Steff
Well-Known Member
As the bottle in the picture suggests I was near Tomatin, But the buck was taken a bit south of Forres.
How much and when do you tip a stalker?
- Thread starter Steff
- Start date
Great result all round then! Well done.40 £ per successful outing. We are more or less friends, so I didn‘t want to overdo it.
But because of our personal relationship there was also a bottle of premium German Schnaps involved.
Alan
Glad you had a successful and rewarding holiday, just goes to show that it's the people and the experience that makes a good stalking trip, it doesn't matter if you have a few blank trips as long as the company is good and you leave looking forward to the next trip. The fact that you took some fine animals is a bonus!
Cut+Squirt
Well-Known Member
If they
If they are genuinely working for £2.50 p/h and accepting that as payment for their expertise (even with estate house and vehicle included) they are quite frankly off their heads and don't deserve our sympathy.
Leupsak
Well-Known Member
Taking clients out I honestly don't want a tip unless they feel I have gone above and beyond and they feel I deserve it, the amount should be down to the individual and what they can afford and how happy they are with the outing, the idea of tipping poor service because its expected is not my idea of how things should be done. Tipping is in my view about rewarding a quality service whether you are shooting, in a restaurant or the back of a taxi, the same applies.
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tikka_madras
Well-Known Member
Herewith my most embarrassing tipping tale...
Many years ago at the end of a season, I thought I hadn't quite fully scratched the itch so bought a single gun on Gunsonpegs from a shoot I'd never heard of. I duly drove down from London to the West Country early on the Saturday morning, and proceeded to have the best day of my shooting life. Every peg was red hot. Even being ridiculously selective, they just kept coming to me like a magnet and archangel after archangel fell to my never-to-be-seen-again shooting prowess. At the end of the day I embarrassedly offered my supposedly hot peg for the drive to someone who'd been out of the shooting, only to find the birds poured over me at the end of the line and duly fell from orbit with every trigger pull. In the final reckoning we'd nearly shot our bag between 9, and I'd had about half of it.
Back to the car to stow the gun and dog and get out some cash to cunningly conceal in my palm...to find I'd left my wallet at home.
I always have £40 in my field coat for just such emergencies, but I was in Devon...with a petrol range rover far from full...and a drive back to London pending. Some hurried mileage vs fuel economy calculations ensued.
"What a cracker you had today" said the keeper as I approached for my brace. "Yes", said I, palming him £20 with an inner cringe.
Come next season, I again contacted them about a single peg advertised on Gunsonpegs. Not that I actually wanted to drive down and shoot, you understand, it was just to end the day by giving the keeper the tip of his life, to explain last year and to expunge the crippling shame I'd felt all year.
They declined to respond, which I thought was probably fair enough.
Many years ago at the end of a season, I thought I hadn't quite fully scratched the itch so bought a single gun on Gunsonpegs from a shoot I'd never heard of. I duly drove down from London to the West Country early on the Saturday morning, and proceeded to have the best day of my shooting life. Every peg was red hot. Even being ridiculously selective, they just kept coming to me like a magnet and archangel after archangel fell to my never-to-be-seen-again shooting prowess. At the end of the day I embarrassedly offered my supposedly hot peg for the drive to someone who'd been out of the shooting, only to find the birds poured over me at the end of the line and duly fell from orbit with every trigger pull. In the final reckoning we'd nearly shot our bag between 9, and I'd had about half of it.
Back to the car to stow the gun and dog and get out some cash to cunningly conceal in my palm...to find I'd left my wallet at home.
I always have £40 in my field coat for just such emergencies, but I was in Devon...with a petrol range rover far from full...and a drive back to London pending. Some hurried mileage vs fuel economy calculations ensued.
"What a cracker you had today" said the keeper as I approached for my brace. "Yes", said I, palming him £20 with an inner cringe.
Come next season, I again contacted them about a single peg advertised on Gunsonpegs. Not that I actually wanted to drive down and shoot, you understand, it was just to end the day by giving the keeper the tip of his life, to explain last year and to expunge the crippling shame I'd felt all year.
They declined to respond, which I thought was probably fair enough.
CarlW
Well-Known Member
My toes were curling as I read this. We've all been in similar positions and all know that feeling...
Thanks to you, I shall now spend the next hour reliving many of my own social discomforts... privately, of course...
Being from the other side of the fence (so to speak) I have always been fortunate to be able to judge the situation about right and added a fiver.
A simple way out of the situation for Tikka M would have been to find the Keeper's address (simple enough) and send registered envelope with a wad in it.
A simple way out of the situation for Tikka M would have been to find the Keeper's address (simple enough) and send registered envelope with a wad in it.
Best to tuck a bit more cash in the inside pocket of you shooting coats...
I'm not really British (in fact, not at all), and grew up abroad, so find a lot of the unspoken etiquette in British society baffling and hard to navigate.
I'm also given to bluntness.
So I have often thought the simple solution is to just cut through the crap and ask directly: do you expect a tip, and, if so, how much are you expecting.
My god. The response. I have never once received a straight answer, and it's always some utterly British weaselly evasion that leaves everyone feeling like they've lost out.
Look people: if you want a tip, and you don't want to feel stiffed then JUST ANSWER THE FU**ING QUESTION, and don't be a dick about doing so.
I'm also given to bluntness.
So I have often thought the simple solution is to just cut through the crap and ask directly: do you expect a tip, and, if so, how much are you expecting.
My god. The response. I have never once received a straight answer, and it's always some utterly British weaselly evasion that leaves everyone feeling like they've lost out.
Look people: if you want a tip, and you don't want to feel stiffed then JUST ANSWER THE FU**ING QUESTION, and don't be a dick about doing so.
Quite ! No embarrassment in explaining the predicament. I think a year is a tad too long to recover the situation tho'.
I found myself in similar circumstances at the end of a marlin trip to Cape Verde. I discovered a schoolboy error in my maths leaving me woefully short on cash to tip the crew . I simply asked 'Mrs C' to wire some cash out, sorted ! Phew !
Sika-Hunter
Well-Known Member
@Mungo I think if you have to ask the question "Do you expect a tip" then you may find some very different responses and most i guess would be embarrassed to say yes , a persons generosity at the end of a day is never expected but would be gratefully recieved if the aim has been achieved . As ive said before give what you think is an honest affordable amount .
With the amount involved,I would humbly suggest that Securicor might be a better option.
But it clearly IS expected, and people get very disgruntled when the expectation isn’t met.
If you come from a different background, or are just new to a particular context, it can be very difficult to work out what the expectation actually is.
Why be coy about it? If someone asks a direct question because they genuinely want to know what you expect, why not just give a straight answer?
Sika-Hunter
Well-Known Member
So maybe you have answered you own question
Stalker62
Well-Known Member
Because we are British.
Stiff upper lip. Nanny knows best. Single-sex Boarding School. Don't know how to speak to girls.
Would rather cut our own throat than admit we are unsure about any social situation.
Cry ourselves to sleep wishing we where more "worldy".
Proud of our Scottish heritage but ashamed of the "Independence Lobby".
Nervous of the Welsh and their language.
Cornish - they need us but hate us (Emmets).
The list is endless...
Indeed - but the problem is working out what is appropriate and when.
There is also the problem that there are some occasions where it actually isn’t - or at least not by everyone. The classic one is a bought stalk with a pro stalker (ie. someone who owns the land or the lease themselves). You’re paying them directly, so theoretically they don’t NEED a tip in the same way an estate stalker does. They should have priced the outing properly to make a reasonable profit for themselves. And sure enough - some do expect a tip, and some don’t. The client has no way of knowing what is expected.
Sika-Hunter
Well-Known Member
And i guarantee if there was a door on the Hill we'd open it for someone
The one and ONLY time I ever went on a paid stalk, probably 30+ years ago, I was faced with this dilemma.
At the time I was a humble digger driver earning approx. £5/hour. I had a great few hours with the stalker on this Perthshire Estate, eventually being guided to a possible shot on a decent hill stag which was the only stag seen all day. Through no fault of the stalker (or myself), the stag was spooked by someone in a vehicle on the adjoining estate and the opportunity was gone.
I did eventually shoot a smallish roebuck just before the end of the stalk. So came the dilemma, how much to tip? I gave £25 which represented 5hours of my wages for a (approx) 5hr stalk. Was that amount reasonable 30 years ago?
At the time I was a humble digger driver earning approx. £5/hour. I had a great few hours with the stalker on this Perthshire Estate, eventually being guided to a possible shot on a decent hill stag which was the only stag seen all day. Through no fault of the stalker (or myself), the stag was spooked by someone in a vehicle on the adjoining estate and the opportunity was gone.
I did eventually shoot a smallish roebuck just before the end of the stalk. So came the dilemma, how much to tip? I gave £25 which represented 5hours of my wages for a (approx) 5hr stalk. Was that amount reasonable 30 years ago?
That amount then was probably a goodly proportion say 25 to 30 per cent of a week's wages. Very generous.The one and ONLY time I ever went on a paid stalk, probably 30+ years ago, I was faced with this dilemma.
At the time I was a humble digger driver earning approx. £5/hour. I had a great few hours with the stalker on this Perthshire Estate, eventually being guided to a possible shot on a decent hill stag which was the only stag seen all day. Through no fault of the stalker (or myself), the stag was spooked by someone in a vehicle on the adjoining estate and the opportunity was gone.
I did eventually shoot a smallish roebuck just before the end of the stalk. So came the dilemma, how much to tip? I gave £25 which represented 5hours of my wages for a (approx) 5hr stalk. Was that amount reasonable 30 years ago?
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