Originally Posted by 3bailey3
Lockjaw, not saying I want exclusive rights or lock anyone out or pay less, over the last 30 years I have been in 5 clubs and paid full price and just turkey hunted them! All I was saying it would be nice to have a place like that!


Not many hunt them in mine. I do, but I am a novice and not hardcore about it. My ideal scenario would be 3 turkey hunting members and 5 deer hunting members, paying about $2K each. That would allow me to use pellet lime, which I can spread, fertilize and cover the sping planting, and also the fall, plus do maintenance. It would allow me to plant clover on an annual basis, which I prefer, I believe it is one of the reasons our buck numbers and quality have come up. That would allow me to be selective about the 5 deer hunters as well.

I talked to a guy the other day when I was getting gas for my 4 wheeler on the way out to the lease, and he asked me what my lease ran. He pays half as much for a private land lease, and they get to bait.

So in my case, I have 10 members this year. I did the majority of the work. I had 2 other members that did a fair amount, and then my skid steer guy came out one day, which is all I ask him to do. The other 6 didn't work, although in fairness to the last one, he joined to replace a member who has long covid and asked me to replace him. I have 25 green fields, give or take. We put up 3 new shooting houses this fall. We tried to move around some ladders, but that is also a 2 man job. While the ladders benefit the entire club, they are also beneficial for the guys who work, because we know where we put them.

Honestly, the turkeys were royally pissing me off this fall. Dry weather, late planting, and a broken disk means I fed more freaking turkeys than I cared to feed, and its not the primary focus of my habitat plan. Not to mention they wear out my clover, which is a key component of my deer forage base.

I am sorty of like an understaffed company. I need people in certain roles, but don't have them. So the "boss" technically does the 20% that gets an 80% return, and these other things languish.