Lots of posts lately about folks looking for clubs. Myself included. Talking to a fellow at church yesterday and he told me between himself and his son, they have only seen two does this entire season. I mentioned a club I had heard about that, according to a friend of mine in it, has a pretty decent population but is about a 45 minute drive. His response? “Yeah but this club is so convenient to the house.” I told him I get that but I can sit on my back porch and see more than two deer over the course of an entire season. Makes me wonder just what folks really want in a club. Are they wanting to see deer or just wanting to go sit in the woods. Seems like they’d just do the public land thing if that was the case.

Everyone is different

Heck if it was just me, all I’d need is a place to park my camper or a camp house, and to consistently see deer but there’s usually more factors involved. My pops is 62 and even though our camp is mediocre at best for deer management he’s not going anywhere. The time we spend together is more important than shooting a deer.
I tend to see more deer when I out in the effort to drive to the public land.

We have about 25 guys on 3500 acres and pretty much every one just wants to kill a “club legal buck” or harvest their does and shoot a few pigs along the way. Hard to get 25 guys on the same page for deer management so even though we could grow some big deer, it’s a lot of 3.5 yr old deer that get taken every year and that seems to be ok with most people.
Kind of a shame actually.

Im gonna own land one day…

That’s the goal

Played the club game for years and most of the presidents never paid for their membership. Their membership was free because they kept things in order and organized all the club dealings. Not saying this is true everywhere, but the clubs I joined were this way. I even hunted one club where the president claimed he leased a private tract beside the tract the club had and none of the members could hunt it. This was the best piece of land for miles and there was a field that was long enough to land an airplane on! Didnt really matter to me as my goal was for my son to kill a few deer off the club land. My son was able to kill a few off the property and we had a great time hunting the club land. Our goal from the club was just some time to hunt as father and son.

In most of the clubs we hunted, I was not the shooter. My son was the shooter and I was with him for support. He learned a lot about folks and how hunters are sometimes their own worst enemies. Greed was rampant and if you hunted a spot over two times, you could bet someone else would have it signed out the next day thinking you were onto a nice deer. I usually gave it up after Christmas due to work obligations and was never able to hunt the best time of the year with my son. I really don't know how the club members did during the rut as I never had a close relationship with any of them. Again, we only wanted a place to go so my son could kill a few deer as our options at home were very limited at the time.

I started buying land about 25 years ago and I have never looked back. I now am Blessed to have 2 tracts within 10 minutes of my house that have a good population of deer. This has worked for me and I plan to purchase another tract I have my eyes on before I pass away and leave that to my son. My goal is to spend some time with my son and my grandson hunting.

That’s pretty spot on and one reason when I was president I wrought a check so there wa no dispute and the treasury guy kept a different check book that as seen by all. Nothing hidden. I’d heard the stories you mention

I’m not currently in one, but have been looking for one to add to my current opportunities. Now what I’m looking for is probably not a good fit for a lot of folks. In a nutshell. I am wanting to have a place to have quality hunts and the possibility to take a good buck every couple years or so.

But here’s a snippet of the boxes I’m wanting to check.

Within 3hrs of Mobile - Bonus points if close to Greenville since I have a camp house there
Low pressure
Minimum 250:1 acres to hunter ratio. More the better
Management program focused on taking mature bucks with limited harvest.
Healthy population
Camp house or place to park a camper
Drama free small group of guys
Somewhere I can bring the wife when she gets the itch to go. Rarely happens.
Opportunity to have quality hunts. Meaning seeing deer of all age classes, even if I hardly ever shoot crap.

Drama free...that's the one that's hard to come by

That’s my goal too. The wife and I plan on selling out when the kids get gone and buy a piece of property to build a house/cabin on. We were driving through the country a couple days ago and it was really nice to see tracts of land for sale and her getting excited about the future of owning one, one day.

If I lost my caretaker rights I would just hunt public and save my club money to buy out of state tags. Probably hunt my property too, but there is something more special about going out on thousands of acres and figuring out where to hunt. Small property hunting isnt as exciting amd seems like just shooting deer (which isnt a bad thing).

Yeah that’s an important one. And for the sake of transparency, have the budget posted by the sign out sheet. This will help with aforementioned drama

Do you ever hunt public land in Missouri?

Every club I was ever in, and a couple were really good ones, had drama and sketchy crap going on. Got free access to some awesome property now fortunately but it is a 3 hour drive. You gotta do what you gotta do.

The budget is no ones business. Its a Private club there is no transparency. You dont like the price dont join. You dont like the rules dont join. We have never had a problem finding new members.

I been in some clubs like the ones mentioned above. One the president wanted to know exactly where you killed the deer. Another I was in I killed a nice 10 pt during bow season and when gun season started the 2 bitch ass cops running bought my membership out. They prorated it and gave me that amount for my membership. I was finally in a good club where everyone got along in Grady, but the timber company sold the land and we lost the lease. Now I own my little 104 acres and don't have to deal with the BS of a club anymore

Yes, but not as much as I used to. With kids in sports I have limited time. This year I tried to get a couple buddies to hunt some public land I know really well in Callaway county. But, everybody is turning into wimps and dont want to camp. It is easier to roll out of bed, take a shower, and hunt close by.

You should go into politics... baha!

Hope this is a bad troll job.

So in your clubs how does stand "ownership" work. First year member in club (1800 Acres) with 10 members and they probably average 4 ladder stands out per person. They want to lay claim to these areas and they don't won't no one encroaching. One guys has at least a dozen. So probably 50 stands. There are about a dozen "club plots " none that are very attractive. I could understand 1 or 2 private areas per person but how can someone have a problem with someone hunting one of "their " spots when they are. not hunting there. I put out 2 and would have no problem someone sitting these. Just curious