Dawnpatrol7

I am going on a mule deer / whitetail deer hunt up in Alberta canada and the Owneris going to guide me now i usually tip the guide 10% if they were good and the cook and so on.

How much should i tip the owner?

Thanks.

Kanga

Nothing seeing you are paying him for the hunt.

crenshaw

Well if the owner is a guide himself then i would tip the owner the common 10%.

NJheadhunter71

I went on a lope hunt a few years ago for $1200and tipped $125 and when I found out the guide had to pay for his own gas I filled his tank.

Champlain Islander

I wouldn't tip the owner since he is getting paid for the hunt. If he provideds a great time and works hard I would consider giving him a 10% tip as a generous gesture of gratitude. If I get good service and the guide isn't the owner I usually tip 10 to 20%.

Dawnpatrol7

I have hunted with outfitter before and since the owner is guiding me i will probably give him a tip as long the hunt was as good as it was 4 years ago.

turkeyward

I am an outfitter and a guide. As much as it may suck -- I do judge a hunter by the tip he leaves me. No matter if the guide is the owner or not he is still your guide. If you stiff him on a tip your chances of a good return trip will be much less likely. I have a real problem with guys who obviously have plenty of money and stiff their guide. I am the outfitter and only half owner. All of the money given to the outfit goes into the outfit bank account. If I get a tip it is mine. Now I do not plan my season around the tips I expect, but I do judge the hunter by his ability and capability of giving a tip. There are times when a thank you is tip enough. I have one client who pays for his hunts by collecting cans. Honest. I would feel extremely privileged if I got a $10 tip from him. In fact I have refused a tip from him on a couple of occasions. At the same time I had a client from Staten Island bragging about all his money. He stiffed the guide. He tried to rebook and I told him I was full. Life is too short to cater to jerks who do not appreciate a hard effort by his guide -- be it guide/outfitter or owner. The guy who took you through your hunt is your guide and should be treated as such. Just this year I had a father and two sons come hunting with me. The father was obviously a hard working self made man. I really liked him a lot. His two sons were not bad guys but were obviously young men of means and privilege. I received a modest but adequate tip from the father and not one penny from either of the two sons. They wanted things from me such as pictures and information. I don't believe I feel inclined to help them. Unfortunately that is how I feel and right or wrong it is human nature.
So you can take that from a guy who has been there.

lnester

I think a tip is expected and the right thing to do. I have a question for the outfitters on this board: do you price your hunts with the mindset that the hunter will tip, or do you price them regardless of a tip. So, do you price a $4000 hunt at $4000 or at $3600, knowing that hunter will likely tip $300-500?

turkeyward

Hey Inester:
When we price our hunts it is all about accounting and a profit percentage first. In our case the profit percentage turned out to make the hunt cost too much. We try hard to be competetive with our prices. While I believe we are one of the best as far as trophy quality, quality of hunt and a success rate of 100%, I still try to set my prices in the middle of the price range for hunts in our area. So I guess to answer your question... tip is not figured into the price of the hunt in any way.
A tip should be given only if you feel your guide (owner or not) gave you an effort worthy of a tip. In a perfect world the tip would be based strictly on effort of the guide. However a tagged animal really makes a difference of the tip. I know the desire to tag a good trophy can very much sway the tip or at least the size of the tip. Sometimes the hunter cannot afford a 10% or 15% tip. If that is the case, tell your guide you would like to give him more but cannot afford to but you really appreciate his effort. A guide is always broke and would rather starve and hunt that have a real job with a desk or a computer to work at. Contrary to popular belief, guiding and outfitting is a labor of love because it very rarely can put groceries on the table for more than a couple months a year. If I was a full time outfitter, I would have to charge at least $1,000 more per hunt just to make a living. While I feel our hunts are worth that much (comparetively speaking) the high prices have to stop somewhere. At this point we are trying to do our part to keep the cost down as much as we can. One more thing about spending your hard earned money on a hunt with a guide or outfitter... call as many references as you can to make sure you are not getting screwed. That is your responsibility. If you get a bad hunt and didn't check the references... you can only blame yourself. CHECK REFERENCES.
Bugleward

lnester

Thanks for the reply, turkeyward. A good friend of mine worked his way through college guiding hunts on the King Ranch in South Texas. He guided some big names like Fuzzy Zoeller and Tommy Lee Jones. The amount of work he had to put in was ridiculous. Guides are severely underpaid.

To me, I have a set tip in mind before the hunt. If a guide lives up to expectations, he'll get that tip or maybe more. If he pisses me off or shirks a task, the tip goes down slightly.