Questions key in deer-club search

Joining a deer club will allow you to enjoy a high-quality hunting experience while developing lifelong friendships.
(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Bryan Hendricks)
Joining a deer club will allow you to enjoy a high-quality hunting experience while developing lifelong friendships. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Bryan Hendricks)

Joining a hunting club is an affordable way to enjoy deer hunting in Arkansas, and clubs are looking for members right now.

Deer clubs come in all sizes and flavors in the Natural State, and you can find them in all regions. Some are strictly family affairs. Others accept members by invitation only. Others experience high turnover rates and solicit members in newspapers, on convenience store bulletin boards and in publications like the Thrifty Nickel. Turnover occurs in late May and early June when members let their memberships lapse or when clubs look to replace deceased members.

I've been involved in several types of clubs, with a mixture of experiences.

The prototypical Arkansas deer club leases a large tract of industrial pine forest in the Gulf Coastal Plain. This is Arkansas' deer factory. It contains the largest deer populations and contributes the overwhelming majority of deer to the total kill. Most of these clubs are well established, and their reputations precede them.

Old Belfast Hunting Club is one such club. It has existed since at least the 1970s, and membership is by invitation. There is a long waiting list because the hunting is very good, and because the club has a reputation for congeniality. Mike Romine of Mabelvale invited me to join in 2009, and a good many chapters of my life have been written there. Old Belfast members are more than hunting buddies. Some, like Romine, are like brothers.

Like most clubs in the Gulf Coastal Plain, Old Belfast contains a mixture of mature pine forests, young pine thickets, cutovers and hardwood-lined creek bottoms. You might prefer hunting in the mountains, or you might want the quality of deer that inhabit eastern Arkansas.

Before joining such a club, a prospective member must ask questions. For many of us, the first question is price. Memberships in a Gulf Coastal Plain lease are the most affordable. Memberships in eastern Arkansas clubs are the most expensive.

Does the club allow running deer with dogs? If your style of hunting doesn't mesh with dog running, you won't be a good fit for a dog-running club.

Does the club consistently experience high turnover? If so, there is a reason. Some clubs are clannish, with one family that controls everything. They would prefer to restrict membership to family, but they need outside members to pay the annual lease fee. New members are often treated poorly. If you can find a place to put a stand, you'll often be told that somebody's Meemaw or cousin or uncle already has reserved that spot. I joined a club like that for the 2005-06 season and never hunted it. Evidently, my role was to scout new hunting locations for Meemaw and Papaw and the cousins.

The next club I joined was like the first one. When I complained to the president, he said I could hunt from my truck or from a folding chair on the roadside. A departing member gave me his stand, which caused a bit of a ruckus because a member of the controlling clan coveted that spot. I hunted there for two seasons and killed some nice deer there.

A companion question to the previous is if the club limits how many stands a member can have. Old Belfast Hunting Club limits a member to three stands. If that member wants to bring Meemaw, Papaw, all of his kids, his in-laws and out-laws, they're going to have to hunt together because it's still three stands per membership. There was a conflict years ago at Old Belfast when a member thought that Meemaw, the kids, the in-laws and out-laws were all entitled to three stands of their own. Nope. He demanded and received a refund.

Do the club bylaws require a minimum distance between stands? This is a very important safety consideration. If stands are packed dog hair thick, that's not a safe place to hunt.

Does the club have a policy on alcohol consumption at camp and in the woods? If there are no prohibitions, it's probably not a safe place to hunt. If it's a party camp, it's probably not family friendly.

How many members does the club have? What is the maximum number. If a 4,000-acre club has 40 members, that's 100 acres per member -- keeping in mind, of course, that all 1oo acres are not equal. Still, that's a comfortable ratio that minimizes competition and conflict.

It's very important to ask whether the club has management goals and rules to achieve them. Some clubs require club-legal bucks to have certain width, length or point requirements for antlers. Most clubs in eastern Arkansas have antler requirements, and they are increasingly common in the Ozarks. There are pockets in the Gulf Coastal Plain where clubs cooperatively regulate by buck quality, but they are not as common as they once were.

Does the club manage the habitat? Again, most clubs in eastern Arkansas cultivate food plots, either collectively or by individual members. It's hard to improve habitat in the piney woods, but members often pitch in with equipment and seed to plant firebreaks and roadsides, and to convert logging decks to food plots.

If you go by trial and error, you might drift in and out of several clubs before you find a home. If a friend who you trust and respect invites you to join, you've got a leg up on what could be a lifelong relationship.

Remember that an invitation comes only because a member trusts you, as well. Those hunting conversations you had at work or at church were job interviews in which you convinced the member you'll fit in with his group. Be at your best at camp, and don't let them down.

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