Gratuity on Hunts?

[Pistol]

I look at it the way I look at eating in a restaurant. I may not know exactly how much I am going to spend on food, but I know I am going to get food. It's all about the service. I can make food at home. I go out to eat for the service.

If the guide does a great job, makes sure I have food and water or gives me his because I left my brain in a jar next to my bagged lunch, or maybe he shows me he has been scouting while he put me on a spot so he can move me to a better one the next day, or I say this blind chair is really uncomfortable and he runs to the store and buys me a brand new chair, that's good service and a better tip

If he just drops me at a blind or stand that is over hunted and shrugs when I don't see anything and says maybe tomorrow will be better and refuses to move me... well makes me want to leave 1% tip just to let him know I thought about it and didn't just 'forget'. But if it's that bad, I ain't going back either.

[GREATWHITE416]

this crap gets confusing on what industries get tips and which ones dont...
Take for example, tattoos. Hell, i didnt know you were suppose to tip your artist after you paid them what they qouted you it would cost to do the piece. I got a several hundred dollar tattoo and walked out after paying, no additional tip and was looked at funny. I genuinely didnt know until my buddy told me later that i was suppose to throw down a $200ish tip.....was embarrassed but also confused. I just paid the man his qouted price for the tattoo, why would i then tip on top of that?.? He set the price! And i was just told, "thats just the way it is"

hell, i'm a self employeed mechanic and i never get tipped after charging the customer for my work. Most of the time, its hard enough to get the regular payment out of them, much less a tip! Haha

exactly

[Deer Tracks]

So which is it a couple grand or 10-20%? I don't know that I have seen anyone have a problem with $1k-$2k, but a $10-20k tip seems like a lot for a weekend. But why not just charge $24k for the hunt (instead of $20k) and have the outfitter give $4k to the guide vs playing the whole 10%, 20%, $1k, $4k game? Seems like it would eliminate a lot of butt hurt all the way around. You as a guide know what you are getting and work accordingly and anyone as the customer writes one check and they are done.

Plenty of good advice on this thread and I think your questions have been answered already.
My experience: most of the hunters that hunt with me that spend over 10k will tip at least 10%. Yes, even if 20-30k. I’ve been blessed to receive more for level of hunt.


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[TAMU Hunter]

As a part time gig I guided in South Texas on a big low fence ranch, but the twist was we told the clients they don't tip the guide. The landowner took care of the guides at the end of season. For me it worked out great and I was happy not having to do the dance with each client, and I was well taken care of in the long run. I am sure this wouldn't work for everyone, but it was good for me, the ranch, and the hunters.

With that being said I am going on a Canadian spring bear hunt next year with a premier outfitter. (I met this outfitter as a client on the South Texas ranch as a guide, so he knows what I am used to.) I am paying full advertised price for the hunt, not asking for any favors. This will be 5 day spot and stalk bear hunting staying in a lodge fully catered. My guide will be the outfitters son who is in his 30s.

Hunt will be around $10k, what should the appropriate tip be?

[GREATWHITE416]

When servers made half of minimum wage and the rest was supposed to be made up of tips I understood it.
The point with guides is they often don't get paid except for the tips.
Bob owns the land and the animal you're hunting. Jim guides you and takes care of your trophy. But doesn't get paid by Bob. Jim gets what you tip him. If it's $300 on a three day hunt he made $100 a day.

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Seems like Jim should renegotiate his agreement with Bob. How is Joe Blow supposed to know what their agreement is? Most people would assume that Bob is paying Jim a fair wage.

[bullets13]

There's been a lot of great discussion in this thread, and it's nice to hear from both sides on this, as someone who's not paid for a hunt. I totally understand tipping a guide for the effort they put into your hunt, especially the more grueling ones where there's a ton of work involved. That said, there is something that I still don't feel has been properly addressed:

There's a thread that's on the front page right now of a guy who took his wife on a guided hunt this weekend. They got in a box blind at 4:30, and within an hour or two they'd killed a giant axis and a world class typical buck. I don't know what they paid for these animals, and it's none of my business. But for example's sake let's say they put $20k of animals in the dirt in an hour and a half. Is it even remotely reasonable to expect them to tip $2-4k for two hours of sitting in the blind and an hour of deer cleaning? That's what the 10-20% rule says. I'm not saying they shouldn't do that if they want to, but I don't know how a guide could possibly expect that. On the flipside of that, let's say there's a hunter on a budget who books a 2-day management hunt. He's not shooting a monster, but his guide is attentive, treats him well, and puts in some noticeable effort to get this guy on a nice 135 inch deer, which is his buck of a lifetime. The hunter finally seals the deal towards the end of the second day. Going by the % rule, a fair tip for this hunt is $350. It just doesn't seem logical to me.

[Texans42]

Let’s put it another way… you are hunting elk out west. You and another client in camp. You have a tough hunt, just how hunting is sometimes. You and other guy go home empty handed but you still tipped guide 15%. Other hunter tipped 5%. The outfitters clients the following week kill out real early and bulls are NOW on fire..they have four open days. Who gets the phone call from the outfitter to see if they can come back up real quick and try to kill out?

Real life case that’s I know had happened to me once and buddy twice. Another buddy got a last minute 100k Big Horn sheep hunt for a fraction of that for same reasoning also.

[DRT]

Let’s put it another way… you are hunting elk out west. You and another client in camp. You have a tough hunt, just how hunting is sometimes. You and other guy go home empty handed but you still tipped guide 15%. Other hunter tipped 5%. The outfitters clients the following week kill out real early and bulls are NOW on fire..they have four open days. Who gets the phone call from the outfitter to see if they can come back up real quick and try to kill out?

Real life case that’s I know had happened to me once and buddy twice. Another buddy got a last minute 100k Big Horn sheep hunt for a fraction of that for same reasoning also.

Sounds like you and your buddy are already out of the working man's class of hunts. Working men don't even look at $100k hunts. Hell most of us will never get to go on a $10k guided elk hunt.

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[Texans42]

Sounds like you and your buddy are already out of the working man's class of hunts. Working men don't even look at $100k hunts. Hell most of us will never get to go on a $10k guided elk hunt.

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Sounds like you have different priorities in life then a electrician that’s not married, and has no kids, drives a 25 year old truck and lives in a 1200sq Ft home. He loves to hunt. That sheep finished 30 year quest for a slam, that he didn’t think he would ever complete but kept saving anyway. He got his Dall DIY while stationed In Alaska. He got his stone decade later before it got stupid expense. He drew his desert in AZ. That elk hunt was 5500.

Not sure what a working man is as I’m a part time farmer

[RiverRat1]

There's been a lot of great discussion in this thread, and it's nice to hear from both sides on this, as someone who's not paid for a hunt. I totally understand tipping a guide for the effort they put into your hunt, especially the more grueling ones where there's a ton of work involved. That said, there is something that I still don't feel has been properly addressed:

There's a thread that's on the front page right now of a guy who took his wife on a guided hunt this weekend. They got in a box blind at 4:30, and within an hour or two they'd killed a giant axis and a world class typical buck. I don't know what they paid for these animals, and it's none of my business. But for example's sake let's say they put $20k of animals in the dirt in an hour and a half. Is it even remotely reasonable to expect them to tip $2-4k for two hours of sitting in the blind and an hour of deer cleaning? That's what the 10-20% rule says. I'm not saying they shouldn't do that if they want to, but I don't know how a guide could possibly expect that. On the flipside of that, let's say there's a hunter on a budget who books a 2-day management hunt. He's not shooting a monster, but his guide is attentive, treats him well, and puts in some noticeable effort to get this guy on a nice 135 inch deer, which is his buck of a lifetime. The hunter finally seals the deal towards the end of the second day. Going by the % rule, a fair tip for this hunt is $350. It just doesn't seem logical to me.

Just ask when booking the hunt what's included in the hunt and what sort of tip is expected, if any. Tell them you've never paid for a hunt.

On the example - It all depends. Those trophy animals didn't just appear there to be shot. They had to be raised (one way or another). Some would think a tip is needed in that case for the guide/ranch making the hunt easier.
Would you rather it take the entire 2-3 day hunting trip to see an animal? Then you'd say - I'm not tipping because this guide didn't put me in a good spot until last minute or this ranch doesn't have many animals.

[bullets13]

Just ask when booking the hunt what's included in the hunt and what sort of tip is expected, if any. Tell them you've never paid for a hunt.

On the example - It all depends. Those trophy animals didn't just appear there to be shot. They had to be raised (one way or another). Some would think a tip is needed in that case for the guide/ranch making the hunt easier.
Would you rather it take the entire 2-3 day hunting trip to see an animal? Then you'd say - I'm not tipping because this guide didn't put me in a good spot until last minute or this ranch doesn't have many animals.

I get your points here, but where I highlighted in regards to the deer being expensive to raise: isn't that why the hunter is paying an insane amount of money to shoot the deer? The ranch has incurred the expense and work involved with raising this world class animal, and now hunter's paying 5 figures to shoot it. It makes complete sense that the ranch is making more money off of the ranch's deer because it's bigger. that said, if the amount of work that the guide puts in for me to shoot the animal is minimal, I still don't see why that would translate to a massive tip for a couple of hours of work.

[jshouse]

i am in the "just charge me more" crowd. i hate wondering if i need to tip and who all gets a tip and how much do i tip, its stupid.

and for the record, i am an over-tipper, hardly ever give less than 20% at a restaurant and usually start at 20 and round it up to an easy number, no matter how bad the service was.

[Texans42]

I get your points here, but where I highlighted in regards to the deer being expensive to raise: isn't that why the hunter is paying an insane amount of money to shoot the deer? The ranch has incurred the expense and work involved with raising this world class animal, and now hunter's paying 5 figures to shoot it. It makes complete sense that the ranch is making more money off of the ranch's deer because it's bigger. that said, if the amount of work that the guide puts in for me to shoot the animal is minimal, I still don't see why that would translate to a massive tip for a couple of hours of work.

I would say the tip is more for the hours put in patterning the animals by camera and sitting. I would also include caping, qtr. tracking etc. to that. He may have drop you off, but he also may of went to another blind to scout it for you.

Upper end animals tend to be the needles in the haystacks a lot of times