Jim Delong

This Season

Jon & Maha Staff,

I returned yesterday from this year’s Midwest bow hunting trip, and I wanted to send you guys a quick note to thank you for your excellent service providing access to leased private land for hunting. Although I did not even shoot at a deer, this was my best year ever hunting with The Association.

After setting three ladder stands the first day, I spent the next three days sitting entire days in each of the three. It’s tough for me to have the patience and self discipline to sit in the same tree stand an entire day, but it sure is an excellent way to see lots of game. During those three days, I saw four shooter bucks (8 points or better, good spread, score 125 plus) and eight or nine small bucks. None of the large bucks presented an acceptable shot, but the largest of the four did provide one of my most enjoyable days hunting. I first saw him at about 9:30AM when he bedded in some tall grass about 120 yards from my stand. He would sometimes stand and look toward me when I used a doe bleat, and I think that he could see my bedded doe decoy, but he would not come to me. He hung up just like a turkey. In part, I think that this was because a stream bed separated us, plus I think that he was with a doe that I could not see. He jumped up twice and ran in the other direction as if he was going to chase his doe back to their accommodations for the day. Both times he was back in a few minutes, and this continued until about 3:00PM when he stood and walked out of my sight. I saw him once more for an instant at last shooting light, but I never saw him again. That was a great day!!!

During my other three days of hunting I either moved to different stands during the day or tried hunting from a ground blind. I did not see as many bucks on days that I moved, and trying to sit in a ground blind for a complete day drove me nuts. Next year, I will stick with one tree stand all day, every day.

Again, thank you for your excellent service. I am really please to be a member, and I have already made lodging reservations for next year. Make sure that you send me an invoice so I can renew my membership.

I also really appreciate Shaun’s professionalism and competence in working with me when I called for reservations. She is a real professional and is a credit to your organization.

Jim

Earlier Season

via email: Jon and Staff,

Thank you for your efforts finding quality deer hunting lease land for The Association. I had a wonderful experience again this year, my second as a member, and I’ll be back again next year.

Hunting alone as a member of the association has been the best thing that I have ever done to improve my whitetail deer hunting skills. The open terrain and lack of hunting competition has provided me an opportunity to really become a student of the sport and of the game.

ground blind These are the lessons learned over the past year. First, the best time to deer scout is in February or March. The travel corridors are clear, and my scouting is not disrupting someone else’s hunting.

deer hunting

Second, the camouflaged ground blind seems to work very well in the open terrain. Finally, the warning signs about roads should be taken seriously.

I arrived in [location deleted] two days before the season opening date and set up two ground blinds in the property that I was scheduled to hunt the first day. I only saw three does, but the set up seemed just right. My first ground blind was positioned for the normal wind from the north, but I set up a second since the weather forecast called for a wind from the south on the first day and I wanted that possibility covered. Later that day I scouted another property that nobody had reserved to hunt, and I saw several does and a very good buck.

On opening day, I started seeing deer at first light, and by 9:00AM I had see eleven bucks. My guess is that I actually saw six or seven different bucks, and some of the medium frame eight points I saw several times as they moved back and forth near my stand. At 9:00AM I shot the buck in the attached photograph. That was the largest buck that I saw the first day, and that is the largest rack deer that I have ever killed. The remainder of the first day was spent getting that deer out of the field and to my truck, and later to a processor for cutting and freezing.

The second day was camera hunting day. I did not see as many deer on the second day, but I did see six bucks, two of which were as big as or bigger than the one that I shot on day one. I was moving, and they were moving, and our encounter was a meeting engagement, but I could tell that they were shooters, and one of them did present an easy standing broadside shot at about forty yards.

deer scout hunting lease

I had planned to hunt with my camera for several more days, but the weather forecast looked pretty bad, and I decided to leave early to return to Pennsylvania . I really appreciate your good work and the excellent service that The Association provides.

Jim

Previous Season

scouting via email: Dear John, Jon, and Jennifer

The two best deer hunting item investments that I have ever made are my membership in the Mid-America Hunting Association and my purchase of the Super Mag Hauler from Cabela's. Mid western hunting was everything you indicated: excellent habitat, plentiful game, and limited hunting pressure.

Attached you will find photographs of a mature whitetail buck that I killed at 10:05AM the first day of the season. He was the 6th buck that I saw, and he fell instantly to one shot from my .270. The range was 123 yards.

jim delong Also, attached is a photograph of the ground blind where I was comfortably seated. At home I hunt from a tree stand, but it was obvious from the first moment on the property that my tactics needed to be modified. I made the blind using six survey stakes, burlap material from Wal-Mart, a staple gun, and branches that I cut from a cedar tree in a shooting lane.

Thank you for your advice, and the excellent opportunities for a quality hunting experience that The Association provides.

Jim

Jim D. From Pennsylvania On Whitetail Deer Hunting