Hunting camp rules for the people who share it
A camp owned or leased by six friends runs fine for eleven months. Then opening weekend comes, everybody shows up on the same Friday night, and two of them have been thinking about the same stand since August. Here is a short set of rules that settles that ahead of time, and a free calendar that holds the stands.
No credit card. One invite link for the rest of camp.
The ridge stand
6 members · you have 0 weekend credits left
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Deer camp rules that settle the real arguments
Most printed camp rules are jokes about who does the dishes. They are fun on the wall and no help when two members want the same tree. These eight cover money, stands, guests, safety and the cabin, which is where shared camps actually fall out.
- 1
Dues are paid before anyone hangs a stand.
Fixed bills get split evenly and are due on one date, September 1 is a common choice, so nobody is chasing money in November. Say the camp's property tax, insurance, propane and road come to $4,200 a year. Six members pay $700 each.
- 2
Nights cost a little on top.
A member who spends thirty nights at camp uses more propane and wood than one who comes for opening weekend. $10 a night into the camp kitty evens that out without anyone keeping a grudge ledger.
- 3
The stand draw rotates every season.
Draw order for stands is written down for years ahead and moves along one place each season, as in the table below. Nobody picks first two years running.
- 4
Book the stand, not just the camp.
Each stand or blind is booked by the day. If it is not on the calendar, it is open, and a stand you booked and did not sit gets released the night before.
- 5
Everyone signs out where they are sitting.
Before first light, each hunter's stand is on the calendar or the board by the door. Somebody at camp should always know where everyone is and roughly when they will be back.
- 6
Guns are unloaded and cased inside the cabin.
No drinking until the last gun of the day is cased. Blaze orange and tagging rules are set by your state, so check its current regulations each season rather than going by what camp did last year.
- 7
One guest per member on opening weekend.
A guest sits the member's own stand or sits with the member. Guests are welcome the rest of the season as long as they are on the calendar.
- 8
Last one out closes up.
Stove out, food that mice can reach put away, water handled for the weather, gate locked. Anything broken goes in the camp chat the same day, and repairs over $500 get a vote.
These are house rules for a group of friends, not legal advice. Hunting seasons, blaze orange, tagging and firearm rules come from your state wildlife agency, and a leased camp also has to follow the landowner's lease.
A stand draw for six seasons
The fight over the best stand is really a fight over who picks first. So decide the order once, for years ahead. Here it is for six members, called A to F. Each season everyone moves along one place, which means each member picks first once and last once in six years, and nobody gets first pick twice before everyone has had it.
| Season | Pick 1 | Pick 2 | Pick 3 | Pick 4 | Pick 5 | Pick 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | A | B | C | D | E | F |
| 2027 | B | C | D | E | F | A |
| 2028 | C | D | E | F | A | B |
| 2029 | D | E | F | A | B | C |
| 2030 | E | F | A | B | C | D |
| 2031 | F | A | B | C | D | E |
Assumptions: six members, one pick each for the opening morning sit, and the same order run again for the evening sit. With fewer stands than members, the members at the end of the order still-hunt or take the evening.
A new member joins at the end of the current season's order. A member who leaves is taken out, and everyone behind them moves up one. After opening weekend the draw stops mattering, and stands are simply first booked, first sat.
What the calendar does at camp
Add each stand or blind as its own item, and the cabin too if bunks are short. Members join from one link. A day on a stand is one booking, and a second member cannot book the same stand on the same day.
Set the weekend budget to two days. Then a member can hold this Saturday and Sunday on the ridge stand, or two Saturdays ahead, and nothing more until one of them has passed. Nobody can sit down in September and book the best stand for every weekend of the rut. Weekdays stay open for whoever can get away.
Everyone can pull the bookings into their own Google, Apple or Outlook calendar with a private link, and the lease, the insurance papers and the gate code can live in the item's Files section.
The dues, worked through
- Fixed bills of $4,200 a year, split six ways: $700 each, due September 1.
- $10 a night into the kitty for propane and wood. A member who stays 30 nights adds $300; one who comes for a 3-night opener adds $30.
- Food and drink are bought by whoever is at camp that week and settled before they leave.
- Repairs over $500 are voted on. Under that, whoever finds the problem fixes it and is paid back.
The $4,200 is an example to show the arithmetic, not a typical figure. Put in your own bills, or run them through the cabin cost split calculator, which does the same split with a nightly charge.
Questions about sharing a hunting camp
What rules should a hunting camp have?+
Fewer than you think, as long as they cover the things that actually cause fights. Most shared camps come apart over four subjects: money, the best stand on opening morning, guests, and the member who leaves a mess for the next group. So the rules worth writing down are when dues are paid and how they are split, a stand draw that rotates each season, how many guests each member may bring on opening weekend, and what the last person out has to do. Add the safety rules everyone already knows (guns cased inside, no drinking until the last gun is cased, everyone says which stand they are in) and you have a list short enough to pin by the door. Keep it to one page. A rule nobody remembers is not a rule.
How do you decide who gets the best stand?+
Rotate the draw order and write it down for years ahead. With 6 members, list them in order for the first season, then move everyone along one place each year, so every member picks first once in 6 seasons and last once. Members pick one stand each in that order for opening morning, then the order runs again for the evening sit. Once the season is past opening weekend, stands are first booked, first sat. The point of writing it out is that nobody has to argue about it in the truck at four in the morning.
How do you split hunting camp dues?+
Split the fixed bills evenly, because they cost the same whether anyone comes or not: property tax, insurance, propane fill, road work and any lease payment. In the example on this page that is $4,200 a year and $700 for each of six members. Then add a small nightly charge for the things that are used up, so the member who spends a month at camp pays a bit more than the one who comes for opening weekend. Food and drink at camp are a separate kitty for whoever is there that week.
Is AllDibs a hunting lease app?+
No. It does not find land, write a lease with a landowner, map stands or collect dues. It is a shared calendar. Each stand, blind or the cabin itself goes on as an item, the members join from one invite link, and a booking that overlaps another member's is refused. Weekend days come out of a small budget, so one member cannot book the best stand for every Saturday of the rut. The first 5 items are free for you and for everyone you invite. For the lease itself, the landowner's terms and your state's rules decide, and nothing on this page is legal advice.
Settle the stands before opening weekend.
Add the stands, set the weekend budget, and send the rest of camp one link. It takes a few minutes.
Put the stands on AllDibs, freeThe camp is a cabin the rest of the year? See the page for a shared family cabin.