Community Stands....tell me how yours is managed

[ColinR]

In my other thread lots of folks saying they have community stands. I’m curious how you manage that or what you would change about how it’s managed now.

I have only been on one lease that was community stands and it worked well. Everyone paid one price every year and that included everything....feed, feeder maintenance, stands, house, electricity, everything. Pretty much you just bring your cloths and gun and get after it. In that situation all of us paid hunters paid all the bills and the guy running it hunted for free but he did ALL the work.

There is a slight possibility I may be picking up another ranch and like the idea of community stands, but I have nice big stands with heaters and feed ALOT, I’m not going to do community stands with someone that shows up with crappy stands and lets his feeder run out and only throw a few seconds during season. ***PLEASE DO NOT PM ME about openings, I don’t even know if I’m getting it and if I do I most likely already have it full but will post a thread if I am looking for anyone ***

So what kinds rules do those with community stands have about feeding and stand quality and size and general management?

[Mex. Bowhunter]

My lease is set up where everyone has thier 2 stands that they are totally responsible for stands, feeders, and pens. Come season we make a hit list for the whole ranch. You have sole hunting rights at your areas unless you give someone permission to hunt your stand for certain deer early. Once you kill out for the Season your stands because community stands for the remainder of the season but, only previous agreed list deer may be taken. All feed and lease expenses are split evenly per lease member no exception.

[Garrett Harlan]

On my lease in Llano ( might have a few openings 2023/2024 season, waiting to hear back from current members if everyone is staying on) every paid spot comes with 1 stand/feeder that no one else hunts besides that person. (unless given permission by spot holder).

Every member has the ability to create 1 additional stand/feeder location and it becomes a community blind. Everyone upkeeps the community blinds and if anyone hunts there they are required the fill the feeder that weekend.

[CEO]

Are you only allowed to hunt from established stands on these types of leases? If you see a buck take the same route a few hunts in a row you can't set up a tripod and try to catch him?

I've been to corporate leases where you are only allowed to go to a box blind with a feeder, but all my personal places have been split up by area (do what you want in your area) or we leased the whole property.

[bowhuntertex]

My experience on community stands was I had nice blinds and feeders that always worked and fed a ton but there were several members who had crappy/sketchy stands, feeders never worked or were empty and those members always hunted someone else's stand because they knew there set up sucked and weren't going to spend the money or take the time to do upkeep. It was never just one guy, it was 4-5 out 15. Community stands in my opinion suck. Unless they are done like you stated in your post.

[Lost10mm]

Are stands on public land considered community stands? Lol

[Mexico]

We are 100 percent community. Each member has 1 stand though they can Trump any member out of if they are at the ranch. If they're not present their stand is open.

[rolylane6]

Are stands on public land considered community stands? Lol

Depends on who you're asking. The guy who put it up or the guy who found it. [emoji1]

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

[Daniel32]

We currently have community stands where I hunt, and there are 4 of us on the lease. For me personally I'm not so much worried about the size/quality of the stand as how much everyone is feeding. That being said I don't want to sit in an old busted up box blind full of bees and who knows what else. We have everything from a 4x4 homemade blind to a 5x7 Atascosa wildlife blind on the property.

All of them are kept up and in good shape, so it's not a problem for me to sit in any one of them. If they were not kept up then I could see it being an issue, but as I said I (and our group) don't need to sit in a certain size/quality stand, so this works for us.

As a group we all feed around the same amount and will let the group know when we're going out, so if anyone wants us to grab some corn on the way for them we will. We all have a lot of deer movement in our areas, so each spot is good. It's nice to have a change of scenery every once in a while so we all enjoy it. To be transparent I will add that 75-80% of the time each member sits in their own personal stand.

The only "rule" we have is that if you take an animal out of someone else's personal stand that you share it with the group. In the past I was on another lease where they allowed members to sit in others stands with the owners permission , but you couldn't take a buck until the owner had gotten one. Basically it was for does/hogs.

I think what it comes down to more than anything is having the right group of people more than anything with similar goals for it to work.

[SETXoutdoorsman]

We are on a lease with all family friends (4 families) that all worked together at the same company. We share everything per family, feed, blinds, meals, electricity etc is all split four ways. We even plan all our work/hunting trips to be together. We all get together the night before a morning hunt or in the afternoon before the evening hunt and divvy up who wants to go where. We never have any issues at all but that is because of the camaraderie that we all have together. I know how much of a unicorn this situation we have is.

[Dale Moser]

We don't really have any community blinds, but if you want to hunt someone else's stand, all you have to do is ask, and give some consideration to who has kids that will be hunting with them, and what you shoot accordingly.

My son shot his 1st deer with a bow 2 weeks ago out of my best friend's blind, everyone knows they can get in mine whenever they want, but early in the season I just ask they be considerate that my son will be hunting as well.

[AndyMane]

The key to have the community stands work is a sharing the expense and labor that goes into keeping multiple stands running. Like you stated if the ranch has a person on payroll to keep feeders full and wasps out of your blinds great!

If not you then have to make sure each person chips in on the feed bill AND puts in their fair share of weekends filling feeders and checking blinds.

You will inevitably always end up with someone who has more money than time or more time than money and managing how that hurts other peoples feelings is paramount to everyone feeling that the community blinds are fair.

[etbowhunter]

The key to have the community stands work is a sharing the expense and labor that goes into keeping multiple stands running. Like you stated if the ranch has a person on payroll to keep feeders full and wasps out of your blinds great!

If not you then have to make sure each person chips in on the feed bill AND puts in their fair share of weekends filling feeders and checking blinds.

You will inevitably always end up with someone who has more money than time or more time than money and managing how that hurts other peoples feelings is paramount to everyone feeling that the community blinds are fair.

Pretty much nailed it. I will say that you have an opportunity to set the new place you mentioned up in a way that will work since you said you already have people in mind to get on it. I assume you're going to be the manager so have a meeting with your group and dictate how the community stand setup will work. Include the parameters you expect for stands, feeding amounts, etc from the beginning. If you have guys that aren't on board, pass on them and put it out for other potential members. Setting it up right from the start, and by right i mean remove all doubts, will save you a lot of heartache down the road.

[tpack]

I`ve hunted with my son and grandson for the past 15+ years so it hasn`t been a problem. Have only had one issue with community blinds in the past. Best advice I can give is to have clear rules about community blinds prior to season. Do not do it verbally either. Use a text or lease agreement with all parties saying they understand and agree to all rules. If they don`t comply and complain, then you can call them out on it and tell them to FO and leave.

[topher]

It’s really about everyone being on the same page, if not huge problems.