Should today’s keepers be tipped at all and, if so, how much? What’s the line on tipping the gamekeeper when gameshooting?

Make no bones about it, the keeper’s tips are an important part of his earnings. He gets paid a wage but, in all likelihood, not one that reflects the hours put in throughout the year. Increasingly, with the cost of living crisis, gamekeepers are going without a pay rise rather than lose their jobs and so the season’s tips become even more crucial. Also, some employers have always paid their keepers a wage that reflects the assumption of a top-up of tips. (You might like to read: shooting etiquette, are standards slipping?)

Reward effort

It should be possible to tell whether or not the person in charge of the beating line has given his all to ensure the best possible outcome and his tip ought to reflect this. A keeper who has shown bad sport, perhaps failing to take into consideration the prevailing wind, as a result of which the guns are forced to watch all the birds stream 40yd to the left of the line, deserves little or nothing by way of a thank you but, before damning the man completely, it is as well to check that there were no alternatives. Sometimes a drive is restricted to being driven in a certain way because of the position of the next beat, boundaries or the inability to pick-up fallen birds from land where the shoot is not allowed.

How much?

Assuming that all has gone well and a good time been had by all, there is the question of how much to tip – the reason for those furtive get-togethers at the end of the day. For many years a general rule of thumb has been an initial “gift” of £10 and then £25 to £30 for every 100 birds shot. As a guide it’s generally felt that £25 to £30 tip is given for the first 100 birds and £10 per 50 birds thereafter.

Some guns (and all keepers) suggest that nowadays the initial token should be £20, rather than £10, in which case you should be looking at handing over £65 for a 200-bird day and £85 for 300 plus.

Guests who have already paid out substantial sums of money for a day on a commercial shoot have been found to be even less generous with their tips if they are subsequently asked to pay for every bird shot over the amount of birds booked. Conversely, if it happens that an extra 30 to 50 birds are shot and not charged for, the guns consider that they are getting excellent value for money, a factor which adds to their enjoyment of the day and, in consequence, makes them more likely to be generous with their gratuities.

Interestingly, most gamekeepers agree that guns tend to be more generous on a smallish day than they are on a large one.

Is there ever an occasion not to tip the keeper at all? Peter Moreton, a Wiltshire-based gun says, “I have known guns refuse to tip a keeper when the birds have not been shown well and, indeed, I refused to tip a keeper some years ago when he ridiculed me (to cover his own mistake) in front of the other guns.”

When and how

There is an optimum time for the keeper to turn up with a brace or two of birds for each gun. Arrive too soon, when they are still changing out of boots, and an opportunity to shake hands and accept a tip is lost among all the activity. Arrive too late, and the guns will possibly have started to feel a little anxious about being kept hanging around. Only personal experience of your own shoot can tell you exactly when this optimum time for the keeper’s arrival is likely to be.

One thing vital to get right is how the tip is handed over. You might think that the money is the important thing and the manner in which it is transferred from the gun’s wallet to the keeper’s pocket matters not a jot, but you’d be wrong. Without exception, all of my generation, guns and keepers, consider the manner of giving to be crucial. “How the guns hand over a tip is critical in my view,” says one Dorset keeper, “Most of mine fold the notes into tiny squares and discreetly pass them over during a handshake while sometimes taking a brace of birds.” An experienced gun remarks, “Generally, all guns fold their notes and pass them discreetly but I have seen, on occasion, some blatantly obvious and embarrassing tipping from new and somewhat ignorant guns.” So, “fold”, “shake”, and “discretion” seem to be the watchwords.

Read: the perfect Christmas box for hunt staff.

Tax liability

I doubt that the giving of a gratuity could ever be tax-deductible but keepers should know that tips are taxable and that HM Revenue & Customs has a rate at which it accepts figures submitted via their tax return forms in much the same way as for waiters, hairdressers and other workers in industries where tips are a traditional and ac-cepted part of the job.

This article was originally published in 2010 and has been updated.