Question For The Collective???

[Boss Hoss]

Am going to hunt ELK on the Mescalero Reservation early next month in New Mexico. The question is this---as I have always been hunting on our land or public land what is the appropriate amount to tip the guide?

Going out to fire form my brass and then do some load development this weekend and this is a question that I have been pondering.

Any thoughts?

 

[MagMan]

I use a baseline of $100 for the guide to start. Depending on the hunt/animal harvested/general overall mood I might get as high as $300. For an all time "Book" head say one that might go top 100 I'd throw him as much as I had in my wallet and would have to wire him a good chunk when I got home.

Cooks always get $100.

I'm sure you'll get many opinions these are generally what I use when figuring out how much cash to take.

 

[jimbires]

Boss Hoss , in 2006 I caribou hunted with www.arcticadventures.ca . they still have my pic. on their latest news brochure . the information packet they sent to me had a few F.A.Q. 's . here is what they said about tipping .
" each year guests inquire as to what amount they should tip their guide and cook . tipping is at each guests entire discretion and tips should be given for a job well done ! the following amounts are considered as fair tips to thank your guide and cook at the end of your hunt .

guides $ 150.00 ; cook $75.00 "

have fun . Jim

 

[coloradoultramag]

I have guided deer elk and bear hunters in Colorado for 3 years? I think a far tip is at LEAST $100 for a 5 day hunt? That is only $20 a day? I think 10% of the hunt is a good rulte for the tip. Rember the guide is glued to your side for 5 days plus a half day on either side. Rember that guides don't control what you see, and if the hunt is not stellar the guide worked as hard or even harder.

Good luck and kill a big one,

Gabe

 

[älg]

I´d say 100 is ok as a base tip.- Gabe my opinion is that the tip is due if the guide works hard or at leastr puts interest in the hunt.,. if he just strides along with you niotip is "earned".-

 

[Boss Hoss]

Thanks guys!!! Have a pretty good idea how to proceed now..

 

[dmgreene]

I believe in being far, courteous, and thankful for a job well done but my question is who gets the $4000+ that you pay before you go hunting?

David

 

[coloradoultramag]

I agree a guide must earn his tip, by trying hard.

 

[silvertip-co]

...depend on how bad you want scalped.

Apache hunts are expensive as well as productive. Do the right thing and let them a big ol fat tip. If you're counting tip %s and $s then you probably cant afford the hunt.

Good luck on your hunt.

 

[buffalorancher]

Guides are human too and they can usually do some math. A $100 tip on a $10,000 hunt isn't going to be looked at too favorably. However, if you woke up the first morning and blasted your elk out of the tent a C note would probably be plenty. As an outfitter, I never get tips even though I guide as well and this is OK. The reality of tipping is that if it was done away with a client would probabaly pay disproportionately more for a hunt than what a good tip would be. Guides don't get paid a lot because they count on tips. On my deer hunts I would have to pay $250-$500 more per hunt to hire guides if I didn't allow tipping. This would probably be more than most of my clients tip and these costs would just get passed on. My guys work hard and our hunts don't go 5 full days but they usually end up with $200 or so on a $3750 hunt but we've had some considerably larger tips.

 

[dogdinger]

i was on a hunt once in BC that was a sort of cluster-f**k.....we had a guide in camp that was running the show but there was a canadian kid there because the guide was american and could'nt "technically" be working in canada so the kid had to be there in case the authorities showed up. he was basically the assistant guide....well this was the laziest most worthless P O S i have ever incountered....he would not do one **** thing around camp. no wood hauling, no water getting, no cooking , no horse wrangling...sat on his *** basically.my brother and i are both pretty handy with cooking, so we sorta took over the cooking chores to free up the guide for his regular stuff....one night we cooked a big moose roast with fresh potatoes, carrots, onions, biscuits and gravy....just as we were getting ready to eat, i noticed the water buckets were empty and asked this fellow to fill them...(creek was about 50 yds away)...he refused...said he wasnt the water boy.....i took the buckets and filled them. as we sat down to eat he stepped up with a plate.....i told him the moose roast was for us and he wasnt welcome.....i thought it was gonna come to a fist fight, but he backed down finally....he ate a can of sardines while the rest of us feated on the moose roast. i made it plain to him that this was how it would be for the rest of the hunt if he didnt start doing his share...he got a little better after that. at the end of the hunt , i gave the guide a $300 tip.....i turned to this fellow and said "i have a tip for you to.......dont be such a lazy f**k" and your hunters will appreciate you more" AJ

 

[sambo3006]

Silvertip,
Not singling you out or directing this at you, just prefacing my comments.
If a guy has a hunt he has dreamed about his entire life and has scrimped and saved pennies for years to afford it, he shouldn't have to not live out his dream if he can't afford to tip like a banker (my words, not silvertip's). The hunt costs $x,000, you figure your costs to get there and your equipment and your vacation time (most guys don't get paid vacation) and that is a lot of money. I would agree that a person should probably put back a hundred or two for tips but a $100 tip from a guy who makes ten bucks an hour means a lot more than the same $100 from a guy who makes 200K a year.

I can also see the point of the outfitter where he would have to pay his guides a lot more if it weren't for tips, but at least a guy would know up front exactly what the hunt cost. After all, most of us don't get tips at our work for doing a good job.

Hope I haven't ruffled any feathers, certainly not my intent, just another guy's perspective.

Sam

 

[J E Custom]

Boss

I have never hunted on a reservation so I don't know what type of tip
your guides would expect but I would talk to the outfiter (In private) and
ask him what would be approprate if a guide performed well (Tried).

This would give you a bench mark to tip by, If the outfiter said $100.oo
and your guide was outstanding then $200.oo to $300.oo might be approprate.
And if he just strolled along and made no effort then he should'nt expect or
deserve anything.

One of the best guided hunts I have been on was for Elk and Mule Deer .Over half way
through the hunt I found out that the Outfiter paid the guides a bonus for each
animal killed but we were not allowed to know this.( I overheard two guides talking
about how fair this was because some times the client's did'nt tip even if they killed
something).This was a bow hunt and that is always harder for the guides to be
successful .

So after this young man worked his butt of trying to get me a 6x6 I told him that
the last two days would be spent meat hunting but if a nice bull came in that it
would even be better. Well he actually worked even harder trying to get my bull
But it was not to be, so on the last day I shot a very large cow and a nice Muley
4x4.

Bow hunting is very hard on the guides because they have to get you close with
out being seen and then rely on the bow hunter to do his part. You must work as a
team and listen to each other to be successful.

So go with your heart when tipping,

PS: I had such a good time he receved $250.oo from me and $200.oo from the
outfiter Plus I gave him a Custom Knife I had made for just such a performance
by a guide.

J E CUSTOM

 

[buffalorancher]

I've never really had anybody hunt with me at home where they had to save and save for a hunt but when I worked in Alaska we had guys that did. In my experience, the guides I worked with in Alaska (I was just a flunky packer then, I guess I'm not much more than that now.) could tell when a guy was on the one real hunt of his lifetime and they would just about kill themselves, and the packers, to get these people animals. And almost always, the people who could tip the least would tip the most because of the service they were given even though they could have left camp with out leaving a tip and nobody would have cared. This is just my experience but right or wrong, there always seemed to be more of a mutual respect between the blue collar hunter and the guides.