I have booked an elk hunt for this fall. How much do you recommend tipping the guide? Would success change the amount? How about the wrangler, cook etc.? Does the outfitter (owner) get a tip as well? Don' t want to overdo it, but don' t want to be a cheapskate as well. Thanks in advance, YLM

YellowLab,
I would recomend you talk to the others you are hunting with in you party,befor you leave the hunt(make sure you are not over doing it or not enough)and succses has alot to with it.I would say this if you like the cooks cooking,tip them same gose for the wranglers and guides.Give the money to the individuals that helped you,not the outfitter sometimes the money don' t get to their hands.

YellowLab:

I have never been on a guided hunt, but I know fellows that guide for landowners for extra income. You might pay the landowner/outfitter $3,500 for a 7 day hunt, and the guide might get $150/day, each day you hunt. If you fill your tag early, the guide is paid less money, other outfits pay the guide a fixed rate regardless of whether you fill you tag or not. I would ask the guide how he is paid, and although I don' t think you should make up for the full slack of greedy landowners, I would give him more money if he worked hard but was getting paid less because he did a good job for me. Additionally, one guide might get a $500 tip and be ecstatic, another might get the same tip and be grumpy. I would say the guys I know that guide would say 10% of the outfitter fee is a good tip and 20% outstanding, but they do the cooking, game care etc.

yellowlabman
I use to guide back in the 80' s here in British Columbia,back then it was custom to tip $100 (which was a days wage) as far as i know the cook wasn' t tipped that i know of.and the guide' s themselves did all there own wrangling,also that was for a 10 day hunt.but i would say it all depends on how hard your guide works for you.
hope this helps some.........good luck

Rule of thumb is 10% the cost of the hunt. You can adjust as you see fit for outfitter performance. I consider a decent opportunity as being a good job on the part of the guide, not necessarily a dead animal. He can' t shoot it for you. If the guide is bustin his butt to get you on elk and the weather etc just ain' t cooperating, I take that into account to when deciding on tip. I tip the camp cook $50- $75, same with any wranglers that are involved with my hunt.

Bless you Dreamboy. Nuthin' feels worser than gettin' stiffed or under paid when you busted yer butt, got the guy good chances, and kept him safe. Only worse still if you got an' ol' lady back at the trailer tellin' you to get a real job an' stop throwin' yer time away playin' ' round in huntin' camp. After all, the kid needs braces an' her Jeep needs new brakes. You ain' t had health insurance coverage. Time to think like a adult. Is it any wonder there ain' t more experienced guides available for outfitters' camps. Its their wives' fault! And, cheap ass dude hunters' , that is.

I have gudied a fair number or elk and other hunts, and would say that you should give your guide a tip that you think is fair. I know that most guides think that if you don' t get at least 200 for the week you got cheated. I know that when I guided if the wrangler and the cook did not get a tip, I shared mine. They put in a lot of work as well. I usally give then 20 percent of what I recived. You can tip the outfitter as well if you would like. Most of my clients did not tip the outfitter, but some did. You can make that desicion when you get there and see if the outfitter did anything to help you get your elk. I hope that answers some of your questions.

yellow, I' m sure there are many " variances" and tips vary by what you' re after and where its is you are hunting. I had a successful elk hunt in NM (Gila/Apache Forest Area on the NM/AZ line) in 98 and it was my first guided hunt. I followed the suggestions of one of a friends with us who has traveled the world. He recommended $10 a day per cook (if I remember correctly there were 2 cooks in addition to the outfitters wife, Mick & Jen Chapel of Quemado, NM). $50 a day for my guide (we had each paid an extra $1k for a one on one guide vs two hunters per guide otherwise, so he wasnt going to get tips from two hunters) and that was regardless of success or not. There were no horses/cowboys involved so I cant help ya there.

I dont honestly remember what I was prepared to pay the guide for a trophy kill, but luckily we killed a 367" bull that won the pot at the end of the week (I didnt kill until the last morning of a 5 day hunt). I cant remember the exact amount but it was over $1k and typically the pot was split between the hunter and his guide (we had the same guide all week unless we requested another one, I stayed with mine and GLAD I did!) I was MORE than happy to give my guide the entire pot and a couple hundred more. I believe he took home around $1400-$1500 for a hard weeks hunt and a monster bull. He was tickled but not nearly as much as I was with such an awesome muzzleloader trophy.

I didnt tip the outfitter as my buddy said he was the one who got most of the money for the hunt. I suppose an extra $500-$1000 wouldnt hurt, but he saw us tipping all his employees on the final night and welcomed us back anytime for another hunt, something he didnt do to all hunters in camp I might add. So I felt comfortable he was happy.

My guide was young and had only been doing so for 2 years. But he was from a family of well known guides in and around the Reserve, NM area and he told me about his well known and experienced brother Carlos Delao who has guided many hunters to bulls in the 390-400inch plus range. The folks who pay for those kinds of bulls are serious and know that they dont come easily or cheaply. My guide Michael told me that his brother was at the point that typically he would earn at LEAST $15k-$20k per bull for a week hunt. That is some SERIOUS tipping. One hunter who was a repeat customer of his and was from ID, drove in one season in a brand new Z-71 Ext Cab pickup. They killed a 400" + bull and the hunter pitched the keys to Carlos and then flew home. That might sound like borderline lunacy, but when you start talking about " Gila Monsters" in NM and " White Mtn Monsters" in AZ, huge bulls makes many mens minds cloudy and their pocketbooks lighter.

Really the same goes for ANY worldclass trophy of any type. Badmouth the system it all you want, but topend trophies are comodities that are known about well before season by the more experienced guides/outifitters in the business. Its there livelyhood and customers happiness that depend on knowing such things. You can bet that if there is a B&C buck in the area you are hunting, your outfitter/guide already know about it in someway. They also typically have such animals " reserved" for their choicest customers. Politics aside, ask yourself if a couple extra grand on an already expensive trip is worth going home with a " trophy" or going home with a " trophy of a lifetime" . Guides/outfitters are no different than anyother humans, money talks and they aint in it for their health.

lol, I aint sayin give em your truck, but dont scrimp em either!!!
RA