Non Resident Deer Hunting

Non resident deer hunting has greatly increased in the Association since the 1980s with resulting benefits to the self guided traveling deer hunter and all have a common basis for becoming Association hunters. That common orientation is addressed within this article.

Hunters are attracted by the reasonable cost, our do it yourself approach, pre season scouting opportunity, private lease land access in three well known whitetail states, choice of habitat, recommendations for tags and the flexibility to hunt where and when on their schedule. The individual points of this paragraph are the easy to demonstrate aspects of our approach to deer hunting.

There are several more intangible aspects that further contribute to the quality of the do it yourself deer hunting experience that are not so easy to demonstrate. The most significant intangible aspect is we understand what a good hunt is and that good hunt is what causes hunters to renew their membership. Membership renewals are what we work for.

The hunt is for more than just the trophy whitetail deer that seems far too easy to see and far too difficult to harvest. It includes the thrill of just seeing the buck that would be the largest yet even if no shot opportunity presents itself. Then there are the days in the field where simply being out there brings the gentle awareness that not much really matters and the few things that really do matter are far more clearly understood. That feeling of tranquility is as great an accomplishment as any trophy whitetail.

The non-resident hunter group we have observed that has most successfully remained members for years include two subgroups.

These subgroups are first those that have a higher rate of individual success over recurring years and the second group are those that hunt as part of a group of infrequent individual success and frequent group success hunters.

In the case of the individual deer hunter that has found the ideal combination of elements as demonstrated by an impressive string of wallhangers that deer hunter will remain a MAHA member for over a decade. This hunter when he does leave the Association it is for reasons other than quality hunts.

A secondary effect of this kind of self guided hunter is his sponsorship into the Association of local (home state) peer members that believe they too can recreate the success of that lead hunter and enjoy a collection of great hunt experiences.

What is more often the case is contrary to that belief. It is our observation that the lead hunter has exceptional deer hunting skill and gains quick and recurring results due to his individual skill. However, the person he sponsored into the Association often fails to meet the same success rate due to his deer hunting skill level being less than the lead hunter. This second hunter after three years or so gives up most frequently citing poor deer hunting for the reason.

The next do it yourself deer hunting non-resident success group that remains with the Association for a long time is the group that follows this particular composition:

The group has previous deer hunting experience together for a variable number of years before joining MAHA. The group size generally ranges from 3 to 6.

Some members of the group have variable degrees of success during their early MAHA deer hunt experience. (This does not always require a trophy whitetail in the truck. This includes eyes on quality racks and missed shot opportunities)

The group remains intact providing variable members in the group experience periodic success.

In the case of these hunters the decision to remain with MAHA continues as a traditional hunt for a good many years. Degradation of this group’s membership follows one of two routes.

The first is the deer hunting group that begins to gain confidence they can successfully MAHA hunt with decreasing amount of scouting and during season field time. The motivation for this change is that it allows the group to hunt more than one state each season in an attempt to further increase the number of trophy whitetails they have the potential to harvest.

The secondary effect is that the group’s success rate declines due to a lack of time on the ground in a concentrated effort of scouting and on the hunt. At a certain point the group makes the decision to cease their affiliation with MAHA frequently making statements along the lines of: “…the whitetail hunts used to be good…it has declined recently and we plan to hunt elsewhere.”

The second cause for a deer hunting group’s not renewing their membership is the result of a group decision that they have filled to their satisfaction their quota of central mid-west whitetail deer and want to move on to another adventure by locality or animal species. This is told to us by groups that did not renew their membership responding with they are headed to Canada for a bear, moose, caribou, etc., hunt.

Within our non-resident deer hunters there dose exist a great deal of hunting experience, success and failure.

Each deer hunter may make his own success or achieve his own level of failure. In every case the do it yourself deer hunter will have that same opportunity to the land, seasons and the ability to make his own self guided hunt.

In the case of the honest deer hunter he will come to realize the hunt is far more failure or near success than actual tags filled. The hunter that enjoys the deer hunt itself will fulfill that expectation every trip. Those that measure success singularly by trophy racks will find more failure.

The latter group is better off spending his money on a guide to set him up in a stand or other semi guided or even a canned hunt. The difference cannot be over stated. We offer only fair chase hunts and they will always be the most challenging hunts.