Deer Hunt Recommendations
"Deer hunting choices do not make for better deer hunting, concentrating within those deer hunting choices makes the better deer hunt..."
-Long time traveling deer hunter that has been a MAHA member for 12 years
2 Bucks 2 States 2 Days
A long time traveling deer hunter/member that no longer relies on our recommendations to make his own good deer hunts.
Hello John and Jon, How are things going? I just wanted to send you guys some pictures from my latest hunt. I was very fortunate this year and was able to tag 2 nice bucks in two states. I had hunted hard for nine straight days, dealing with about every obstacle one could run across. I figured my hunt was going to end without any opportunities. However, my luck turned for the best and in 30 hours I was able to harvest 2 dandies in 2 states. The remarkable part of this is the 30 hours included pulling stands, one night of rest, 5 hours travel, purchasing another license, finding a hotel, taking deer 1 to a processor, and finding a new farm. You can imagine my surprise when I looked up and saw Buck #2 coming over the knoll after only being there for 1.5 hours. I just wish I hadn't packed my deer cart at the bottom of the truck, because I decided to drag him out and that was not an easy task. The larger buck scored 142 3/4 and is my largest archery buck to date.
Any lease recommended to a hunter must have been visited by either Jon Nee or John Wenzel within the past year or so. As such all recommendation while based on eyes on good racks, good sign or the right habitat within the right region of the state, the recommendations are nonetheless historical. In spite of this historical characteristic any hunt recommendation is intended to give the hunter as good a start his first year as a member as possible.
For the most part recommendations are well received as the members understand the MAHA staff have a value incentive to insure all have as good of a hunt as possible. This is compared to taking recommendations from another deer hunter knowing full well serious deer hunters are as bass fishermen about any good spots, simply the best liars around, or at least avoiders of the whole truth!
From this understanding is why first year deer hunter/members should have confidence at what the two Jo(h)n’s say rather than seek hunter feedback relative to any one spot.
There are two further understandings about these deer hunting recommendations.
The first is they are based largely on deer sightings and second they are often different than what any one member may have selected as a deer hunting spot.
In terms of the former, it is deer that we are after and not necessarily the best looking to the human eye habitat. To test this differential, seek feedback from any upland bird hunter as to the habitat that surrounds some of the biggest racks they put up. Most quail and pheasant hunters will have a list of large racked whitetail from the most unlikely cover they have seen resulting from hunting “bird ground”.
The latter understanding is that our recommendations are just that and can be taken or discarded by any one member and all members may hunt where they see fit to do so.
The value of a self guided hunter organization is that all may make their own hunt. From the hunter perspective, recommendation are largely to which lease to deer hunt. A secondary set of recommendations include which state to deer hunt and which season gives the best opportunities.
His first season with MAHA, self guided Association hunter Klint from Colorado, sent us in this picture of what he was able to get done even after a late start.
Selection amongst Kansas, Missouri or Iowa of where to hunt and that of which deer season to hunt has one overriding and frequently unconsidered decision criteria that has proven effective over the years. That is for the traveling deer hunter to hunt that portion of the rut he has the most experience hunting.
Those that try to cross over to an unfamiliar portion of the rut just because any one state has a deer season that fits the hunter’s schedule will most likely find the deer hunter not getting eyes on as many deer and not enjoying his hunt as much. Pre rut, early rut, peak rut, trail rut and post rut hunts are all possible across the range of available MAHA seasons and states. An illustration to make this point would be If early rut is the season that any one hunter has the most experience within then he should deer hunt our land during the early rut (October). Those that stick to the early rut and know how to decoy by sight and sound will find plenty of enjoyment at this finesse aspect side of deer hunting. Those that attempt to sight and sound decoy deer during pre rut will simply be wasting time.
Any one can draw similar illustrations of the changing hunting techniques and skills required for deer hunting throughout the range of deer behavior. Each phase has its own set of rules and those that attempt to take those behaviors outside of their specified season will not have a good hunt. Those that stick to what they know the best always have a better time of it.
In terms of Kansas Iowa or Missouri each state has trophy whitetail potential with habitat differentials that drive archery hunters to some regions and other regions well suited to long range rifle shots. Life is long and we have been around a long time. To select from among the three states where we offer deer hunting is to work towards setting up for years of deer hunts to come. Eventually, planning to hunt two of our three states every season will become the norm, that is after breaking into each sequentially rather than biting off too much and try to cover them all the first year.
We track what we see and where for the end result of getting that first year member off on the right step.
