Deer Lease

Deer lease considerations for examining any hunting lease option.

Not having an idea of the available deer lease options frequently is the cause of not having an idea of what to look for in terms of lease type of that which may be more suitable for any one hunter over the others that may be available. Within this article we offer a listing of deer lease types, pitfalls, selection criteria and at the end a description of the private land self guided hunt option we provide in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa.

An Individual Lease

"My deer lease", this is the first thought most trophy whitetail hunters have when considering their first lease contract of any kind, that is, one place just for them. The pitfalls of this approach include that if that hunter is not in proximity to regularly put eyes on that land it is unlikely that land will be his alone due to covert hunter access.

The next consequence is that the hunter has placed all his eggs in one basket so to speak and has limited himself to one place to hunt. That one place needs to be large to have the type of isolation necessary to hold the trophy quality racked bucks. If not then that hunter has done more good for the economy than his whitetail hunts.

Small Group Lease

The classic deer lease or deer hunting club where a small group of friends join financial power to lease a bit of ground for their exclusive deer hunt use. Works great if that group can compromise on stand locations, deer hunting methods and quality standards. All combine to equally work the food plots, clean the camp, etc. For these same reasons is why this lease option is the least employed of all. Overcoming personal preferences is simply an on going struggle that never seems to get satisfied.

Deer Hunting Club Lease

A group of disconnected individuals with a common interest that team up under a set of rules to gain better whitetail land than they can by knocking on doors or on public lands.

These are individuals that can hunt on their own and only require the land resource to do so. This system works great if the members are willing to pay for the administration and enforcement of those rules. Without this one key financial aspect this approach is doomed for the same reasons for the small collective.

What To Look For

Their are several deer hunting lease criteria to consider.

The first are the creation of options within the lease.

Deer will make a liar out of most hunters far more frequently than most are willing to admit. The greatest advantage to a successful whitetail hunt in terms of any lease are the inclusive options. The more the better.

Options include multiple food sources to ensure a more stable year round whitetail deer population. Year round water as deer will, must, drink every day. Multiple types of habitat to accommodate seasonal weather changes and the all critical birthing and fawn cover. Without this last bit there will be far fewer whitetails that have that one piece of ground as their core or home range. Home range is first and foremost established and sustained by having a ground cover area that suits the doe to give birth and raise their fawns.

Not only the state of choice must have a long time history of trophy production that state will also have regions of better trophy production over other regions. Knowing this difference is the difference between more and less wallhangers and subsequent eyes on and tag on success rates. And, this one part is hard to learn.

Record books will come to mind as the source for the best regions in any one state and they may help. However, talk to all known whitetail hunters with several racks on the wall and ask how many certificates does that deer hunter have. The most common answer is the first record book buck has a certificate and after that the others are unknown to the books and rarely come from the same area.

Deer lease length are an often forgotten aspect as most hunters take the wrong approach and say they will try a deer lease for a year and if it works come back for another year.

For even the most accomplished deer hunter to learn any one piece of ground takes multiple trial and errors before the desired trial and success. That one golden nugget of a spot the hunter may be blind to until having enough time on the ground to detect seasonal patterns. Giving up a deer lease before that point is simply a hunter jumping from property to property or in this case more likely deer lease to deer lease again helping the economy more than his deer hunting.

Cost is frequently the prime criteria and a mistake.

Put the idea of cost aside and understand that once any one that puts a price tag on having fun they will find the price always too high. If using cost as a criteria above any other stay home and take up bowling. Bowling is cheaper, it is indoors, air cooled in the summer and dry in the winter and the person can drink beer while bowling. Cost is to be the last criteria as should be travel distance for the same reasons.

There are other deer lease options to consider, However, using these criteria when evaluating any possible lease opportunities the deer hunter is more likely to come to a better decision than without them. And, our self guided hunt options in Kansas, Missouri and Iowa satisfies many of these decision points.

With MAHA every deer hunter hunts as a do it yourself or self guided hunt, over multiple farms, multiple stands, on his choice of habitat, at any time during any deer season, as often as he has time and within our system when he hunts a piece of land he hunts it alone.

We offer three prime and well known deer hunting states: Kansas, Missouri and Iowa. Within each of these states we make the entire state available selecting the right deer habitat in the right region of the state that has a history of deer production. We handle the deer lease administration of the written contract, landowner liability insurance and patrolling to insure we get what we pay for.

Pitfalls occur in all systems and we work to avoid them and while not the perfect operation for all deer hunters the private lease land hunts we offer does satisfy the do it yourself hunter that seeks the ability to hunt without the hassle of getting his own lease, knocking on doors or competing with public lands mentality hunters.

Our whitetail hunter opportunity is great and just the few links below will gain the hunter far more information that includes testimonials, aerial and ground level pictures, a large trophy whitetail gallery and much administrative information to make an informed decision.