Rules and Regulations
1. All terms of the Landowners’ leases will be observed, and special attention paid to the timber on the land. No cutting down or otherwise destroying trees (pine and hardwood) unless approved by the Board with the express or implied permission of the Landowner.
2. All gates must be locked upon entry/exit. Exception: Clubhouse gate, whereas the last member leaving site unattended must lock the gate. Do not show the opening combination on an open lock at any time. No ATVs are to be driven around the gates (thru the gate only)
3. All member vehicles will display a Club sticker or magnet on the rear window or tailgate of your vehicle. No guest will be allowed to park/drive his vehicle on the land except to the Clubhouse.
4. No vehicles will be driven on the power line during deer season except to retrieve a deer and only then after scheduled hunting hours. Power line parking in designated areas only. Exceptions: Travel to cross the power line at #1, in front of #6 and to cross power line at #8, and only then after stipulated hunting hours. No driving on the power line March 15 - May 10 during turkey season except as specified above.
5. All game laws of the State of South Carolina will be observed except for the button buck counting as an antlerless deer and the Club imposed limits on deer and turkeys. We will not allow button bucks to be harvested on our Club without a fine. See Rules #20 and #21.
6. No drinking alcoholic beverages while or just before hunting on Club land or anytime during daylight hours while at the Club until after 5:00 p.m.
7. There will be 5 scheduled workdays per year. Each member will be required to attend (2) workdays. Members will be notified in advance of the dates of each workday. These dates will also be available on the website. Since there are (5) workdays available and only (2) that require attendance, we are eliminating make-up days. Failure to comply will result in a fine of $75 for one missed workday and $150 for two missed workdays. Any workday deemed Voluntary by the WHC Board to complete urgent necessary club work will count as (1) workday, only if the member comes prepared with equipment to help complete task.
All members are required to attend (1) workday to be included in drawn (rotating) power line schedule each Deer hunting season. If you’re not included on PL drawn schedule, you can still gain permission to hunt a PL stand from other members, but you won’t be included on the drawn rotating schedule.
8. All members will observe the minimum standards of the WHC quality Buck program. The Buck limit will be (2) per season with a minimum outside main beam spread of 16 inches. No bucks with an outside main beam spread of less than 16 inches maybe harvested without fine. During any one season: First offense = $150 if outside main beam spread is less than 16” inches, second offense = $200 if outside main beam spread is less than 16 inches. If there are 2 Non-Quality Bucks harvested in one season (less than 16” outside main beam) there is automatically a 60-day hunting suspension to run concurrent days until satisfied. If less than 60 days remain in the current deer season the balance of the suspension will be served starting with the first day of the next deer season.
If a buck is harvested with an outside main beam spread less than 14 inches, the member will incur a $250 fine.
All bucks whose outside spread is within +/-2 inches of the minimum of 16 inches will need to be verified by a member of the Board. If there’s no way to determine spread at the normal points of measurement, then the buck will be considered non-quality (i.e.: no beam or broken beam).
Exception to Rule #8: The first buck of a child member under age 16 and Regular Members over age 70 may be a buck of choice. There will be only 1 BOC allowed per membership. All other bucks must be quality bucks. Non-Quality bucks shot by guest will cost $200, this fine will be the responsibility of the Member.
In addition to the above, as an additional Exception any buck that is less than the required minimum outside main beam spread of 16 inches but 4.5 years old will be a Quality Buck. For this Exception to be applied, the jawbone must be put in the jawbone basket and a Board Member notified immediately. The Member must pay the applicable fine and submit a completed WHC NON-QUALITY BUCK FORM; however, if the jawbone is later determined to be from a buck age 4.5 or older (by Biologist or Board majority) the fine will be returned to the Member. Note: this age exception is not available to deer hunting Guest.
9. All deer harvested will be immediately taken to the Clubhouse and weighed on Club scales to determine live weight. The lower half of one side of jawbone removed from antlered bucks only, cleaned of all meat, numbered and deposited into collection basket. Doe will be examined for lactation and “yes or no” noted on the harvest data sheet. It is required that pictures with and without the measurement device on its antlers shall be taken of all bucks, including button bucks. All pictures of each buck should be sent to a Board Member. All required data will be recorded on the harvest data sheet. Failure to provide the jawbone required above will result in a fine of $50 per jawbone.
10. No dove hunting during or just prior to deer season unless it is a Club sponsored event; however, dove hunting is allowed after Jan 1 (late season).
11. Once Membership dues are paid no refunds will be granted without a replacement member, and after the season begins no refunds unless approved by the majority of the Board.
12. WHC stand marker policy: Each marked stand must be highly visible using hunter orange surveyors’ tape with current stand tag attached. No hunting within 200 yards of a member’s stand marker without permission of that Member. All marked stands will be 400 yards apart (your 200, his 200 rule). Regular Members may purchase additional stand markers; however, there will be a total maximum of 6 stand markers for each Member or a maximum of 110 stand markers for all Members. No nails will be driven into trees at any time. Please respect the marked area of your fellow Member, you have no reason to be in another’s marked area during or just prior to deer season. If you hunt on or near a travel road, please expect vehicle traffic at any time.
13. All members and/or guests must wear an orange hat or vest while deer hunting at the Club during gun season.
14. Power line hunters must hunt only stands drawn or with the express permission of the drawn Member. For the power line hunts, hunters must park in designated areas only and be in their stands 1-hour before official Sunrise using a flashlight to travel in the dark and must remain in the stand until 10:30 am (10:00 after time change). For the evening hunt, hunters must be in the stand before 4:00pm (3:00 after time change). The evening hunt is over 30 minutes after the official sunset. Shooting a deer does not exempt you from these rules and time schedules!!
15. No shooting beyond marked power line shooting boundaries for each tower and in no event from the ground while walking on the power line.
16. Parents and spouses limited to 4 hunts during each season. Each member may bring a deer hunting guest 5 days per season (3 times if a Limited Member) and is responsible for the designated $20/visit fee. As stated in the By Laws, a member of the Board must be notified in advance. Guests must hunt in the member marked area or if hunting the powerline, the member/guest must be within two powerline stands of each other and be on the same side of Hwy 77.
17. The Club cooler may be used by any Member, free first day, $1.00/day afterwards payable to the Treasurer. All deer in the cooler must be tagged with Members name and date entered. All entrails, hides and/or carcasses will be taken to the gut pit and completely buried or otherwise discarded off Club property. Note: this cooler is intended to be a convenience to our Members, NOT a place to age your venison. Unless you are staying in camp all week a deer should not remain in the cooler for more than 2-3 days at the most.
18. No target shooting on the Club at any time.
19. In addition to the above-listed rules, the Club By-Laws will also serve to establish policy and to govern the Club with the assistance of the elected Board of Directors.
20. There will be a fine for shooting a button buck. The first button buck will be a $50 fine, the second will carry a $50 fine and count towards the Membership Quality Buck Limit. The 2nd button buck will also result in a 60-day suspension to run concurrent days until satisfied. If less than 60 days remain in the current deer season the balance of the suspension will be served starting with the first day of the next deer season. As stated in rule #9, a close-up picture must be taken and forwarded to a Board Member.
21. There will be a limit of (2) Bucks per membership. Any buck taken by another family member, guest or otherwise will count towards this Membership limit, with the following exceptions.
Exception 1: The first Buck of a child under the age of 16 or a member age 70 or over may be a Buck of choice and will not count towards the Membership limit unless it is a Quality Buck as defined, which will count towards that limit. There will be only 1 BOC allowed per membership.
Exception 2 (Guest and Under 16 Deer allotments): Designated each year will be (2) Quality Bucks (Minimum outside main beam spread of 16 inches) allotted for guest and for full members child/children under 16 years old to harvest that will not count against the Membership season limits. If a guest or full members U16 child harvest a Quality Buck a member of the Board must be notified immediately. A hunting guest or a full members U16 child/children can only harvest (1) QB Buck which will not count toward membership limits. All other guest or full members U16 child/children Buck harvest will count toward membership limits as defined.
Penalties for violations of rule #21 will be determined by the Board on a case-by-case basis taking all facts into consideration. No exceptions to the limit of Quality Bucks for guest/children will be allowed after an email notice to the Membership that (2) Quality Bucks has been satisfied.
Note: Once a member has taken the maximum of (2) Bucks allowed per membership, guests of that member may only harvest a Doe for the remainder of season.
22. Individual Antlerless Tag program:
ONLY SCDNR PROGRAM TAGS CAN BE USED ON WHC, ADDITIONALLY NO PERSONAL TAGS CAN BE USED ON WHC.
All Doe tags are required to be signed out with the following information, Member Name, Date signed out & Tag #. If you do not want to harvest a Doe please don’t sign out and remove a tag. The maximum number of tags to be signed out at any time is (1) per membership. Once you harvest a Doe, perform normal duties of logging in the kill, at that point you may sign out another tag. The Doe harvest limit per membership is 8. On December 1st if there are surplus tags remaining the Doe limit may be adjusted at discretion of the Board. All Guests and U16 children will use the Members program Doe Tags and will count towards members limit of 8, members must sign out tags. If you harvest more than (1) Doe per sitting you'll need to leave kill, sign out additional tag(s) and return to point of kill to tag prior to moving untagged animal. At the end of season, all unused program Doe tags are required to be returned to lock box so they can be sent back to SCDNR.
23. No hunting on any road that receives regular vehicular traffic from a stand or other position shooting directly down the road. Exceptions will apply to controlled hunting areas on the power line (road at #6).
24. It is required of Limited Members that they:
A) - Notify the Board of the exact location of their one stand marker immediately upon marking an area.
B) - That this stand marker may not be moved more than 2 times during a deer season and that the Board be notified immediately, if moved.
25. Due to our imposed limits on deer and turkeys, only game that is harvested on WHC should be taken to the pole barn. General rule of thumb: if you don’t kill it on WHC don’t bring it to WHC.