What do y'all typically tip at a ranch that includes lodging, food, etc? I'm mainly wondering what folks tip the hunting guides...

Depends greatly on the service, experience, effort, quality, knowledge and a little on the success.

Also depends on the price of the hunt. I don't have a set percentage that I use, but for a good hunt, great time, it is usually a $1.

About $5k per guide should do it

what are you hunting? situation? I mean if your just sitting in a blind, there is not much to it. however if the guide is hiking up a mountain getting elk...

You guys aren't being nice...it's really a tough subject! This has been a bit of a point of contention in my hunting group in South Dakota each year...

We hunt with the owner/sole proprietor of his operation. 15 of us tip $20 each for a 3 day hunt...that's on top of the $180 each that he receives in hunting fees.

Some say we should tip more, some say less.

I say, if we were hunting with an $8/hr guide, or a kid that got paid by the day, we'd tip a crapload more...but if the owner is the sole person guiding, scheduling, and pricing...you've got to assume he's pricing his hunts well enough to make a living.

So my answer is, it's situaational...

Anyone want to put me on some hogs for a night? I'll pay the landowner fee + bring corn and bourbon, + tip my guide nicely if I can bring home some pork!

:=)

Depends on the services, Exotic hunts, If he capes the animal out,$50 per head,and at least $50 per day for blind hunting.
I resently had a great hunt (spot-n-stalk)taking7animals I tipped the Guide/Cook/skinner.. $800 he earned every bit of it.

For example, if the total cost for the hunt is $3000 for everything, I will tip

0% for bad service
10% for good service or $300
20% for exceptional service or $600

My wife says I always overtip, but the average guide only makes about $10 per hour, so a $300 tip is a good day for him.

A lot depends on the guide and how much effort he put in before your hunt till you left for home, successful or not. If he did lots of prescouting and put in a lot of effort you will tell with how the hunt goes even if you are "just sitting in a blind". Most guides hours are long. They are up before you get up and are still working when you are in bed. Some owners do not want a tip and some are not tipped since they own the operation. I tip according to how I was treated and not who the guide is. I tip from $50/day to $300/day.

My ranch is family owned and operated.

Give me a handshake and a "Thank you!" if you felt I did a good job.

Guiding Desert Muley's and Aoudad for years the typical tip was about 15% for a 3 day hunt( not speaking for other guides on the ranch) but sometimes I would recieve as much as 30-50% ($600-$1000) but that was rare. However when I would travel to South Texas to guide exotics every other week I didn't feel like I earned 15% , going from climbing up and down big west Texas peaks and pushing myself and my client to our extremes for 3 days to driving a high rack around didnt seem at all like the same job. But the average tip was the same.

yup I agree

This comes up all the time. I think 10% is a good starting figure and I work back and forth from there. The fact is most of the operations are pricing in a very competitive market just to book hunts and there is not a lot of profit margin involved so a tip for good services, a quality hunt or good camaraderie with the other things included deserves to be rewarded.

10% is what I've done

Guiding deer hunts the tip has always been at least 10% of the hunt ($600 on a 2.5 day trophy hunt) but on smaller cheaper hunts it is much less. Its all about how hard the guide works. We do 1 or 2 guided hunts a year with other outfitters, regardless of a kill I still tip them accordingly. IMO a kill is a bonus, when I pay for a hunt I am paying for a service and for the experience.

90% of guides don't get paid unless there is a guide fee in the package, this being said take care of your guides if they are busting there asses all day if it's a doe or a 200" deer they're gas and food isn't free nor should there time be. Average it out if he's working 18 hours on your trip and you give him 90$ he made 5$ a hr now would you want to get that as a tip. If I'm paying for a hunt I'm taking care of my guide even if it's crap I still tip good, he'll I've tipped $100 for just taking me out and dropping me off 3 sits but I had a blast. I look at It a lot different than most cause I use to guide and still do a little so I know how it feels to get no tip after I've spent 150$ to be there that weekend.

I once had a guy come hunting for 3 days hunted hard shot a 200in deer and then tried to tip me 20.00 I think he needed that 20.00 more than i did.

Maybe I need to differentiate between guided and DIY?? When I first started at LST the only hunts offered were the combo hunts. After packaging doe, javelina, turkey etc as DIY I have come to the conclusion that gutting and skinning are expected.

Some of you have seen our doe hunts. Most if not all hunters take their two does. Split that among a couple of guides and that's a lot of sore backs for two fellas. I have asked the owner about charging for quartering/skinning/gutting. He doesn't like the idea and prefers the hunters would just tip. Most are not paying high dollar so maybe they feel no tip is needed. Some if not most places charge 25-50 per animal for the service.

Best tip I received to date was a young man on a combo hunt off this forum. He tipped 250. We did put him on his mulie buck and wt buck in two days so he was tickled. If I get 70-80 bucks out of a group of 8-10 hunters for 2 1/2 days that seems to be the norm.

my wife tipped 20% to her guide last week.

I normally do 20% but that's just me!

It depends how hard he works, how respectful he is and and how much the hunt price is. If I'm going on a $10000.00 hunt I'm not tipping the guy %20. Most of the guided hunts (I'm not talking about guide dropping you at the stands)%5-10 is the norm for me.
If I ever feel like I had been lied about the hunt and the animals no body is getting any tips from me regardless they are the guide, owner etc..

On average with most of my clients I normally get 50-200 a day on tips. Now there have been times where I've gotten the short end of the stick after spending time with clients all day in the stand and getting them their desired animal. Anything you give your guide will be very appreciated regardless of the amount. AS BBD84 stated a lot of ranches don't have guides on the payroll such as the one I manage. I along with any other guides work strictly for tips. Factors to consider are their personalities, demeanor, did you learn anything, knowledge,etc. but on a cow elk meat hunt I would say a tip between 200-400 would be in line if your guide did a good job.

I may be wrong on this topic. However, it seems like tipping has gotten out of control these days. I painted cars for years and never got a tip for doing a good job on a car. That's what the original price was for and I was expected to do a good job! I'm also gonna be a nurse soon and I don't expect a tip for doing my job. It just seems considering how bad our economy is, along with the prices of hunts, and number of ranches to choose from, a tip shouldn't be expected. Especially since most ranches charge anywhere from $150-$350 a day in guide fees.

Not sure what the economy has to do with tipping. Sorta like worrying about how much gas cost when just bought an Exotic sports car that gets 7 miles to the gallon.

Remember the average guide makes about -$75-$100.00 a day. On some days he may work 15 hours or about $6.50 per hour.

Tipping is critical for guides especially if they give outstanding service. I will always tipping according to service....

Bad service - 0%
Expected service - 10-15% of total cost of hunt
Great service - 20%+ of total cost of hunt

I don't ask a guide what he is making. I think most guides do it on a part time or seasonal basis so it is not their sole income. I believe in tipping, although I do have the same questions about why it's expected for some services but not others, but I will continue to regardless.

I think your getting a bit carried away with who receives tips and who shouldn't. I don't tip nurses. Customary to tip waitresses, barbers etc. I believe most intelligent people can figure who needs tips. To categorize you painting cars and nursing would be like a cop taking tips for his service, which is not required.

I had a group of hunters off another forum hunt with me several yrs ago. The total tip I took in for 2 1/2 days was 130.00. No complaint but here is the break down. 30 was from the hat being passed around. One individual felt bad for us I guess. He gave me a hundred. Before one jumps on the band wagon of "maybe you didn't get off your arse". I took the group out for spot and stalk, blind hunting. When done and they shot seven javalinas. I gutted, caped and quartered, most of the javelina. Oh less not forget I cooked that weekend. Some of you have been in our camp, and know I double as guide and cook the majority of times. By the way I did have one other guide helping me, but it was balls to the walls.

With gas and groceries I have yet to make any profit. Fact of the matter is 9 times out of 10 I'm usually in the red. What makes it worthwhile is the landowner lets me a harvest a good deer as a trade off. By no means a pissed rant but I do know what most guides make and it ain't much.