Looking for a Duck Club/lease for 2019. Anyone have any good suggestions and estimated cost?

Thanks,

Michael

What area are you looking?

ttha_aggie_09 said:

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What area are you looking?

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Sorry that might help. I live in Houston. So anywhere within a moderate drive of Houston. I usually go down to sea drift but I want to try out some new areas.

Thunderbird is who I would recommend. Rob Sawyer who runs the duck + goose hunting is good as gold.

Ducks4brkfast said:

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Thunderbird is who I would recommend. Rob Sawyer who runs the duck + goose hunting is good as gold.

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Robs a solid guy! Todd is running the club and does a phenomenal job. I'll be there in the morning.

also depends on your budget.....
last I heard Thunderbird did a duck "lite" deal that was a little north of $2k. Full regular membership was $4500.
there's also Blessing Hunt Club. I was on there and it was good. Some other ags still on it as well. It ends up being about $1500 or so per gun.
I think Run n Gun now has membership deal as well but don't know any details.

Thanks for all the suggestions! Keep em coming. Not really working on a budget but if a club for 2k is just as good and a more expensive one then I'll take the cheaper one. I've heard a lot of good things about thunderbird so it has me intrigued. Does anyone know if they offer potential membership hunts?

Reach out to Todd. I'd imagine he'd do that and show you the properties.

Thanks!

I'm getting back in the club game most likely next year. Moved out of state for 2 years but just got back. I was on Blessing for 5 years and will probably start there. I'll also be reaching out to Thunderbird. Let me know if you're putting a group together, my old crew may not all be interested next year so I may be looking for people.

I can tell you quite a bit about BHC, don't know much on Thunderbird other than it's supposed to be good, but cost is higher.

Thanks, I'll let you know! I'm curious why Thunderbird is SO much higher. 4200 per gun vs ~1700. I know Thunderbird has lodging but I'm curious what makes it worth that much more. Has anyone hunted both?

Lodging, property quality/cost and management style are (in my opinion) why they are higher. I've been a member of Run n Gun and Thunderbird. Both good outfits with unique characteristics about them.

Is anyone familiar with Bucksnag Hunt club in Garwood?

My cousin has been a member at Bucksnag for years. I have hunted with him 10 times or so.

PM me and I'll give you my thoughts.

it wouldnt let me PM you for some reason.

Bump. I'm interested as well in joining a group if someone is thinking about getting a group together.

Catfish, you're experience with Blessing was pretty good and you think it would be worth getting back on?

trip98 said:

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also depends on your budget.....
last I heard Thunderbird did a duck "lite" deal that was a little north of $2k. Full regular membership was $4500.
there's also Blessing Hunt Club. I was on there and it was good. Some other ags still on it as well. It ends up being about $1500 or so per gun.
I think Run n Gun now has membership deal as well but don't know any details.

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Member of Thunderbird (great club btw). The "lite" deal isn't a thing anymore, only the normal membership.

Uvalde Moon said:

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Is anyone familiar with Bucksnag Hunt club in Garwood?

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Hunted it this year, seems like a good outfit.

Oruc Reis said:

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Uvalde Moon said:

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Is anyone familiar with Bucksnag Hunt club in Garwood?

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Hunted it this year, seems like a good outfit.

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Friend is a member so I've hunted with them the last few years. Great food, lodging, and hunting every single time. Probably the oldest outfit on the prairie. Have always hunted just a few minutes from the lodge.

Downside for you. Pretty sure their wait list is multiple years long.

So the membership now is 4,500 per gun at Thunderbird? It doesn't have any info on how much on their website that I can find. You feel like it was worth the price?

Most of the folks are happy with Bucksnag from what I've ever seen, or at least I haven't seen a ton of **** talked about them.

It seems like Bucksnag is not a day club and that you must stay the night prior to hunts?

Yeah, annual club maybe I misread the post.

No worries, I only live about 40 min from Garwood so I really would't need to stay the night but it seems they require it.

4700 if you do all your workdays. I really like it, and felt it was worth while. Will be re-upping next year.

1. Members are all good guys who are serious about duck hunting. The cost keeps out the guys who want a place to go blackout on the weekends and "hunt" if their crippling hangovers will let them. Not to say its not a good time, but everyone is there to duck hunt first then everything else comes after.

2. Group management - You can join solo and not worry about it. You get to hunt with a lot of different guys and you don't have to worry about it. You quickly figure out who you like to hunt with and can make your own groups from there if you want.

3. Draw system is 100% fair. No logging frantically into a website, no shenanigans. Anybody can get the best pond

4. Ponds - this isn't a place that has 3 ponds that are worth a damn and the rest are a crap shoot. They are all great duck ponds from a habitat perspective and the hunting pressure is light and well managed. Of course there are a few staple ponds that almost always produce, but unless you draw way in the back there are usually plenty of options that have a great chance at filling straps

5. Properties - may not be important to some, but I hate hunting square / rectangle rice fields and crawfish ponds. All the properties are really good looking and the ponds are unique looking and "ducky". Also all have critical mass to them which allows management to actually manage the pressure.

6. Management - the club is like a commercial farm -the crop is ducks. Club managers do a ton of work managing water levels, scouting, etc. There are a lot of rules, but I just followed my "don't be an idiot" rule and never had an issue with anything.

I think you can very easily find a cheaper club that has some of these things, but in my experience its pretty difficult to find a place that does all of them well and puts a lot of birds on the ground as well.

As a fellow THC member, this guy couldn't have summed it up better. Well said!

Thanks for the info Wonderful. That is really helpful

MrWonderful said:

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3. Draw system is 100% fair. No logging frantically into a website, no shenanigans. Anybody can get the best pond

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This is a big deal if I were looking at joining a club. I hunted on BHC for a couple years and this was the way their blind reservation worked at the time. It may have changed since then, so a current member could chime in on that.

I know a fair number of guys on hunting clubs. And what's funny is the one hunt I went on with them was actually my worst hunt all year. I killed far more ducks on public land, but none of those guys liked the idea of wanting to work for birds. They seem to like pulling up to the blind in their lifted Rangers and doing as little work as possible. I'm not trying to brag/harp on them too much, just showing that you can kill ducks without paying a boatload of money.

mneisch said:

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I know a fair number of guys on hunting clubs. And what's funny is the one hunt I went on with them was actually my worst hunt all year. I killed far more ducks on public land, but none of those guys liked the idea of wanting to work for birds. They seem to like pulling up to the blind in their lifted Rangers and doing as little work as possible. I'm not trying to brag/harp on them too much, just showing that you can kill ducks without paying a boatload of money.

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You're right. Some people don't have the time to invest in scouting and planning a hunt like that every weekend on public land. Hence the reason for joining a club.

I also find this comment a little odd:

Quote:

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They seem to like pulling up to the blind in their lifted Rangers and doing as little work as possible

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Are you suggesting they just walk from the gate to make it more challenging? Make what more challenging? You're hunting a known blind (most of the time) and out setting up decoys and then hopefully working birds into the spread once daylight hits... what more work should they be doing on Private Land?

For the record, I don't drive my ranger out to the blind and probably never will but if someone does, who cares? Most of the time we're talking a hundred yards or less. Maybe I am missing something but what extra glory is there to be had walking an additional 100-200-300 yards, just cause?

This is 100% true. With public hunting you have a lot more ground you can choose to go to, can pick your weekends, etc. BUT...you also have to race people to your spot, deal with jackasses setting up on top of you, and there's still a big investment of gear to make it work, oh and you need to be able to scout before hand

I cut my teeth on public land, and there is still nothing better than getting it done on public land. But for those of us without the time to make public land work, the clubs are the best bet. Thing with the club is you don't always get to choose where you're going to hunt. So if you're on a low draw pond, any one weekend might suck. But over the course of the season I have better hunts more consistently than my buddies who do it on public land.

As for working for ducks, its a spectrum. Some guys drive into the blind, chunk decoys out haphazardly and get to it, but some of us put out a lot of decoys, pay attention to what the ducks are telling you and move around / change setups pretty frequently.

Also - knowing you have a spot for sure and nobody is going to beat you there or roll in on top of you is the best thing for your blood pressure there is.

ttha_aggie_09 said:

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mneisch said:

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I know a fair number of guys on hunting clubs. And what's funny is the one hunt I went on with them was actually my worst hunt all year. I killed far more ducks on public land, but none of those guys liked the idea of wanting to work for birds. They seem to like pulling up to the blind in their lifted Rangers and doing as little work as possible. I'm not trying to brag/harp on them too much, just showing that you can kill ducks without paying a boatload of money.

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You're right. Some people don't have the time to invest in scouting and planning a hunt like that every weekend on public land. Hence the reason for joining a club.

I also find this comment a little odd:

Quote:

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They seem to like pulling up to the blind in their lifted Rangers and doing as little work as possible

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Are you suggesting they just walk from the gate to make it more challenging? Make what more challenging? You're hunting a known blind (most of the time) and out setting up decoys and then hopefully working birds into the spread once daylight hits... what more work should they be doing on Private Land?

For the record, I don't drive my ranger out to the blind and probably never will but if someone does, who cares? Most of the time we're talking a hundred yards or less. Maybe I am missing something but what extra glory is there to be had walking an additional 100-200-300 yards, just cause?

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No, I'm not implying that they should walk in to their spot rather than driving up. I'm talking about these guys in particular, where I have offered to take them out on public land (where the hunting has been consistently great), but lost all interest when I commented to them it would require wading in several hundred yards. Would I take a 4-wheeler on public land if I could? You bet. But I don't totally disregard a good spot just because it isn't easy.

Public or private doesn't matter to me. I don't want new folks to the sport to think it is required to spend $4500/year to kill ducks.

Nobody is saying that $4500 is needed to get into waterfowl hunting though. This wasn't a thread to get into a pissing match about public v private. It's mainly informative about duck clubs for folks interested in going that route.

Don't want it to be a pissing match at all. My experience has been different than others here, where the club(s) just haven't produced on the hunts I went on. This was definitely a weird year though where the big ducks just never seemed to make it down.