Ok, there are a million things to consider for starting a "hunting club"...

A few buddies and I started a non-school affiliated club while we were in high school, it was a big success, I do believe that they have gained affiliation at this point...but because of what we did, my two best friends and I were searched out by guys at other schools that wanted advice/help in getting their own started, all told I think the three of us helped get clubs started at 14 or more schools (some affiliated and some not) in surrounding areas and states...how many survived I don't know, but we did what we could to get them started.

First and foremost-safety.

Secondly, ethics and conservation.

Is it going to be weapon based also, or just hunting based-weapon based leaves more options for "play days", but also might require more from your members or even it's own insurance policy and leaves itself open for scrutiny-one mistake/accident with a weapon can kill a club, especially if someone brings a firearm to school!!! (What we did to organize guys' guns for a shoot after school was have our sponsor meet all the guys before school at the police station and have him collect the guns and ammo, then he either took them home or we were able to leave them at the police station-per our prior aggreement with the local police.

Being hunting based isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there aren't a lot of things that hunters can do for fun that don't include a gun or bow, i.e. clay shooting trips, or target competitions (rifle or bow) are fun and draw members, but it's hard getting schools involved with anything weapon related-hunting based only tends to usually turn out more like a non-live fire hunter safety course every week, so not as many are willing to join...although a strategy forum is essential to any hunting club. Being hunting only affiliated doesn't prevent all the guys in your group from going to the range together, but it does stop you from getting some discounts that ranges might offer you if you were school affiliated...you also probably wouldn't be able to compete in school shooting competitions, if there are any in your area.

Do an interest meeting to make sure you've got enough people that might join, having heavy interest in hunting in your school doesn't necessarily mean that you'll have enough interested in a club to make it a worthwhile venture.

If need be, you can always try to make a joint club with all the schools in your city, or with nearby schools, one of the clubs my buddies and I helped start combined members from 5different schools in one area, it was probably the easiest one to start and it grew VERY quickly, I suppose that has to do with the fact that they were pulling off 3-4 different communities, so funding and support didn't have to all come from one place...if there is a nearby school that has a club, consider offering a joint-hood, at least temporarily until you can get you feet wet and a good member base built.

As for starting your club, contact any local clubs (especially other school clubs near you) you can and ask them for help or advice, it's a good place to draft what will be your clubs constitution and certainly a good place to find sponsors....CONTACT THE NRA, they're all about getting new blood into shooting and can really help you avoid public suicide-there are NRA publicity consultants everywhere that are here to help educate the public, a high school hunting club would be right up their alley. Does your school have a FFA? FFA is usually a good sounding board and definately a good place to recruit members-local 4-H and Boyscout troops are good ideas too.

Find a couple faculty members that would be willing to supervise your meetings and activities and act as sponsors for your club, it's best to find some that're already interested in hunting.

Contact your local ranges, school administration, police and other LEO's, even a lawyer or judge (there's always SOMEONE who's parent is one or the other of all of the above)-find out about what would be required of your club legally, i.e. does it need it's own insurance policy/carrier, does it violate any part of your school's constitution or standing policy-does any part of that policy that would prevent your club have a loophole or is it against some other legislation?

Get the word out, have it announced on the radio, in the newspapers, etc., before you're started announce that you're looking for help and members/sponsors, as you're getting going keep your face in the public eye by announcing your activities and making any appropriate activities open to public spectators.

As for what you all should do, the non-school affiliated local youth hunting club I started at my high school did a good bit of fund raising, and we'd have shooting competitions quite a bit, most of those were pay your own way (lots of ranges will give 1/2price to groups), and the winners got good prizes, gift certificates to cabelas or hunting stores, hunting gear, etc. Competitions were based on IBO, Outdoor, Bullseye, benchrest, races, etc...anything that appealed to your group, we usually took an interest survey before planning any event. At the end of the year, we gave out prizes for everything you could think of, most improved shooter, best game harvested (everyone gets in on a longest cock feather contest), widest variety of game harvested, most game harvested, then there was a drawing for a guided black bear hunt, most active shooter (to the guy that had the most entries in ours or other competitions-barring documentation.

We did "equipment drives" and took donations of all kinds from the community, we attempted to buy used equipment-or have it donated-so that we could build our own battery and supply, for example, we accepted 7 .22lr rifles that were donated and we bought 4more used .22lrs from individuals with money that we raised by selling items that others had donated-funniest part was that one man donated some items but wouldn't donate a rifle, but he sold it to us later for less than we sold his items for!!! We took hunting related donations of hunting stands, blinds, gun cases, archery equipment, reloading equipment...a local gun shop donated a safe for us to house our rifles in-funny thing was that we left it at his store because we didn't have a clubhouse-we used the school as our meeting place...another local club donated a continual supply of gun locks for new members, as well as for our battery arms.

We allowed our members to "check out" stands and blinds for hunting seasons, and volunteer instructors would come and use them to show us how to properly hang stands/pick positions/set blinds.

We also had some classes offered by local marksmen, hunters, reloaders, trappers, police officers (pistol shooting), and fishermen, all of these were volunteer basically, although we tried to do something nice for the "instructors", everything was provide your own equipment...the biggest thing that we worked for the first two years was .22lr shooting, we'd shoot at least once every other week, controlled shooting at targets for accuracy-hence our most improved shooter award. The club bought/rented videos about hunting and shooting, worked with calls and tested equipment to provide an equipment review...one local store allowed us to buy some equipment at 1/2 his cost, he'd cover the other half, and we'd provide reviews to him about the products-some were even ran in the local newspaper.

There are a million things to do as a club, and a million ways to run a club, all of ours was by vote/suggestion for the most part, we had a government, and basically did what the majority suggested/would be interested in-not many of us wanted to shoot an outdoor match at 60m, so we voted to change the ranges a bit for example. As a part of our government, we had a strict policy of punishment for screw ups, we were known as the high school club so even though we weren't supported by the high school, we were watched very closely by people concerned about guns in school, our sponsors were mostly school faculty-we were continually trying to get affiliation, so we wanted to always project a good image and do well in society...any harm to that wouldn't end us in suspension like a school club might, but it wouldn't help our chances at becoming a school group vs. an independant local group.

Stress safety at all times, especially if you're a weapons based group.

I really didn't mean to make this that long, but there are a LOT of important things to keep in mind to make a club survive, "The devil is in the details", neglect one important item and it can kill your club, or at least prevent it from taking off as well as it might...good luck with it, it's good to see someone carrying on the sport and fighting to get schools involved with it-there's no sense in taking hunting and shooting sports from school kids, banning a clay shooting team doesn't prevent a kid from bringing a 9mm to school and shooting everyone.