Do you want to be a Duck Guide?

[mudsucker]

Match my current YEARLY salary(2nd. Mate,Hopper Dredge) and I am in! Now if I could just shoot good!

only shooting you'll do as a guide is cripples while you chase them down.
The guide don't shoot.

In LA they do! They ask first!

[GulfCoast]

If you have customers paying you to take them out hunting, you do what they want...when they want and how they want it.....So since you wrote it in BLACK and said the guide does shoot.....well, if the group doesn't want you to shoot, you WILL NOT!!!!!

Gulfcoast, give me your opinion on this topic..

I have not been on a ton of guided hunts, but on every one of the ones I have been on, the guide or outfitter has always asked us before we left the lodge, "Do you want the guides to shoot, shoot backup, or not shoot." Almost always say, "shoot backup." Its his dog, let him clean up the wounded, ya know? I ain't shooting over a dog's head, no how.

I would get some kinda ticked if I were paying for a hunt and the guide shot before or at the same time as the clients, UNLESS we had asked the guide to shoot. But the guide shooting with the clients raises some "issues" to me. I mean, in real life, who you gonna count the "guides birds" against if he shoots. You are not supposed to shoot "group limits" so does the guide put his gun down at 6? I dunno all the answers, but we have ALWAYS been asked "Do you want the guide(s) to shoot.

Peace out.

[mudsucker]

That's the way it was on my guided hunt in 1986 at Lulu Brousard's hunting camp!

[HPL1]

The bottom line is this I don't know how its done anywhere else but at my lodge it is done the way I say for it to be done.........................shooting included.

[HPL1]

Gulfcoast is 100% correct about shooting over the dogs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[GordonGekko]

Hope ya'll find someone.... I've been there done that and got the t-shirt (doesn't fit anymore though).... when ducks are plentiful guiding isn't too bad, but it is still a lot of work...years like this it is not so easy....

as a guide I had a few personal rules... First, you NEVER shoot unless asked, and even if the pay hunter asks you to shoot they get to bring home all the bands.... Second, nobody shoots or points a gun down the pit or over the dog (or shoots while the dog is out), if they do they will be asked to leave or put up the gun...it's also a good idea to have your dog in good shape and let them get the cripples if at all possible, gives the pay hunters a bit of entertainment....

anybody thinking about getting into guiding needs to think about both of those rules...if they can honestly abide by both, and grasp the inherent hazards of hunting with strangers carrying a firearm (who may only shoot it a couple of occasions a year) they they are good to go.... my 2 cents and that's probably more than they're worth....

[Caller1]

The paying hunter does not tell the guide the way anything is going to be done. The paying customer is at the mercy of the guide for almost everything, and it is laughable to think the submissive of the two is in charge of anything in the blind.

Now that said, the guide is there to facilitate the hunter(s) having a good time, and a good guide will and can try to make things go in a pleasing manner in the blind. Most guides know to shoot back up always, until it is clear whether not the hunters have any chance for success when left up to shooting for themselves. If the hunters can shoot, no problem. If they can't, he better start shooting to get some birds in the bag. Most of the time the paying customer, believe it or not, bases his hunt and quality of the hunt on "how many we shot" (and doesn't have a clue as to who shot what/when most of the time). Sometimes the difference in a really "good shoot" and a dissappoint is 2-3 good shots by 2-3 hunters. Four ducks in the bag versus thirteen ducks in the bag.

I've done it every way and been on hunts where I was guided. If there are lots of birds, ample opportunity, and the hunters are good shots there is no need for the guide to uncase his gun. I have also watched groups of four go four full vollies and not cut a feather!

Like I said originally,

especially if the hunters stink it up on the first couple of vollies!

the guide better start shooting.

[HPL1]

AS I SAID AT MY LODGE IT IS DONE MY WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!OR YOU DON'T GET TO WORK HERE........................[u]

I have had customers that wasn't such a good shot come and hunt but they didn't even want the guide in the blind. I have done it all and seen most of it. I have plenty of repeat business and have plenty of referrals because of the way I run my lodge.

THE NO. 1 RULE IS THE CUSTOMER IS RIGHT.

If they can't hit and they don't want you to shoot you do not shoot that may be what they want to do is work on there skills instead of having someonelse get them out of there quickly.

If you don't beleive that it is done my way at my lodge just ask around there are some on here that will confirm.

[GordonGekko]

HPL...sounds like ya'll run it with the same mindset of the bunch I used to work for.... those practices lend themselves to a lot of good repeat business....

Caller1, different strokes for different folks...if your folks are happy with it more power to you....

[H20 Fowl]

The Customer is always right.

I had a group yesterday that did not want me to shoot period. 5 1/2 boxes of shells were shot and we took 3 ducks out.

They still had a great time...

[GulfCoast]

The Customer is always right.

I had a group yesterday that did not want me to shoot period. 5 1/2 boxes of shells were shot and we took 3 ducks out.

They still had a great time...

5.5 boxes? Y'all had some DUCKS flying yesterday!

[Gman]

Sounds like an easy job..........but it would be frustrating since there are not many ducks.......

[jdbuckshot]

i have done some guiding for a guide service on a fill in basis, i have always shot with the clients, after asking of coarse, The way i see it, its not the guides fault if they dont kill any ducks, well maybe sometimes. Guides gotta give it 110% and let the clients know the guide wants them to kill ducks. its good money, people pay big bucks to be taken duck hunting!

[Caller1]

5 1/2 boxes of shells were shot and we took 3 ducks out.

I can't stand that. I also think their should be a limit on how many shells you take. Not a box, but at most 2 boxes/ hunter. If a man can't finish his (and everyone elses for that matter) limit in 50 shots....GO HOME. He is wasting your time, my time, educating ducks and screwing up the hole for the next day/group.

but they didn't even want the guide in the blind.

That is really bad for business. Opening yourself wide open for some moron to shoot himself, or his best friend, and leave you holding the bag in court. Besides that, left to there own, many day hunters will foul something up! Come out saying, "we didn't even shoot", or "Only got one duck, you really going to charge us for that".

I too have seen it, and Know for a fact of dayhunters stuffing a spooney in the mud, just to try a bag another mallard. Seen them shoot hawks. Shoot blackbirds, killdeer, dove, snipe, and a whole lot of hen pintails they swore were gadwals (also stuffed in the mud). That's what you get letting someone go out without a guide.

THE NO. 1 RULE IS THE CUSTOMER IS RIGHT.

Nothing wrong with trying to make them happy, or showing out on the internet to encourage new clients!

[HPL1]

I didn't say I let them go out without a guide, I DON'T! But the rest is the way it is................................