A Membership

[tater333]

I just want to get some feed back on this question.
Do you feel like a Family Membership in a ga hunting,or any club should include your whole family,(wife,son,daughter,brother,mom,dad,aunts,uncles,step kids,grandparents, niece and nephew.) ? OR Do you feel like a family membership should just include your wife, son,daughter. Now keep in mind that with a Georiga hunting lincense you can harvest 2 bucks. In this club each membership intiteles everyone in your family to harvest 2 bucks . I feel like under 1 membership you should only be able to harvest 2 bucks period. Not 2 for your wife 2 for your son 2 for your daugther. Much less for the rest of the family members listed above. What is the rite way to go about this.
A concered member.

 

[cowhornedspike]

Time to find a new club since it must be the presidents family you are talking about or you would be talking to him instead.

Most common club rules would include immediate family only...you, wife, children.

 

[southern_pride]

To me, as far as hunting, it means wife and kids still in school.

 

[Oldstick]

To me, as far as hunting, it means wife and kids still in school.

+1.

I've never heard of any that allowed more than that, often it's less. And usually any harvest limits are for one single membership, even if family members do some of the taking.

 

[tater333]

Thanks guys i think i got my answer. Time to move on.

 

[Troy Butler]

club dues for the wife if she hunts. Kids under 18 as long as their in school dont have to pay dues.

 

[DAVE]

A membership should entitle you to what the rules say. If you are not happy with the rules why join? Find a club with rules you like. I like to hunt in trophy managed clubs that are for paying members only, no kids, no female members, no quest, so that is the kind of clubs I join. I understand most people like to have the kids, wives, quest etc. and that is great but I don't join those clubs.

 

[humdandy]

Each member in our club is allowed 2 bucks and 3 does, it does not matter who kills the deer in the family, however they are limited to 5 deer. Kid might kill all 5 deer, then their season is over on our club.

Family members over 18 counts as a guest and guests can kill only one deer.

 

[JustUs4All]

The written rules should clearly define who is included in a Family Membership.
The written rules should clearly define whether there are any buck limits beyond those emposed by State law.
A person should never join a club with unwritten or ambiguous rules.

Caveat emptor!

 

[snookdoctor]

It's up to the individual club, and should be spelled out in the rules.
Read the rules before joining a club, and if you can't live with them, move on.

 

[whchunter]

Stacked Deck

Many good previous responses e.g. "must be the president/dictator".

On most clubs, if the president/dictator has family members who hunt he write the rules to get a free ride off the other members. Sure there may be other members who get the free ride as well but you can be sure that if all members got to bring the same amount of people as the family guys did, the rules would change. A lot of these clubs look for members who don't have family members who hunt.
True many club rules state that the harvest limits apply to paying members and his family must share in his limits. But that being said, I usually see these family members being treated the same as paying members. They get to hunt separate stands and often no priority is afforded to paying members. I have also seen rule and limit violations not enforced excused since "it's just a kid or it was a lady hunter". On one occasion a guy's wife shot over the harvest limit because it was a good 10 point even though she and her husband had already bucked out. The rules said anyone who did so was automatically out of the club. The president didn't throw her out but just told her that she wasn't allowed to hunt the rest of the year. Her husband was allowed to keep hunting does.

Another issue I often see is these family members are never around on work days but come hunting season they are always there in front of the line for a free club meal or killing the club deer.

I was once in a club where the kids hunted free until they were 18. The father had gotten a free ride for 12 years and then had the gall to make a fuss because his boy wasn't allowed to continue to hunt free. He eventually left because he couldn't beat the club out of a free membership. Guess what his kid was another who never showed up for work day and was always in front of paying members when lunch was served.

Another club's rules said kids hunt free as long as they were in school. Had one member who had 2 sons who was still getting a free ride cause he said his boys were in grad school. They even were allowed to bring guests ..... thru their Daddy................

Always wanted to see what would happen if I joined one of these clubs and showed up the first day of the season with about 20 kids and 3 wives. Heh didn't you say wives and kids hunt free? Well hunt buddies I guess I never mentioned that my religion so move out of the way, we're here to hunt. Youall need to be sure to bring plenty of food on them hunt club dinner days and I shor hope you don't mind going to the end of the line behind my 20 kids and my 3 wives. They shor do love to eat some grub. Might have to sneak some extra deer off the club to feed em this year.

Even if those members who have 3-4 extra family members obey the limit rules, can you imagine the impact if a club with 2000 acres that has 20 paying members and those paying members each have 3 family members? That would put 80 people on the club if all attended at the same time. Even if only 40 are there it would put the deer noturnal very quickly and your hunting locations would become condensed due to the number of hunters.
If it's a good club, live with it ..... cause you won't have any luck changing it. I've found that most people never see any wrong unless it's the other guy doing the wrong.