Why You Should Generously Tip Your Guide

This year, I’m heading into my ninth season of guiding big-game hunts, and when it comes to tipping, I’ve seen it all.

When you book a guided hunt, it’s easy to see your guide as someone who simply shows up to help you chase a dream. And to a certain extent, they are chasing that dream right alongside you. But your guide has a life outside of hunting season, too.

They are literally losing sleep for you. They are putting long, rigorous miles on their bodies for you. They are stepping away from their families, friends, fur babies, careers, and even their own hunting seasons to help make yours successful.

They are providing a service that can put their own safety at risk, and often, they are going far beyond what you ever see.

I can almost guarantee that a good guide wants you to succeed in the mountains just as badly—if not more—than you want to punch that tag.

Long before you ever arrive at camp, your guide has invested their own hard-earned money into gear, credentials, training, and countless hours scouting and studying the country to become better at what they do. They don’t just show up with some magic pill that tells them where the biggest bull on the mountain is.

They have to use their experience, knowledge, and instincts to find those elk. And when hundreds of other public-land hunters flock to the same mountains, your guide has to adapt, work harder, and sometimes go the extra mile—literally—to find you an opportunity.

And sometimes, despite all of that effort, they still don’t find them. I’ve been doing this long enough to know that guiding isn’t a simple clock-in, clock-out job.

When a client shows up and can’t physically hike to where the elk are, your guide has to improvise without complaining and figure out how to still give that person an experience they won’t forget.

At the same time, your guide is constantly taking into consideration everything else that comes with caring for another person in the mountains: their personality, mental state, physical ability, food and water intake, firearm safety, comfort level, and so much more.

Then, when the day finally ends, they sit across from you at the dinner table and carry on a conversation as if they haven’t already spent every waking hour with you.

Personally, I want to know my clients. The better I understand them, the better we work together and the greater our chances of finding success on the mountain.

But more importantly, that relationship is part of what hunting is all about—the camaraderie. 

Many people comment on how amazing it must be to be a guide, and yes, I agree. It’s a part of my career I hold a deep passion for, and I wouldn’t continue doing it if I didn’t love it. But it’s not always as glamorous as it’s made out to be.

It’s hard work. It’s dedication. It’s skill, sacrifice, and passion. And perhaps most importantly, it’s time—valuable time that none of us ever get back.

So, the next time you rely on a guide to help make your hunt successful, remember that you’re relying on them for much more than finding an animal. You’re asking for their knowledge, their preparation, their physical effort, their patience, their time away from home, and a piece of a hunting season they could have spent pursuing their own dreams.

A generous tip isn’t just a thank-you for filling a tag. It’s a way of recognizing the value of everything your guide gave to your experience—whether you punched that tag or not.