I'll try to give you a good picture of our situation
Valentine.
First off, we're a congenial group that enjoys activities at the club campground as much as we do the hunt. The club has been in existence for fifteen years and about half the members have been in it for ten or more.
There's a club camp ground on site and each member has his own little "hooch" or camping trailer. We have a communal cook shack and skinning shed and a 300 yard shooting range with two covered benches. There's no running water, but do have electricity and split the monthly electric bill.
The club rules are:
- Each member may take no more than two does per season. Only about half of us do that. The rest usually take only one doe for meat, and one guy will only shoot bucks.
- Only bucks of seven points or more may be killed, except that each member may take one buck of five or six points. This allows us to take out those "funky" older bucks with less than seven points. We avoid killing the young five or six pointers by general agreement. The buck limit is three per season.
-Guest are allowed, but must be accompanied in the stand by the sponsoring member and any deer killed by the guest counts against the member's kill limit.
- Any small game hunting prior to or during the deer season must be limited to the area in the immediate vicinity of the member's personal food plots.
- Small game hunting and turkey hunting is permitted anywhere on the lease after the end of deer season
- Members may establish as many food plots or stand sites as they wish, except no plot or stand may be established within 300 yards of another member's location without that member's permission. (We currently have 22 plots averaging about 1/3 acre each. Every member has at least two plots and a few have three. We usually get together in groups of two or three to plant our plots.)
- Members may not use another member's stand without permission. (Which is freely offered by all members. We often exchange hunts on each other's stand for a change of scenery.)
Here's a satellite view of our lease. It's bordered on the North, West, and East by blacktop road, and on the South by a friendly cattle rancher who usually eats with us at the cook shack on Saturday night during hunting season. The white circle with the X is the camp ground, the other white circles are food plots. The red dots are other stands (climbers, lock-ons, ladders, or "high chairs").
We're a lucky group with a nice set-up. Years ago I was in a large club with lots of land. But I called it the "cut throat" club. I don't think you could have a club like ours with any more than ten members or so.
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