Quality Deer Management
Quality Deer Management on non-contiguous lease land is a futile effort any time the state does not have point restriction deer regulations. Any attempt on our part for quality deer management would simply be useless effort. Our approach is by the very nature of our self guided hunter largely a trophy deer hunter organization and the self guided hunter is above the public lands hunter mentality of having to get a buck before anyone else. That combined that we exist within a well know trophy deer region within Iowa, Kansas and Missouri deer hunters come with a trophy mindset not willing to suffer the wrath of ridicule for shooting a small buck.
...we had one in the freezer and dropped a second when these two just turned to see where the shot came from. We could have taken a third, but two is enough for us so we just took a picture...
First, on trophy deer, while we do not have rack size prohibitions, we do encourage that all deer hunters harvest only racks that are larger than what they previously have harvested. Once a hunter reaches the 140 class deer then successive trophies of this magnitude are acceptable. This policy allows the deer hunter the ability to start his children hunting with success on the easier to obtain smaller racks and build up. The non-resident coming from areas were lower scoring racks are truly trophy deer is free to start his central mid-west hunting career at his own selected entry point and move on up from there as well.
Doe harvest is of special concern to us and is highly encouraged. We do have landowners that request additional deer hunters to help thin the doe population. For the hunter wanting to fill a freezer with venison his is encouraged to hunt the doe only seasons as much as he can.
We also list every meat processing plant we are aware of that supports the hunters for the hungry program on the same list as our lodging. Deer hunters are encouraged to harvest doe and employ this worth while program.
In spite of our deer hunting approach being for the enjoyment of the hunt the reality is that most self guided deer hunters and especially those that travel to deer hunt are trophy deer hunters. In any case of any of our hunters be they primarily deer hunters or not we encourage all that want to feed themselves or their dogs throughout the year to do so with doe meat.