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A July land run showing rolling hills and tree lined creek and river bottoms of common deer habitat and that where most deer hunting occurs.
The relief map shows that in Missouri, "The Rivers
State", that all ridgelines and hills follow water from small
tributaries to rivers and their broad farm crop filled flat valleys.
That is the deer holding habitat combination of cover and food that
allows for Missouri to have higher deer population densities
compared to Iowa or Kansas.
Compare this valley floor to the ridge picture of the relief map above and see the near ridge with another behind it. This is typical of the locally described rolling hills and timbered ridges deer country. This habitat also provides quail hunting but they can be very difficult to locate unless caught feeding on the edges early in the morning or late in the afternoon. These edges are excellent to set up for turkey with a decoy and to hunt deer. This field in beans show deer sign along all wooded edges with the bean tops grazed by deer. The tree composition includes the Bur Oak with its high volume acorn production well liked by both turkey and deer. Acorns typically drop in mid September.
More attempts to show the successive nature of the timbered ridge lines and in the case of the picture below a tree lined creek tributary cutting though the valley edge.
Now compare the above Missouri timbered hills to the deer productive small wood patches of Iowa shown below.
Ground level pictures of that wood patch are below.
This aerial also has value at showing how clearly delineated the
property lines are even on the southern side that has no fence and
the terraces transcend the property boundary. As on this deer lease
and the many others that are out there it would be difficult to
accidentally trespass onto the neighbor's land. Hunters new to the
central mid west can pursue their deer with confidence of knowing
where they are at all times.
As seen from the road, the small wood patch supposedly a deer loafing spot according tot he landowner. A tough deer hunt to get into that spot.
Halfway across the field.
From another viewpoint. An interesting note about the aerial photo above. Shortly after we post such an aerial there does occur a scurry of activity by some deer hunters that will frantically search all Association maps screening them through one of the aerial photo services trying to locate that particular piece of land. Some of them when they get frustrated at not being able to locate that land call the maps inaccurate or other fault and call us and ask its location. These same deer hunters will be calling in exactly at 9 AM 30 days before the season to reserve that deer lease simply due to its posting on the website. This is not a threat to this land or that one particular buck as the very same deer hunter that relies on others than trust his own skill will neither have the skill to hunt a mature buck on such difficult habitat. That same deer hunter will do someone else a favor by pushing that deer off to another hiding spot. These deer hunters are a very small minority of the Association and we hold them harmless and seek for their benefit the best deer hunt possible. We also do not provide this discussion as degradation of deer hunters. It is a recognition on our part that we cater to self guided hunters of all skill levels and will address each equally. The more skilled deer hunter will take this one tidbit of information and combine it with all the other deer habitat nuggets on this website and meld that with his own past experience to scout out his own deer hunting spot that matches his deer hunting style and will be far more successful than relying on others. A second note about the identification of that wooded area as containing 13 acres comes from an earlier similar discussion about another aerial photo where one deer hunter immediately challenged us as to how we could know how much acreage a property has in woods, field, etc. The answer is we also use FSA maps that demonstrate the exact acreage for every field, waterway, wood lot, etc., by soil type and use for every piece of agriculture land. This point as the one before is not to identify fault in others. It is to allow all to come to the conclusion we have been in the deer hunting lease business for a long time and have the wherewithal to gather as much information as we need to make sound decisions. This is a deer hunt on your own organization. If we lease a farm it is for good reason. Also, as lighting rarely strikes twice in the same spot, trophy deer do not as well with many such leases as above within a relatively small area will increase the chances for success. Essentially, we have the land in the right regions of each of our three states and sustain our success only when the deer hunter is successful, meaning a good deer hunting trip and not always a deer tag filled. And, the deer hunter has the options of picking his own hunting spot. How much better can it get? |
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It
is difficult to show hill deer habitat as any ground level picture is
limited at what it can illustrate. In the case of the deer habitat picture layout on
this page we are highlighting the hill habitat found in
Missouri's better deer hunting region and also in the 4-point one
side restriction zone..
The trees on this 1/4 section, 160 acres, add up to 13 acres. What
is good to know was the landowner said several deer to include
racked bucks called
that 13 acres home last year and one buck with potential in
particular survived the season.
