Guiding

[Keath Wetovick]

How do you guys get hired as guides(professionally), I started guiding toward the end of the goose season this year(unprofessionally)But like to get paid more, and work out of an outfitter. Any advice would be great.

[Keath Wetovick]

Anybody...........

[Robb Nicolay]

My advice would be to look up some local outfitters around your area and get in contact with them to see if they are looking for some guides.

[Mark Brendemuehl]

It depends on where you live. Some states require a license, liability insurance is a good idea. I used to do it and frankly got tired of people doing stupid things over my dogs. One dumped a cripple about 5 feet in front of my dog. I decided the extra cash wasnt worth my dogs life.
Check with guides in your area and see how they got started. You have to invest time and money to get out there, and you dont know if it will pay out in the end or not.
Mark

[gmac]

Listen to Mark. I have beem guiding bird hunters for 7 years now and to say it has been an adventure would be an understatement. Most not all MOST of the people I guide are people that don't have a clue as to hunt, shoot, kill, clean set decoys, work a pointing dog etc. They come from the "city" and are willing to pay someone else for the info. It gets very tough to watch these "people" (my nice word) hunt. My advice is this Never turn your passion into your money on the side job. It will cease to be your passion over time.

[hunter1]

I would recommend going to work for an area outfitter to gain some valuable info before going out on your own. I have been in the waterfowl guiding business for 16 years and have enjoyed every single day of it! For me personally the passion to hunt waterfowl makes the guiding part easy. I have met people throughout the years that I now call lifetime friends. It is a business and you are dealing with people from all aspects of life some good some bad but throughout the years very few have been bad.

[Jim Thompson, Jr.]

Heres good advice about guiding.Get payment in full before the hunt,its not that you wont get paid ,its just tougher to ask for it after a unsucessful hunt. Never tell them the hunting been great,tell them its been tough even when its good.If you fail it was expected and if you did good youll be a god,better tips etc.Never over sale and under deliver.

[George Zahradka]

for me i started to loose all the pasion i had to goose hunt .started to hate it i just could not stand some of the idiots that come with the business.everyone wants to kill there limit (on this side of the bay is 5 birds per man)if you killed that many then half the people don't want um in the first place.gun safty is another huge issue.then you have the know it alls thier paying me but know more about goose hunting then there guide .
if you love to hunt i would not guide .....take your friends instead .

IF YOU DO GUIDE DON'T LET IT GET ALL ABOUT THE MONEY LIKE THE GUY I WORKED FOR DID ...

[hunter1]

As Dakota Jim stated in an earlier post the biggest mistake you can make as a guide/outfitter is over exaggerate your succcess level. Be honest and up front if the hunting has been tough say so. Another good idea that I do every morning before we get started is explain what we going to be doing and what is expected of the clients this includes gun safety issues. If you feel safety becomes an issue end the hunt and explain your concerns. As your business grows you will be able to pick and choose your clientle thus having repeat business with clients that you know and they will already know what is expected of them. If you are going into the business for the sole purpose of making money you are going into the business for the wrong reason.

[Tim Bouchard]

I am not sure if you are into fishing or not, but one thing to do is guide for fishing first. I always loved to guide and take people out. But I know a lot of fishing guides that thought they did until they guided for money. Fishing is easier to deal with. You avoid a lot of things people have mentioned, like gun safety. But you still get the feel for how dumb people can be and if you are willing to baby-sit them. If you can’t handle people with a rod, forget a gun.

One last comment. No matter how bad the day was your clients can still be very happy if you are.