and many mean a lot to the client, and many others don't matter at all. Some things to consider:
Is the guide working for the outfitter, and being paid a good wage or does he need your tip to get by? Did he earn it?
Is he providing all of his own equipment, vehicles, ATV's, gear or is it the outfitters?
Does he do anything extra for you, or simple drive around and look at easily seen and available game? Is he good at judging the quality of game and trophies you are looking for?
Are you getting room and board, livestock and services, packing, caping, skinning, delivery of meat to a processor?
Is he going out of his way doing anything extra for your comfort or peace of mind?
How much money are you fronting, how hard did you work and save for it, did you get tipped for earning it, and can you afford a large tip?

I went on one guided hunt, where I found my trophy myself, decided it was a great one, had to pack out the animal, cape it, and skin it out. After scoring in the record book, they wanted a bigger tip!!!!

SS! · Jul 10, 2021

Blank nailed it. There is no standard. One thing though is tip cash. Guides don’t need more custom knives or rifles. Cash.

I have a friend who is a full time guide in AK/CO and does some Asian hunts. Every year he gets about 3 custom rifles as tips. He sells them all for pennies on the dollar. Custom knives are even harder to get rid of and really gets him upset. A guide is away from his family, he wants money.

Roadking05 · Jul 10, 2021

10 to 20% of the total cost of the hunt is what we normally get as a tip! And "SS" is right cash is the best!

tailchasers · Jul 10, 2021

Tip what you can afford and feel is appropriate. Every situation is unique and don't feel obligated to tip 20%. A hunter that goes on a guided hunt each year or perhaps several per year vs a hunter who is on an OIL guided experience will tip differently. Most guides understand that.

YukonDall · Jul 10, 2021

MY EXPERIENCE IS THAT MOST GUIDES ARE REALLY HAPPY WITH 10% IN CASH. EVEN IF I DONT DO WELL, AND THE GUIDE GAVE ME A GOOD EFFORT IN THE HUNT HE GETS PAID. IF ITS A GREAT HUNT SITUATION I ADD 3-4 HUNDRED TO THE 10%. ....................................YD.

buckhorn · Jul 10, 2021

If he sucks don’t tip him at all. In fact he may owe you an apology or a refund.

tayhot · Jul 10, 2021

I’ve been on both sides of this conversation. Some of the best tips I’ve received has been when the hunter wasn’t successful. The guides job isn’t to kill you an animal, but to give you as many opportunities as he possibly can. Please keep in mind that a good guide has spent months in the field on his own dime to give you a great experience. A few years back I was given $300 and a bbq. Best tip ever

When I’m the client, I tip 15%-20%. If it is an exceptional hunt, I’ll do whatever I can to see that guide is well compensated. I’ll give him a good 20% tip and maybe some gear.

Homer · Jul 10, 2021

in Mexico......tip the guides and cook themselves....if you give it to the outfitter to share......they'll never see it

PCPython · Jul 11, 2021

tayhot said:
I’ve been on both sides of this conversation. Some of the best tips I’ve received has been when the hunter wasn’t successful. The guides job isn’t to kill you an animal, but to give you as many opportunities as he possibly can. Please keep in mind that a good guide has spent months in the field on his own dime to give you a great experience. A few years back I was given $300 and a bbq. Best tip ever

When I’m the client, I tip 15%-20%. If it is an exceptional hunt, I’ll do whatever I can to see that guide is well compensated. I’ll give him a good 20% tip and maybe some gear.

This is true. I've only been on a handful of guided hunts and was successful on all of them but one. The one where I was unsuccessful I gave my guide a custom made knife from RELH and a 30% cash tip along with some other goods. He worked his a** off and put me on lots of good bulls. It was the best hunt I've ever been on and it wasn't his fault that I didn't fill my tag. He stayed positive and kept pushing on for 12 days and knew the area like the back of his hand. I would absolutely love to be able to hunt with him again.

Sallaberry · Jul 11, 2021

Sub guides have ruff I’ve had a couple buddy’s do it for a season or two. My one buddy scouted found all the deer guided on three of four kills the outfitter payed him 400$ and the clients payed him 400$. Don’t quit your day job

Bates7 · Jul 13, 2021

Thanks guys. I appreciate all of your input. It's gonna be a fun hunt. My guide leveled with me and told me it will be his first hunt guiding alone in other words without helping his boss or a senior guide. His boss does feel very confident in his abilities and he lives in that unit and both have promised that he will put in the work. I am looking for a crack at a decent bull and I am not expecting B&C caliber bull. I get more enjoyment of the experience anyhow.

Thanks again and good luck to all of you who drew a tag.

tayhot · Jul 13, 2021

Bates7 said:
Thanks guys. I appreciate all of your input. It's gonna be a fun hunt. My guide leveled with me and told me it will be his first hunt guiding alone in other words without helping his boss or a senior guide. His boss does feel very confident in his abilities and he lives in that unit and both have promised that he will put in the work. I am looking for a crack at a decent bull and I am not expecting B&C caliber bull. I get more enjoyment of the experience anyhow.

Thanks again and good luck to all of you who drew a tag.

I bet he does a great job for you. He’s probably hungry, and has a huge reason to make sure your satisfied

billc · Jul 14, 2021

It is very simple really. Tip what you feel is right and what was earned by the service you got. Tipping is a personal thing and not everyone can tip the same based on what they earn for a living.

For me if I know the guide did extra scouting to make my hunt better and then hunted hard with me he earned a tip. It should always be based on service not some made up reason like so many like to do. Should also not be based on if you take something, Maybe you miss maybe the wind swirled and blow up the stalk. That is hunting and to me he did his job so I base my tip on all that

RoughCountry · Jul 14, 2021

I was in a camp one time where a guy tipped a guide $50 after hunting with him and killing a nice buck. The hunter wanted the guide to take him coyote hunting after the hunt …lol the guide was a hard core predator hunter but told me after hunting that guy hard all week and got tipped 50 bucks when other guides were getting $500 he was done with that guy and packed up and went home. The cook never did get a tip from him either. He probably won’t be back because the outfitter probably couldn’t find a guide that would want to guide him.

mta5672 · Jul 14, 2021

Ive received tips from all ends of the spectrum. I dont guide for the money, but it sure helps. Particularly if the hunter is PIA, which quite a few of them are. 10-20 percent is the norm, but you also need to take into account the situation. Is the client a wealthy doctor, or did he save his money for 10 years to go on the hunt. My recomendation is to tip what you can afford based on the service you received. I had a russian guy that owned several floating cannery ships tip me $1500 on a $2500 antelope hunt...

Cash is king in the guide world!

mickeyelk · Jul 14, 2021

MTA 5672 hit the nail on the head. Pay what you can afford. When I go on a guided hunt I normally have to save for a few years to just to do it. But I do save for the tip also. For me a good guide gets the 20% and a bad guide, which I have has twice gets 10%. At times I didn't want to give any to the two.

EVILNR · Jul 14, 2021

I've tipped from zero (guide was the outfitter) to 1200$ (unsuccessful trip) but he worked really hard on a 10 day hunt.

Bwht4x4 · Jul 14, 2021

I guided for 12 years and guided year round. In that time I probably guided over 500 different people. On those hunts I received no tip all the way to tips that were >50%. I have always appreciated clients that tip. However, with that said, I would never expect a client to tip based on some pre-conceived percentage. Some folks on this thread are saying they tip 20%. Would you tip that much on a $20k Dall hunt or a $40k Stone hunt? Personally, I'll tip $50 to $100 per day depending on the type of hunt, but generally would never tip over $500 for any hunt. Maybe I'd tip $1k for a super high end hunt like a Dall hunt. Most guides are doing it because they love to hunt and being in the outdoors. If they're getting low pay for whatever reason, that's on them. Best part of capitalism...you can go find a job that pays more.

money · Jul 26, 2021

When I used to guide nothing bugged me more than a tightwad super rich hunter. The average guy on a guided hunt was never an issue. And the guys that saved and saved for 10 years to make a dream come true always tipped as best they could but honestly I almost felt bad taking their money because they were such good guys and had saved every penny for a decade to afford a trip they couldn't afford.

Most guys were great and tipped what they could afford or what they felt was earned. But every now and then you get an extremely wealthy guy that is a total jerk. We had a guy come in and hunt that is worth about $50 million. He missed a 383" bull (we killed him the next week) and ended up killing a 418" monster. The guy flew in on his private jet to hunt his $20k elk tag. We all busted our butts and when the guy left he didn't tip anyone a dollar. I couldn't believe it. But honestly what was worse than him not tipping was how entitled he was. Dude didn't open a single gate all week. We would hit a gate and he'd just sit in the passenger seat like it wasn't there. So you'd have to jump out, open the gate, drive through and then get out and close the gate... all while he was just chilling in the front seat like he was too good to open a gate. This happened about 10 times a day for 5 days. His buddy came and hunted as well and gave me $500 for helping him out when I could throughout the week. He killed a 357" bull and was a complete gentleman the whole week.

My dad, a few buddies and I all went moose hunting in canada a few years back. The weather was horrible and we spent almost the whole week in camp and nobody killed a moose. There was a 18 year old kid in camp that was a camp grunt and man did the outfitter and other guides treat him like crap the whole week. It was so bad that a few of the guys hunting confronted the outfitter about it during the week. When it came time to leave we all pooled our money together and split it up between the guides, cook and outfitter. Needless to say the camp grunt walked away with $1000 more than anyone else because he was a great kid that was doing his best despite being treated like crap.

So pay what you can, but plan on paying your guide something. Do it sincerely and carry an extra $500 just in case you feel like you should give more. But it is important to tip even if it's not all you hoped for. If a waiter is working hard but the restaurant is crazy busy they still deserve the 15-20% even if they could have done a little better. Guides are the same way. If they are truly working hard and doing what they can to show you a good time reward them for it and you'll likely have a lifetime friend.

OutdoorWriter · Jul 26, 2021

money said:
Most guys were great and tipped what they could afford or what they felt was earned. But every now and then you get an extremely wealthy guy that is a total jerk. We had a guy come in and hunt that is worth about $50 million. He missed a 383" bull (we killed him the next week) and ended up killing a 418" monster. The guy flew in on his private jet to hunt his $20k elk tag. We all busted our butts and when the guy left he didn't tip anyone a dollar. I couldn't believe it. But honestly what was worse than him not tipping was how entitled he was. Dude didn't open a single gate all week. We would hit a gate and he'd just sit in the passenger seat like it wasn't there. So you'd have to jump out, open the gate, drive through and then get out and close the gate... all while he was just chilling in the front seat like he was too good to open a gate. This happened about 10 times a day for 5 days. His buddy came and hunted as well and gave me $500 for helping him out when I could throughout the week. He killed a 357" bull and was a complete gentleman the whole week.

Curious -- how much did the "tightwad" that wouldn't open gates pay for that privilege?

money · Jul 27, 2021

OutdoorWriter said:
Curious -- how much did the "tightwad" that wouldn't open gates pay for that privilege?

who knows. It was super weird that is all i know. Like his momma didn't raise him right or something. I used to guide a lot of very wealthy people back then and he was the only one that ever did something like that.

OutdoorWriter · Jul 27, 2021

money said:
who knows. It was super weird that is all i know. Like his momma didn't raise him right or something. I used to guide a lot of very wealthy people back then and he was the only one that ever did something like that.

Guiding "wealthy people" that paid a standard rate for their hunts isn't quite the same as guiding a dude with a $20K tag that was probably paying the outfitter another $20-25K to find him a big one. So perhaps for that much money, he felt it wasn't HIS job to open gates. He likely figured the outfitter shared some of that money with the guide to do what was required to get the guy his elk.

Str8shtr · Jul 27, 2021

I personally don't feel like tips should be expected. They offer a service for an agreed upon price. If they go above and beyond that then by all means tip them. Do you tip every time you hire someone to do something on your house? What is the difference between that and hiring a guide? I mostly think it's a way for outfitters to sell hunts cheaper and pay guides less with the expectation of tips.

money · Jul 27, 2021

OutdoorWriter said:
Guiding "wealthy people" that paid a standard rate for their hunts isn't quite the same as guiding a dude with a $20K tag that was probably paying the outfitter another $20-25K to find him a big one. So perhaps for that much money, he felt it wasn't HIS job to open gates. He likely figured the outfitter shared some of that money with the guide to do what was required to get the guy his elk.

no extra fees were given to the outfitter. We didn't do or believe in that finders fee stuff. Plus it was all private land so there was no finding special bulls. Either the big bull was there or he wasn't. We couldn't leave to go hunt anywhere else due to the license only being valid on our private unit. and all of our other elk hunters paid the same amount for their tags and still opened gates and acted in a different manner. My point is, he was a very prideful guy that thought the world revolved around him. There are lots of nice wealthy guys out there, he wasn't one of them.