Buckeye21

I want to see what issues everyone has had, and what advice they would give me about the issues I am having in my current club. A dad and his son introduced me to their club back in 2015, and I joined that year. I love this club. But over the past 2 years, things have got real shaky.

There is an area of our club that we called the "meat grinder" and for good reason...tons and tons of deer back there with some really nice bucks roaming. That area works out to be about 150 acres give or take of our main property. Every time I want to go hunt back there "not in their stands, but just in a particular spot that I found" I am told "Why are you in my spot?" "Your just gonna start killing our deer?" from the dad, and his three sons that introduced me to the club. It is also not just that spot, but almost every property...I killed my first actual buck in this small block we call Town Rd. I was told after I killed that buck that "You aren't allowed to go in there anymore. Thats our spot." They act like they are joking, and I have always took it as a joke, until last year. I shot a decent 8pt back in the meat grinder, and they started to harp on me about that I killed it in "their spot." Well...I actually found that spot in August when scouting "by myself." But because I shot that deer out of one specific tree, now that is his tree? So I got a lot of crap for that. This year rolls around, and there just was a lot of animosity towards myself and other hunters. I was being told not to goto certain spots, certain properties, and being told that I should just hunt the north side of the property, and stay away from "their meat grinder." Keep in mind that this is HUNT CLUB PROPERTY. We all pay the same amount to hunt. They now are like "Everyone knows that the meat grinder is ours, but everyone wants to hunt our block of woods." Like they own it. So more time passes. We leased a new property further south. Myself and the oldest son ride over there to take a look at it. As I am walking back, I am saying that I am definitely hanging a stand back here somewhere. I decided to hang up in the cut over. The whole time this kid "20 years old" is saying how he will never put a stand up, because someone will steal it back there. So I went out that week and bought a really nice Muddy to put back there. I finally made it out there to put the stand up. They pulled up behind me, and asked "Where are you going to put your stand?" I responded with "Well I wanted to put it in the cutover, but that is too close to the road. So I think I am going to put it back in this finger in the back corner of the field, where the cutover and field meet." The son starts yelling at me saying "I found that spot, and I was going to put a stand there! Thats my spot! You can't put your stand there! You need to find a different spot!" Then even went as far as telling me to put my stand on a different property. I ended up putting the stand in MY SPOT THAT I FOUND. He never said he was going to put a stand there until I was going to. Funny right? After that they now all tell me, "You aren't allowed to hunt our stands." Like okay I haven't hunted your guys stands in 2-3 years. But now they are hunting my stand hard. The oldest kid calls that place that I put my stand in "My spot that you put your stand in." Like okay. Well more time goes, and I shoot another nice 8pt out of a spot in this meat grinder, that I scouted over the past few years. They were telling me "You just love hunting our stuff huh?" Like wow okay. So Now the arguments start to come, and tempers have been flaring since the.

Fast forward to the beginning of December 2019. I went to this box blind in a place called "tick town". I set up in there at 1:30PM EST. Sundown was 4:41pm, and legal light ended at 5:11pm. Keep all of that in mind. At 2:30-3:00pm, the second from oldest brother walks into the field, and gets in a stand 400 yards from me. Kind of disrespectful, but okay cool. At 5:00pm I took a 200+yard shot at a large doe. The beans stood 1-1/2 to 2ft tall. After the shot with my 30-06, I wasn't sure if she fell in the field or ran into the woods. She was on the edge of the woods when I shot. So I text this boy in the stand 400 yards from me. I said at 5:05pm (I am referring to the text now for the times) "Hey I am about to get down. I want to find this deer before it gets dark. I am not sure where she is at." He says "Give me 10mins." So I waited til 5:08pm. It was almost completely dark. Sun down was 4:41pm. We had 120 seconds of legal light left, and scope light was amiss at this point. So I flagged my orange hat, and got down. I made sure he saw me, and I was to the edge of the field I was in. There was a hedgerow between me and him. I ended up finding my doe in the beans. The boy left, with no help from him "With a 500 yard drag". But okay. Next day I am hunting a different field. With no warning the boy starts walking across the field "Really rude at the last 1-1/2 hour of light. 30 minutes from the time of his unpronounced arrival, he shoots two does back to back "Really unnecessary but none of my business." He comes back with "Hey I am going to drag me deer across the field now." Like dang in the last hour?? So I got mad and was like "No don't do that, you'll screw me up if you do that." The boy immediately fires back about how inconsiderate I was in walking out into the field when there was "15 minutes of Prime light left." Like yeah okay "prime light" from what? A spotlight? Prime light was at 4:40pm that day. But he start accusing me of walking in front of him, and being stupidly dangerous to walk in front of him while he's hunting with his "300+ yard gun." Like if your going to be taking a 300+ yard shot after legal shooting light in a rickety/rusted out double stand with a loose shooting rail, you are unethical. Lets go further; his times never made sense. I was already out. But it is what it is. He ends up cussing me out calling me "Inconsiderate, and an idiot." After the Past 5 years I have given them free offshore fishing trips on our flybridge, private, custom sport fish boat. They never pitched in one dime, when I gave them over $125,000 worth of offshore charter trips. "Each off shore charter trip is worth $1,200. We fish 21 days per year. Do the math." But I'm inconsiderate? Okay. So I left. I came back finally this past weekend to hunt. We were running dogs "I prefer still hunting but I will tag along on a dog hunt." We were running a piece we call "Valentines." The year prior the president of the club told me to goto this spot called the island. I seen so many deer "Not even being ran by dogs." It was crazy. Well this past weekend I was put on the back of the hunt. Didn't see anything, but my buddy killed 2, so that's always good. After the hunt, I was going to goto davids field "A spot that we still hunt." I found out the younger brother "That I got in a confrontation with a few weeks prior" was going there. Me being thoughtful, I didn't go there so I wouldn't screw him up. So I was going to goto tick town. The older brother said "Im going there, so don't hunt over there." Which I was like Okay, I won't if someones going to be there, because I am courteous of my fellow hunter. However, I thought it was very self-center to tell me that after his brother barged into the field during the hunt. But I don't complain; its a hunt club. So I went to a neighboring town to hunt. Durning that hunt, I text the president of the club and asked "Hey, can I goto the island in the marsh next weekend." He said it was okay. After my hunt, I was luring into going to the dads hunting cabin, to hangout with him and his sons. When I got there, the oldest son started yelling at me about how "Your just going to take my spot on the island?!?" Like no, the president told me I could. But he said "That is F*cked up of you to that. Your fake as f*ck. Your a B*tch." Etc Etc. Again; its a hunt club. We all have rights to hunt any spot. But then he starts accusing me of talking trash about his family, and now I got heated. His response to calling him on that was "Well I know you'd say something like that." But I ended up just saying forget it, and started to leave. He told me to never come back to this club, and that I am a P*ssy, and a fake as mother F*cker. Keep in mind I never did anything wrong. LMAO. So I left. I started talking to guys in the club and learned these new stories from other members:

1. Another member in December of 2018 was yelled at for going to spot.
2. December 2018: Same member was yelled at for shooting "his" deer.
3. November 2019: Same member was threaten and told from the oldest son "If you come back into our meat grinder, you'll get shot." So now they are threatening to shoot people.
4. Same member one week later called out the group about how they are trespassing on neighboring land. The oldest son and his dads responses were "Don't worry about what the F*ck I do."

1a. A different member in 2018-2019 was cussed out for going to hunt tick town. This member was there first, and then the oldest son, unpronounced, rolls up and looses his mind.
2a. Same member had multiple run ins this year with the oldest son and his dad.

1b. Another group of men in our club were sharing their stories about "the mustards" (their last name) and how rude they are, and how they do nothing but spot hog, and run people off.

I ended up consulting the president of our hunt club. He told them to straighten up, or they will be thrown out. Myself and almost all the other member are tired of them, and are thinking about leaving. We do not want to leave because we all love this club, but these 4 guys are ruining the club. What should we all do? Leave? Stay? Are we in the wrong for feeling like this? We all hunt to have a good time, and enjoy this sport. With these "Jack*ss's" in this club, they make it feel like nazi Germany.

Has anyone every experienced the same issue within their hunt club? What other issues have people experienced in their hunt club before.

Note: I left out a lot of details to shorten this up, but overall, this is the basic run-down. I could write a novel on them if I wanted to, and I haven't even tapped into their leach-like behavior toward our family during the summer fishing months of almost 100+ fishing trips that they don't ever pitch in for. "Not to mention they granted themselves free roam of our boat, "Beds, kitchen, living room, access when they please, our food, etc." They have scratched our paint with their sandy shoes "Its gelcoat so it is pretty expensive." and they just are so inconsiderate of my dads and I's time. "My dad feels the same way."