Nah, it really is not all that simple. Many if not most guides live on tips, not wages, same as wait staff in a resturant. Not giving a tip to a guide is making them work for free. If they go out and work for you and try their best to get you want you are hunting, even if you do not kill the species you are hunting a tip is required, I do not believe it is optional to hae a person work for your benefit for free. How many times have we goner out and tried our best and failed, not for lack of trying. It happens to guides as well. The amount is optional, many use 15 to 20 pecrent of the cost of the hunt, that is what I use. Giving a guide 10 or 20 bucks after they tried their best for you is a slap in the face. Now if the guide is a laggard and is half hearted about helping you suceed you make it known by the amount of the tip that you were not satisfied, don't confront them and start an agrument, just lowball them on the tip. If they ask why, tell them with the outfitter present. If the outfitter is the guide, which is the question the OP asked, I do not believe a tip is required but you can if you want to, especially if they did a bang up job for you. I have heard all kind of opinions on tipping a guide, one that really ticks me off is the one the pikers use for not tipping the waitstaff at a resturant, and that is,"it is up to the employer to pay the enough money that they don't need tips". That is a subject for debate because there is an up side and a downside to that argument. If the outfitter pays guides a decent salary, you will be paying more for a hunt to the outfitter, same with the waitstaff and the cost of a meal. A good guide or waiter can make or break a hunt. If I wever went on a hunting trip and someone with me would not tip the guide after he did a good job, I would make the tip and never hunt with that individual again.
Last edited by Oldtimr; 01-23-2015 at 07:18 AM.