Is there drama in hunting clubs?

Recently, one of my friends asked if there is any drama in hunting clubs, and I answered, "If you see it in The Item, it is so." So, I'll tell you the truth about drama in hunting clubs.

Drama in this context is defined as a way of relating to exciting or emotional events. The person may also overreact to, or greatly exaggerate, the importance of normally benign situations.

Grown men in hunting clubs do sometimes exhibit childish and irrational behavior; they may even temporarily lose their sense of decency and decorum. The result is drama, and it's a shame.

So yes, Virginia, there is drama in hunting clubs. Let me give some examples.

In my younger days, I was in a dog drive club in Clarendon County. I served for years as vice president and then president. I was young enough and na ve enough to think everything was going smoothly. I had many friends there. Some turned out to be pretend friends. Dog drive clubs need large amounts of land to operate effectively, and it was necessary to keep a full roster of members to hold cost down. Over the years we took some folks in that we shouldn't have. Their character was questionable, but we took them because we needed the money. They had no concern for the rules of the club or the laws of the state. They caused constant trouble and usually overreacted to everything. The drama they created made the club experience unbearable.

One of our new members came from a club that had lost all of its land. The members there constantly argued among themselves over one petty thing or another. Finally, a group of them went to the landowner with their grievances and drama. She did not have any tolerance for such foolishness and immediately revoked their lease and sent them packing.

I joined a small Lowcountry hunting club years ago to take advantage of the earlier opening of the turkey season. It was the best ground that I have ever stepped on to turkey hunt. There were only a couple of members there that hunted turkeys. One of those guys had a feud going with one of the deer hunters. They argued constantly. The landowner was a game warden and a farmer. He also had a young family. They would both call the landowner day and night with their drama and ridiculous arguments. He finally had enough and decided to do away with the club. I scrambled and found membership in another Lowcountry club.

The club I went to is located along the Edisto River. It is a mix of timber company pinelands and private tracts of bottomland hardwoods. There are miles of river frontage and an upland fish pond. A large clubhouse, skinning shed and generator house are on the grounds. Camper spaces are available along the bluff of the river. They do things there the old-timey way. I told one of the long-time members that it was the best hunting club I had ever seen. Little did I know that even there was drama.

I was eventually elected to the board of governors and got to see some of the trouble and drama that the club had to deal with behind the scenes. It's not as bad as some places, but it's there.

Those frequent trips to the Lowcountry began to wear on me, and I started looking for a place closer to home. I would keep my membership on the Edisto but needed something else. I found a good place a couple of years ago in the High Hills. It is a totally different kind of ground from what I've been hunting. A small club on a beautiful place, 20 minutes from my home. I was somewhat puzzled that most of the members didn't even hunt. It was more of a social thing for them.

Drama reared its ugly head there for a time, and most of those guys have moved on. The level that they stooped to was unbelievable. Those of us that have remained have a chance to make a better hunting club. And we will, without all the drama.

Reach Dan Geddings at cdgeddings@gmail.com.