Tip Etiquette

bowelk

Active Member
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We are going on our first outfitted elk hunt this year and are not sure what proper tipping is.

It is a Wilderness pack in where the outfitter is the guide and his wife is the cook. As far as I know I'm not sure who else will be in camp. There are three of us on the hunt and two of us are 2 on1 and 1 of us is 1 on 1, so there will be at least 1 other guide in camp.
 
10% with an extra $100/$200 to the cook, depending on number of days and quality of food. If the service is exceptional go higher than 10%. I wouldn't grade service solely on outcome. Some hunts, especially wilderness hunts, are much harder with less success. Anyone can guide a hunt in an alfalfa field.
 
It common to tip 10% to the guide and $100-$300 to the cook. Remember they work for their money. Please base it on the experience not the success. It’s tough to pay bills with gifts or meat.
 
I'm wondering why you would have to tip the outfitter at all? I understand tipping your guide but why the outfitter? Seems like double dipping to me. Didn't you pay the outfitter with your 10k or whatever it costs? I thought we tipped guides because outfitters don't pay them much at all. At least that's what I hear on these sites as a reason to tipping the guide.
 
just remember what a tip is and why you do it. If they earn it give them what you can afford. By earning I mean they did there best not if you get your elk.

If the effort is not there then do less. as for cook again if food is good and your happy tip what you can. I would do between 25 and 50 a day for cook, 50 to 100 a day for guide all based on effort they give you. I would do more if they go above and beyond during the hunt.
 
I just went on my first ever guided hunt so have very limited experience. Because of that, I asked the guide point blank about the tipping process because I couldn’t find solid info online.

10% is customary and these guys work hard and leave their families for months for the money they earn. We killed on day two of a ten day hunt. Bills advice would be to pay him $200 because he made it happen quickly (this is on a $25k sheep hunt). I completely disagree. Because we killed early that guide should make less? He was going to spend the next eight days supporting other guides and acting as a camp hand, the job continues even though we killed early. He had been there scouting for days prior to my arrival and would scout for days prior to the next hunter showing up.

Here is how I see it: when you buy a hunt factor 10% or more in for the guide. Give it willingly and with a glad heart if they do their job. Give less of the are lazy, rude, cheat, etc. and let them know why you gave less. Killing an animal is irrelevant unless they are unprepared, unskilled and/or lazy.
 
I don't think Bill would argue a hunt that finishes early is deserving of less tip. But I'll let him defend himself. I think the sheep hunt price, and price of other guided hunts should be considered. The thread started with a question about a wilderness hunt. I think a $5k wilderness hunt is deserving of proportionally larger tip than a $15k ranch hunt. A $25k Dall sheep hunt in Alaska requires more effort than a $70k desert bighorn in Texas so should receive a larger tip, proportionally.
 
Good points Idaho.

Hopefully Bill doesn’t feel a need to “defend” himself as I certainly didn’t mean my comment as an attack on him.
 
Have only been on a few guided hunts,

Tipped 10% on a unsuccessful wilderness hunt. They worked hard but I never even saw an elk. The guides (3 ) efforts were acknowledged. Learned a lot on this hunt. 1st guide did not own a pair of binos? Our cook got horse kicked early, however the food was good throughout.

On a successful wilderness hunt in Idaho we spent $2800 each and were two for eight. The guide caped my bull (we helped) in camp after a 1st day kill. He taught me a lot, was a funny individual, and was a pleasure to be around. I tipped $300+ and it may have been lite. Weeks later, he sent me 35mm photos and negatives as this was a pre-digital time frame. Also tipped the cook.

On a semi-guided hunt in New Mexico I spent $450 for services and pack out all done in one day. Believe I tipped the outfitter/guide another $125. I think it was all the cash I had, but this too seems lite in retrospect.

The last hunt involving a guide was a ranch hunt (more of a harvest) on Indian land. Price was $600 for the tag. Tipped the guide another $100 and paid (?) for skinning-whole elk storage and quartering the meat. Also stayed 4-5 nights at the tribal lodge.

left each situations on good terms with the personnel involved.

Try and give the tip directly to the guide or person you wish to receive it. Don't rely on the outfitter to distribute it. This was once a problem for a party member.

LaGriz
 
all good with me but i was basing it on the hunt not the day you would kill if your lucky. day 1 or day 7 it would be the same to me as far as days. 7 day hunt is 7 day tip.
 
all good with me but i was basing it on the hunt not the day you would kill if your lucky. day 1 or day 7 it would be the same to me as far as days. 7 day hunt is 7 day tip.
10% should be minimum if they know what they are doing and work hard, regardless of how many days it takes. With 15% being more realistic, especially if it goes the duration. Especially on a wilderness hunt. Guiding is hard work, especially when you have to deal with an a** for 5 days. The tip should be factored in as an expense of the hunt. If you dont have it dont go. The cook also needs to be tipped. Now if the guide doesnt know what they are doing, that is a whole different story. Good luck on your hunt, enjoy the whole experience, whether you harvest or not.
 
10% should be minimum if they know what they are doing and work hard, regardless of how many days it takes. With 15% being more realistic, especially if it goes the duration. Especially on a wilderness hunt. Guiding is hard work, especially when you have to deal with an a** for 5 days. The tip should be factored in as an expense of the hunt. If you dont have it dont go. The cook also needs to be tipped. Now if the guide doesnt know what they are doing, that is a whole different story. Good luck on your hunt, enjoy the whole experience, whether you harvest or not.
wow so hunters are a** and dont go unless you can leave a big tip. Wish I could base my work on if I get a tip or just say let your roof leak or no you dont need a new sink just deal with the one you have.

If a 500 to 700 tip is not fair for someone making 300 to 400 a day which the good guides do I am just one of those a** clients then
 
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wow so hunters are a** and dont go unless you can leave a big tip. Wish I could base my work on if I get a tip or just say let your roof leak or no you dont need a new sink just deal with the one you have.

If a 500 to 700 tip is not fair for someone making 300 to 400 a day which the good guides do I am just one of those a** clients then
I didnt say that at all. If guide is working his tail off he deserves a good tip is all i meant. Theres a reason i dont read or post on this forum any more. Best of luck to the hunter on his hunt.
 
I didnt say that at all. If guide is working his tail off he deserves a good tip is all i meant. Theres a reason i dont read or post on this forum any more. Best of luck to the hunter on his hunt.
And to clarify i mean if you end up with a bad hunter.
 
So does a guide who took a client on a $10,000.00 Valle Vidal deserve the same ten percent tip as the guy who takes a client on a $5,000.00 trip in a very tough unit with few animal numbers?
 
Yes, tip should be a reflection of hunt cost, which should be a reflection of what you get.
Here’s an example: you can get a steak at Denny’s for $12 or at a top notch restaurant for $80. Both steaks will likely fill your stomach. The server at each place brought your food from the kitchen, but that is not all! The service (and therefore the work load for the server) is much higher at the expensive place. You get what you pay for.
Same thing goes on guided trips. I have limited guided hunt experience but quite a bit with guided fishing. The captain charging twice as a much isn’t pocketing all of that money. He his hiring better, more expensive guides, buying better equipment, accessing better water, etc.
 
We take good care of our outfitter, he does a solid job and gets our gear and elk in and out of the wilderness effectively and we want to use him in future years and want him to want us as clients in the future. It’s more than 10% but we value the relationship and future hunts as much as the current hunt at hand. Take care of them and they will take care of you.
 
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10-15% and I totally disagree about not factoring in whether you had a chance to fill your tag. That's why you are there in the first place, animals can do anything, the weather might cooperate but I personally tip probably 8-10% on effort then another 5-7% on the outcome. It's not a photo safari. That said all they can give you at least 1-2 reasonable shot opportunities. It's up to you to be ready to shoot them dead. Great hunt, good food good people, and a good animal tagged, I'm not afraid to go up to 15%. The difference you are talking about is 3 tanks of gas these days.
 
IMO the guide(s) and staff deserve the tip. The Outfitter is getting his money from the fee. The personnel attention you get from the immediate staff is who & what your tipping for. They are paid a bare minimum in most cases. These are the guys that put in the 17-19 hour days and can make the most difference in your success. If your Outfitter is doing the guiding, then he gets the same expectation for a tip as any guide or wrangler. That's how I see it.

LaGrizz
 
I did mean tipping the guide. And if the outfitter is the guide I would still tip him.

If the owner of a local restaurant is serving tables I still tip. I think of an outfitter the same way.
Do you tip electrician's, plumbers or other construction workers that work on your homes. I've wired hundreds of homes and have been tipped less than 1 percent of the time and it's usually $20 at best. What's the difference?
 
Do you tip electrician's, plumbers or other construction workers that work on your homes. I've wired hundreds of homes and have been tipped less than 1 percent of the time and it's usually $20 at best. What's the difference?
Well to be fair guys wiring up houses are not really electricians. More like installers. My company keeps about 5 service guys and they get tips every week…
 
Well to be fair guys wiring up houses are not really electricians. More like installers. My company keeps about 5 service guys and they get tips every week…
. To be fair, the tips I've received were on service calls but still less than one percent of all service calls get any type of tip. Guys wiring houses are not electrician's, that's a good one!
 
Did a guided trip where the Outfitter was the guide.
Had planned on tipping him anyway but he kept hitting me
up for more money the whole hunt. Ended up not giving a tip.

Never heard of Electricians getting tips BTW, or "wirers" for that matter.
 
Do you tip electrician's, plumbers or other construction workers that work on your homes. I've wired hundreds of homes and have been tipped less than 1 percent of the time and it's usually $20 at best. What's the difference?
I don't generally tip hourly workers for whom I'm paying the hourly wage. I tip service workers: waiters, guides, my UPS man(we have long driveway, he delivers to the door, postman barely slows down as he dumps packages by the mailbox), anyone who goes above and beyond their call. I've paid over the contract price on multiple subcontractor type jobs, when approached honestly and forthright manner, that they believed they had underbid a job and provided the evidence to back it up. I don't embark on transactions trying to get one over on the next guy.
 
I don't generally tip hourly workers for whom I'm paying the hourly wage. I tip service workers: waiters, guides, my UPS man(we have long driveway, he delivers to the door, postman barely slows down as he dumps packages by the mailbox), anyone who goes above and beyond their call. I've paid over the contract price on multiple subcontractor type jobs, when approached honestly and forthright manner, that they believed they had underbid a job and provided the evidence to back it up. I don't embark on transactions trying to get one over on the next guy.
That makes sense. It seems like to me you should offer what you feel good about, rather than a set percentage regardless of the service or outcome.
 
. To be fair, the tips I've received were on service calls but still less than one percent of all service calls get any type of tip. Guys wiring houses are not electrician's, that's a good one!
On residential service calls when we tracked it about 15% of the calls the guys received tips. Its really hard to track as some guys get tips more often than others because they go the extra mile. Commercial/industrial calls it’s lower as we are usually dealing with corporates etc.

Are you wiring custom homes or spec homes? If you're not dealing with the customer directly I can see the tips not being there.

Residential electricians are more installers than anything else. How often are you programming VFD's, wiring transformers, doing load calculations, adjusting trip settings on breakers, overcurrent protection calcs, calibrating sensors, hell you might not even bend a piece of conduit if all you do is residential wiring. Now if you find a good resi guy and can take the time to train him on commercial/industrial he works laps around guys who never had to do resi for a living. The profit margins are so small on even custom homes you gotta know how to work fast and efficient.

I tip where I feel a tip is deserved. If I call a plumber etc after hours and the service is great I tip. Had a drywall guy fit me in on short notice I gave him a tip. If i get lousy service at a restaurant I'm not leaving a tip. If the food sucks but the service is good I still tip after I let the waitress know the tip is only based on their service.

Good Luck on your elk hunt!
 
Well to be fair guys wiring up houses are not really electricians. More like installers. My company keeps about 5 service guys and they get tips every week…
If you know or have guys wiring houses that aren't electricians you have some real issues. How can you even say that bro?!?! That was a dick statement SS...
 
Electricipans aren’t taking you on a hunting trip/vacation you have been dreaming of all year, plus they charge out the wazooo anyway. Big difference. Any guided hunt I’ve been on I always plan on tipping the guide, the cook and the wrangler. I ***** about paying taxes, I ***** about the price of new pickups and so on but I don’t ***** about tipping the folks that make a hunting trip that I love doing, a great hunting trip.
 
If you know or have guys wiring houses that aren't electricians you have some real issues. How can you even say that bro?!?! That was a dick statement SS...
Resi guys don’t know how electricity works. It’s like the guy that changes oil at a mechanic shop. Would you call him a mechanic? So let me guess you’re a resi installer?
 
Resi guys don’t know how electricity works. It’s like the guy that changes oil at a mechanic shop. Would you call him a mechanic? So let me guess you’re a resi installer?
There is some truth to that but it sure seems like your a narrow minded fellow and I believe that's been pointed out in other threads.
 
There is some truth to that but it sure seems like your a narrow minded fellow and I believe that's been pointed out in other threads.
I’m mostly just joking. But one thing I’m serious about is guys that rope houses for a living are some hard working underpaid guys. All of them once I’ve got them to the commercial side and they learn it smoke and I mean smoke all the hands that have done nothing but commercial/industrial.
 
Bowelk, sorry to get this thread off track but I'm sure you have a good idea what you need to do when you get finished with your guided hunt. Good luck.
 

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