Hunting Trip Tip advise

[Bigeclipse]

Hey guys,
I know most if not all here are against the whole hunting high fence idea and such so please keep those comments to yourself. My soon to be father in-law (getting married Dec 7th) paid for a hunt a year ago to this ranch in Wisconsin. He decided to bring me and pay for everything (minus my flight). Even though this is one of those high fence situations which is frowned upon on this website, I am really looking forward to hunting with my soon to be father-in-law. Anyways, do to how large the ranch is, they do still have optional guides for you to take with you to aid in making your hunt more successful. This isnt your regular sit on a feeder high fence situation... you still need to do a bit of scouting, calling(if it is prerut which it will be) and a bit of luck to find the deer you want, which hopefully means it will be a little more like real hunting. Anyways, I have read that people give between 10-20% tip for total cost of a hunt to their guide. Well, I know my father-in-law has paid for me to be able to tag up to a 150 class deer. This doesnt mean I will actually get a deer this large (again, it depends on our luck of the week and the guide to put us in the best scouted spots). So for the tip, if I were to actually get say a 145 score buck(which would cost like 2500 bucks)....does this mean I give the guide 10-20% of that cost...which would be 250-350 bucks?!? We are there for a week. So even if I get the deer the very first morning, thats what I pay him? Again, I know most of you all frown upon these high fence situations but like i said, I am going with my soon to be father-in-law which makes the trip worth it in my book Any advice on the tipping would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TJAY]

Guides get tipped for extra service / hard work in making your hunt more enjoyable. 10 % is normal for average service and you can go up from there. That is my take on it others may think differently...

 

[Bigeclipse]

Guides get tipped for extra service / hard work in making your hunt more enjoyable. 10 % is normal for average service and you can go up from there. That is my take on it others may think differently...

Thanks for your input! I am truelly excited to be hunting with my father-in-law.

 

[GMM93]

How do you post something on this site? I can not figure it out. Thanks

 

[Bigeclipse]

How do you post something on this site? I can not figure it out. Thanks

do you mean starting a thread?

 

[BrentM]

10% is good starting point in my opinion if you are taken care of. We get there here in the west if things go well and we generally work our tails off on public land and back country. It is rare to see a guy go over 10%. On a hunt that costs 5000-7500 the guide would get 500 to 750. On average I see guides get 200-250.

 

[Bigeclipse]

10% is good starting point in my opinion if you are taken care of. We get there here in the west if things go well and we generally work our tails off on public land and back country. It is rare to see a guy go over 10%. On a hunt that costs 5000-7500 the guide would get 500 to 750. On average I see guides get 200-250.

See that is where I am confused...you say you get 10% and you would be working yout butt off on public land...this will be on private land where the guide just needs to know the best spots...he wont be camping out or anything...so I am not sure if I should be tipping him the same...

 

[BrentM]

I would plan 150-250 and see how it goes. Day 1 or day 10 makes no difference if the guide is working for you he earns it. I think tipping % are just guidelines. I am happy to get $100 on a 6500.00 hunt if the hunter is fun. Ha Ha. IMO, it is about the relationship and don't expect anything if I don't earn it. Also, guides don't usually get paid that much so that money could literally double his take. Personally I think 250 for a fenced hunt is a lot but that can only be determined by the value you recieve from him while there.

 

[Bigeclipse]

I would plan 150-250 and see how it goes. Day 1 or day 10 makes no difference if the guide is working for you he earns it. I think tipping % are just guidelines. I am happy to get $100 on a 6500.00 hunt if the hunter is fun. Ha Ha. IMO, it is about the relationship and don't expect anything if I don't earn it. Also, guides don't usually get paid that much so that money could literally double his take. Personally I think 250 for a fenced hunt is a lot but that can only be determined by the value you recieve from him while there.

Thanks for the info! Sounds like you are a guide yourself...do you think a guide would be opposed to shooting my hunt with my video camera? We will either be in two man ladder stands in the woods or in shooting houses that are overlooking some fields. This will basically be the only hunting trip I go on (unless I hit the loto) haha so I want to try and make the best of it.

 

[BrentM]

I do guide a few times per year. Did wolf, bear, and elk so far this year. I do it mainly to help my outfitter bud out.

If the guide is supposed to be with you then yes. I would. Infact, I usually vid for the client when I can regardless. I warn them up front, especially archery elk, that the camera is second to me working the bull in for them to shoot. So video quality may suffer greatly. ha ha

 

[Bigeclipse]

I do guide a few times per year. Did wolf, bear, and elk so far this year. I do it mainly to help my outfitter bud out.

If the guide is supposed to be with you then yes. I would. Infact, I usually vid for the client when I can regardless. I warn them up front, especially archery elk, that the camera is second to me working the bull in for them to shoot. So video quality may suffer greatly. ha ha

haha, that would be fine if it were my hunt. So does that mean the guide may be doing the buck calling for me as well? I am not exactly a novice(been hunting 3 years now and have called in a few deer) so I do know how to grunt and bleat, but of course this is in NY and they are in wisconsin so maybe bucks respond differently. We do not rattle here in NY, the buck to doe ratio is terrible so rattling usually just spooks the deer. Not sure how deer respond to rattling in wisconsin though.

 

[BrentM]

No clue what they do. My guess, the guide is planning to work for you, do it all but squeeze the trigger. Guides get from expert to novice range of hunters. You never know, so you are prepared to do it all or nothing. Ask your guide what he expects etc. The more clear and better the plan the better the experience. Suggestion, do be humble, don't down play, be honest. I can tell you I have it go both ways and both are just as irritating. I need to know you, not what you want me to think you are. Tell me you can out ran a bear, I will likely test it, tell me you can't out run a turtle and you will likely be happy sitting a stump all day. LOL.

 

[SBruce]

My experience as a guide is with open country low fence deer and antelope hunts. Most outfitters suggest that 10-20% number. A good guide can make or break your hunt on an outfitted open country type of setup.

Guides that have to deal with public land and other "non guided" hunters and low fences generally have to work quite a bit harder than the guy guiding in a high fence or preserve type of situation.

10% at the end of a 4 day long "economy" public land antelope hunt that only costs 1500 to book, isn't much to a guide. Especially when he's buying his own fuel to transport you around and he does everything but pull the trigger. That's only $37/day and doesn't even cover his gas, let alone doing everything else for you.

My experience was that the tip mostly depended on the hunter........Some folks tip a waitress 20% if they really like her. Others barely tip 5% no matter how good a job she did. These people generally tip that way wherever they are at. I felt that hunters were the same way. Some wont tip worth a darn no matter how much fun you have with them or what they get for game or how easy I made it for them. Others would tip 20% right off the bat, and those were the ones I spent extra time with after the hunt doing other things like shooting prairie dogs or seeing the local sights or getting them in on another hunt as a spectator or helper, taking them coyote hunting or simply sampling the night life at nearby taverns, etc.

The guide will probably do you a better job if you tip him some of whatever amount you choose in advance. This is assuming he's reputable of course.

 

[WildRose]

Hey guys,
I know most if not all here are against the whole hunting high fence idea and such so please keep those comments to yourself. My soon to be father in-law (getting married Dec 7th) paid for a hunt a year ago to this ranch in Wisconsin. He decided to bring me and pay for everything (minus my flight). Even though this is one of those high fence situations which is frowned upon on this website, I am really looking forward to hunting with my soon to be father-in-law. Anyways, do to how large the ranch is, they do still have optional guides for you to take with you to aid in making your hunt more successful. This isnt your regular sit on a feeder high fence situation... you still need to do a bit of scouting, calling(if it is prerut which it will be) and a bit of luck to find the deer you want, which hopefully means it will be a little more like real hunting. Anyways, I have read that people give between 10-20% tip for total cost of a hunt to their guide. Well, I know my father-in-law has paid for me to be able to tag up to a 150 class deer. This doesnt mean I will actually get a deer this large (again, it depends on our luck of the week and the guide to put us in the best scouted spots). So for the tip, if I were to actually get say a 145 score buck(which would cost like 2500 bucks)....does this mean I give the guide 10-20% of that cost...which would be 250-350 bucks?!? We are there for a week. So even if I get the deer the very first morning, thats what I pay him? Again, I know most of you all frown upon these high fence situations but like i said, I am going with my soon to be father-in-law which makes the trip worth it in my book Any advice on the tipping would be greatly appreciated.

Most of a guide's income comes from tips.

Establish in your own mind what a base level of service should be and adjust the tip commensurate with how far above or below that mark the guide's efforts were. Whether or not you are successful should be irrelevant to how solid an effort the guide puts in for you. Remember it's his job to educate you and give you a great opportunity, he can't guarantee your success however because much of that is solely up to you.