Hunt clubs

[sdkidaho]

I've never been a member of a hunting club so have no idea how much something like this should cost. The guy that I have training my dog does his training out at a local hunting club, and yesterday when we introduced Uli to the gun it was the first time I had been out there.

Western Wings (http://www.birdsandclays.com/) looks like a pretty nice place. You can go shoot trap or skeet, plus have a couple thousand acres that you can hunt on in season and out, as well as have a place to take your dog year round if you like.

What I'm wondering about is cost. Do their prices (http://www.birdsandclays.com/memberships.html) look "ok" to those of you that are members of this type of thing? $650 for a yearly membership - it just seems like a lot of cash to me, but as I said, I'm not familiar with this type of thing so that might be in line.

Any input is appreciated. Thanks.

[ 08-13-2005, 01:38 PM: Message edited by: sdkidaho ]

[tucker301]

That looks like a heck of a great deal to me.
I only wish we had something like that in my area.

By comparison, our local hunting club charges $1,000 to join and $250 a season membership. This gives members access to about 1000 acres of owned and leased properties for deer, turkey and small game. There's a nice clubhouse and processing building, but no lodging and shooting ranges of any kind.

We have Monday night dinners @ $7 a head and various fund raiser dances, stews, raflles, etc. throughout the year.

It's nice, but I'd drop it in a minute for your deal!

[MG Dave]

I really don't know much about hunting clubs or their prices, as I have never been a member of one. But there are some things that you might want to find out before you join.

How many members are there? 2800 acres is really not that big (and some of it is ponds, wetlands, roads, etc). It's only about 4 square miles, and if 200 hunters show up on opening day of pheasant season, there might be a problem.

Do members have priority over non-members (not likely) when it comes to the skeet and sporting clay ranges? I would hate to pay $650/$400 each year, only to have to wait in line behind a bunch of non-members every time I wanted to shoot skeet.

Are the upland birds wild, or are they born and raised in captivity, and then released just in time for the hunting season. There are a bunch of hunting ranches around here in Texas, that do just that. I've been to several of them, to shoot their sporting clays course. The pheasants were so tame, they would almost walk right up to the hunters. Frankly, that type of "hunting" just doesn't appeal to me. OTOH, finding land wth wild birds on it is getting pretty hard to do these days.

Well anyway, these are just some things to think about. Good luck finding a nice place to hunt.