I believe there are at least 200 deer on these 900 +/- acres, maybe more, including some bucks in the 180s to 200s (gross) that have been seen but we have thus far been unable to kill. Since implementing a big buck program in the 2001-02 season, we have killed 12 regulation bucks ranging from 118 inches to 175 inches gross, 4 camp illegal bucks (all of them 2.5 years old) ranging from 105 to 118 inches and 80 does. As a result of the 4 camp illegal bucks, I have changed the buck guidelines from 125â? minimum to 4.5 years old minimum such that rather than guessing on rack sizes, we will age deer based on body characteristics. This might result in some 3.5 year olds being killed but there is no way to mistake a 2.5 year old for a 4.5 year old. See below for how I will deal with 3.5 year old kills.
This land is the site of the Battle of Raymond in May, 1863 which was part of the Vicksburg Campaign (www.battleofraymond.org). There have been several Re-Enactment events on the Highway 18 side of the club (May, 1988, May, 2001, Nov, 2004 and Nov, 2005). There are no such events planned currently according to the Friends of Raymond website. There is a pipeline under construction currently. The ROW has been cleared and dirt work done. Next they will lay the pipe and then mulch and seed (I think with ryegrass). I will locate two food plots on the pipeline- one on each side of the creek.
There used to be a lot of turkeys on this place but since the timber was cut in 2000, the turkey flock has diminished to the point where I did not see or hear a gobbler in the 2007 season, killed the only gobbler I saw or heard in the 2008 season and killed one gobbler in the 2009 season. Unless this changes, I reserve the turkey hunting for myself and it is not included in the club memberships.
The dove hunts are in fields by the roads so they donâ??t mess up deer hunting. Dove hunting is by club only, meaning I schedule dove hunts for the club so you canâ??t go unless I schedule a hunt. Dove hunts are on the weekends only so everybody has the best chance to come on the hunt. Dove hunting is in September and October only. Some years we have lots of doves (and thus lots of hunts). Other years, we donâ??t.
No squirrel, rabbit or other small game hunting is included in the club memberships. The memberships are deer and dove hunting only.
2- Sections. Deer hunting is in 11 sections based on whoever checks in first at the Check Station. Habitat includes select cut hardwoods along four different creeks, clear cut hardwoods reforested with pine and in natural hardwood regeneration on hills, abandoned/grown up cropland, sage grass fields, active cropland and several tracts of uncut hardwood timber. Timber cuts were in 2000 so there is lots of thick stuff in the cutovers on the hills and in the select cut along the creek, including tons of browse of all types. Cropland rotates between corn, cotton and soybeans. 2007 crop was corn. 2008 crop was soybeans with a little cotton. 2009 crop is 100% corn.
3- Club Stands. I have furnished approximately 20 field stands (tripods, shooting houses and shooting blinds). Use of these stands is included in your dues. Each member is required to furnish two stick ladders (API or Summitt are best) at least 20â?? in length (each) and two quality, comfortable lock ons to go with them. These stands are considered club stands. I will put them up but you have to furnish them. These stands are yours so you can take them down if you decide to get out of the club. Use club stands and stands erected by members at your own risk. Members must check with me BEFORE hunting out of a climber, putting up their own lock-ons or hunting a ground location during firearm seasons only so the safety ramifications can be thoroughly discussed and thought through. I reserve the right to say no if there is a safety concern. Maximum possible safety belt usage required at all times when using deer stands including when ascending and descending with climbing stands. No flagging tape allowed. Use deer decoys at your own risk. No shooting across fields towards public roads or towards houses and other structures. No alcohol consumption before or during hunts. No littering at stands or anywhere else. No adjustment of covering on field stands is allowed. If you want to change the covering during your hunt, that is fine but change it back before you leave. Leave the tops on all tripod seats down after your hunt and the bottoms on all lock-on stands up.
4- Seasons. BRHC bow hunting begins on November 1 from club stands only in 9 out of 11 sections (PGR-6 and 18-5 are closed until opening day of gun season). In other words, we do not bow hunt in October and we do not bow hunt our entire acreage so as to minimize the amount of pressure we are putting on our deer. We then pull out of the woods and hunt our field stands only during the first gun season. We then hunt club stands only in the fields and woods during the first primitive weapons season. Beginning with the second gun season, you can hunt wherever you want (club stand or personal stand) subject to the safety rules of the club. No â??youth seasonâ? hunting is allowed since this is not fair to members who do not have youths.
5- Basic Hunting Rules. All hunter safety rules and game regulations must be followed, including taking great care when getting into and out of club stands and verifying that club stands are safe to hunt. All state and federal hunting regulations must be followed including prohibition against baiting and/or supplemental feeding. No trespassing on adjacent land is permitted. If you wound a deer that crosses a property line call me at 601-259-4789 so I can call the adjoining landowner. Hunting is by section on a first come, first served basis except during the big weekends when we have a draw. All members must check in and out at the Check Station before and after each deer hunt by hanging their nametag on the section they are hunting in and logging into the logbook in two places- the Daily Log and the Section/Stand Log. I will intercede if a member â??camps outâ? in a given section and if another member wants to hunt there but this has never been a problem before. Members should record their hunt in the logbook at the Check Station by signing in before the hunt and logging out after the hunt. Please be truthful- future management decisions are based largely on the logbook information. You must identify does as does and fawns as fawns. This is critical in determining our fawn at heel ratio, which is very important for deer management. $5 fine per entry that is not entered in both the Daily Log and Section/Stand Log and/or if does and fawns are not identified in the entry.
We have an after season buck report policy, meaning that you are allowed to hunt any buck you see for the current season without reporting the details in the logbook. This also applies to camtracker bucks taken during the season. After the season, you are required to come clean by including specific details of how nice a buck you saw and where and when you saw him. I will provide this information, along with a history of where all good bucks that I know about, have been seen and/or killed, in the form of a written chart to all members, so it can be used for scouting.
6- Safety Rules. When checking into a vacant section adjacent to or across the creek from an occupied section, the member checking in should assume that the hunter in the adjacent section is hunting on the section line or on the creek and should thus not hunt on the line or near the creek himself. For example, if my nametag is on Section 18-2 and you want to hunt 18-3, then you should assume that I am on the 18-2/18-3 line and you should go to the middle or far side of 18-3. Or if my tag is in 18-5 and you are hunting PGR-5, you should assume that I am hunting on the creek and you should not hunt on the creek yourself. If hunters are checked into the sections on both sides of you, then you should hunt in the middle of your section.
These special rules during OPEN FIREARMS SEASONS ONLY:
THE PGR5/6 RULE is that if you want to hunt PGR-6 and someone is checked into PGR-5, you must text them to find out where they are hunting so you will know how to access PGR-6. If they do not answer your text, you canâ??t hunt in PGR-6. For example, if they are on the Pond Tripod, you would want to access PGR-6 by taking the Property Line Sneak Trail and walking down the fence all the way into PGR-6.
THE HONEY LOCUST CLIMBER RULE is that the climber in the Honey Locust grove on the PGR-3/4 line goes with section PGR-4.
THE 18-2/18-3 ACCESS RULE is that if someone is checked into 18-3 and you want to hunt 18-2, you must text them before walking down the southern fork of Artillery Ridge Road to see which stand they are in. If they do not answer your text, you must access 18-2 a different way.
THE 18-1/18-2 STAND RULE is that you cannot hunt the Trestle Ladders in 18-2 if someone is checked into 18-1 and vice versa, you cannot hunt the 18-1 shooting blind if someone is checked into 18-2 unless you contact them via text and make sure the other guy understands that there can be no shooting up and down the trestle. Note the trestle has rock on it and a ricochet is a very real possibility.
THE 18-1/18-2 ACCESS RULE is that you cannot use the Trestle to access the stands in 18-2 if someone is checked into 18-1. Instead you must use the north fork of Artillery Ridge Road to access the Trestle (subject to the 18-2/18-3 Access Rule).
Donâ??t forget to think about the section you are hunting in terms of both the sections on either side of you and the section across the creek from you. If hunters are checked into any of these adjoining sections, you need to be safe not sorry in terms of where you decide to hunt in your section. We have lots of open fields so be sure to think about ricocheting bullets. This is one of the reasons that I want to know where you are planning to hunt BEFORE you climb a tree with your climber, put up a stand or hunt a ground location. Donâ??t over-think/outsmart yourself by stomping around in the woods looking for the â??perfect spotâ?. There is probably already a club stand in them and this is a lot more about being there at the right time and making the shot than â??slipping in on oneâ?
7- Vehicles. Vehicles and ATVS except are allowed in the fields and on the field roads to do camp work and retrieve harvested deer only. Otherwise, hunting access is by foot except bicycles and electric golf carts are allowed in the fields and on field roads (but not in the woods including not the Trestle). Vehicle parking areas are just off Highway 18 and Old Port Gibson Road at designated entrances as given on the Club Map. Parking is allowed at these designated locations only.
8- Bag Limit. Each membership is allowed to harvest 2 bucks and 2 does. 1 of the does is mandatory. All bucks must be 4.5 years old or older- no exceptions. Members are required to call me as soon as they kill a buck and to show me the head before pulling the jawbone. Shoot one 3.5 year old buck and you will be fined $500 and put on probation. Shoot another 3.5 year old buck in your life on this property and you are fined $1000 and automatically expelled. Shoot a 2.5 year old buck or younger and you are fined $1000 and automatically expelled. There is a $1000 fine and automatic expulsion for cutting the horns off before I see the deer, throwing the head away without showing me the jawbone or trying to sneak a deer out. Field dressing is allowed at the kill site but all carcasses must be removed from the property. Each membership is required to kill 2 does and may be allowed additional does at my discretion. There is a $100 fine per doe not killed.
The long time members in this club are passing up every 3.5 year old and younger buck we see. We see 10-15 different 3.5 year old bucks between us every season. We do not want them shot. We want to enjoy watching them grow up and hope to get a shot at them in the future. Due to our non-typical genetics, excellent soils and habitat conditions, the only â??cullâ? bucks at BRHC are 4.5 year old and older bucks with underperforming racks. Any 2.5 or 3.5 year old buck at BRHC is subject to turning into a monster buck so we do not want them shot Anybody can make a mistake between a 3.5 and a 4.5 year old buck but there is no excuse for shooting a 2.5 year old buck. That is why you get a $500 mulligan on ONE 3.5 year old but no mulligans on 2.5 year olds.
BRHC IS A TROPHY MANAGEMENT CLUB. DO NOT JOIN THIS CLUB IF YOU ARE NOT A DEDICATED TROPHY HUNTER AND IF YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW TO AGE BUCKS ON THE HOOF BASED ON THEIR BODY CHARACTERISTICS.
9- Button Bucks. Any hunter who kills many does has or will shoot the occasional button buck. The best way to prevent this is to not shoot an antler-less deer that is by itself (so you can judge the size relative to another deer), donâ??t shoot the first deer that steps out (often the young bucks are less wary than the young does), donâ??t shoot an antler-less deer at great distance (the further away, the harder to judge distance) and donâ??t shoot right at dark. There is a $100 fine for shooting one button buck in a year. A second button buck in a given year costs you an additional $200. Button bucks count as bucks in terms of your 2 buck limit.
10- Wounded deer. If you shoot a buck late in the afternoon and are not 100% positive that he is dead and 100% positive that you know exactly where he is laying, then you are better off looking for him the next day. Will Primos recommends 12 hours. I agree. The only thing worse than losing deer meat is losing deer meat and a trophy head. Safe is better than sorry when trying to find wounded deer. Once you jump them they know why they are hurt. Otherwise their instinct is to lie down close to where you shot them. Donâ??t blow out an area looking for a wounded doe. Odds are that if you donâ??t find her within 100 yards of the point of impact and the blood trail goes to a drop here or there that you are not going to find her. Wounded bucks count as dead bucks. Wounded does do not count as dead does. First blood rule is followed at BRHC, which means that the hunter that initially shoots the deer claims the deer even if another hunter finishes him off unless our biologist and myself determine that the initial wound was not fatal.
11- Poachers. The Club works closely with Sgt. Pete Luke of the Hinds County Sheriffâ??s Department in patrolling for poachers and using the deer decoy to catch them. Call me about any poaching problems, then call Sgt. Luke at (601) 974-2900. All poachers will be prosecuted. To my knowledge, poachers have not been a problem since the 2001-02 season but this is something that you have to work at constantly. The more we hunt, the less trouble we will have with poachers.
12- Dues. $2000 per year for first year members. $1500 per year for returning members. 50% deposits will be accepted beginning February 1, 2009. All returning members will have until April 1, 2009 to pay their deposit and hold their spot. After that, all spots are available on first come, first served basis. New member invites should mail deposit immediately to hold their spot. Remaining balances are due on July 1 for all members. Mail checks to me at address provided below. Once received, I cannot refund your deposit but you are allowed to assign the membership to another hunter (with my approval) if something comes up and you need out.
13- Guest Rules. There are no extra fees for guests. Guest kill counts as member kill. Guests must hunt in the same section as the member bringing them. Maximum of one hunting guest and two non-hunting guest per member per day such that there are never more than 2 guns or 4 people in a section at a time. Non-hunting guests must sit side by side with hunting member.
14- Foodplots. There will be a minimum of 12 acres of fall food plots planted consisting of Austrian winter peas, buck forage oats and possibly other seed varieties. There are 6 acres of cowpeas, alyce clover and corn for summer food plots. All of the fall food plots have a club stand overlooking them. I handle the food plot planting and fertilizing although any help you can give me is greatly appreciated. Our food plots are designed as â??kill plotsâ? and not to simply feed deer. We have 350+/- acres of cropland planted to corn and soybeans most years and a running ton of natural browse and acorns so our deer are very healthy. Food plots are laid out and planted for one purpose: to see deer and kill mature bucks.
15- Workdays. There will be a workday on Sunday, August 2 from 9AM to 5 PM. There will be another workday on Sunday, August 30 from 9 AM to 5 PM. All members are required to participate in at least 8 hours of workday. $20 per hour fine for less than 8 hours.
16- Clubhouse. Members Lon Yeager, Bobby Maples and I own a 8â?? x 32â?? office trailer with toilet, water and electricity that is our clubhouse. Sleeps 6. Priority for overnight use is out of town members first, then Bobby and I and then other members (Lon lives 3 miles from camp so he doesnâ??t need clubhouse). Priority for naps based on card cutting and two hour nap times as needed. Dwights Deer Processing is 5 miles away from our lease and Dan Heasley Taxidermy is 3 miles away so we are set on what to do with dead deer.
17- Scouting. Access for scouting, camtrackers, shed hunting and camp work is allowed from February 1 to August 1 except access is closed in 18-4 and 5 and PGR-5 and 6 from March 1- May 1 so I can turkey hunt. I will let you know if I can open up these sections sooner than May 1 (depends on turkey hunting). No scouting (including camtrackers) is allowed from August 1 until November 1. Beginning November 1, Camtrackers guidelines are the same as hunting guidelines. Photos of all racked bucks taken between February 1 and October 1 must be sent to me promptly. I will reveal the name of the photographer and the location of the camera where the photo was taken. Any photos taken from November 1 to January 31 do not have to be sent to me until after the season.
18- Copyrights. Among other vocations, I am an outdoor writer and outdoor radio show host. I am going to tell you everything I know about the bucks on this property- past, present and future- to give you the best possible opportunity to harvest the buck of a lifetime. In return, all members are required to give me the exclusive publishing rights to all photographs, articles/stories, videos, etc. related to deer hunting at BRHC and that are in anyway related to their membership in BRHC, whether they take them, their friend or relative takes them or I take them. Among other things, this means that no member can post a photograph, forum thread, etc. to the Internet in any way related to deer hunting at BRHC without my express, written permission. It also means that unless I expressly and in writing forego this right, I have the exclusive rights to any and all stories about deer hunting at BRHC whether written or video.
19- Scent Control. Mandatory scent control when hunting the woods stands including donâ??t put your boots on until you are getting out of your truck at BRHC, spray scent removal spray on your boots before you put them on before every hunt, launder your clothes with scent free detergent, keep them in a scent free bag, wear some form of scent blocking clothing if you have it and always, always, always hunt the wind. Think about it this way: You might get away with bad scent control and kill a great buck but what does your scent do to the rest of us that want to hunt that area after you stink it up? You will not believe the difference in deer activity at BRHC during the field hunting only of first gun season and after we start going into the woods. Our deer- including does- go nocturnal very fast. Proper scent control can reduce this tendency significantly.
20- EXPLUSION & FINES. Violation of any of these rules is grounds for expulsion from the club with no refund of dues. I keep all fine money as liquidated damages for you being a pain in my backside for having to deal with your rule breaking. The rules are the rules. THESE ARE RULES- NOT GUIDELINES. I follow them to the T and expect all members to do the same.
21- REVISIONS. I reserve the right to revise these rules as needed to keep things fair for all members and to insure a safe hunting environment.
Have a safe and enjoyable hunting season. Remember that all the game ever killed is not worth the price of one man dead. Safety first and good hunting!
ENJOYING OLD MEMORIES
