Some may argue that a deer hunting camp should not have rules. It is a place to get away from society and all of society's hang ups. So we have to ask ourselves why camp rules are so important. All we need is some food, beer, liquor, guns and ammo and we are set for a successful week in the woods hunting. This would truly work if you were hunting, fishing or hiking in the wilderness by yourself, but when more then one person is present, some kind of order must be observed. If not you will have mayhem and anarchy. Every gathering of individuals needs to have some guide lines or rules to observe in order to have a successful outing in any endeavor. Having said all this you need to take into consideration that all rules can be changed, amended or added to as the need arises. At Wilderness Calls the rules have been added as a situation warrants a new camp rule. The next important step is to make sure each rule has a consequence if it is broken. This will always help the individuals involved observe the rules.
Now that we have established how important camp rules are, we need to lay out a plan to set the rules and their penalties. Most all deer hunting camps do not hold elections where speeches are made and promises that will not be kept are given to get to be the rule maker. The camp founders are the self appointed rule makers, besides they made the rules before other people visited so there is little chance for objection. This does not mean that a new comer can not propose an additional rule, but ultimately it has to be ratified and accepted by the founders of the camp, to become active. When you are establishing rules be sure to keep them simple and the repercussions simple also. No one has time to spend a week reviewing 500 pages of mumbo jumbo to decide if they can accept the rule. A deer hunting camp is a fun place not the congress of the USA. You may consider exceptions to the repercussions to the camp rules. I will illustrate this later in the article. No two deer hunting camps will have the same set of rules although there may be some similarities.
Keep the hunting or camp rules to a minimum, 8 to 10 is plenty, more then that it becomes too complicated. Let us keep hunting, fishing and hiking in the wilderness a fun time. It is not a time where you will need to spend several hours going over the rules.
The next step would be to choose how the rules will be kept. You may decide to post the rules so everyone can read them. This again is up to the camp founders; some choose to tell the visitors the rules as they need to know, while other camps make sure the camp rules are posted so everyone can see them. There is no right or wrong way to do this; it is totally up to the camp founders.
To help illustrate how camp rules are formed, I have chosen a few of the camp rules for Wilderness Calls to give you an idea of how this can work. One of the first camp rules established at Wilderness Calls has to do with conservation. We all want to harvest a buck when we go deer hunting, but if we harvest all the small bucks, none will ever mature into that trophy buck. We decided to put a camp rule in place to help the young bucks. It is very simple; if you shoot a buck you mount it. The only exception to this rule is if you have never taken a buck. The founders will allow you to harvest a smaller buck and not mount the head unless you wish to do so. This is prohibitive because of the cost involved. This rule has been very effective as seen in our spy cam pictures. Two of the large bucks in the pictures were feeding 100 yards from the cabin. We are not sure but they may have heard about another rule that if you can see a deer from the cabin, he is in the safe zone and can not be harvested. Repercussions for this are simple, you harvest a deer from the cabin and you are not invited back. The next camp rule was put into place to assist anyone brave enough to cook for the camp. If you complain about the cooking; you wash the dishes. This rule is very short and to the point, it has been broken only twice now and trust me, the violators will eat and enjoy the food now even if it is burned. Did I mention the dishes are washed out side with a water hose? So you can see why the cook is honored at Wilderness Calls! The last rule I will illustrate is one that was installed a couple years after the camp was founded. This will demonstrate how rules have to be added as needed. When the camp was founded the wash facilities were in the back yard. This was ok in the summer but when hunting season came around and old man winter put a chill in the air, taking a shower was a chore. James and I spent two grueling weeks converting an 8 by 12 storage shed into a state of the art crapper house. Complete with shower, sink, chick lights, windows, curtains, tile floor and all the trimmings. In our eyes it was a work of art; therefore we decided to create a new camp rule. Very simple; crapper house is pretty. Anyone that does not think the crapper house is pretty has to use the woods to wash and do their other business. Trust me when I say to this day no one has broken this simple rule.
The other rules for Wilderness Calls are posted inside Wilderness Calls.
As you can see at Wilderness Calls we have created simple camp rules that everyone can understand. The repercussions are simple also. The main thing to take into consideration when creating camp rules is that you are there to enjoy your hunting, fishing or hiking in the woods. DO NOT make your camp rules for camp too complicated, it will only cause discontent and make your stay unpleasant.
