Go to South Africa, for 6K including flight, shoot 5-8 plains game, get supreme service and great experience. I know, been there.

ILUVBIGBUCKS, it has been a mixed bag with the "drop offs" and "babysitting".

The short answer is I did bulk of the work on the "bad" experiences. They got tipped more than they should have due to their laziness. On the "better" experiences the guides were more involved an their tips reflected it. Easy to pay 10% (if the 10% is too low in actual dollars, then make the amount worthwhile) if the guide does a decent job even though (my bias is showing) these are "low effort" hunts on the guide's part. Also pretty easy for it to go above 10%.

I am one who will absolutely give a bigger tip for an unexpected value-add; does not matter what I am hunting. I personally love the snare checking as that would be a totally new experience for me. On one Coues hunt in AZ my guide worked for Border Patrol. He taught me a lot, related to his job, that I continue to use to reduce my risk when I hunt near our southern border. Another guide taught me how to field judge antelope during a lunch break on an elk hunt.

Nothing is set in stone and I just use rough guidelines. I typically bring 15-20% cash (excluding tips for others). Sometimes I come home with more cash than expected. Other times I come with even less cash than what I brought. It really is up to the guide, at least for those areas that he/she can control.

I remember the days when guides from Texas would trailer ponies bought at auction up to NM and especially CO. If an elk or mule deer hunt went quickly, the hunters would often want to go hunt bear. The twenty bucks, the trailering & the resulting bear hunt had the tendency to increase tipping.