north american hunting club?

[MyWifeIsAGlock27]

i recently signed up to be a new product and gear tester through the NAHC.

from what i understand from the application you pay a yearly fee of $12 and when new hunting gear comes out they send it to you to test it out andvall you have todo is fill out the review paper work that they send with the item and mail it back and you get to keep the gear you tested.

does anyone know if this is legit, i dont wanna be paying $12 a year to them to get nothing out of it. if anyone has had any experience with this please let me know.

how often did you get gear to test?
what types of gear did you get to test?
were there any hidden fees? etc.


sorry if theres a better place for this kind of post,im still very new to the forum and still figuring out my way around

[Doyle]

Same scam as the Handyman Club of America. Woodworkers used to joke that the only thing their membership cards were good for was as a glue spreader. Maybe shooters could use the NAHC cards as targets.

[MyWifeIsAGlock27]

thanks, glad i didnt send them any money yet

[Bud Helms]

They have been taking money from potential gear testers since the mid 80s. All I ever got was some NAHC peel'n'stick membership decals and one lead headed, tufted jig to test.

[Brian Pfleuger]

Same experience, minus the jig. I was a member for ~5 years in the early 90s. Never got anything but a magazine and a bill.

[hoytinak]

Tried it for a year myself...never even got a mag so I canceled.

[RaySendero]

MyWifeIsAGlock27 asked:

north american hunting club?

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does anyone know if this is legit?

No - Not legit!

They got me, too for a yr

[MyWifeIsAGlock27]

do you even get the free gifts? my scratch off card said "you won both" (wild game cookbook and 2pc. knife set)

[jj33002]

I did end up getting a knife set, a cheap china made thing you can find for $0.50, from them and some magazines, but I never read anything else they sent to me. If I remember right, there were just to many things that you had to try to do in order to start getting products to review. I wouldn't waste my time with it, unless you are just completely bored and have nothing else to do. And want to waste the money!!!

[bigalshootmupper]

I joined for a 3 year membership for $60 and got a pretty nice back pack. I've used this backpack for about 6 years now and it is pretty good. They offered me to test a trail camera rain shield, but I turned it down. It looked pretty nice, but I'm not sure why anyone made a shield that keeps the rain off your outdoor trail camera. Never did test anything after turning that down.

[dcobler]

I got a few cracker jack toys to test, the best of which was a lock blade knife that was a joke. I knew from experience that others of the make were crap but tested it anyways and it was worse than expected.

I never had to pay any testing fees but never got anything like the magazines show for testing either. As far as membership bonuses I got a few little knick-knacks and even something with the name Cable monogrammed on it.

I used to like thumbing through the magazine but they just seem to send me more junk than what I can return before they bill me for it.

[Jack O'Conner]

Same experience here - tried it for a year and said adios. Waste of money.

Jack

[snusrobot]

So, I joined back in November 2011. I was supposed to receive a fixed blade knife for signing up. I never got a knife, but I got some check for $12. It said I could be a life member for sending that check back and that was my dues owed. So I sent it back so to be a life member. I was supposed to get some welcome kit. I never received my knife or welcome kit, but got the magazine and some stupid come-on offers for cookbooks and stuff like that. I figured the whole thing was bs. I kept getting these yellow envelopes as the months passed. They said "urgent, open" or something along those lines. I figured it was bs so I never opened them. I finally opened one and it said I owed like $327 and that I was so far overdue, that my life membership was being revoked and they were turning me over to a collection agency. I haven't received any envelopes since and that was like 2 months ago. Anyone else have this problem? Are they actually going to turn me over for money I do not owe? Afterall, I never got any of the stuff they were supposed to send me. I never got any products to test.

[Brian Pfleuger]

Why don't you ask THEM?

[g.willikers]

Sounds like they must be related to the folks who run those mail order book clubs.
The books just keep on coming, and so do the bills for them.
There's no stopping them, it's like a buffalo stampede.
Or visiting relatives.

[North East Redneck]

I joined as a life member 6-7 years ago. Got some decent gun cleaning gear, guess I get the magazine forever. They sent me some cheap lantern or something to test. Never did submit a report.
I actually bought a few of their hardcover species specific hunting books. Not bad actually.

I'm not advocating this org, just that they haven't been bad to me.

[SLOMountaineer]

I was a member who renewed yearly in the early 90's. they finally hassled me into becoming a Life Member and for that I got a pretty nice leather jacket. I mainly kept up my membership because of the magazine. (It was pretty good) I NEVER got any equipment to test and never met someone who did. About 5 years ago, the magazine stopped coming. I have contacted them numerous times by phone and by email and they say gthat they have been mailing it to the wrong address by mistake. Funny thing is that my address hasn't ever changed. Anyway, I confirm my address with them and they say allow 4-6 weeks for it to start coming and it never has.

Absolute rip-off.

[jmr40]

Not a rip-off if you learn to play by their rules, but not great either. I joined many, many years ago. The way I looked at it it was just a magazine subscription for a so-so hunting magazine. This was pre-internet, so I subscribed to about a dozen hunting and shooting magazines at the time. Not my favorite magazine, but the only one I still get because it is free.

I eventually got talked into a lifetime membership. I've been getting the magazine for years without paying a dime. If they stopped sending the magazine to me right now, I got my moneys worth from that alone years ago. Even with paying for the lifetime membership.

At first they were constantly sending me stuff without me ordering with the option to pay for it or return it. Just write "REFUSED" on the unopened package and put it back in your mail box. They end up paying shipping both ways. After doing that a few times they stopped and I've not gotten anything from them in years.

To be a product tester you have to fill out and send in an application. They will then send you a product to test. You fill out a form with some comments and mail it back. You keep the product. In order to get another item to test you have to re-apply each time. The first 2-3 items they sent me were pretty cheesy and cheap items. Some worked ok, others didn't, but none were very expensive. Once you have proven to be dependable and will actually test the products and do a writeup rather than just keep it they will start sending you better stuff. I ended up with a few decent knives, and hunting clothes. Jackets, pants, shirts, caps. etc.

I haven't applied to test anything in years and probably won't. I don't think they are ripping anyone off. But some are expecting more than they should., or don't understand how the product testing works.