Private Land Hunting The Only Hunting The Association Has And The Debate It Spurs

All of the Association hunting land is privately held land. Meaning no public access. It is however, from multiple sources.

Private land hunting in Mid-America Hunting Association extends beyond the small acreage single owner private landowner. Our collective buying power gains us access to large private land landowners seeking a structured and safe organization to lease their hunting rights access. A lot of impact is contained within that last statement.

Hunting Leases Deny The Average Hunter Access To Private Land

The first impact is from what people often describe as themselves being the average hunter. They are being shut out of private hunting land access through paid hunting leases such as the Association. That is not true.

The overwhelming percentage of landowners we lease their private land from are large acreage operations. They also exist as a business. These landowners give nothing away for free and certainly do not want their busy days punctuated with those that seek free land access. This businessman class landowner seeks to maximize his profits and hunter access will only be by payment. That is the only answer they will provide as it is about the bottom line.

The average hunter fails to see this business landowner approach as a reasonable approach. Hunters cling to the idea they should receive private land hunting access at no cost to them under all conditions. The failing in this concept is that typically that same hunter would not extend his personal services or resources to any other at no cost but expect others to do so for him. That basic hypocrisy is rampant within the "average" hunter community and a failing to understand not just the changes in hunting, but our society as a whole.*

We classify the above one sided viewpoint of the world as those that see the world as they want it to be rather than recognize the world for what it really is. In this case is that large acreage landowners exist to make money and not to give assets away for free.

Kevin, one the hard way.

The Average Hunter Can Get His Own Spot If He Works For It

Proof of our large acreage landowner private hunting land leasing effort is that the larger the acreage the less the administration for that lease. We, MAHA, too exist as a business and not as a hunting club. To that end we seek the maximum gain for time and money spent. The greatest gain is from large landowners not small acreage individual farm operators. That by itself leaves many small acreage private land farms available for the knock on door free hunting land access hunters.

Now the average hunter simply needs to get off his backside. He needs to spend many hours and road miles to find that private hunting land access. He would be better to do that than complain about hunting leases taking his hunting away. The hypocrisy thing again surfaces with in the online hunting forum community where these topics are derived from.

Why MAHA Gives Back To The Average Hunter

MAHA is a safe organization for business based landowners. That is due to our existence as a business entity, liability insurance coverage and structured reputation amongst the landowner clients. That by itself has gained us much private hunting land access.

Compare that to a single hunter seeking privately land hunting access. The hunter must present himself in such a manner to gain the complete trust of the unknown landowner. The question then must be asked why should that landowner trust that individual hunter?

There is more to this discussion. However the two points listed are the central issue of the discussion of how private hunting land may be accessed by the average hunter. Take a look at our costs and analyze by days in the field and acreage covered. The cost we charge to spend your time hunting rather than hunting for a place to hunt is not cheap, but very reasonable.

The Collective Buying Power

There are several 8,000 through 14,000 acre landowners we lease from. Our all time record was a single business was one that held 33,000 acres. Few, if any small friendship group of hunters are likely to be able to afford to pay for an 8,000 acre lease. What This Association does is brings back that acreage to the average hunter. He will not hunt it all. However, within that much acreage he is likely to find several spots he would like to hunt.

The Value Of Large Acreage Corporate Farm Operations

Large corporate farms are commodity operation. They keep a single equipment set and objective for their operation. Notice we said farming as we work with grain production farms. We do not lease ranch land, or from corporate cattle operations. We lease where their is food and once having food there is better hunting.

Contrast the corporate farm with a small acreage, anything under 3,000 acre family farm. The family farm is likely to be diversified with cattle in the non-plow ground.

The value to the Association hunter is the corporate farm brings a higher quality wildlife acre for the dollar spent than does a small farm operation.

I Don't Need A Thousand Aces

That is true. Few hunters actually hunt more than a could of hundred of acres at a time. If all that is wanted is one spot or two near by then there are plenty of small landowners willing to let others hunt it. And, hunt it without controls.

The Association's value to the hunter is the ability to cover ground. It is by scouting/hunting multiple spots that it is more likely the hunter will find what he is after. The opposed idea is to have that one spot or two and hope for more luck than hunting skill to achieve success.

Why Pay For What I Am Not Using

The Association offers more land in any one of its three states than any one hunter could hunt. If that is true then why pay more for what is not used.

Take a closer examination of the costs paid per year. Compare that to the acreage any hunter will hunt. Illustrations:

Deer hunters typically tell us they will have 3 to 5 spots they want to hunt. They may not actually hunt all of those spots each trip, but they like having that flexibility of choice. The average acreage per any spot in the Association is a quarter section, or a 160 acres. If only hunting one spot of 160 acres the current annual dues brings that cost to $7.50 per acre. Extrapolate that to include most of the Association deer hunters do hunt two of the Association's three states each season. If hunting just 3 quarter section in each of the two states meaning six properties of 960 acres total his cost per acre to hunt is now $0.80 cents per acre. Now contrast any of these costs per acre to that of travel time, fuel, lodging, meals, effort and costs to find just one hunting spot and hope that one spot works.

Duck Hunters have the choice. In this region that choice is: of a farm pond that may have two or more good hunts in a season to that of public wetlands or that of a private wetlands organization. Farm ponds if have many often allow for a season of good hunts. Public wetlands in this area are well managed through a reservation system that seeks equal access to all that want to hunt. Not all will be able to hunt as often as they have time. Many private wetlands groups of many sizes do exist to fill the need for the local duck hunter market. MAHA is just one of those. What the MAHA duck hunter gets is over 800 acres of enhanced wetlands water surface over several wetlands of marsh, slough, open water. On and off crop fields. Or, the ability to go where the ducks may be than to have just one spot and hope they show.

Upland Bird hunters want to be on wild birds and in good numbers to make memorable hunts. The Association having land from southern Iowa through north Missouri and from east to west Kansas means there will be good pheasant and quail hunting every year. It is a matter of where that better hunting will be based on weather effects and reproduction survival.

Not For All

We do not pretend we are the answer for all hunters. Further, we have never allocated Association hunter slots to all that have applied. This Association fits one niche within the larger industry of hunting. For those wanting self guided, private land hunts in Kansas, Iowa or Missouri, for deer, turkey, pheasant, quail, waterfowl, then we may be the right choice. Membership application procedure.

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