Deer Hunting Methods
Green score 169 5/8. Captured on film before the hunt, true self guided whitetail hunter success.
Deer hunting in the mid-west is primarily from tree stands in most of Kansas and just about all of Missouri and Iowa.
Ground blinds and stalking are the other respected methods. These methods have been less successful as reported back by our successful hunters telling of their hunt accounts.
Road, vehicle drive and foot drives are considered primitive forms and the domain of the un-skilled.
On MAHA deer lease land vehicle use in any form is prohibited. All deer hunting, scouting and property use is by foot.
Tree stands are provided and posted by the hunter. They may be placed out as early before the season as wanted and all must be removed at the end of the season. Lock-on, ladder, climbing stands are permissible as are screw in steps. Wooden 2x4 and plywood stands are prohibited. The concept is that anything a hunter puts on a tree he must remove at the end of the hunt or at the end of the season at the latest.
The basic issue on tree stands is not if they are allowed, it is the number that can be posted. Local deer hunters know thoroughly it is easier to have stands on several leases and simply move in to occupy. Non-residents are encouraged to bring as many as they can as all know it is far more enjoyable to move a stand within a lease rather than always walking one in each morning.
Ground blinds are not a choice, but a necessity in many areas as the available tress may not be sufficient to hunt from. The trees may not be high enough or thick enough to conceal any foreign object. Typical blind employment is along brush fence lines or field edge.
Stalking is the prevalent form for the big open of western Kansas deer hunting. Stalking is more aptly described as "spot and stalk" vice the more popular "stalking".
In many regions of western Kansas, Whitetail Deer will loaf and bed in draws. There are a good number of large and small branch draws in a very small area. While walking down one main branch of any one draw may yield nothing more than a good day's walk having turned the other direction may yield some of the biggest bucks ever seen. In this habitat, the deer hunter hunting along just below the ridge line careful not to skyline and high enough to glass the sides and bottoms of the draws.
Trophy Whitetail Deer Hunting
Always great when two buddies both tag out on the same hunt. Not realistic expectation, but always enjoyable.
Key deer cover is the plumb thicket and high grass. In this low vegetation a buck could lay-up and not be seen by eye or glass until the hunter walks right on up the buck, at which time it is too late. With skill and good luck, slowly moving around a bend and glassing each clump of vegetation may show a rack, twitching tail or full body exposure of a trophy Whitetail Deer.
It all comes down to habitat and through the years what is commonly known as good deer habitat locally is frequently new to the traveling deer hunter. two examples that receive the most comments from the first time central midwest Whitetail Deer hunter.
The first is tall grass such as seen below filling a field surrounding a lightly wooded dry drainage.
While this picture appears a bit poor the trees would be hard pressed for a stable tree stand. The value of this spot is the tall grass that is generally five feet tall and thick enough that at ground level anything three feet ways is completely concealed. The tall grass is bedding, loafing and protected travel cover. Those new to tall grass deer hunting should keep the refrain in mind as stated by a long time Iowa deer hunter: "Thirty acres of tall grass beats a 100 acres in timber anytime."
Next is the plum thicket.
Too thick for a deer hunter to walk through and completely capable of passing a herd of deer unseen by nearby hunters. This is another one of those dry drains cutting through grain crop fields. In this case filled with wild, pioneering plum bush, and it runs for over a mile on this branch connecting to another drainage running another mile plus. While the plum will hold deer tight, picking that right spot for eyes-on, shot opportunity leading to tag on is the tough part. This country is the case of high deer hunter frustration where the open land allows plenty of eyes-on and far fewer shot opportunities leading to stories of great hunts and tags in pocket on the way home.