I’m just gonna post a short reply so hopefully not to derail the original topic but…

There’s really no “going rate”…..Different folks do it different ways. I used to charge $50 to come and $50 if we found the deer. Now I’ve just went to a straight $100 fee for any call. Lets say I go on 75 tracks this year. That’s a grand total of $7500 dollars minus expenses. I just filled up my truck twice this past week to go on those tracks in the dog forum at $45 a pop. I’m not even gonna go into listing all the expenses but how much do you think vet bills and dog food and all that add up to for two dogs??? So yeah….I’m not getting rich off this gig by any means….Getting paid just helps take the sting out of all the costs involved and buys a little beer and pork skins at the end of the day.

About the most I’ve heard of folks charging is $125-$150….Other folks track “for free” or for tips….but there’s a catch to that in most cases. Not all, but a lot folks who track for free heavily screen their calls and are only gonna take the ones that sound really promising. The ones with a lot of blood or the gut shots, etc….They’ll turn the others down. That’s because “free” turns into “big tips” when you find peoples’ deer. Just don’t be fooled and think free trackers are doing it out of the goodness of their heart and because their just good guys. That chit crawls all over me when it gets made out to be like that. I mean they enjoy tracking too just like I do but they're getting paid just the same. It's just a different approach. Call them up and tell them you can’t find any blood or hair but your feel confident you hit the deer and see how many free trackers come to help you. The evil guy charging a fee though will likely be on his way. I'm really not hating on them even though it may sound that way....I just want everyone to understand how it actually works.

Anyways…..chit, I’m off on a tangent now…..