Scouting Trophy Whitetail Deer Land

Those seeking a trophy whitetail deer will work hard for it by scouting for it as any trophy success easily achieved without good deer scouting is typically a once in a lifetime deer. No surprises in this statement and its posting on this page is to insure we all agree what successful trophy whitetail deer hunts require. This agreement then forms the basis for our rules that not only permit but encourage pre-season scouting.

Several Trophy Whitetail Deer on One Farm
	This is the trophy whitetail deer quality many hunter's desire to hunt. A respectable rack and large body, and very difficult to harvest.
	Taking the average width between upright ear tips of 14-16 inch spread this view gives a good idea as to the rack size. This rack would easily extend above any pick up truck bed rail.
	We believe this picture is the same buck as the two pictures above and was taken the following summer about 300 yards away.
	On the same trail network as the one above down about 200 yards.
The circle shows his beam point. That plus the size of the neck show this as a trophy whitetail deer. This one deer lease has produced 4 separate trophy quality deer in a short time, on film, none in the truck in spite of our having recommended it to several hunters.
While many deer hunters are not surprised that most of these are nocturnal pictures believing most if not all trophy whitetail deer movement is at night, continuing on through this scouting section will disprove that nocturnal idea.

The once in a lifetime trophy whitetail deer happens and frustrates many hunters that have hunted our private lease land for years and are surprised to see the many, to include non-resident, hunters in the Association that harvest a trophy whitetail deer on their first deer hunt. And, sometimes without any pre season deer scouting. This brings us to the discussion of the deer pictures on this page and the sometimes lack of value scouting has.

The trophy whitetail deer on this page are from a single farm that has had many a good and several trophy whitetail on it and never has one been harvested from it. And, in this case the amount of deer scouting it has received should indicate otherwise.

This inverse relationship between the amount of scouting this farm has had from several hunters and the fact that not one since this land was secured in the middle 1990's has a single trophy whitetail deer been harvested from it is part of the evidence we have observed over a good many years how hunters seem to outsmart themselves of where to hunt. This observation has lead to other encouragements from the MAHA staff to the new to the central mid-west hunter. That encouragement includes to scout between 2,000 and 4,000 acres of our private hunting land within close order, settle on at least four farms to put stands on and spend at the minimum one and preferable two full days in stand on each farm until the one is found where the trophy whitetail deer is on. What this prevents is that our human eye calibration on where we think trophy whitetail deer should be and where they actually are eventually come together. It is a matter of seeing the world as it actually is rather than how we want it to be.

This section is not an inventory of our trophy whitetail deer captured on film, but an introduction to the most common whitetail deer habitat in the mid west. The remainder of our scouting section will provide the hunter not yet familiar with Kansas, Missouri or Iowa an idea of the terrain and habitat quality that produce huntable trophy whitetail deer.

When the MAHA staff recommends trophy whitetail deer land to hunters it is not based on scouting camera photos. Their recommendations derive from first hand experience of being out on the land 12 months a year essentially always scouting where the next trophy whitetail deer will be found.

Trophy Whitetail Deer Hunting

Whitetail deer hunting private land

A trophy whitetail deer is what every one wants and only a percentage are successful at achieve each year. We seek those that hunt for the enjoyment of the hunt and the understanding of just how difficult those few movements of success we can achieve in a lifetime. We do have trophy whitetail however we seek those that enjoy the pursuit and not those that must fill a tag each season. To illustrate that point have a look at a trophy whitetail deer that was captured on film, hunted hard for and must have died of old age. Any such quality animal if harvested would have been known about.