Kansas Muzzleloader Deer Hunting
Early Kansas Muzzleloader Season - Warm Weather
The clothing and foliage gives this picture away as a September Kansas muzzleloader deer harvest. This hunter travels to multiple states using his Mid-America Hunting Association membership as a means to manipulate where he hunts and for which season or deer species for that matter. His picture with successful trophy deer harvest appears in the archery and modern rifle sections as well. Shannon is a deer hunter and enjoys all forms of deer hunting. This muzzleloader picture is just one example of the hunts he has enjoyed.
Kansas muzzleloader deer hunting is a split season where the one deer tag allows hunting during the early September muzzleloader deer hunting only season and the later or regular late November into early December modern rifle or the Kansas firearms season.
Within Mid-America Hunting Associations approach to self guided hunts on private land leases each member/hunter may hunt both the muzzleloader only season and the modern firearms season that allows for the use of either muzzleloader or modern rifle.
Perhaps the greatest value this one tag, two season license allows is the ability to plan sequential rather than overlapping hunts when applying or buying home state or other non-resident tags.
Just amongst our three states of Kansas, Iowa and Missouri the muzzleloader seasons along are sequential allowing for 8 weeks of seasons. These muzzleloader seasons also crosses a range of pre rut in Kansas, trail rut in Missouri and post rut in Iowa. For the hunter with the energy level to deer hunt all three states muzzleloader seasons he will observe a range of movement patterns that largely leave the stand at home. Kansas September muzzleloader deer season is an illustration of just this one point.
Deer Hunter Feedback
Dear MAHA Staff, I thought I would give you a short update. Dad and I hunted [location deleted] as you had suggested. We scouted one of the farms 2 weeks earlier and found a large amount of buck sign. This weekend, the farm was nearly devoid of active scrapes. The weather had warmed and this seemed to stifle the rut. Also, the soybeans were harvested last week and it seemed that the doe had left at about the same time. Several of the neighbor's properties had good looking alfalfa and I suspect most of the doe were over there. Opening morning, I had a decent 130 inch buck trot past my stand at about 50 yards. I wasn't happy with the shot so I let him pass. Dad saw several bucks he figured in the 130 inch range but as usual, he pardoned them.
Sunday morning, the wind had changed. I wasn't happy with the wind direction and where my stand was placed, I decided to do some still hunting on the creek bottoms. I posted on a ridge top until sunrise and then made my way across several creek bottoms. At approximately 8:30, I spotted a very nice buck upwind of me about 50 yards in the bean stubble. I was of course, on the ground, standing behind a very large elm tree. He could either go down into the creek bottom or stay on the bean stubble. Either way it would be a close shot. He decided to go into the bottoms. Unbeknownst to me is that he was following 2 does. I watched the doe for 15 minutes upwind at about 30 yards, but no sign of the buck. He finally appeared in the bottoms. I watched him and the 2 does for the next 30 minutes, which seemed like 2 hours. It then dawned on me that I was standing on a deer trail and sooner or later one of the does was going to bust me! Talk about panic!
The 3 of them slowly worked my way, and sure enough, one of the does decided to come up the ridge. She took one look at me and ran off with a loud snort. She stopped about 30 yards away in the brush. I thought that perhaps she would calm down. No such luck. She had seen enough and took off. The buck watched as the doe left at MACH 4. It was then time for him to leave. As most big bucks do, he was slow and methodical and was surveying the situation. I only had 1 shot through the brush if he exited the creek bottom where he entered. As luck would have it, he did. I took him at 50 yards. 15 score-able points.
Not very wide but great mass on this big main frame 10 pointer. His Gross Score was 164 3/8! My biggest to date! Definitely a buck of a lifetime! As an ER doctor, I thought I was going to need a defibrillator!
Thanks to all of the MAHA staff who makes the Association the best! I can't wait until spring! [name deleted]
Kansas Compared to Iowa Muzzleloader
Both the Kansas September and Iowa's January muzzleloader season takes the hunter outside both ends of the rut phase. The Iowa distinction is the muzzleloader season is during the cold part of winter.
Kansas September muzzleloader only deer season is a pre-rut bachelor group deer hunt. That by itself means much to those that have scouted during this time period. As most deer hunters have not the opportunity to scout let alone hunt any bachelor group bucks that by itself leads to as much deer hunting failure as success.
The characteristics of the bachelor deer groups are far distinct from that of rut deer behavior and the past experience of most deer hunters. The late summer/early fall deer are separated by sex and move very little outside of the bedding, feeding and water source area. Having those three elements within a small area are the points to scout. All the more so when these elements in a small area are isolated from human observation and activity such as roads or farm yards. Farm field activity is very low at this time of year as by September fertilization, spraying and such have long since been accomplished and the landowners simply waiting for crop maturity for harvest. The deer having little human contact during September are quick to respond to any deer hunter pressure.
The key Kansas deer food sources at this time of year are soybean and Bur Oak acorns. The Kansas muzzleloader deer seasons transcend these two deer food sources in terms of desirability and availability. The time line follows that by early September the soybeans are reaching the mature stage and are at peak succulence as a deer forage. Soybeans compete for deer attraction along with crop field edge browse leaf matter as all should always remember deer are browsers, not forage feeders.
The combination of soybean field edge along with wooded edge combines the early to mid-September deer food sources. Put that soybean and brush edge along a creek bottom with water and some spots of heavier cover away from human encroachment and that is a prime September deer scouting and hunting spot. Proof of this food source importance is the soybeans within 10 feet of such edge habitat will have their tops grazed off as deer will pick and chose the softer, smaller stem and leaf rather than the lower stiff stalks.
Sometime from mid September through the third week in September the Kansas Bur Oaks will drop their acorns. This signals the first of the summer to fall Kansas deer pattern change. Once the acorns start to drop and they take more than two weeks to do so, the deer will move from the soybean fields to the acorns. This brings the next deer scouting point of combining a soybean field, with brush edge, with water to that of a stand of Bur Oaks, and Kansas has plenty of Bur Oaks to be found. Aerials will then make finding the deer isolation area factor through examining neighboring farms as well as the deer hunting lease itself easy.
The acorns then transcend to the early phases of the rut as by the last weekend in September it is very common to find rubs. These are true rut rubs as by early September the velvet has been rubbed off. Once the rut kicks in the bachelor deer groups break apart and the entire deer pattern changes and does so typically not later than the earliest part of October.
A secondary effect of this discussion relative to Kansas' September muzzleloader deer season is that the self guided deer hunter hunts best by deer food and not deer stand. Many that travel to deer hunt execute a deer scout/hunt combination of being on a deferent deer lease each morning and afternoon of the first part of the deer hunt slow walking/deer scouting each until finding a bachelor group. Only after finding first a bachelor group of bucks and then a group that has a wall hanger does the stand and deer hunting enter the picture.
Bringing out the deer stand is a means by which to gain first standoff and then shot opportunity of interdicting the bachelor group movement. That daily movement will be habitat driven by feeding, loafing and watering schedule rather than breeding driven movement as during the rut.
Similar to Kansas September deer hunting is the Iowa January muzzleloader season in regards the deer stand as a secondary technique.
The post rut January Iowa deer season is another example of non-breeding season deer hunting. Deer patterns return to that of survival centered on food first and cover habitat second and all the more so on the hard cold winters. The Iowa January deer hunter also does walk for his deer first seeking out isolated food and cover combinations with less concern for water and more for avoidance of human encroachment.
These deer have survived the fall archery, shotgun and earlier muzzleloader season and are hunter sensitive. Just as in the big open in Kansas this late Iowa season's greatest hunter asset is patients and a slow walk with a good eye for whitetail detection through binoculars peering into deep cover. A tough hunt that many do not have patients for. It is common to hear hunter stories from this season where the hunter fatigued by a couple of early mornings and all day walks to drop his guard and recognizing so only when he sees a trophy whitetail running away.
There are other stories of early and easy success, however the most common story of the most successful January Iowa and that of Kansas September deer hunters is telling about how they were lucky and that the days were long.
While many of these deer hunters will credit luck being on their side they will also tell when digging into their actions immediately before their harvest they were walking slow or pausing, they were casually observing or glassing and the key part, they detected deer movement before the deer detected any hunter presence. Once deer, meaning any deer and not necessarily a trophy whitetail deer, was spotted a more slow stalk developed into seeing more deer clustered around and then a shot opportunity on a trophy deer.
A shot opportunity did seem to bring most deer hunts to a close. That closure was true whether a trophy deer was tagged or not. These Iowa and Kansas non-rut deer hunts are fatiguing to the point greater than stand deer hunting. Most Kansas and Iowa muzzleloader walking deer hunters either successfully or not at filling a tag if given a shot opportunity did quit the hunt. The ending of the deer hunt with a tag filled is the obvious desired outcome. The ending of the deer hunt without a successful harvest combined with the physical drain of long walking days, limited success at finding deer, any blown shot opportunity and the spiritual satisfaction of having deer hunted hard all seem to culminate in either ending the hunt at that point or subsequent field walks being more causal walks than deer hunts.
In most cases of the hunters that made it to a shot opportunity, they expressed satisfaction the elements for success were present. Those that hunted and did not get to any shot opportunity often complained about lack of deer, too much hunter pressure (Iowa late season, not Kansas), too warm for deer hunting and any other rationale other than deer hunter commitment to the deer hunt.
The two illustrations above about Iowa and Kansas muzzleloader deer hunting just touch on the benefits and consequences of these two deer seasons. The deer hunter that hunts these deer seasons but once rarely gets to maximize the advantages and general encounters all the consequences. These muzzleloader deer seasons and hunter success is related as is all deer hunting to the hunter that makes deer hunting a study and sticks within one portion of the rut to hunt and deer hunts that rut portion for years. Those hunters that attempt to hunt all seasons not relative to prior experience or understanding whitetail movement patterns have the least bucks in truck success.
At this point we remind ourselves and the hunter reading this article that we are not a hunting training or hunter trainer organization. We are in the hunt execution mode only. The discussion above is only meant to show just to what extent we offer a range of hunt options.