Tipping your guides
 

So this October I will be headed to NW Illinois for a 7 day bowhunt. We all know what quality of whitetails that area of the country holds. To say I'm stoked is an understatement. Let's just say that everything goes according to plan and I arrow a 140-150" buck. All the meals are fantastic, the guides are great, lodging is good, etc. This outfitter is not fully guided, it is semi-guided. What percentage have ya'll tipped guides in the past? 10%-20% of the hunt cost?

How about the cooks? Another 10%?

i know when i was guiding spring turkey hunts the average was 10%.
but every once in awhile you get one of those guys that thinks since he as already paid he is forking over another dime.

That'd be me.. If I have already paid thousands to hunt, you better believe you arent getting a "tip" just for doing your job. Like the prices to hunt these animals are even any bit realistic.. thousands to hunt a whitetail... get real..

I have never done a guided whitetail hunt, so my past may not be of help. I have done some guide hog hunts and some bear hunts. We normally tip the guide 20% of the cost (this is based on a fully guided hunt and we felt the guide did a GREAT job) and then another 10% was tipped to be divided between the house keeping staff and the cook.

This also depends on how much the guides are being paid. I have a buddy of my that guided for Eagle Lake, he was paid $100 per day, so tips were very much needed.

I had one bear hunt in which the guide did a terrible job. His attitude was terrible and he made sure you knew he was not going to do anything extra. In that case, my guide got a 0% tip and the house keeping staff and cooks (they were great) got a 20% tip.

So when you go to a restaurant and pay for your meal you don't tip you waiter? Most of these hunts the prices go to the outfitters not the guides. If the outfitter is the one who is guiding you that is one thing but if there is a separate guide that is busting his butt to get you an animal a tip is greatly appreciated. I have guided in the past where I've been a glorified taxi service -- taking hunters to and from stands, setting up stands or blinds, carrying gear, delivering lunch, game retrieval/skinning/caping, and general go-fer.....by no means taking a guy on a pack in trip. The hunt was a $4k rifle hunt, I was tipped $100 each by a couple guys and nothing by others. The money was very appreciated, but I also understood the guys who didn't tip. Not all of us have a ton of money to throw around, I've been on hunts where I've tipped almost 20%, and others where I don't think they deserved anything so they didn't get anything. Just do whatever you think is fair for the service you got, good luck on you hunt!!

I've never paid to hunt. I don't know if I would ever pay to hunt whitetail; the only way I can really justify it is if it is an animal that I can't hunt where I am, and I basically have no chance if I don't use an outfitter.

But if I ever did pay to hunt, I would definitely tip a guide who busted his tail. If you can't afford the tip, don't demand the service. Its hard to say you "can't afford the tip" when you are paying $4k to hunt whitetail, a bit like going to a $200 dinner and then saying you can't afford the tip.

Like said before most guides dont make the money. for a 3 day turkey hunt i got paid a hundred bucks a day. and this wasnt just a sitem down and leave. we had to take them out, put out the setup, get them in position, call the birds, all while coaching the hunter. and this goes on till you get them a bird or until 1pm. lol

Now that being said if the guide doesnt do his "job". then he may not deserve a tip. I know alot of the guides i worked with didnt do it for a living. they took time out of there regular life where they made alot more money. same as me. i dont really do it for the money. I do it cause i love to and for the experience.
but if i take you out and call one of the biggest gobblers I have ever seen into 25 yards and you dont shoot and then try to blame it on me. you got another thing coming.(sorry had to rant on that one this year)

Us South Carolina boys don't have huge whitetails down here, hence the reason for the trip.

I never said I couldn't afford to tip the guides. I'm just asking a general % question. Oh, and you can bet I'm not paying $4k to hunt whitetails.

I have been on eight black bear hunts and I never tipped a one, and neither did my buddies. But then again, it usually states that skinning the bear is included and we always do our own. No one tips me when I kill bugs in their house, as I own a pest control business. I charge a fee, and you pay. Same as paying to go hunting imo. I know I have read where some people feel that you should tip your guide, cook, the guy that saddles your horse...everyone involved in the hunt. I tip graciously in restaurants, but not when I am hunting.
I hunt out of state all of the time and just do self guided, unless I am on a bear hunt where I need a guy baiting weeks in advance to get the bait established or if I was hunting Mountain Lions with dogs. Other than that, as long as the rules don't require it, I am pretty good and doing it on my own.

BTW; good luck!!!!!!

another issue to look at is that some outfitters set there hunts up so that full payment is due before the hunt starts. i think this creates an atmosphere that your money is gone and spent before you set foot in camp. when you show up in camp this can lead to a lazy attitude from the outfitter because they got theres already. this also makes it more that they expect a tip since your showing up owing nothing to start with. the tip thing should be a personal issue but 50$ to 200$ would be my low and high depending.