Oh I forgot to ask, they need any more pro staffers? I got space under my name that is available, few hundred buck a month, dang.

"Outfitters are all crooks" I once heard a wise man say

Well I know they aren't but it is funny.

I think there is a big difference between the guys that guides are taking out 99% of the time and most or the guys that read and participate on this forum.

Only been on a few guided hunts. First one, last minute trip I set up for my brother to shoot his first ducks. Guide was a kid (later found out it was a crappy lease that he started guiding out of) and really only worried about the next morning's hunt with his buddies. He called it at 10am after only a merganser came in (my brother shot after the guide missed). We never recovered it because his young dog in training could not find it. I had only paid my portion of the hunt before hunting and I told my brother not to pay his. Guide never asked for the money as I'm sure he realized the waste of the day it was.
Second was with a well reputed (on this forum and pretty much any forum in Texas) guide service. Nice enough guy, tried to keep the conversation going, shared the blind with a couple of his buddies (they had the only shooting opportunity of the morning). After the hunt, we gathered up with all the other groups that went out. Everybody else had bang up hunts with ducks and geese mixed into their limits and we had squat (went with the main guide/owner too). What pissed me off is we had to hold the other parties' birds for the post-hunt photo which was added to their website with a flat out lie of a caption. Also heard the guide talking with his other guides about how our group could not shoot for sh*t (neither me nor my brother fired a shot that morning). We didn't wait in line to tip him, just took off with zero ducks again.
Third time was a free hunt for me going with a buddy that had a hunt owed to him. I definitely understand how rain can screw up the ducks and we happened to have several inches put down a few days before the hunt. We actually made a couple moves, but didn't fire a shot again. Guide did what he could though, so he got a tip.

I wasn't offered any type of make up trip (didn't expect on either) for the bad hunts. I ended up bringing my brother to public land and he shot his first duck and didn't hit squat for the rest of the hunt. He got to shoot a box of shells though, and that was all he wanted. I didn't shoot at all either, just watched him get fired up hitting his first grey duck that cupped from 75 yards out. Then watched as he missed all the other opportunities, but he had more fun than on any other hunts.

I think guides come off as pretty arrogant. I've never heard of a guide blaming a bad hunt on his own inabilities, it's always "the client did this or that which ruined the hunt." And you tip a waiter/waitress because for whatever reason the state doesn't require restaurants to pay their employees minimum wage. A hunting guide does not deserve and should not expect a tip. The price you pay for the hunt includes all scouting leading up to it, decoy placement, etc. You shouldn't expect a tip for doing your job.

Sounds like you've had a lot of bad luck with guides, I can assure you not all are like those.

Now air out some names!!!

I bet you can guess the second one

Sounds like they did him nasty

Man you just can't draw a line in the sand and then not jump across it.

I can understand being upset if a guide is shooting before everyone else, shooting singles, etc. but if a guide goes out and shoots his 6 ducks, 5 geese, or whatever you may be hunting I don't see the problem.

The whole not wanting to set up needs to be communicated with the guide before the hunt. If you expect to show up on a $200 goose hunt and step into a brushed layout blind and start hunting then you are mistaken on what you are paying for. On a $200 goose hunt I would say you are paying the guide for a place to hunt, equipment, and his knowledge. Now if you pay $2,000 to go on a 2 1/2 day snow goose hunt with Habitat Flats, then expecting not to touch a decoy would be acceptable. Then again you would goose egg your guide at Habitat Flats anyway because they would be shooting.

I didnt say who it was

but the man is a marketing genius, that can not be denied

I lol'd.....

Confusing. You "had" to hold someone else's birds? What did you think was going to happen?

I guided for a few years and all the stories I've read here could've been non-stories with a little communication. Expectations, desires, limitations, etc should all be clear for both the guide and party. It's bad for the hunters not to make it clear, but probably worse on the outfitter/guide for not asking the correct questions.

So who's never been a guide? Seems like everyone on here has been, and we are/were the perfect ones.

Guess it was a lack luster season....

I'm guessing to make it seem like they did better than they actually did. ???

So I started this out with how much to tip. But it took a turn about hunting with guides.
I would like to thank every one for all the great input. But after reading about the other story's about guides.
I've came up with a idea. I'm not sure how to go about this . But you know when you buy something
From a store you can see the reviews about the items your buying. Well how about we start a topic on guides we have used . So that way if your looking at going hunting with a guide you can see the reviews before you go.Just a thought for the admin people.

A request would need to be sent to the admin email address, but I can give you my thoughts. That has been discussed long ago. The problem is like many review sites. More than once over the years on threads about specific guides and outfitters we have seen fake accounts, duplicate alias accounts, friends, family, or guides posing as clients of a guide with fake reviews or posing as an unhappy client of a competing outfitter, people with disputes or praises that have nothing to do with hunting, people that heard something second hand be it good or bad, and public back and forth disputes between guides and clients, etc. I can tell you from past history a dedicated or sticky thread of that nature would not likely survive in the long run due to those reasons, not to mention trolls and the easy troll bait in here.

Man. I am going on my first guided goose hunt next month (or any guided hunt for that matter), and I really just want to know how much to tip the guide. I have been keeping up with this thread, and still have no idea how much I should tip. I am thinking %10 if the guide is not working hard or doing something wrong and 20%+ if the guide is well prepared and works hard. I would never base it on how many birds on the ground as long as it seems like he has put in the time/effort to put us on birds.

From the guides posting on here, does this sound about right?

Yea that seems fair to me. That is why my first comment was 15%.

Yep. Sounds about right to me.

However, I've had guided various hunts and worked with several other guides, and even after a 1k bill, we are happy with a $100 bill for a tip. (At least on day hunts)

I have been on five guided hunts and always tipped $20 per gun- so the duck ones got 16.7% and the goose one got 10%. I struggled with that, but then figured 2+ hours of my entire family putting out and picking up goose decoys made up for the lack of %. That, and 5 of us is $100- not bad for a tip for 5 hours of work plus whatever the guide made from the outfitter.

I hadn't really thought about the size of the group. We have 8 people in our group, so 20%+ would be a good chunk of change.

We were told to go up with the other groups for a big picture. Then they started divvying birds up between us all. As far as communication, this particular guide and me exchanged numerous emails and conversations explaining what we expected (my brother to shoot some ducks - was assured we would have a great hunt).