OKC Sportsmans Country Club

[bigcountryok]

One of the main advantages of having a lease is the ability to work the property, lay out food plots, put up cameras, and know that when you show up to the property that monster that's on your game cam is gonna be yours and yours alone.

Guess this just seems like a place for hunters who don't know how to work a property to go out and shoot whatever comes out of the woods. Like I mentioned, most of those 62,000 acres are gonna be further than anyone really wants to drive, so most people are only going to take advantage of the properties closest to them. Without the ability to scout, tend to, and set up on the property for days or weeks, just seems like a ridiculously high price to pay for the off-chance you might stumble on something to shoot.

There's 650 million acres of public land in our state, and its all free. Sure, some of it is going to have hunting pressure, but since this seems like you have no more freedoms thru the club than hunting public land minus some pressure, I guess I just don't see the value in it, especially for more money than you'd pay for your own lease.

Honestly the quality of the places they had when I was in was pretty decent. Trust me, the club land is nothing like public land. You have the freedom to scout, you can set up permanent stands (just cant say its your spot and no one elses though), you can set out feeders and cameras.

If you want to plant crops for deer and try to claim them as your own, then no its not a good option. If you like to have multiple places to hunt and dont want to go to the same area all the time it offers you a great variety at a reasonable price for the amount of quality land you can access then its a good choice. As far as the drive, well thats up to the individual. Since most of the places are out west then for you it is going to be a drive. For us folks in the middle here, most places are 2.5hrs or less.

IMO it was better than a lease because of 1) the variety of places to hunt everything from SE OK to NW OK 2) most of the guys in the club were great to be around (but yes there is the 10%) 3) The leases were ussually loaded with game. 4) As a bowhunter I ussually had my pick of where I wanted to hunt. 4) With a lease your stuck with the game thats in the area. With the spread of the club leases you can have access to lands that holds every single legal game species in OK. I've yet to see a lease that can boast that.

I liked it, but no its not for everyone.

 

[saddlebum]

Are you speaking from experiance, or what you have heard?

There is partial truth, to some of what you have said. However, your post is pretty far off.

experience, and there are some others on here that had the same experience i had.the pig hunting on the kimbell was the best part, but ya'll don't have the kimbell anymore

 

[DanB]

Current Member here. Can't speak first hand about some of the stuff that was said here as my time with the club is limited. Before I joined I talked to quite a few current and former members about the club. Most of the former members said they really grew a bad taste for the club due to the politics. One specifically was involved in the activities of the hunt club and formed his own opinons of certain members in the leadership of the club. I can't speak for that person and I can't agree or disagree as I have yet to meet everyone in the leadership of the Hunt Club. I'll take my time forming my own opinions. I will however, note some consistencies of the opinions of certian individuals and their actions.

As to the leases. Opening of rifle is chaotic as with any spot in the woods. In order to give everyone the best opportunity of a good spot. Anyone that wants to put in for a draw hunt can. If the drawing is rigged I can't say. Who knows. But the first few days of Rifle are all drawn hunts. Once it settles down you can just about pick where you want to hunt. You can reserve a spot out to 2 weeks in advance online. So you have time to plan. Weekends fill up quick on hot leases. weekdays are usually lower reservations.

One down side as Saddlebum mentioned, you can only make a reservation for 3 straight days on one section of a lease. After that you have to pick another lease or another section of the lease. If you plan a 5 day hunt for your deer camp guys get away. Going to be hard to do that here.

The major downside to the club is size. There is no way you can, with minimal fuel and time, scout all the properties. You have to pick a few setup your stands or blinds and stick with them. Another thing is you can usually find another members stand unoccupied. a quick call to the contact number can usually grant you permission to sit in their stand.

I don't want to pay for the club for to many years. Once I have secured a place on a sizeable lease I will let my membership go. Currently I will be leasing a small section of land that is stacked with deer tracks. I'll be there on opening weekend of ML and Rifle. Archery to if I can scrape the cash together for a bow. If I can find a good sized lease with a large number of different game animals I'll do it. Until then I can hunt whatever I want on a Sportsman's Lease.

If you are on the fence. contact a member and ask them to take you to a lease. Right now is prime predator hunting and scouting time. You can get an idea of the leases. If you take advantage of the multiple opportunities the cost is worth it. If you sit on one lease and one lease only you probably will not see your monies worth.

 

[iluvlabs]

I am not trying to argue with anyone. There are likes and dislikes in anything that we do. I do like the fact that I can go hunt multiple areas and kill animals in all of them.

The opportunity is available. If you are interested, just like DanB said, contact me(or any other member) and I will talk with you, meet with you and answer any questions you might have.

 

[brennan]

It there anything like this around Tulsa?

 

[iluvlabs]

Not that I know of.

 

[TERPSTER]

I recently joined the Sportsmans Club. I have covered about 10,000 acres already. Seems great to me. I dont generally hunt more than 3 days in a row anyway, and if I did not get anything in those 3 days I will be more than happy to move to another spot. There are thousands of acres within an hour of OKC. There is a lot of acerage out west, crazy thing about the club, not everyone lives in OKC, I know, crazy concept. They also have several places to stay at on some of the further leases. You have year round access, which you dont have on most leases, so you can hunt quail, pheasant, deer, turkey, duck, goose, hog, and whatever else breathes. And you have fishing rights on almost everyone of these leases.
From what I have experienced so far it is pretty good for ME. Might not be for some other people, but for the over 200 current members it is.

 

[jstaylor62]

Its interesting that you mention Turkey season is a great time to join the club. I hated Turkey season and the restictions that it placed on access to the leases. Most of the leases are closed to access the month prior to Turkey season. The month prior to turkey season is prime hog hunting season becuase hogs have not shifted to nocturnal feeding yet. But the clubs best hog hunting leases are unavailable for the handful of turkeys to be taken. After turkey season is over, the hogs are now feeding nocturnally. The Kimball Ranch Lease was full of hogs. But they could not get enough hunting pressure. As a result, they had to bring in a helicopter and kill over 600 hogs in only week of flying. That was a ton of missed hunting opportunties for club members. Let alone all the destruction the hogs were doing to deer habitat.

From my experience, the OKC Sportsman Club does a very poor job of working with the landowners to improve the habitat for the various game. There was only one lease, the 8,000 acre Kimball Ranch Lease, that they worked extensively with the ranch manager and the Oklahoma Wildlife Department to establish a Deer Management Program. After the club members worked to get to it started, the club lost the lease to a group from Texas. So bottom line was, all the work an effort they put into the project was lost.

There is a general discentive for club members to improve habitat cutting cedars, planting food plots, etc because you have no guarantee that you will win the drawing to hunt the property that season or let alone the club will keep the lease for the next season. Also, any food plots you do put in are simply devored by the landowers overgrazing their cattle and never make it to the deer to eat. I saw the Buffalo Lease landowner overgraze their property and destroy habitat for what little Quail habitat they had.

 

[TERPSTER]

You are absolutly incorrect. I have been out every weekend last month, and even the weekend before the youth hunt. I am not sure where you get your information from or maybe you are just dated, but either way it is wrong. All the rules are right there on the website.

 

[notime]

maybe incorrect on a couple of points, but the point that this a horrible place to join for hunting is spot on.