How to Hire Hunting Guides, Packers and Camp Cooks: Licensing, Pay and Timing

Hiring a hunting crew is three jobs at once. The licensing has deadlines set by a state board, the recruiting has a calendar set by the seasons, and the payroll is where small outfits get surprised by day rates and tips.

Below is the paperwork each state puts on you, when guides change jobs, what outfitters publish for pay, and what the wage rules say about contractors, day rates and tips. Rules vary by state and change, so confirm anything legal with your state board or labor department.

Which states require my guides to be licensed, and what do I have to do?

Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Alaska license guides individually, and Colorado registers you instead. In all five, the guide’s right to work is tied to an outfitter, so the paperwork is yours to start and track.

State	What the guide needs	Fees	Your part
Montana	18 or older; Montana wildlife conservation license; first aid card from the board’s approved list; an equivalent out-of-state license or a board-approved guide school	$125 application; $50 renewal, Nov 1 to Dec 31	Endorse the applicant. Without a school certificate or equivalent license, you sign an Endorsing Outfitter Affidavit that you will employ or retain the applicant and that, to your knowledge, they qualify
Wyoming	First aid card; hunter safety card if born on or after January 1, 1966; the board’s exam if not licensed in either of the prior two calendar years	$145 a year or $70 for 14 days, plus $25 for new applicants	Sign the back of the license with your outfitter license number and the dates of employment
Idaho	Red Cross first aid or comparable; at least 10 days in your operating area; map and compass or GPS; training caring for meat and trophies, including caping	$105 first-time, $20 renewal	Employ them. The license is valid only while the guide works for a licensed Idaho outfitter
Colorado	18 or older with a Red Cross first aid or instructor card, or equivalent training approved by the director. No guide license	None for guides	Hold an outfitter registration; nobody may act or advertise as an outfitter without one
Alaska, assistant guide	18 or older; 60 days legally hunting big game in Alaska over two or more calendar years, 30 in a guide camp or supervised; basic first aid card; criminal and wildlife violation report	$200 application plus $310 resident or $620 nonresident; two-year license expiring Dec 31 of odd years	Write the recommendation as the registered guide-outfitter who intends to employ them. Assistant guides may not contract hunts and must be supervised in the field by a registered guide-outfitter or Class-A assistant guide

Sources: Montana Board of Outfitters guide application (rev. Sept. 2024); Wyoming Board of Outfitters and Professional Guides application (rev. 2026) and Chapter 5 fees; Idaho DOPL fee list and IDAPA 24.35.01.103; C.R.S. 12-145-105 and 12-145-106; Alaska form 08-4009 (rev. 08/18/2026). All accessed Sep 14, 2026.

Camp staff sit on a line. Wyoming law requires an outfitter or professional guide license to provide packing services for big or trophy game, meaning hauling hunters, game or equipment in the field for hire, but excludes people hired solely to care for livestock, cook, cut wood or drive. Idaho Code 36-2102 exempts people employed solely for livestock care, cooking, woodcutting and hauling on public roads. In Wyoming wilderness, at least one licensed guide or resident guide must accompany each two nonresident hunters, which sets the floor on how many licensed guides a wilderness camp needs.

When should I post the job and start the licensing?

Post fall jobs in June and July and file the license the week you make the offer. Montana’s 2026 archery season runs September 5 to October 18 and the general season October 24 to November 29, so a fall guide works from September into late November and decides in midsummer where to spend it. Montana Outfitters and Guides Association classifieds for fall guides, cooks and packers were posted July 17, 2026, and the Idaho association’s board carried a 2026 elk guide opening posted January 6, 2026. Flat Tops Wilderness Guides in Colorado asks for availability from early August through late November.

The licensing clock is what bites. Montana processes complete, routine guide applications within 10 days, but a non-routine one goes to a scheduled board meeting and may take up to 120 days, with a possible interview. Wyoming requires new guides to submit the board’s exam with the application. A rifle elk guide opening posted in Montana on September 10, 2026 for an October 18 start shows how little margin a late hire leaves. The wider calendar is in the outdoor job hiring calendar.

What do outfitters pay guides, packers and camp cooks?

Three structures show up: a day or weekly rate for fall guides, a monthly wage with room and board for summer packers, cooks and wranglers, and tips on top of both.

Position and employer	Season	Published pay	Included
Rifle elk guide, south of Cameron, Montana (posted Sep 10, 2026)	From Oct 18	Up to $300 a day	Must pack elk out on horses and mules
Whitetail guide, Magnum Guide Service, Texas	Sept to May	$150 to $225 a day; $350 to $600 a day with tips in the 2025 season	Food and lodging
Big game guide, near Avery, Idaho	Aug 25 to Nov 4	$800 to $1,000 a week plus tips	Meals, lodging in canvas tents
Pack trip guide, Swan Mountain Outfitters, Montana	From June 15	$2,000 to $3,500 a month plus tips	Room and board
Mule packer, Swan Mountain Outfitters	June to Oct	$2,000 to $3,000 a month plus tips	Room and board
Guide, packer and wrangler, Buck Horn Outfitters, Yellow Pine, Idaho	May 1 to Nov 10	$2,500 a month, $3,500 from Sept 1	Room, board, tips
Wrangler, Swan Mountain Outfitters	Mid-May to late Sept	From $1,200 a month plus tips	Room and board
Camp cook, near Avery, Idaho	Aug 25 to Nov 4	$500 or more a week	Tips
Base camp cook, Swan Mountain Outfitters	May to Sept	$2,000 to $3,000 a month plus tips	Room and board

Sources: Montana Outfitters and Guides Association classifieds; Outfitter Marketplace job board; Magnum Guide Service and Swan Mountain Outfitters employment pages; all open listings, accessed Sep 14, 2026.

Older benchmarks run lower. A 2019 Huntin’ Fool article put guide day rates at $100 to $200 depending on experience and said tipping a guide 10 to 15 percent of the hunt value is most common, with the cook tipped separately. Royal Tine Guide School’s FAQ says first-year guides generally make $1,000 to $1,500 a month plus room and board. The top current rates are attached to the skills outfitters keep naming: packing stock and handling clients. Compare roles in the outdoor job pay report.

What should a hunting guide job listing say?

The pay, the dates and the stock, which most ads leave out. None of the help wanted ads on the Wyoming Outfitters and Guides Association board on September 14, 2026 gave a dollar figure, using “good pay,” “industry’s top wages” or nothing, and only one opening on the Montana association’s board did. Applicants sort by the ads that answer the question. Cover these:

• Exact dates. “August 25 to November 4,” not “fall.” Guides stack three or four jobs into a year.
• Pay and structure. Day, week or month, and whether tips are on top. In Colorado it is the law: C.R.S. 8-5-201 says each posting must disclose the hourly or salary compensation or a range, and a general description of benefits and other compensation.
• Room and board. A northwest Colorado listing on Outfitter Marketplace supplies lodging but has guides buy their own food, which changes the real wage.
• Stock work. Whether the hire rides, packs or shoes. The $300-a-day Montana ad names packing elk on horses and mules.
• Credentials and who pays. A Cross C Ranch ad on the Wyoming board says the employer pays licensing fees. Say so if you do.
• Camp conditions. Flat Tops tells applicants its camps are two to six hours from a road and guides may set up tents or cook.

Ask for references. Royal Tine’s FAQ says outfitters hire on good employment references as a guide or a good report from a completed training program. Applicants building those references browse hunting guide jobs and packer jobs, and what outfitters look for in a hunting guide shows what they are told to bring.

Are hunting guides employees or independent contractors?

State licensing allows either, but it does not settle the federal question. Montana defines a guide as someone employed by or independently contracted with a licensed outfitter, and Wyoming’s application asks for the outfitters a guide is employed by or under contract with. The IRS and the Labor Department apply their own tests to the same arrangement.

The IRS looks at three categories of evidence: behavioral control (whether you control what the worker does and how), financial control (how the worker is paid, whether expenses are reimbursed, who provides tools and supplies), and the type of relationship (written contracts, employee-type benefits). It says no single factor decides it, and a ruling through Form SS-8 takes at least six months.

The Labor Department proposed a new rule on February 26, 2026, with comments closed April 28, 2026 and no final rule announced; it says it is no longer applying its 2024 rule in investigations. The proposal uses an economic reality test of whether the worker is in business for themselves, with two core factors, control over the work and opportunity for profit or loss, plus skill, permanence and whether the work is part of an integrated unit of production. State tests can differ, so check with your state labor department as well.

Do day rates owe overtime, and can the outfit keep part of the tips?

For employees, a day rate does not switch off overtime, and tips never belong to the business. Under 29 CFR 778.112, an employee paid a flat sum per day regardless of hours has a regular rate equal to the week’s day rates divided by hours actually worked, and is owed an extra half of that rate for every hour over 40. Swan Mountain Outfitters tells its wranglers to expect 12-hour days, 5 to 6 days a week, and at those hours the overtime math adds up fast.

On tips, the Labor Department says an employer cannot keep employees’ tips under any circumstances, and managers and supervisors may not keep employees’ tips either. An employer running a mandatory tip pool generally must fully redistribute it within the pay period, and an employer that pays full minimum wage and takes no tip credit may include cooks and dishwashers in the pool.

One exemption is worth raising with your own advisor. Section 13(a)(3) of the Fair Labor Standards Act exempts employees of an amusement or recreational establishment from minimum wage and overtime if it operates no more than seven months a calendar year, or if its average receipts for any six months of the prior year were no more than 33 1/3 percent of the other six. The statute, 29 U.S.C. 213(a)(3), carves out employees of a private entity providing services or facilities in a national park, national forest or National Wildlife Refuge under a contract with the Secretary of the Interior or Agriculture, and the department’s fact sheet, revised July 2008, warns that some state laws do not recognize the exemption.

What first aid and CPR should I require in camp?

Every state above requires a first aid card, and none of their guide rules names CPR, so your own standard matters. Montana requires a current card from a board-approved course, which includes any American Red Cross or American Heart Association course, and lets first-time applicants use an approved online course. Wyoming, Idaho, Colorado and Alaska each require a first aid card, with Idaho and Colorado naming the Red Cross or an equivalent.

Outfitters set the bar higher on their own. Swan Mountain requires Wilderness First Aid for pack trip guides and prefers CPR and Wilderness First Aid for packers and wranglers. Butte Creek Outfitters in Wyoming asks for CPR and first aid or the ability to get them, and Magnum Guide Service requires a Red Cross first aid class within six months of hire. Flat Tops lists Wilderness First Aid, Wilderness First Responder or EMT as helpful. Course lengths and costs are in outdoor job certifications. You can post the openings you still have on WildWork’s post a job page.