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Deer Hunting
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Private land hunting for the self guided hunter has been the only function of
Mid-America Hunting Association since its inception in 1965. In spite of many influences to provide corporate hunts, guided hunts, credit card sales and franchise licensing we have refused all. It may have been that we were not smart enough or business savvy enough to include such money making activities and simply stick to what we know and that is leasing private land for hunting access. The end result after all of these years is a refinement to the best any one could possibly expect to achieve at securing the right habitat within the right region of Kansas, Missouri and Iowa that can be secured for self guided hunts. It appears we were right in our avoidance of distracting business offshoots. Over the years we have watched other groups attempt to replicate Mid-America Hunting Association and while successful for a time most eventually failed due to many reasons that included distraction from the core business. Those that may still operate have evolved into a different form than their original concept and probably fit a segment of the hunter market separate than what we cater to. And, it mostly works. We do not pretend to be the right solution for all hunters seeking private land hunting access. We further learned through the years to screen out those hunters our past experience has told us would not be a good fit. Those we do seek and allocate memberships to are a narrow segment of the hunter population far less than most other hunter groups. The end result is that we have more land, fewer hunters and most importantly the right habitat within the right region of Kansas, Iowa and Missouri for the self guided hunter that seeks private land hunting free of competition. And, we can prove it. All are invited to research this website and are encouraged to read our rules, membership agreement and the many hunter testimonials. The rules establish the relationship between the hunter and the Association. We keep our life simple and all communications between the hunter and the Association are grounded in the rules. Our membership agreement states three points. Pay your money and get to hunt. Second, the hunter agrees to follow our rules. Third, is a release of liability form that states the hunter is solely responsible for himself should he hurt himself or cause any injury or damage. The hunter testimonials will provide a variety of perspectives about the Association and we publish them all, the good and the bad. The bad testimonials have had an interesting effect that we did not anticipate. Those prospects that call us and focus solely on the negative testimonials we quickly recognize as those that seek to frame the world as they want it to be rather than how it actually is. That attitude became the latest decision criteria to be added to our screening process to reject application for membership. Our private land hunting is as good as it can be and we never say it is perfect. Those hunters that take a balanced and objective approach to evaluating their private land hunting options when talking to us will have a better chance for membership. From the rules, membership agreement and testimonials the prospective member can develop questions that seek to answer the most common concerns. The first of which is how often will any hunter be able to hunt on his schedule and where he wants to. The answer to this question as does all the other answers comes first from our website, then a telephone discussion with the MAHA staff, there are two, John Wenzel and Jon Nee. After that discussion then a talk with several other members to gain their evaluation is in order. Other questions that should be settled include the value of the hunt gained compared to the money paid. The private hunting land issue is a pass and that leads to the next question of the quality of that private hunting land in terms of wildlife production. That comes down to habitat and state regional location. The point about the right habitat within the right regional location is first addressed in that MAHA does not operate a lodge. That by itself means we are not limited to the driving distance around that lodge for our membership. Our approach is to make the entire state available to us and we simply spend our money where we get the best return. On a similar note we do not limit ourselves around the larger metropolitan areas such as Kansas City, Des Moines or St. Louis. With St. Louis being our largest metropolitan area from a business standpoint it may make sense to have a lot of land outside of St. Louis. The problem with the St. Louis area is the Mississippi River Valley and its quick drainage, flat land and very efficient farming. It lacks the right habitat element required for us to spend money.
The next area that should be of concern to the prospective member is the Association rules and how they are enforced. The answer is they are enforced without emotion and with absolute parity. If any discrepancy is raised its analysis is based on the rules. And, as with any organization that has rules there will be rule violators and this organization does not have a rehabilitation but a retribution response. We simply keep our work life easy as the rules are immutable and either compliance is in full or not. No gray area. That approach has retained good members and ejected others. If looking hard enough there will be those found that criticize us and state we were unfair. Those that listen to such complaints should also take the time to talk to current members as well to get a balanced perspective. Bad members that are dis-enrolled are just like bad children sent to the corner. In both cases it was not their fault, it was always the fault of something else that caused the discipline. The quality of the private hunting land, the ability to hunt on schedule, the value of cost to that hunt quality and the Association rules, if all are investigated the prospective member has an objective evaluation basis for selecting the right private hunting land option for him from all that may be available. We are confident in our approach for self guided hunters not because we are smart. We are confident in our private land hunts simply because we have worked at it longer and harder than anyone else right from our beginning and never wavering into other business ventures. |
