stalking club

woodmaster

Well-Known Member
Following on from the debates raised after littlemisssureshot asked if one existed. Although many responses, I don't think anyone actually raised the thought on starting one. A massive undertaking by anyone, however there is a great example with the likes of essex wildfowling club as with others who through membership, donation,etc have over the years amassed many acres of foreshore for the use of their members. I wonder what the apetite would be for people to investigate the fesability of running a club on a similar system with the aim of supplying sustainable stalking for members who would be stakeholders in the land aquired. Whether this land was to be owned (preferential but high capital cost) or on long term lease. Question is are there enough stalkers who would be prepared to put cash into the legalities and setting up of such a scheme along with the time it would take for the membership to get something up and running. There are plenty of syndicates who's members make no profit but equally have no say in the running which is down to the lease holder who may or may not make a profit. What I am suggesting is a scheme run as a mutual organisation. Thoughts please.
 
Too many dodgy people out there. Would you get involved with a lot of strangers who may shoot out the pieces of land you aquire? A syndicate with people you know and trust would be more attractive to me personally.
 
A very interesting concept. I'd be very interested in principal, but it would depend on the stalking available and the cost of joining.
as said above, it might be a bit risky depending on who else was in the club - not sure there would be an effective way to control this though other than trust?
 
WM - a perfectly valid and potentially interesting thread.

There have been some commercial efforts in that direction - but they tend to not be long lived.

A similar proposal comes up every so often on the Bushcraft type forums ( fora? ) but not aware of any that actually come off.

In theory, shouldn't be so different from a syndicate - which system does seem to work. I suspect MJ75 captures the key aspect.

Would be very interested to hear other views.
 
I certainly do Moray I proposed something not too disimilar four and a half years ago on this very forum :-

http://www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk/showthread.php/672-Forum-Syndicate

Maybe I was naive at the time, but I've since read about too many people being stitched up financialy. And this makes me wary. It is a good idea if everyone who joined was a decent, honest person. Sadly this isn't always the case.

* PS back in those days the forum was a different place and the word beaver featured in far too many threads. lol

There is a lot that could be done to make stalking more accessible and available to those who want it. I was having a similar conversation with another forum member not too long ago. If I didn't have a nine till five job and run a hobby business on top I'd probably atempt to start a similar 'club' / syndicate with friends. I'll wish the OP good luck with his venture if he chooses to go for it.
 
Last edited:
Is that not a similar concept to the website that someone was promoting on here a few weeks ago? Shooting uk? Something like that. When you read about it, there was some bloke who was declared the Antichrist (rightly or wrongly).

It sounds a bit like communism to me; a nice idea which would probably work if humans weren't genetically predisposed to greed.
 
As I said in another thread there used to be one in yorkshire, don't know if anyone else on here knows or remembers anything about it.

This would have been about twenty five or thirty years ago, dont really know much about it don't know
what sort of stalking ground they had size or what ever.

What I do remember is that they used to buy some days on the hinds in Scotland, and a draw was held for places


Believe Tim Hannam was invoved.
 
Is that not a similar concept to the website that someone was promoting on here a few weeks ago? Shooting uk? Something like that. When you read about it, there was some bloke who was declared the Antichrist (rightly or wrongly).

It sounds a bit like communism to me; a nice idea which would probably work if humans weren't genetically predisposed to greed.

Could that have been shooting.sh by any chance?

The company has been mentioned on here before, a long time ago.
 
That's the one! A load of old threads were raked up a month or two ago.

I really liked the idea but like I say, greed wins every time.
 
I like the idea of been in a stalking club. I have been in a syndicate and it was like a big family and the guy running it set the rules and obviously made a living. I don't see that having a club with the usual club officials would be too difficult. The difficulty arises IMO with logistics. if the ground leased or purchased by members in say Scotland and club members are all south of the border. The land could raped and pillaged of every deer before anyone vists.
 
MJ75. Thankyou for your comments. Great to see so far all have been sensible. The origional post was " I wonder what the apetite would be for people to investigate the fesability of running a club on a similar system with the aim of supplying sustainable stalking for members who would be stakeholders in the land aquired."
Now much as I would love to go down in history to be the one who started and maintained such a venture, and have all that fan mail to open, I doubt I have either the legal knowledge or managerial prowess to bring all the required aspects together whilst trying to run my own livelyhood. That said as is often the case from little acorns great Oaks grow. I'm sure if enough of the decent honest people on a forum such as this were to endevour to pool their skills and experience with it ALWAYS in their mind the aim is to benefit the membership there is no reason why in 10 years time many stalkers could be using many hundereds of acres and enjoying the pleasures of stalking, without having to be particulary wealthy individuals.
 
What is the difference between a hunting club and a syndicate. What about a roving syndicate where a group of friends rent a lodge or buy days on different estates throughout the year?
 
Jab I think the difference is someone makes a profit from a syndicate I would guess. If I was running a club all money would be ploughed back into to the ground. The roving group of mates would be a club without the asset of it's own ground.
 
Good idea JH. Could be a low capital way of getting something off the ground. Plus member knows what is on offer upfront. Maybe as membership grew more trips all making profit for the club which could go to more stalking or to buy leases/ground and so on.
I'm sure estates and other providers would be prepared to come to some sort of deal in these times if they knew of future bookings for known numbers.
Keep the idea's coming.
 
One possibility is that is could be run exactly like a syndicate, you can't drive pheasants and shoot them off a peg on your own therefore everyone meets on pre determined dates. So maybe it can be on a first come first serve basis we create a syndicate of say 50 stalkers again number based on the size of land acquired. Dates can then be drawn based on deer seasons and everybody meets up on those syndicate dates. If all the shoot agreements and funds can be put through an elected committee with contracts aranged through solicitors i can't see why there would be a problem. There will always be the possibility of poachers but let's face it while we are on SD at this present time there could be someone shooting the deer on our land.
 
I didn't know that people made money from syndicates (having never had anything to do with one) Why would you pay someone a wage? What do you get for the money? Are they mainly for trophy hunters?
 
I think that you could set up a club and use buying power of the membership to purchase days off different estates, at a reduced price? that way you would not have to manage the land or worry about poachers etc.
dont know if this would work but I think it could work in theory
 
I like the idea of been in a stalking club. I have been in a syndicate and it was like a big family and the guy running it set the rules and obviously made a living. I don't see that having a club with the usual club officials would be too difficult. The difficulty arises IMO with logistics. if the ground leased or purchased by members in say Scotland and club members are all south of the border. The land could raped and pillaged of every deer before anyone vists.

Can you please expand on your last comment about "rape and pillage"

Regards

DavieH
 
Nice idea but personally I've been very disappointed with people's lack of ethics with shooting, who are at the same time very possessive over their own shoots.

I've had permissions stolen out from under me by "friends" and students, as well as people posing as mildly interested non-shhoters who've turned out to be poachers.

I now only take people on my shoots who I know and trust, but even then I know I'll be let down eventually. Heyho!

I recently made the mistake of telling someone about a permission someone they knew was putting my way - offer disappeared over night. Thanks then!
 
Can you please expand on your last comment about "rape and pillage"

Regards

DavieH

I ment it mean that anything would go on. Poached, Highseats nicked, etc etc. I don't mean a load of Vikings would turn up if that's wht you were thinking.

I just saw that your from Scotland so as not to offend you I was only using the distances as an example.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top