this is a question that has always made me wonder, how do you become a big game guide?
my reason for asking this is because im 21years old, and fresh out of the military. i'm keeping my options open as to what i want to do with my life.
i love being outdoors, and being a biggame guide just sounds like something that i would enjoy.
thanks
dwp

where are you from and what experiences with game do you have?

Thx

Dogz

Just a suggestion here. Go to college. Finish. Get a good paying job. After work and if it is possible learn how to care and feed horses. Learn CPR and first aid if you didn't in the military. When you have vacation time, there is an outfitters course I believe in Colorado that lasts a week or so. They will teach you how to pack horses, along with setting up camp,and much more. Contact an established outfitter and offer to be a "grunt" during your vacation. This will include caring for the stock on an actual hunt. Doing some of the setting up of camp for the hunters and learning the area where the outfitter plans to operate. I believe completing the Colorado outfitters course would be a feather in your cap when asking for a job with an outfitter. Good luck in your endeavors. And by the way, THANKS!! for your patronage in serving your country. We're proud of you! Good shooting! MIke

DWP, you mentioned your age but you didn't mention if you "grew up" in big game country (the West, Canada, Alaska, etc.), meaning you might already have a lot of experience being out in the hunting areas and having experence.(???) Where do you live now?

That said, and there are probably many here who can offer better advise than I, you might go to one of the many "learn to be a big game guide, packer, and outfitter" schools. If you decide to do this, then you'd better do your "homework" when you select a school. Some are far better at teaching the genuine skills required to be "a big game guide." Also, after "school," it then becomes working for an outfitter and learning, learning, learning, through actual field experience. If you've learned well, many "guide teachers" will hire you to work for their outfits during the upcoming hunting season.

Obviously, some people just grow up in the business of outfitting and guiding, but many peole find employment through the outfitting/guiding school they attend.

One of the best (if he's still running his guide school) is Smoke Elser, Wilderness Outfitters, 3800 Rattlesnake Dr., Missoula, Mont., 59802, 406-549-2820. I don't have an Internet address on him. If he's not running the guide school anymore, he might advise you of a good one to attend.

Another is Leo Crane, Clearwater Outfitters, 4088 Canyon Creek Road, Orofino, Idaho, 83544, 800-826-7370, www.tgi.net/clwout

There are others, but with these two I am very familiar with their schools and the "graduates," thereof.

Best of luck. L.W.

Come out west and get in on one of the schools for outfitters or better yet be a gopher-helper or even cook and find out if that is what you want.Once in with a good outfit your on your way.Many a backcountry ranch and outfitter has contacts in small towns that screen before they get high recomendations and usually a job of some sort.

Good luck..........Jayco.

Most of the big game guides I've been with were just good old boys from the U.S. that really enjoyed hunting.

Most of them had some type of job such as construction, self employed, etc. where they could pick up and leave to guide for a couple months each fall.

Most of them say, they took it up simply because they love to hunt and it's about the only way a guy can afford to be out hunting that much.

It's dang hard work, long hours and the pay aint for squat per hour, but you get to hunt a couple months each fall.

Run a search.. There was a thread not so long a go entitled something like "so you want to be an outfitter". Im sure there is plenty insight in the archives.

This may just be my "easternly" way of thinking, but I can see one of the guide schools as being full of city folk trying to be the great white hunter. In any way around here you establish a reputation for being good at what you do. I always hunted since I was a kid and listened to the advice from the older guys who always had game hanging on the meat pole. People who are paying for a hunt like the idea that their guide can prove his ability, years worth of unfilled tags doesn't. When I was younger I thought I'd like to be a guide and by the time I was 23 I had an outfitter come to me looking for a bird guide. Things may be different out west but at the lodge I work for none of the guides went to him looking for work.

If you do get into it, it can be very rewarding. You really don't know who you'll meet and the connections you make doing it are worth it. I don't make much money at my full time job but through guiding I've been able to go on deer and turkey hunts down state that I'd never be able to afford to do on my own. Next year It might be a wild boar hunt.

Good luck.