Thread: Finding hunting club within 3 to 5 hours drive of gulf shores

I have recently moved to gulf shores area from indiana. I am AVID outdoorsman which means that I love to hunt particularly deer and predator hunt almost as much as I love to fish. Being that I'm new to this area I do not quite have the hunting options that I had back north. I plan going back north to hunt at least once a season if possible but even that will not satisfy my hunting itch. I know that there is public land within decent driving distance whether in alabama or Ms or la or FL. But I'm interested in joining a hunting club. yet being from indiana I'm not familiar with the procedures of joining or what clubs I should look into trying to join. I'd appreciate any and all advice regarding joiNing a club and or info on acquiring pvt permission even if for coyotes and other varmints and/or decent public land to hunt. Please feel free to contact me via txt thru 251-609-0998 or respond via thread.

Check craigslist...I see hunting clubs posting looking for members all the time

Or, you can check Land, Leases, and Hunting Clubs - Aldeer
Great bunch of people on the ALDEER site

Having had a lot of experience with hunting clubs, I'd opt for a personal recommendation. Some are great but others can be a real nightmare s**t hole. Drunks and outlaws and some are just downright dangerous. At a minimum get a couple of recomendations before committing to one.

ETA - ASK QUESTIONS!!! Do they have a rack size limit? Width minimum? If no restrictions at all, they may be a "if it's brown, it's down" type club. Chances of a nice buck in a place like that are slim except by accident. Often times, a fork is the norm with 6s occasionally and 8s rarely-and then small 8s. Are they managed? What about does? Required to take X number per year? Dogs? What are neighboring clubs like? Hog problem? Squirrel and coon hunting with dogs? Ask about assessments for improvements. Fines for rule violations? What are the rules. Ask about stand choice.

That said, my apologies if you already know all this. Southern deer clubs can be mighty strange when it come to how they are run. So judt throwin all that out there. Might be just what you paid for it.

I feel your pain I moved here from South Jersey and had great land to hunt.I hunted in Pennsylvania on private ground where seeing 300 deer a day is common.Bedford county pa is a bow hunters dream.South Jersey is great for hunting also bigger deer and farm country.i hunted on a private farm and leased another wooded area with some bow buddies.I belonged to 2 shooting clubs close to my house and loved to go trap shoots on Friday night and sporting clay shoots on Sundays.After being down here I sold shotgun sheel reloaders.I even gave 3 deer stands away to my close friends.
Now if you want to book a hunting trip you need to go to Harrisburg Pa.hunting and fishing show in February at the farm complex.They have people there booking trips in every state.Its worth the trip for deer hunting info.Book trips to Canada,Mexico out west I mean every where.I booked a trip for a week to Maine once for 500 bucks on a paper company land over a million acres to hunt with private cabins.Crazy bear and deer hunts.The paper company who owns the groung charged me 7 dollars a day to hunt there land.It took me 4 days to kill a big 8 pointer 187 pound deer.lots of cheap hunts and lots of big bucks hunts there also.My friends booked to Canada and got huge deer one scoring 196.
Down here I'm happy fishing all around the Gulf and love getting up north to fish but my hunting days are over.I did have some great deer hunting days and stopped my streak hunting in Pa killing a deer there 20 years in a row rifle hunting.
Jersey I did good both bow and shotgun and muzzle loader.
my neighbor here did join a club Last year and his daughter 15 got her first buck.If I here of some club you can join here I will send you a private message.Good luck finding a club to hunt.These guys on this site are the best somebody will help you and take care Tom

The only advice that I can give is to look on Craigslist and for MS clubs specifically, go to Bullnettlenews. As someone already said, be sure you find out what type of club it is before you commit. I would advise finding a place at least 100 miles from the coast, or else you are going to be amazed by the miniature "deer-like" animals that you are going to encounter. As for MS, look at the minimum spread rules by region. That will give you an idea what the difference is in the size of animals that each region produces.

Your best bet for trophy deer is in Alabama's Black Belt region-a banana shaped section in the lower third of the state that has dark fertile soil and HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH DEMOGRAPHICS although a lot of African Americans live in the area. I hunted a property in Marengo County for 4 years that was semi-trophy managed and we saw several good sized bucks in the 120-140 range and a few larger. A lot of the properties in this area have a good population of wild turkeys and wild(feral) hogs. Expect to pay between $2000-$5000 for an annual membership in a good club with lodging, food plots and a decent road system that includes deer, turkey and small game.
Information & Services for owners of private forest land in Alabama click on lease hunting property or join hunting club.

There is/was some good hunting in Wilcox Co. AL. I agree that you should try to get some info about club rules and such before signing up. Be careful not to join a club that is two or three hours away from you and most of the members are local to the club, You will always be disadvantaged as to availability of prime spots unless there is a decent clubhouse where you can stay on or close to the property.

This guy used to live in Wilcox County!

Chillinfish beat me to it. If you want quality deer and turkeys, the Black Belt area is the place to find a good club. And its all within your stated driving distance.
How you pay determines what you get.
Low-cost clubs may just have a sign-in board and food plots, no camp house, etc..
High end clubs may have a bunk house, skinning shed & walkin cooler, etc...

In New Jersey we would ask farmers if we could work by doing odd jobs for them in exchange for some hunting on there land.Farmers welcomed us and let us hunt some farms so it payed off a little work to help them goes a long way.My one friend roofed old barns and did what it took to hunt a few special farms.The farmers liked us and even gave us crops from time to time.I went to Pa.and hunted on a private farm and did great hunting there.A friend of the farmer there told his neighbor about us willing to work and after helping him let us hunt with his family.And they would love to see us during hunting season and we all were like family.Sure there are a lot of private ground where you wish you could hunt but again there are farmers who will let you hunt if you help them out some.And treat there land like its yours.Friends asked me how did you get to hunt there it's no secret if you don't ask you will never know.Never hunted a day in Alabama getting older now but if I was younger I would find some good farms and start asking farmer if they needed any help in exchange for a few days of hunting.I would bet some would say yes.

Here is a link to the company that leases out International Paper land for hunting. They normally charge around $7-$8 an acre and update new tracts fairly often. Just another option if you have trouble finding a club.

SR231

Here is a list of private land that is for lease from landowners:
http://www.afoa.org/hunt.htm