Does your club allow guests and if so, why?

[Gun Guru]

No guests on opening weekends. Members may bring a guest twice. I'm VERY selective on accepting new members. All our guys root for each other and are happy when anyone else bags one. I'm always surprised when people call me a week before season starts asking about openings. All the stands have been cleaned, bush hogging done, trails cleared and foodplots in. NOW they want in. No way.

 

[Gordylew]

LONG POST, get your coffee and a snack.
The worst guest issue I can remember was a piece of property that my hunting partner's uncle owned. We did not have a set rule because the uncle had rein over who got to hunt. The uncle was a millionaire builder/ developer. He would spring a guest on us a day before they would arrive. We had worked doing all the maintance and food plot prep all year long, let 2yo bucks walk to be told the day before opening day of rifle season that a guest was coming and be asked to put his guest in a good spot. Like clock work the guest would blast that 2yo 8 pointer that we had feed and let walk all bow season. The frosting on the chit sandwich cake was the uncle's new wife had a teenage daughter that whined to her new stepdad that her dad didn't have a place to hunt. I guess to impress the new wife he gave free access to not only the Husband-in law but his dad as well hunt to the property. They never showed up for cleanup day, food plot week or camp meetings. He and his dad would show up opening day of gun season for their 10 day "yearly vacation". They would stay the whole week driving their 4 wheelers over the whole property. hunt anyone's stand they found and blast every deer they saw. The first year I met one of them at the gate coming out with a 10" wide 7 pointer. I commented that deer didn't meet club rules, he stated it ran by fast and didn't have time to check it. In talking with another member, he mentioned the next day they had a spike hung up in camp. Talking to another member he said they ran into him several days later with another spike. About the third year I had built a box blind big enough for me and my 3 year old daughter to sit in over a food plot I had paid a guy with a dozer to clear. I just wanted a place away from everyone that we could sit and watch deer. I found sign of a big buck in the bottom on the edge of the property. This was before cameras when people actually hunted sign and used wordsmanship to kill deer. I waited to hunt the spot in November. The first week of November I went and hunted in Illinois. When I got back, I asked if anything had been killed, I was told that Dufus senior had killed a real nice 10 pt. I was told he said he killed it on the opposite end of the property (1600 acres). I started hunting hard, I hunted every day from 2nd week of November to mid December. No big buck showed, the sign disappeared. One morning in mid December I was sitting waiting again for the mystery buck, when I noticed a glare about 60 yards away. I put my binoculars on it to see the top of a ladder stand shining in the mid morning sun. I was perplexed. I got down and walked over to find a brand new ladder stand with Dufus seniors name on it. I was in rage. I knew where the big buck I was after had gone. I had wasted a whole season hunting a ghost.
Skip forward 6 years I had taken my daughter down and we were sitting on a gas line on the property. A real nice buck stepped out and I got my daughter ready. She made the shot with a NEF .223 rifle. The buck didn't act like it was hit. I walked down and looked for sign but found nothing. I told her she may have missed but I would come back in the morning after the morning hunt and really do a thorough search. The next morning, we were back in the stand. A nice 7pt steps out and she is now shooting a .260. I again I prompted her. She makes the shot and the deer drops in its tracks. after the jubilation I get to thinking, she just made a great shot with a rifle she was completely unfamiliar with. She was dialed in with the .223, she may have not missed that bigger buck. I decided I would come back in the morning when she was at school to look for that buck. The next morning, I get there to find that my buddy's brother was there sitting in the stand with a kid from the neighborhood. I heard them shoot. No biggie, I will wait till they are not there. Every day for two weeks straight the brother was in that stand with another kid. It was a neighbor kid, the new wife's brothers' kid, some random kid from church......Every kid shot or wounded a deer. ended up killing or wounding like 12 deer. I never got to go look for the daughter's buck.
Guest you ask. I no longer hunt in clubs.

 

[Torn]

This morning I stood in the yard and watched a nice 9 point walk around sniffing for does about 40 yards away. He stomped and blew about 20 times but I was downwind so he never picked me up. A few minutes later while he was standing and sniffing the air, two does walked down the mountain being followed by a young 6 point. The large buck saw the does and went after them which put them and the young buck on the run back up the mountain. No clubs, no guests, no hassles.

 

[charlie hotel lima]

My problem was, I shoot a decent deer then everybody wanted to hunt where I was........ Didn't matter if I was quiet about it. Seemed like they still always found out.......

Every time.

 

[BigMike]

Damn, this hunting club stuff is serious business......