U making my head hurt quit thinking so much, no way in hell to keep up with that. Waste of time imo.

Some folks are getting hung up on the words and not looking at the math. A club with 5000 acres and only 15 members would likely cost you over $3000 to join. Under this model, you can join for $500. That seems like a steal.

Here's what I like about your model. Having a background in economics, I like the fact that those who consume more, pay more. Why should all members pay the same when some guys are trigger happy and some want to be selective? Killing more means paying more, that is an economically efficient way to do it. Having been in several clubs over the years, there's a perceived negative incentive. Some guys feel like they have to kill something or else they wasted money on a membership. This can lead to someone pulling the trigger on a deer they otherwise may not have shot, hence the negative incentive. This model somewhat addresses that because the dues are cheap unless you start killing a bunch.

Cluster.......

Who is going to pay the lease to start. Because $7,500 isn't going to pay the lease.
What happens when that person doesn't get their money back is enough deer aren't killed.

In my experience, you would lose your shirt and over harvest a property. The way I calculate it. This kind of operation would easily cost $65,000/year just to cover lease and food plots, not including other overhead. The $500 dues brings in $7500. That leaves $57,500 in the red. Using your proposed price structure, then here is what it would take to break even: 230 does, OR 115 underage bucks, OR 230 first mature bucks, or 2,300 green field hunts. It is not sustainable financially or biologically.

I would be the first to sign up. One I don't deer hunt much so if I went three times then the 500 would be well worth it. I don't really like killing deer as there is too much work after the kill so I would only shoot if I wanted some meat. It would be a win win for me. But I can't even find a club so it sounds too good to be true.

Ok so the math needs a little tweaking then. The land can get smaller or the initial buy can be higher.

Say $1500 initial dues

I'm not here saying that this would work the way it is. I'm saying it a shake up to the normal club routine. I think it's got amazing potential if it's tweaked.

What better venue of experts to try it out in front of than Aldeer Brothers

I was thinking the same thing. Shoot one really great buck a year for $750 and not have to deal with a lot of members running all over the place. Should make for a good hunting experience.

With that said, it would take a whole lot of determination by president and accountant/treasurer to make it work.

I think you better charge $3,000 per member and offer 'rebates' for work days, 0 deer killed under 3.5 years old, etc. I don't fault you for having incentives to follow the rules but you have to be able to pay the bills. And forget depending on folks to pay up in arrears. That isn't going to work.

Good thinking, I think you figured out more than the op had thought of, no way would such a thing work, I could see someone losing a lot of money the first year of the club. Then finding members would be like finding dinosaur teeth, some would probably pay the 500 an kill everything they saw an not turn anything in, the at the end of the year there would be no $$$$.

I think you'll have a bunch of people sneaking deer out

I like the concept, but I think it would be virtually impossible to enforce.

I've been blessed to see a lot of deer in my days, but I have yet to see a doe worth $250 to shoot.

Take it from someone who has put together several clubs, that business model will fail every time. You will have people sneaking deer out. Turnover every year will be through the roof. You as the president will never get to hunt due to dealing with all the bitching and moaning as well as all the little things you will have to deal with. It's a losing proposition.


The last club I put together, we sat down as a collective group and asked what rules you would like to see. When one was bought up it was written down and voted on. I still had people bitching to me about the rules all season. I could only imaging throwing in fees per deer killed. Holy cow

Just trying think of a way to eliminate that so called bitching whining and crying you referred to. I thought that all of the president was handle the crybabies. Hunting was a bonus. I know why now I lease a little piece of property and pay through the nose for it.

The major problem would be the cheating, this type of model would be promoting that for the kind of man who thinks this way , and atleast a few of your members would try it . Imagine the amount of turmoil that would arise after someone was caught. People would start wondering how many been doing it , how many has he killed . The best way to run a club is to have a good canp and find like minded guys , trophy hunters if that's what your after and charge for it . The hunt is a hunt wether you pull the trigger or not . Put on tight restrictions and grow trophys .. Best way IMO. If Trophys is your main priority anyway.

Rickybobby, you make a good point about eliminating drama. Too many clubs bring this on themselves by failing to vet new members. Group chemistry is crucial. It can make or break a club. A lot of problems are solved if you first assemble a group of like-minded individuals. My other advice is to never manage by committee.

I totally agree with you. I would love to find 200-250 acres to lease myself. That would be ideal.

I got so fed up with trying to run clubs. The last one I ran, I had to threaten one idiot with being kicked out because if he wanted to hunt a field and someone was pegged out on it, he would just strap a climber on and walk through the woods, get to where he could see it, and hunt it when a members wife was in the shooting house. I had one guy get butthurt and quit and took 3 members (his sons) with him because he would put a big plug of Red Man in his face in the morning and spit all in the shooting house floors. I had carpet in all of our shooting houses and it had turned black with all the spit on it. The women in the club were getting grossed out by this and complained. I asked the guy nicely and he acted like I had slapped his wife or something, so the second time I "asked" it was not so nicely. Had to replace all the carpets in 15 shooting houses in the off season that year. I had another guy shoot a buttonhead in a cutover with me watching him through the binocs from another stand (we were 4 point on one side or 15 inches wide landowner rule) and then just lied to my face and said it was a coyote when I asked him what he shot. I had one who followed me everywhere I went. I put a climber up in a hardwood bottom that was difficult to get to and the next weekend I went in there and my stalker had put a double ladder two feet from my climber. Incessant complaining of the rules that they voted on. I had one member get out the first year because I made him pay a guest fee when he brought his scumbag son down there, and I didn't make another guy pay a guest fee the next weekend because he brought his relative down who was active military and on leave from defending this country in Iraq. (It stated in our rules that active military would not pay a guest fee). I can't remember but I think it was Marcus1 from this forum that was the guy who brought him if I'm not mistaken. I had one guy who would lay up in the bed all day and then go out at 4 pm and then whine to me that he wasn't killing any deer. I didn't allow any drinking at the club whatsoever and if you took one sip you was not coming through the gate. If I found out about it I was coming and getting you out of the woods. We had a little camping spot leased a couple of miles away and you could feel free to pop a top there at the end of the day. Had a couple of members complain that they should be allowed to drink and that they were grown. My response: Go find you another hunting club. I had a pet peeve from a couple of previous clubs where members would come in from hunting in the mornings, lay around for an hour and then hop on their 4 wheelers or trucks and go scouting or to "move a stand". I told them 4 wheeler traffic would be limited to 1. Going to your stand, and 2. Going to pick up an animal you had shot. If you weren't on that 4 wheeler for any of those two reasons, you needed to stay the hell off of the roads and quit riding field to field "scouting". I enforced that rule hard. If you gotta move a stand do it when you go in to hunt. Had two guys get in a fight one time because they guy would bring his dog to the club on weekend and put it on one of those cable systems that goes from tree to tree like a clothesline. The dog got off of the cable one night and stole a sausage off of the grill (I say that loosely because it was 3 cinder blocks with a grate on top of it) that the dude was cooking. Then the next couple of days the guy that got the sausage stolen would just go over and let the dog off of the cable so it would run off, while the owner was hunting. I mean it was like a bunch of grown men acting like children. If you really want to get a lesson in human behavior and personality differences, you need to sign up to run a hunting club.

All of this happened over a 2.5 year period. We had a nice setup, rules were not intrusive and were voted on by the membership. Didn't stop the complaining though.


Man I just got tired of all that mess.

good luck on that one.