First, I haven’t been in a club in years because my schedule for the last few years just hasn’t allowed it. I have been thinking of getting back in a club and have been looking around some. I live in Shelby County, definitely NOT the big buck capital of the state, but wanted something close. Anyway, I saw an advertisement on another site for a club in the Montevallo area. The dues were somewhere around $1,200.00 per year but it only averaged a little over 67 acres per hunter. It would have been even less than that if you included family members which was allowed. I was floored at that price. Has it really gotten that out of hand for so little?

Yes, and I don’t see it ever reversing

That's pretty steep but not surprising. Our dues are $2400 and we average 150-200 acres/member depending on the membership numbers. We are a large club and I think last year it was 167 acres/member

Supply and demand..........Supply goes down and demand remains the same then price goes up

It is insane. A lease with only 60 acres a member is gonna have huge pressure on the deer every weekend. Better off hunting public land.

YES, it is amazing what lease prices have increased to. Land owners keep going up because IF you don't pay it, someone else will.

Yes you won’t get in any type of quality lease for less than $2000/member.

Its crazy!!!! I looked on AFOA and there is a brand new listing. 1400 acres...$21k only want 4 folks on it...... AND NO TURKEY HUNTING.

Outrageous.

But someone, somewhere, will find the listing and will pay it.

Yep it’s pretty bad. Our timber co lease went up $7 over the past 3 years. They’ve already told us there will be another increase next year. We don’t have “prime” land either.

My dad and his club buddies were upset that the woman who owned the land they leased went with another crew that offered $1.50 an acre. That was double the price they (we) were paying.

Old times.

A potential paying member needs to consider what one membership gets him/her. There are clubs out there that a membership price allows every family member and friend to hunt on one membership. That works for some hunters. But to that, NO THANK YOU!!! I'm past the "family" stage. I'm past the need to bring guests!!! I realize that there does need to be "family" clubs, and that's fine. But there are hunting consumers out there that want very strict family and guests policies. I haven't joined such liberal family clubs as my past hunting clubs have been fairly restrictive on family and guest, but my kids are now grown.

Again, there are potential hunting club members out there that wants VERY strict family/guests policies. That way, the land isn't over-hunted/over-harvested. And, usually, every hunting club that allowed too many family members and guests to hunt, ended up with a lot of drama!!! I'd really like to pay a membership and the membership only allows THE PAYING member to hunt. No family members... no guests and only a "mature" bucks rule AND not "six points or better".

IMO

If there is a good hunt club that isn't expensive, there won't be any openings. The greatest challenge to hunting east of the Rockies is finding good land.

I guess I look at it different when I was in clubs I looked at the total acreage cause half the members ain't gone hunt very much maybe 3 or 4 times a year. But I ain't been in one in years most folks with my work schedule don't make many friends in hunting clubs unless there are several that work my schedule. Last club I was in there was and we had a ball. Another reason I'm so thankful I have my Lil 40 acres of family land and my Lil 240 acres that I get to hunt on and don't have to fool with club drama and pissing and moaning. And they ain't All like that but I also ain't shelling out the kinda money it takes to get in those that ain't like that.i do get to hunt a couple clubs that I track for and we kinda swap that out so it works

As the leaseholder of mine, starting this year, I can speak to this. Our lease went up 3%. I had 19 members, 2 are leaving, which gets me down to 17 on 1050 acres. The lease says 11. Some of my guys rarely hunt. I have 24 green fields, and if they thin and cut timber, they are supposed to add 2 more fields, which will be an acre or so more, that we will have to lime. My previous soil tests all indicate 2 tons per acre, so I will probably have to get 2 tons of pellet lime.

Fertilizer is up. Herbicide is up. I need to fertilize 3 times a year minimum. Thats 90 bags if I can find the stuff I need to use. I would need 100 bags of pellet lime. So at $20/bag for fertilizer, I need $1800. Lime at $5/bag is $500. Seed will easily be $600. The departing members are taking up to 4 ladder stands, which I need to replace more than likely. Figure another $500. All the ladder stands I have, and both tripods need new seats. We need to do some maintenance on the shooting houses, and probably build some new ones. I need to get a scale, and make sure I get jawbones this year too. We need to probably replace some ratchet straps as well.

I have spent the last 3 years planting in spring, expanding food plots, getting them limed, and planted in Whitetail or Durana Clover, along with Whitetail Chicory. I have a couple spots that have extreme. I put out minerals during that time, and even got mine out before Westervelt banned that this year. Of course I was the person footing the bill for all that. I say this to say, I finally have a high quality food plot structure, which should help keep the deer on the property and grow them as well. When I joined, they didn't plant in the spring, and they planted rye grass in the fall. I don't plant rye grass. I plant a brassica and cereal grain mix, and add clover to it.

So we did a few things to try to lower the member count without telling someone we aren't going to renew them. We raised dues $200. We cut the doe limit per member from 5 to 2. We lowered the kid limit to 1 buck and 1 doe. You can bring a guest, but their kill comes off your number. And we said no killing doe's off a green field. The goal being increasing the doe numbers on the property, and hopefully luring a buck out on a green field.

If I keep 17 members, then I will have enough $ in the treasury to do everything we need to do and have some left over, which I prefer, because I sent out invoices already and only 1 guy has paid me. Since 25% of my lease is due May 1, it would be nice to have that in reserve to just pay without waiting on the other guys to pay.

The biggest problem in all the clubs I have been in is getting people to work. It takes a lot of time and money to build and maintain shooting houses and green fields. And not alot of clubs put in the time to get their fields test and limed and fertilized properly. Even with all the supplemental fertilzing I was doing, we weren't putting enough out.

If you are having to work to chase members every year, then you can't focus on keeping the club up. So alot of clubs lower the price and get more members. Just depends which way you want to go.

I hear you.......everybody never has time for work days but plenty of time to hunt. No shortage of freeloaders. Charge em $$$$$

So thankful i dont have to fool with clubs or timber companies anymore

Lockjaw, you still are failing to address your biggest issue, too damn many members. Until you face that head on, you're rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away. Not trying to be an ass, but 10 members should be an absolute maximum, less would be better. I've been running leases for almost 40 years. It ain't easy, sometimes you have to hurt some feelings and you're rarely appreciated but you gotta do what you gotta do. Good luck

I thought around 100 Acres per member had sort of been the acceptable standard for a long time.

When I was in one that was 100 ac. per member it was pretty crowded and had too many tiny azz food plots as a result of people needing places to hunt.

Damn Doe shooting dumpster fire of a club was the best way to describe that little patch of paradise.

The biggest problem with the Club thing IMO is impatient youth hunters and guests. You always got one azzhole or maybe many that think their little snot nose kid should be able to blast everything that walks past him. Because little Johnny can't sit there or he'll get bored. He's got to kill something quick and get back to the camp house so he and Daddy can play grabass with all the Adults who are on their 3rd game for the afternoon.

Yes sir I know. It's probably going to be a process. I may lose more people still. It's early. I've basically said I wouldn't entertain adding until we dropped below 12. I have a few who hardly, if ever hunt, so I don't mind running 12 or 13.

I have a guy in a club whose hunted this area for 30 years that wants to come by and take a look and see if he can help me. They kill some big bucks. This will probably benefit me more than anyone else. He said it took them about 10 years to get to where they are now. He is maybe a mile or two from here. He said they fed year round, but won't be able to now, so they will adjust by doing extra field work. So that might be a good partnership. I'm basically trying to talk with the other 3 clubs by mine. He said they are very selective on members. After talking to him I think I may have more deer here than I thought before.

But 10 members would be awesome to get down to. Especially if I can keep a few who hardly ever hunt.