I know the final guideline will be up to me and what I think the service was worth, but I want to lob the question out there to get the rules of thumb and guidelines others use for thinking about how much to tip.

Some specifics to help ground the comments:

Six day whitetail in Kansas.
$3000: food, lodging and transportation during the hunt included.
Guided by the outfit owner and 3 to 4 guides (ranchers that he hires on for the season).
About 8 guys in camp (so two to one on guides).

What would be the "customary" range for tipping the guides? I am not rich, but I am paying for the hunt, so I feel I also should be prepared to pay a reasonable "customary" tip.

Any guidelines or rules of thumb will be much appreciated.

Didn't we discuss this a few weeks ago? Maybe you should try scrolling back a bit, I'm pretty convinced we dealt with this topic.

Frans
www.terrahunt.com

I was told 10% on us and canada hunts, by my freind who has been on many hunts.The cook is someone to not forget.

10% is a good rule of thumb -- but never hurts to ask the outfitter.

I just did a short bird hunting/fly-fishing trip and the lodge owner made clear he had pretty strong feelings about over-tipping -- I just followed his recommendation (much less than 10%), including a few $$$ separately for the cook. Yummm.

I have guided whitetail hunts in South Texas for the past 8 years. Cost of the hunt was $5000.00 to $5500.00. Tips ranged from nothing to a pair of 15X Ziess binoculars. The average tip was around $200. The cheapest rat bastards were the ones that had the most money. Like the rat bastard that was head of a chain of savings and loans. Tip after taking a 178 class deer....A fricking ......savings and loan t-shirt. The lawyer that won a $30 million dollar settlement that took a 150 class deer..........nothing. The owner of a shipyard...........$50.00. Guys who saved three years for the hunt.......$200.00. I wasn't guiding for the money but the average Joe tipped better than most of the upper crust. The cook usually got anywhere from nothing to around $100.00 from each person. Hopefully this will give you some guidelines to go by. By the way if you intend to go back you may up your tip a little.

I think that 10% is customary as that was probably the "average" tip I received when guiding but its a lot like tipping a waiter, if the service was sub par then the tip will be sub par, if the service was excellent and the waiter(guide) tried hard then maybe a little more. One thing I never wanted though was a hunter to try and tip out of his tax bracket if you know what I mean. After spending a week with these guys I had a pretty good idea what was fair and what was too much so if you dont have it dont spend it and I think the majority of guides that have done this a while will appreciate it.

Drummond

A lot of people claim 10% for hunts of the cost of yours with a declining scale (in percent) which goes to 5% for $10,000 hunts.

Cabelas recommends that you give the tip to the outfitter and let him distribute it, but I prefer to give it directly to the people involved.

On a recent hunt which cost about $8,000-$9,000, several of the hunters at the lodge got together and figured $400 for the guide plus $100 for the (excellent) cook. The cook was surprised when she got this amount.

Hi Guys
I also saw the cabelas reco. I think this may be a bit high. If you can afford 10% mine. On a 2x1 huntin the 3000.00$ area 300.00$ total from the 2 hunters is perfect. This of course is providing you where treated well. It has been said here about the cook, by all means make sure the cook gets alittle something. It need not be as much but a tip is always a welcome suprise. I am a guide and naturally I would like as big a tip as possible, but honestly tipping is sometimes out of hand. The outfitter that spoke of overtipping may be right. The 10% and sliding down scale is a good number. Most all guided hunts now are starting in the 3000$ area. So the 300 for both of you is good for that on up to the 6000 to 7500$ range then as the days of the hunt are more then the tip should creep up also.
The camp I am in the cook is paid more than the individual guides thou there are more of us. So tips can be less and still exceptable.
There are cheap skates out there no doubt, but remember it is a "TIP" this is not a required payment. Some parts of the country just don't tip well for anything. I unfortunaly live in S.E. Pa. and a normal tip at a resturant is 20%. I have been all over the country and this is the highest by far. I have been in soutern Florida and the tips where 3 to 5% ( this was by very "thrifty" in laws) so non hunters coming from different parts of the globe will have different prespectives on the tipping.

ED