# Attension Young Duck Guides



## grand poobah (Nov 6, 2007)

This thread I hope will help some young men out there.

YOU CAN NOT MAKE A LIVING BEING A DUCK GUIDE.

I see on this site and talk to young men all the time who want to be a full time duck guide. If you figure the cost of property, how many days you can hunt, how many customers you already have, it doesn't add up.
Most guides have other jobs that pay them year round and guide using vacation days or have seasonal jobs that allow them a lot of time off during hunting season. A lot of guides are fishing/hunting guides, or farmers/ duck guides, or own their own company.
I have the best of both worlds. I have a real job that pays may bills and I guide on the side for extra money. Butch pays for all the land and water and manages everything and I hunt when I can for my part.
I have nothing to lose and I appreciate everything Butch does for me.
My point is I'm not shelling out $20,000 to 100,000 or more then trying to make my money back thru the season.
Again, my point to you young men who are so quick to call yourself a full time duck guide, us old timers see right thru it. I know there are exceptions and I haven't covered every scenario just trying to make a strong point. Also I know there are women guides out there, but it's mostly young men I talking about.:headknock


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## grand poobah (Nov 6, 2007)

*Attention*

Attention was misspelled. Sorry


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## daddyeaux (Nov 18, 2007)

Well put Sammy, I'm glad you left us old farts out.


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## Logan (Aug 7, 2009)

daddyeaux said:


> Well put Sammy, I'm glad you left us old farts out.


only cause you're sill in Gwood :walkingsm

the reasons above are why i don't even entertain the idea.


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## RRfisher (Mar 5, 2007)

Weird post. Are you trying to run off the competition? Do older guides not have younger ones that will eventually take over? Curious on what age you started to "guide"?


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## grand poobah (Nov 6, 2007)

RRfisher said:


> Weird post. Are you trying to run off the competition? Do older guides not have younger ones that will eventually take over? Curious on what age you started to "guide"?


 No sir, we need younger guides to takeover and yes I was young when I started guiding. My point is a talk to a lot of young men who think being a duck guide is the perfect life and want to quit jobs or school to pursue this.
Others get on this or other threads and claim being a full guide as a reason for their actions/attitude/answers to a post. I trying to talk in general terms not to point anyone out.

I don't understand the aggression Logan has about Garwood area. 
There is a lot of great hunting and clubs in this area.

Everyone let's enjoy talking about hunting and going hunting.

Thanks Grand Poobah


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## Logan (Aug 7, 2009)

*joke*



grand poobah said:


> No sir, we need younger guides to takeover and yes I was young when I started guiding. My point is a talk to a lot of young men who think being a duck guide is the perfect life and want to quit jobs or school to pursue this.
> Others get on this or other threads and claim being a full guide as a reason for their actions/attitude/answers to a post. I trying to talk in general terms not to point anyone out.
> 
> I don't understand the aggression Logan has about Garwood area.
> ...


joke from another thread... daddyeaux got it

no hostility Chuck


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## grand poobah (Nov 6, 2007)

*Sorry*

 Logan


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## daddyeaux (Nov 18, 2007)

You are correct about needing younger guys to step in. There are 5 of us older guys, me being the oldest, and we have two youngsters that are learning.
Us older guys don't work as hard or fast as we used too. We do need the energy of the younger guys.


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## Flapp'n Shad (Sep 29, 2015)

:spineyes:


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## txshockwave (Mar 6, 2007)

yeah but they just bought 27 mojos, 2 dozen mallard decoys, and one snow goose floater. plus everything else waterfowl that academy sells. Way to crush their dreams lol.


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## daddyeaux (Nov 18, 2007)

lol.......yea they will probably break the mojos, shoot the mallards and lose the floater......


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## kweber (Sep 20, 2005)

daddyeaux said:


> lol.......yea they will probably break the mojos, shoot the mallards and lose the floater......


we shot a combine one year...
it was foggy....
dahm thing flew up about forty/fifty steps from the spread...


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## daddyeaux (Nov 18, 2007)

lol.......how did you cook it?


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## Whipray (Mar 12, 2007)

first, you make a roux


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## Salty Dog (Jan 29, 2005)

Become a waterfowl guide and you too can be a twenty-thousandaire.


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## kweber (Sep 20, 2005)

daddyeaux said:


> lol.......how did you cook it?


actually when we added a couple/3 of picked specks, it didn't turn out too bad...
xtra rice...
tires were kinda chewy....


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## daddyeaux (Nov 18, 2007)

Pressure cooker helps with them chewy tires........


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## grman (Jul 2, 2010)

After a few years of guiding part time, I decided I would rather hunt with my friends than baby sit customers that I did not know. As a junior guide in a large operation you get to do all the back breaking work and you get some real "winners" as hand me down clients during overflows.


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## daddyeaux (Nov 18, 2007)

LOL..........yea but think of all the wonderful stories you will have to tell your grandchildren while sitting around the campfire.


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## kweber (Sep 20, 2005)

grman said:


> After a few years of guiding part time, I decided I would rather hunt with my friends than baby sit customers that I did not know. As a junior guide in a large operation you get to do all the back breaking work and you get some real "winners" as hand me down clients during overflows.


did a little white-wing thing about 15 yrs ago...
never again...
I put people on more doves than they'd ever seen and some still bisshed..


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## aTm08 (Dec 30, 2011)

Any of you guys that have been in the business for a while care to share some stories of your more interesting client encounters?


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## grman (Jul 2, 2010)

What is it really like?

Clients that have never hunted or shot a gun before - their trip is being paid for by a company. Clients unpacking and assembling new shotguns out of the box on your tailgate. Same for waders, jackets still with tags on it. Clients that don't know anything about gun safety. Had one shoot the rice leeve 8 feet from my foot. Have to handle them just like you would handle young children. Check their safety, check if their gun is loaded, check where their gun is pointed. Spread goose hunts are the worst - having 4 or 5 newbies trying to sit up in heavy clothing swinging guns and blasting away.


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## grand poobah (Nov 6, 2007)

*Being a Guide*

Being and becoming a goose guide has been one of my greatest joys of my life. Obviously my wife, 3 boys, & now 3 grandchildren come first if you know me or if you don't know. I started out guiding so I could afford to go hunting every weekend and have an excuse to hunt as much as I could back then. 
I consider it a true blessing to get paid for hunting and getting to hunt with all different customers I have taking. I gone thru 5 knee surgeries, 1 knee replacement and cancer. I'm not looking for sympathy just saying it's my love of hunting that keeps me going and pulling thru these obstacles.
I have had some real goofballs and a couple of real jerks but I focus on the hundreds of great men, women, and youngsters I have hunted with.
I hope everybody gets to hunting soon and have a great weekend.


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## grand poobah (Nov 6, 2007)

*Hunting*



grman said:


> What is it really like?
> 
> Clients that have never hunted or shot a gun before - their trip is being paid for by a company. Clients unpacking and assembling new shotguns out of the box on your tailgate. Same for waders, jackets still with tags on it. Clients that don't know anything about gun safety. Had one shoot the rice leeve 8 feet from my foot. Have to handle them just like you would handle young children. Check their safety, check if their gun is loaded, check where their gun is pointed. Spread goose hunts are the worst - having 4 or 5 newbies trying to sit up in heavy clothing swinging guns and blasting away.


 As far as the above statement, I just haven't experienced that very often or most of it never.
Fortunately I have never has this experience. I had a lot of new hunters but I try to organize my hunts(like most guides). When I have a group of hunters in a goose spread we are all in a straight line with the guns pointing one direction with me in the middle. Thanks God I have never had an accident occur in the field.


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## Trouthunter (Dec 18, 1998)

It wasn't bad in the 70's, land was cheap as was water and I enjoyed taking people on duck and goose hunts. 

In 1983 when I almost got my head blown off by a hunter next to me in a spread I came home and told my new bride that was it, I'm done.

I do not miss guiding at all.

TH


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## grman (Jul 2, 2010)

Pretty much the same drill Grand Poohah.

All the hunters in a line - I prefer to be on the end because I am working a dog. Pick an object on the horizon for everyone to lay their guns facing that. I would personally walk the line and check every gun for direction and safety after I called a shot and before anyone moved. Kids would break after fallen birds faster than a dog would. Check all guns for safety and unloaded before we would pick up the spread. Basicly ran it like a shooting range - which makes common sense - even for experienced hunters and friends.


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## G K Chambers (Aug 12, 2005)

Nobody asked me but I will say that the quality of young man I encounter guiding today is much improved over what it was 25 years ago..In the early nineties I was absolutely convinced that the term "goose guide"was shorthand for drunken criminal. Yankee guides especially. It is much better today. I can count on one hand the number of men that I've known that have made a living only from guiding. Most guys do it as a side gig so they can write off the cost of their rigs and make some money. Taking strangers out on a regular basis would suck and be dangerous it would turn something that is fun into sleep deprived work real quick.


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## tro-trout (Apr 5, 2007)

Good post. I'm a young guy and kinda got thrown into guiding did it for 2 seasons while going to school and that was enough. Had a lot of idiots and a lot of fellow students hunting off daddy's dime that I had to take (more concerned with pictures of dead birds than tradition of hunting). Not worth it started to not enjoy hunting and haven't guided any random parties since. Just family, friends and some return clients that are basically friends. Also as stated earlier nobodies getting rich guiding. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## LA Wader (Oct 22, 2013)

To the OP, great post. I have been a part-time duck/goose guide for the last 12 yrs or so. I have enjoyed guiding over the years. A person is not going to get rich guiding for an outfitter! The outfitter will make out really good if they have the business, but the guide only sees a fraction of what the outfitter is making. 

Guiding put some money in my pockets, paid for some toys, let me hunt some awsome property, and meet some very good people (very few not so good people). I would say it's a great job for younger guys (especially going to school) to earn some quick money on weekends and semester breaks. While I still guide some, I have children that are getting to the age where they want to come hunting with me.


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## wal1809 (May 27, 2005)

I would rather shove a burning stick in my eyeball than to be a duck hunting guide. I did some guiding and I don't like it at all. You switch from a duck hunter to babysitter. I had some great clients and would love to take them again. It is the butthole clients that took the fun right out of it and made it a job.


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