Day Hunts

Over the years, newly joined members offered many decision models for why they chose to hunt with Mid-American Hunting Association and we offer this one such model for consideration by those in pre purchase position. This model is the Day Hunt Comparison approach.

The evaluation criteria: hunter skill, wild game, hunters’ motive, hunt operators’ motive.

We started carrying cameras to record pre contract habitat quality as we have a habitat clause in our lease contracts. Then came digital cameras with ever increasing zoom capability. Now we always seem to have a camera in our pockets whenever out on the land and this Bobwhite was one of a February covey.

Day hunt operators are those with a set acreage amount and seek to attract as many hunters to pay to hunt one day at a time as possible. The operator’s motive is the more hunters hunting his land by day the more money he makes. Profits are the primary concern. Success is rated by the number of hunters over the greatest or shortest number of hunting days.

Day hunts rarely can support wild populations with high frequency of recurring hunter pressure over small acreage. The typical operator response is the posting of feeders to anchor turkeys, fenced hunts for hoofed exotic and native animals, release of pen raise birds for a pheasant, quail, chukar hunt. This then brings into question the concept of fair chase as pen-raised birds, fenced animals and fed wildlife do not have the survival skills necessary to evade hunter or dog, have limited escape avenues from lack of free range or simply are schedule for the hunter by timed food dispersal.

Those hunters with limited skills, equipment, and other resources as dogs typically seek day hunts. These hunters seek a limited, easy to acquire experience at low cost of time, money and effort. They in short help the economy rather than seek the intangible tranquility of a hard day a field. In addition, they typically take such hunts a day a season and that is all.

Late season snow geese on one of our fishing ponds.

The Mid-America Hunting Association comparison is different. No day hunts are offered. Hunters allocated memberships must have personal wherewithal for success on wild game and MAHA’s motivation is good hunts.

Nearly 1/2 of our membership comes form outside of Iowa Kansas and Missouri traveling from 39 states many for that one vacation week a year. They all pay the same price and that price is less expensive than any day hunt operation to be found. Be careful with comparison and do not be confused by our simplified administration of having one type of membership for all.

There are consequences attached to those that decide to hunt with MAHA. The most significant is that fair chase hunts are more failure than success if that success is measured singularly in filled tags and bags rather than the quality of the hunt itself.

We have observed hunters over a good number of years and the common approach for most has been a three year process of adaptation. That three year adaptation follows along these lines. The first year the number of options available in terms of seasons, hunting disciplines and states overwhelms the new member who simply seeks to hunt too much in terms of land, states and disciplines. Few of us have the time or energy to commit to any more than one hunting discipline and for most of us we dedicate our free time to that which we get the most enjoyment. The first year member travels a different route trying to hunt two or more disciplines or across to wide a range of leases or states in excess of hunt quality.

By the second season the new member comes to realize he has too many options and seeks to settle down within one discipline and then typically applies that single hunting discipline across more than one state. Deer hunters seek multiple tags often in excess of available vacation days. Upland bird hunters want to bird hunt more than one state incurring much travel time. Duck hunters hunt a different wetlands each trip finding the opportunity to hunt multiple types of wetlands attractive. Turkey hunters make a campaign of filling all five spring season tags in the shortest amount of time.

By the end of their third season most hunters come to realize it is the quality of the hunt rather than quantity and settle down to concentrate on their primary hunting discipline within a more narrow range of lease land and states. At this point success rates climb.

Early March bachelor toms grazing a southern Kansas wheat field.

The deer hunter begins to identify those seemingly invisible golden nugget spots on each lease, duck hunters find a wetlands habitat they like the most, turkey hunter start to seek ever better scoring toms rather than more toms and the upland bird hunter settles on a primary bird and habitat of choice best suited to his dog power. All certainly begin to enjoy their hunts more and a leisurely approach to employing the subtleties and nuances begins to take hold and the crest to increased eyes on game and success with tags and bags reaches its high point.