The Hunter’s Club

by A. Sayward Lamb

Hunting doesn’t always have to be the only way of providing fun and entertainment, in the true meaning of the word. The foundation of this story originated back in the very early 1950’s, when a group of men from the small Maine town of West Paris, organized the West Paris Hunter’s Club. Their main purpose of organizing such a club was simply to provide some interest and fun, both social and personal, between hunters who liked to hunt deer. They did this by establishing a contest between two teams of hunters who lived within the area served by the West Paris Post Office.

At that time the rural mail delivery routes also included residents of parts of the adjoining towns of Greenwood, Woodstock, Sumner, and Paris. I don’t know who originally conjured up the idea of having such a club. I suspect that many of the rules were discussed and improvised over many cups of coffee at the respective lunch counters of Trap Corner Store and West Paris General Store, by several of the more notorious and avid hunters from within the community.

The “Founding Fathers” of the club established the following rules: The members would be determined by those hunters who joined the club by signing up at either one of the respective lists posted at both Trap Corner Store and West Paris General Store.

Payment of a nominal fee was due at the time of sign up and had to be prior to the opening day of deer hunting season. This could include both bow hunters, as well as regular firearm hunters.

Those members signing up were assigned to one of two teams - namely, the Poker Hunters and the Poachers. Hunters who regularly hunted together could not be on the same team, for obvious reasons.

The first year when the club started, two of the organizers volunteered to serve as captains of the respective teams. During following years, the captains were determined by the hunters who got the biggest buck and the largest doe (by weight). The deer had to be field dressed prior to being weighed on scales at the tagging stations, when they registered their deer.

As the years passed, some members of the club moved to towns without a West Paris mailing address and the RFD routes were altered. The club rules were changed so that anyone who had been a member while living in the West Paris mailing area could continue to belong to the club, even though they had moved out of town.

It was the responsibility of the team captains to assign the members to the team that they felt would create the most interest and balance out teams to make them as evenly matched as possible.

For instance, several of the hunters were very qualified and experienced. Consequently they averaged to get their deer with more regularity than less experienced hunters. To equalize the teams, both experienced and inexperienced hunters were divided as evenly as possible on each respective team.

As I mentioned before, they also placed members who often hunted together on opposite teams. One of the advantages of being from a small town was the fact that most of the hunters knew one another and this made it possible to assign the members to the proper team. The decisions of the team captains were final, in that respect. Once the list was compiled, the captains had copies made and posted at each store, so members could see which team they were on.

The object of the club was to see which team could come up with the most total weight of deer by season’s end. Note that I did not say numbers of deer but total weight (field dressed). The deer had to be registered and weighed at any deer registration (tagging) station within the State of Maine.

It was the responsibility of the individual hunter to have the weight written in on the membership list. Most years there would be from seventy-five, to over one hundred hunters, who signed up. Many years the total weight of field dressed deer exceeded well over a ton of venison.

A banquet supper was held annually on the Saturday night after deer hunting season closed. It was held at the American Legion hall, on Maple Street, in West Paris. Members of the losing team, who had to furnish salads, casseroles, desserts, etc. for the supper, treated the members of the winning team to the feed.

The money raised by membership dues was used to offset costs incurred in preparing the supper and also buy the prizes. Raffle tickets were sold at the supper to also help defray costs and to assist in buying prizes.

Generally, every year there was a keg of brew provided for the Happy Hour, prior to the meal. The captain of the losing team was in charge of planning the meal and taking care of soliciting food from other members of the losing team. He also had assistance from other members of the club and it often included members of the winning team who volunteered their services.

Members of the losing team also served as waiters for the supper. There was never a shortage of dishwashers following the meal because all members of either team who did not harvest a deer, were assigned to clean-up and take care of dishwashing duties.

Following the supper, a short program was held and prizes awarded for the biggest buck and the biggest doe. The raffle prize winners were drawn and other special awards were made for some individual hunters that did some notable thing that the team captains felt was noteworthy.

Some years when there was a good turnout, the top prize in the raffle drawing was a new hunting rifle. Often times there would be a guest speaker and other times there might be a movie or slide show related to hunting.

I personally served as team captain one year when I harvested the largest doe, that weighed l40 pounds, field dressed. Another year I was given a special award for “The most miles traveled, for the least amount of deer.” That year I really hunted hard and finally harvested a small “skipper” on the next to the last day of deer hunting season.

After the program several of the club members enjoyed playing poker or other card games. It provided a full evening of entertainment.

One thing for sure, having the Hunter’s Club created a lot of interest among the hunters and close watch was kept on the lists to see which team was ahead as the season progressed. Needless to say, there were always members of each respective team who prodded and urged other members of their team to get out and harvest a deer. I don’t know as that made any difference on the total number of deer harvested but I do know that if you didn’t get a deer, there were plenty of club members who reminded you with good-natured “ribbing”.

The West Paris Hunter’s Club was in existence for about forty-five years. It finally disbanded when the members who got the biggest buck and doe failed to accept the responsibility of carrying out the duties required in making the event happen.

For a few years some of the older members tried to continue the suppers but in the end they found it was too much work for them, so the club disbanded. All I can say is it was fun for the many years that it existed.

Copyright©2006
A. Sayward Lamb