Howler

There are a lot of variables to consider, as mentioned above, so it's up to you to weigh in your mind how hard did the guide work for you. On my moose hunt in AK last fall, our guide not once spotted any, NOT ONE, game animal before my buddy and I did. We could out walk him too, up hill or down!! BUT after I put my moose down, we helped cape and de-bone and then HE carried more than his share of weight when we packed the meat back to camp, plus he fixed all of our meals and carried survival gear every where we went, cleaned the pots and pans, and we had good conversation for 10 days! He also carried all of the caribou meat to the pick up point, as fast as we could butcher, he was back for another load and he was carrying the caribou meat about a quarter mile!So we took it all into account, weighed the pluses and minuses, and tipped what we thought was appropriate, and he seemed quite pleased!! When we were leaving, we invited him to the lower states to hunt on our private property and he invited us up for some fishing!!
I actually asked him what the best tip was that he had ever recieved and it was a new .500 S&W from a S&W rep. that had hunted with him.

rrules

If my guide puts me on to trophy game or fish it is 20%. When I return the next year they remember and are eager to do it again.

RandyA

Those people work hard and long hours for the wages that they recieve. A guide, succesful or not, if he works his butt off for you, minimum $200, cook $100, wrangler $150. Hell it is your once a year treat, whats another $450 on a $5000 hunt?

jnclement

I had a great Mule deer hunt with a guide this year in New Mexico. I didn't realize it, but as we stalked one deer, he was watching another group for the type I wanted. We switched mid-stalk, and I got a great deer. I tipped him $100, and a custom knife from these guys [link]http://www.mccroskeyknives.com/[/link]. He was pretty thrilled about the knife.

RedAllison

Easy to remember, $100 per day for your guide and $10 per day for each cook. THE fastest way to be invited back by a reputable (and quickly booked up) outfitter is to take care of his employees. If you are invited back by the owner/outfitter after a hunt, then you "took care of business", if not you did something wrong. The most common way of not getting a "re-invite" is under or non-tipping.

Don't get "cheap" with guys who are gonna put you on the game and take care of you. I hunted with one guide in the Gila in NM and his oldest brother (they were a multi-generational family of guides) was accustomed to tips that spanned in the $10s of thousands per hunt and one repeat customer even threw him the keys to his brand new Z-71 ext cab and took a plane home. Now thats obviously an example thats on the other side or the spectrum, the gentleman who give his truck away kills the BIGGEST bulls year in and year out. Who do you think the guide (who lives there and watches the animals year-round) is gonna take into his most prime areas, someone who he isn't familiar with or thinks might get cheap on him. Or someone who is gonna supplement his annual salary quite handsomely?

Hate to see how expensive things are gettin btw,
RA

jnclement

Hunting will largely die out with this generation, due to rich hunters, and the ranchers that live off leasing them land at outrageous prices. Except in the west, where there is Federal land, and I'm not sure I'd count on that

RedAllison

jnclement the guide I am speaking of IS on federal lands (Gila and Apache National Forests in western NM). The guide looks at his obscene tips as payment for all his hard work of finding and becoming familiar with LARGE bulls (380"+) by the time season rolls around. He has done so well in fact that his only job is the month and a half he spends guiding his clients during NM elk season. The rest of the season he spends with his family, doing a lil fishing and spending probably a LARGE percentage of his time slogging through the moutains looking for and becoming familiar with other large bulls for next year. Alot of guides go back to work in various trades in other locales. Not him, he has become so intimate with the elk in the Gila region that he has become good enough to make a handsome living off guiding them. Because he works harder (and MUCH longer) at it than most guides, I feel he is justified in his larger rewards. Though the hunters are only there for a small bit of time each year, he spends the better part of 12 mths out of the year doing something that relates too those very bulls that pay his bills. I think its a pretty neat gig he has going if you ask me.

As for the "rich hunters" ruining the sport in our lifetimes. Who do you think laid the groundwork for what became the restoration efforts of the first half century in the 1900s? Teddy Roosevelt, Nash Buckingham, Fred Bear, Ben Pearson, Roy Weatherby, Howard Hill... they get the name "rich hunters" tied too them many times in a conversation. Yet its EXACTLY men like them that we can thank today for doing ALOT for our sport. And sure, alot of it was directly influenced by the money that each of them had (some of them had family money). Ol Joe the clockpunchin stiff didnt have the time to get out and chase em from the 4 winds, alot of what we know about game and mgmt came from such hunting escapades of just such men. I for one am GLAD that there is money in the sport. Lord knows we couldnt count on the workin stiffs, the govt or anti-hunters to foot the bills in all cases. It had to come from somewhere.

BTW if you think ranchers/farmers are exploiting hunters now, just wait until the new farm bills aimed at reducing subsidies takes ahold. Lease rates will SKYROCKET. And thats not because Donald Trump took up deerhunting, its because Joe the oil filter jockey decided to buy his food at walmart because it was from South America and was cheaper. Likewise he also complained too his senators about how much money the "rich American farmers" were being paid in subsidies so the programs were cut or eliminated.

If it wasnt for the desire to "grow em big" and produce healthy herds in the name of economic prosperity, the elk herds of most western states would simply be like those of Colorado for much of the 70s through the mid 90s. Simply there to stop bullets. But through profit motivation and sometimes costly restrictions and conservation the trophy producing areas of the west are better now than perhaps ever before.

$$$$ aint always the evils of our society,
RA

Howler

I didn't know this and I guess we did something right because the outfitter contacted us after we sent him our success pictures and offered us a discount on our next hunt with him.

Outdoor

Roosevelt, Weatherby, Bear Yes they were all rich PEOPLE and absolutlety did great things for our sport. However There was no "list" of guides to pick back then it was word of mouth. "Teddy" did not get on the internet and search where to hunt Elk. Hunting for them was cheaper then dirt. Who paid to hunt back then other than rich people? This has all change big time in the last 30 years.
Anyone 40 or older has seen the change. Last week at a show 2 seperate outfitters told me majority of there clients are over 45...Why ? Most people under that age are raising families or just bought a house. They can not afford these prices guides are charging. So what are they going to do when the "rest of us" realize they are too expensive?

AlaskaMagnum

The Rich are not going to ruining your chance to take an animal, it's the lazy.

Sorry guys, but gone are the days when you could drive around, drink beer, and shoot a deer then throw him in the pickup truck and drive home. Frankly, why would you want to do that anyway? Where is the fun.


There is plenty of game on public land IF you are ready to work your ass off. I get animals every year, and it doesn't matter if it's in Colorado or Alaska. I will be successful. Why? Simple, I work hard for the game. I train, research, and have good and appropriate gear to get back from the roads where the game tends to hange once it's been pushed. Times have changed and if you want to get into animals, you better change too. You don't need a string of horses and wall tents (nice to have though), you DO need a good external frame packpack and some Meindl boots though.

Guided hunts make it easier for YOU. You don't have to research your area, you don't have to research and pick your gear, and you usually don't have to walk in a long ways or pack out your own meat.

There is lots of opportunity. If you are too lazy to get off of your 4-wheeler or your truck to take advantage, it's nobody's fault but your own.