Self Guided Deer Hunts

Mid-America Hunting Association Value

The value of the Association partners to the hunter begins with they operate, live and hunt within Kansas, Iowa and Missouri. Between the two of them they have been on every piece of land. They have an understanding of the regional difference in deer population distribution. This combined with not running a lodge they are not limited to a small area such as the driving distance around a lodge for deer lease land. That allows the entire state to be available for where to spend hunting lease money. When that money is spent it is where the best return can be gained.

Once in a region of long standing production the partners lease land with protective cover. It is by this method the mystery of where to deer hunt is solved. It is the Association partners that will get the self guided deer hunter to the spot where to park his truck step out and scout/hunt.

Go Where the Bucks Are

Put away preconceived ideas of where to deer hunt. Take a look beyond the racks and look over the open lands where big bucks roam.

The land is not as open as it appears. There are many loafing spots. What is common and important to agree on is the bucks are where they are due to the grain field food sources. Once there is food there will be deer making use of any available cover.

Our emphasis on open lands deer hunts is not to illustrate all the Association has is open land. There is plenty of bow friendly cover to hunt. It is however, that many traveling hunters come from 100 to 1,000 acre woodlot, forest areas. That cover does not exist in the central mid-west where farming is the predominate land use.

First Food Then Cover Then Deer

Corn

Milo

Soybean

Wheat

A food first, cover second approach to deer hunting is different in Iowa, Kansas and Missouri than the more widely practice food plot deer hunting. The difference is the abundance of feed throughout the region does not concentrate deer such as a 5 acre food plot does in an area predominated by woodlands.

The central midwest is often described as the food basket for the USA. The land use maps at right show the distribution to the predominate grain agriculture in our Iowa, Kansas, Missouri deer hunting region. They should first show the width of distribution, they should then communicate well the regional differences in distribution. A synopsis of which follows.

Dependent on the time of the season determines when hunt one food source over another as each has different value at different times.

Soybean during early September and October season when still green draws in deer better than any customized food plot. Once beans turn brown they have little attraction.

Corn fields have the majority opinion best hunted after harvest. Limited snow ground cover in Kansas and more so in Iowa render waste corn available or unavailable during mid to late season.

Milo is well liked by deer. Waste milo given the limited snowfall region where it is most grown makes any milo field a scouting point.

Winter wheat is an early through late season delicacy that when snow covered deer will dig through to eat.

This food first discussion is just the start of simplifying the scouting effort. Other aspects include a year round water source as a scouting checkpoint.

At this point the scouting discussion is not comprehensive. It is more an illustration that the Association partners will get the hunter to the right region and then to the right cover of where to build his deer hunts. That is the way of self guided deer hunts. This Association is a deer hunt execution organization, not a hunter trainer group.

How The Self Guided Deer Hunters Finds The Spot To Hunt

Scouting is the short answer most will agree on. How to conduct that scouting has advantage through the Association greater than the mystery being taken away from what region to hunt and then what farm. Each Association self guided deer hunter will have more land acreage available to scout than anyone has walk in them or daylight hours to cover. Reducing that scouting requirement is discussed here.

The key point to this deer scouting discussion is the behavioral difference of open lands deer in a sparely human populated area. That difference is that deer seek to avoid human observation contact. To avoid that contact requires movement to and occupation of isolated cover spots. These spots may be at some distance. Contrast this to a big woods deer behavior that also seeks to avoid human contact. In the big woods that avoidance is quickly achieved by very little deer movement to put a dozen trees between that deer and the hunter. That dozen tree effect does not occur in big deer county where 55% of the land use is grain fields.

The process is this sequence:

First get recommended farms from the Association partners based on what they have seen and what landowners have told them.

The list will be in the form of numbered farms that can be viewed on the Association hunters online map library.

The hunter then takes the list of farms and produces his own aerial and topographical maps.

These maps are then marked for isolated from human direct observation. That direct observation is from farm yards, roads and pastures.

Those isolated spots are what should be scouted. They will be far less than the entire acreage of that farm.

Take all such marked farms and rank order them in terms of first to last farms desired to be scouted or hunted.

The next step is the price only the self guided deer hunter can pay. That is time on the ground.

An example of a farm with the isolated area from direct observation from farm yard and roads identified. The acreage within the dotted yellow line is the area to be scouted. Reducing the work load from the entire farm to a limited area is a time efficiency required to maximize the effect the Association has of providing more than one spot to deer hunt. Having 3 to 5 such spots enhances the chances of getting on a good buck.

Once the scouting points are narrowed down add to them as enhancements localized food sources for the time of season to be hunted and local water sources. Connecting the dots between cover, food, water, that are isolated from human observation further reduces the area to be foot scouted and identification of stand placement.

The basic idea well presented by many traveling deer hunters is that when the conditions of the hunt change so must the approach to the deer hunt. That means to hunt the conditions of the central mid-est, i.e., open lands, grain fields, observation isolation.

Value to the Self Guided Deer Hunter

With decades of working with hunters there have been some recurring questions answered. With Association self guided deer hunts available throughout the entire season ranging from September 15 to January 15 there are some decision criteria to assist when to choose to hunt.

The most satisfied hunts, tagged out or not, are expressed by those that hunt within the portion of the rut they have the most experience with. The range of deer behavior within the September through January season runs from pre-rut where bachelor group bucks are hunted. To next the early rut when the bucks are seeking doe but the doe are not receptive. To peak rut when the doe are receptive. Trail of the rut, the period when late to come into season yearly doe breed. To post rut, behavior returns to that motivated by food and shelter.

The most dissatisfied hunts result from the hunter hunting a deer behavior outside of his comfort zone. An example would be a peak rut deer hunter that hunts the bachelor group bucks. Without realizing the critical requirement that deer hunting techniques must change. This would be the case of a peak rut deer hunter who hunts primarily from deer stand trying to employ the deer stand approach to bachelor group bucks. This technique fails as the bachelor group buck moves so very little. Contrast this with the peak rut buck that greatly increase his daily range in search of doe. The bachelor group buck requires being found first then only under ideal conditions would a stand placement work.

Another viewpoint offered by deer hunters is the advantage of the Association permitting season long hunts. This allows the deer hunt fit the hunter's work/vacation schedule. This also fits well with the deer hunter that is long in the tooth. Hunting a buck with different behavior than the bulk of the prior experience gives the adventure aspect of variety. This brings a bit of motivation along with it that may invigorate enthusiasm for the hunt.

In all cases of the Association's self guided deer hunts they are for the average deer hunter seeking a quality deer hunt. Each hunter may make his own hunt to his own standards. And, each Association hunter has parity with the other. No specials for anyone.

Private Land Deer Hunting Lease

It seems required by questions received to reinforce the understanding that all Association land is 100% private land. It is also secured by a written contract where the Association staff insures it receives what it pays for. The final aspect is that the land paid for is for Association hunter exclusive use. No guests, no sharing of the land, no franchising, no sublease.

The Association's approach to not sub leasing the land to hunters makes all land available to all that have time to hunt. It is by this means that no one hunter is limited to just one spot. This has been more the main cause for the extensive deer hunter success than most initially will agree with. Once experienced most agree it would be hard to impossible to replicate the flexibly offered through the Association.

Our success approach is derived from maximizing each hunter's opportunity to get on a good buck. It is that each hunter can apply his own skills to their fullest effect to match techniques to the portion of the pre, early, peak, trail, post rut of the season he is hunting to that of food and cover. And, do so in several places.

One advantage available through the collective buying power of the Association is acquisition of the corporate farm lease. Corporate farms range well above 10,000 acres in grain farming. These operations are commodity farmers limiting equipment sets, storage and transportation assets to a limited product. These are soybean and corn farmers or wheat and milo farmers. They are not diversified as is a small farm operation of under 3,000 acres that will likely have livestock in the wildlife areas. The corporate farm works the crop land, they maximize the crop land, they do not increase their overhead by diversifying into livestock. This leaves a higher quality of wildlife cover in non-farmed areas making for better deer hunting.

Bits and Nuts

Lodging is by local motel with the Association maintaining an up to date listing on the web site. Hunters pick their own poison amongst the available rural town lodging options. Each local listing carries with it a preferred lodging choice. However, the word preferred means more the best of what is available Not the best of all lodging that exists overall.

Meat lockers and tow truck services are also posted to the lodging listing.

Spring turkey season is a good time to plan a deer scouting trip. This is especially useful when wanting a deer hunt in a new region. Western Kansas would be an example where the first time central mid-west deer hunter would best be served by looking over this region by scouting before applying for a tag.

Trail cameras are permissible as are any tree stand as long as each are removed by the last day of the season.