want to become a guide. what do i need to do?

[houndcrazy93]

alright so i really want to become a guide. where do i start. should i go to a guide school? what state would be best to guide in idaho oregon wyoming or montana? and any other help would be great thanks.

[coastrangecathunting]

i guided 4 around 10 years .. i havnt for 3 years now. this year i never even bought a deer or elk tag. if u like baby sitting become a guide because there are alot of dipshits out there . some guys are good but when u get a bad one it sucks. jmo.

jc

[cougarhound]

i guided 4 around 10 years .. i havnt for 3 years now. this year i never even bought a deer or elk tag. if u like baby sitting become a guide because there are alot of dipshits out there . some guys are good but when u get a bad one it sucks. jmo.

jc

perfectly said

[Bow]

hunting for a living and hunting for fun two referent things.

[liontracker]

You would be better off not to.

[tman308]

If your heart is set on it the best thing to do would be hang around with a current guide. Maybe be the camp cook or something along that line to get your foot in the door. Sometimes you might find an outfitter hiring guys part time to go out and glass an area looking for game. Any little thing can help. The schools would probably give you some instant status as far as nowing what to do but nothing beats real world experience. Depending on where you want to work you need to have a good understanding of handling stock, processing meat, packing, camping, wilderness first aid, vast knowledge base of where the particular animals are at any given time, trophy care, field judging trophies, and above all you have to have more patience than a father with 3 teenage daughters.

Good luck to ya

[Machias]

Talk to Cody and LeRee, you won't regret it!!

http://www.royaltine.com/forum/

[Steve White]

TMAN- Could not have said it better. Basically adult babysitting. You have to enjoy what you do, and be willing to be broke most of the time. Not going to get rich being a guide!

Then have to deal with the morons! Just had one of the worst ever in over 20yrs of guiding. Took the patience of a saint to keep from kicking the crap out of the guy! Don't know where I found the resolve, but I don't believe 3 teenage daughters could prepare you for some of them!

[bigboarstopper]

The money is only there if your running your own outfit. Im guiding into my second year and my outfit is small and only supplementary income. What i did is lease my own place and learn the game on it and their habits front and back. You need to know what your game is doing every season of the year and be able to put yourself in a position to kill an animal numerous times in a weekend to cover enough situations for every hunter you have before you ever book a hunter. Your going to have to anticipate packing each and every animal without help from the client and be able to hunt again imediately after to fill tags for the other hunters. Expect a 20 hour day. Often you will be up at 4am, kill and pack most of the day then kill again in an evening hunt and pack out late in the evening and by the time your in bed its past midnight.

Of course im talking about the tough ones, they the ones where you truly earn your money. There are days where your done killing, packing and skinning and getting paid before 10am on the first morning so you can come home early and mow the lawnmfor the old lady.

[box rocker]

You would be better off geting a job as a honey dipper you will make more money and you know your going to deal with peoples shit up front.

[houndcrazy93]

alright thanks for the help. but if i was a guide i would only wanna guide with hounds if that makes a diffrence

[call-me-ish]

I have a couple of friends who are guides. They both have primary jobs, and work their guiding into their work schedule. Since you haven't nailed down a state, maybe it would benefit you to investigate each potential state's requirements for guiding, and then narrow down your choices.

I believe that if you want it bad enough, you can make it happen. Best of luck to you!

[larry]

the "where" should answer itself. look for states with long seasons, Nev for example. Guide requirements etc. doesn't sound like you've spent much time researching the pros to the different regulations in each state. What do you wanna chase???? bears, loins, bobcats, coyotes, etc... Ca, Nev both have pretty lax rules

[bigboarstopper]

alright thanks for the help. but if i was a guide i would only wanna guide with hounds if that makes a diffrence

Thats what my intention was in the begining. I found that 90% of my calls were people inquiring about rifle hunts. I know the bear and cat guys get to guide more often with the dogs but in order to book hunts and stay busy you are gonna have to acomidate the method the paying customer requests. Im currently running the dogs mabye 10% of the time on guided hunts. If i was to only run dogs I would have only covered my liability insurance for the year and would be far into the red on the rest of my expenses. To make it work, even for a small timer like myself i have to hunt every possible game animal available to me and accomodate every hunters choice of method (bow, rifle, dogs, ect).

[LDB]

Been guiding for about 10 years now, part time at first then slowly worked my way into a position where I could be full time. Doing it strictly with the dogs I would say you will more than likely only be able to be a part time guide, and that may be the best thing, depends on your family situation, personal goals ect. It is a long tough road especially in this economy but it is just like most things in life if you want it bad enough you can do it.

I would say going to a guide school that has a placement program would be a good way to get your foot in the door and get some real world experience. You will probably have to guide whatever kind of hunts you can for the first season or two just to get the experience. Once you have guided for at least a season then when you contact people about guiding they will take you more seriously. I already knew the country and the game animals so I just started calling outfitters asking if they needed a guide. Even though most of them knew me or knew of me it still took a couple years and countless phone calls to land my first part time deal. Getting started is the hardest part but remember it is always going to be a tough way to make a buck!