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Anybody Leave a hunting club?

B

bigboreblr

5 year old buck +
Not sure if my interest is waining, my pateince for idiots, or my investment of time and money is shifting..... Was at the club Febuary before I tore my arm. Just me myself and I. Did a little clearing of trees around the young apples. Snowmobile conditions were nasty. Just queaked in 50 miles f lumps and thin spots.

Canceled on going up 4th of July. Clutch on my daily driver started to go on friday before the weekend. Just didn't feel like going. Idiots lighting fireworks under your chair. 15ish member club, about 1/3 are new, already seem like 20 year old grumpy veterans there. Weed smoke in the cabin. MEmbers joyriding in the food plots I put up. Been about 3 years since I wnt up fiewood weekend. NC flouder fishing seems alot more enjoyable.

Got tons of other places to hunt, my brtoehr in law expanded his operation to a farm in CT aswell as 4000+ acres of cropland all around NY area.
 
I’m to head strong to be in a club these days. I like it my way on my own place. I do have a crew of 4 for offshore fishing. But I’m still head strong. Case in point my son trolled too close to a lobster pot buoy on the last trip and hooked the rope. I backed down close and told them to cut the line close so I could get the props away from the rope. One in the crew wanted to keep dicking with it as I kept maneuvering out of the rope. I said cut the line for the third time. Then I grabbed a knife walked back and cut it off at the reel myself. He didn’t know it until I motored off and the line slipped through his hands.
 
Was a member of a couple years ago. On both there was always the same guys that did all the work and the larger group just showed up for the fun stuff. Then there was the internal politics. Seemed that the guys who did the least amount got the better spots. Too much azz kissin and buddy system. These days i do not have the patience for that type of environment. On my place i make the rules and if you don't follow them you are out. I am now down to 2-3 guys who hunt with me and they are always there when something needs to be done. Took some culing but now have a good group and we all enjoy the time together. No drama, less stress, and more fun.
 
I dropped two years ago after hunting over 15 years with another guy and his boys. Last season was the most relaxing hunting season I have had in years hunting my small place and another 30 acre tract up the street.

Now if I can talk my wife into selling our house, moving to my 10 acre tract, I would sell my 192 acre tract and go ahead and retire.
 
Left several. People management is harder than deer management. Most clubs I was ever involved in was a 1/4 serious hunters (may be generous) 1/4 good guys who mean well but are generally in the way, 1/4 tool bags who most couldn’t stand, 1/4 donaters who never showed, best kind. I’d rather hunt 20 acres of my own than any club I’ve ever been a member or guest of.
 
I think the problem is right in OP. Most clubs have guys that bust their butts getting stuff and guys that coast along.
Our local gun range has come up with a way to combat that. If a member shows up for work parties their dues are reduced or eliminated, If not it’s full price. Not sure how that would work in a hunting club or how to keep a 4 wheeler out of a plot you planted.
 
Bill said:
I think the problem is right in OP. Most clubs have guys that bust their butts getting stuff and guys that coast along.
Our local gun range has come up with a way to combat that. If a member shows up for work parties their dues are reduced or eliminated, If not it’s full price. Not sure how that would work in a hunting club or how to keep a 4 wheeler out of a plot you planted.
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In our hunting club I recommended that stand/blind location first choices were given out based those who put time in on work days. When that idea was pushed aside, it was clear it was time to move on.
 
Sounds like the clubs could be a little more selective and less tolerable to anyone who is actually counter productive. I'm willing to help people out if they are trying but the dumb asses that only show up for the fun and skip out on the work can find somewhere else to get the free ride.jmho
 
Was in a duck club in Arkansas for about five years. The waterfowling was very good, most of the members were pretty good, dues were steep, and it was a nine-hour drive for me. Around ten members about six were core members the other four spots kind of rotated every couple of years. The place was kind of a dump, everyone bought in on pits and decoys as needed. We had at least ten fields leased at all times. Comradery was great, food was great.
The longest running original member lived about an hour away, he had two sons in college, and they ended up joining, he was kind of the boss of the place. He ended up inviting LOTS of his different friends for 2-3 day hunts which I never minded because his friends were cool. What I did mind was him always wanting the best pits and blinds... and if a blind got hot any particular day he wanted it that afternoon or next day...always. I finally got enough of that a drifted off myself.

Was in a duck club in Ontario for over 25 years, around 10-14 members with about five core members the others came and went...some passed on. The club house was top notch, food great, comradery really great, waterfowling top notch. We had the place from Sept-Jan. Not a lot of rules, most was public hunting. Loved spending time up there.
Some of the border crossing rules/regs got harder, then Covid hit, and the Canadian border rules got really stupid and Canadian politics stupider. So, the members decided it wasn't worth the hassle anymore, and because of the hassle it was also harder to keep members...kind of took the fun out of it.

I've been a guest at dozens of duck clubs, some good some bad.
 
Sounds like similar experiences here. Sometimes the fun gets out of hand. Help is hard to find. Treestands isn't a real problem. There was one time a new guy shot a nice buck in his treestand, Like 15 minutes into pening day. He came back the next week and a fellow member would not get out of his stand one morning.

Most members do nto have a stand of their own. I have about 4 of them, bt don't claim ownership to them. You wantt to hunt there, then I'll hunt another one.

Clubhouse is a messy rat hole, nobody really cleans it. Mouse issues, 40% caused by members leaving mess / food. But, last year I bought a 6x12 trailer and converted it to a insulated, heated, and electric sleeping spot with windows.

Deer wise, there's better bucks at my house or at my in-laws bean/corn fields. There's usualy one decent 8 or two on cam, some years a ten. Not a huge horn chaser. I enjoy the woods and take a decent deer when I think the time is right. I'm more about how close I can get ot them than how close I can get to a big one.

Buying a big spot is out of the picture. I want to buy my wife a beachouse in North Carolina. I might get my CDL to trade helping farmers during harvest and planting for hunting rights, If we get a place down there.

Had a rule this year, any big whiff of BS from someone in the club and I'm done there.
 
For whitetail I think I'd rather take my chances on public land or out of state trips than dicking around with people in most hunting clubs. I'm sure there are examples out there where it works well but I'd guess that most are like the OP situation.
 
Wind Gypsy said:
For whitetail I think I'd rather take my chances on public land or out of state trips than dicking around with people in most hunting clubs. I'm sure there are examples out there where it works well but I'd guess that most are like the OP situation.
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1000%. The only advantage to a club is usually a place to stay/shower/cook etc. That is clutch over trying to source all that on public. But I guarantee some of the clubs I hunted got hit way harder than public
 
My dad and I belong to a large hunting club in WV. Over 4000 members on 40,000+ acres leased. My dad has been hunting down there for 45 years and the club has existed for probably around 30 years now. My dad and his friends still tell stories of uncountable deer numbers and giant swamp monster bucks that they used to see. I started going when I was in college in the late 90's, early 2000's. It wasn't as good but I would still see 4-5 buck a day. Good for a PA boy back then. I never saw anything nice but we got some nice bucks as a group.

About 10 years ago the coal company our club leases from sold the rights to every tree to a lumber company. And by every tree I mean every tree. We've gone down there in November and the entire ridge my stand was on was gone. Every tree every sapling gone. Clear cut square miles at a time. That happened a few years in a row and we started hunting a different location by this large federally owned swamp. Now this year the rest of the area was bought up by the federal government. Some of our guys have hunted out of the same trees for the last 30 years and it's all going away. It can still be hunted but it's walk in only where as we had atv's. I'm mid 40's so I might still walk in but my dad and friends are all in their 60-70's now so they're done. The 2 mile walk down in wouldn't be bad but shooting one and getting it out would be the problem.
 
I looked into the coal company leases about 15 years ago. Was going to PA from the NYC area alot.

Got into a big argument with the ex president in early August. Had his grandson with him an he got completely trashed. He asked me why I had a problem with hm. Told him all the BS he did, stuff he broke drunk, etc. Pretty much went nuclear on me. The next morning took my better treestand or two out and all my trail cameras.

Got one issue right now. Got nowhere to shoot ever 100 yards. I put in some targets and gongs in the swamp. Hate to see how a gun shoot at 100, then wing it. Even if it's just verifying the zero held.

Got 1/2 the foodplots in that weekend in august. Was going to go back and finish the other 2, but a member reserved the cabin labor day weekend.

This weekend is opening rifle up there. Wasn't going up becuase I got the flu and the northeaster rain strom. Had my trailer all packed up last weekend for opening muzzleloader, just didn't feel like going.

Dead horse is about out of whacks
 
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