Iowa Deer Hunting
Iowa Deer Lease Example
This one shows a difference we look for. Not the only difference, just one more aspect of leasing private land. Part of the nuance between a better deer lease and better habitat.
Outline in yellow is the better Iowa whitetail deer lease as the wood patch while not as thick as the one immediately to the south, it is the one isolated from farm yard, house and road. One small point of many that collect together to determine where we lease deer land and where we do not. Limited year round human pressure is sometimes more valuable than better looking deer habitat with human presence. In this case it is deer loafing/seclusion areas rather than deer movement areas that makes the difference of the likelihood of eyes on deer. This is how we seek out and find the better deer habitat in a productive trophy whitetail deer region. Compare that to a deer hunting guide service with a lodge that must make best use of any available in easy driving distance deer habitat that may exist.
2010 Iowa Deer Lease Land
Our Iowa deer hunting leases span deer management zones 4 & 5 within the Grand River Watershed of south central Iowa well known for its trophy whitetail.
Iowa's south central region has the trophy whitetail that makes the top of the record book. While this trophy potential is important, the key points of our land location extend beyond this locality and include the good trophy whitetail genetics plus our lease management will bring the do it yourself hunters back for years of hunts to come. Simply good deer hunts within a historically good region where we can control the leases and hunter pressure. The result is less hunter pressure than almost any other private land hunt option.
Iowa's habitat is largely the shallow brush or tree filled intermittent drains that connect many small loafing area wood patches making for good archery stands and crop field shotgun season shooting.
The Iowa deer hunter challenge is that there are a great many of these small loafing/bedding area wood patches over a very large area on much of our lease land. The sheer numbers of them make finding that rare trophy whitetail deer a search that will test the best of anyone's scouting skills. The gentle rolling Iowa terrain so beneficial to farmers further compartmentalizes the terrain restricting shooting ranges in some areas to 10 yards while extending beyond firearms range in many more.
This entire region is created by the Grand River watershed with its thousands of tributaries. While a watershed area, water is not readily apparent in all areas as this area is the upper fringe of the Grand River watershed that composes one of the three lower Missouri River major sub-basins. This portion of the watershed while providing great deer habitat, drains quickly leaving year-round standing water a key deer scouting point.
This region with its expansive watershed based habitat that crosses the Iowa and Missouri state line is the cause for the larger whitetail deer herd and the corresponding higher number of trophy racked whitetail deer harvested each of the three seasons. Some described this Iowa deer terrain to have as many drainage's as that of the outward branches of a large oak tree. All this makes for a lot of deer cover that diffuses the deer herd through a number of travel corridors even on as small a piece of ground as a 1/4 section (160 acres).
Have we pounded that dead horse enough about where we lease Iowa deer land? Probably not, as most that read such web pages will give weight to the many magazine articles that stress larger wooded areas means more deer. If that was the case then the large wooded expanse of the Missouri Ozark region would be a deer hunter hot spot, but it is not.
For the skeptics we'll have one more try with that MAHA is not limited to the driving distance from a lodge for where to lease deer land. All of Iowa is available to us. We choose where to lease land where we get the most for our deer hunters in terms of deer hunt quality. That business approach of customer (deer hunter) service of providing the service the customer most wants is what sustains the Association.
Deer Hunt
A successful deer hunt from a dedicated group that travels over 1,100 miles one way to deer hunt each year on Association land in Iowa, Kansas and Missouri.
Many of our resident deer hunter/members are astonished at the success of some of our non resident deer hunters. They come from whitetail deer states that don't have the quality of deer that the central Mid-West has to offer and take full advantage of every day from sunrise to sunset.
Occasionally, non-resident deer hunters stumble into a great hunt or two the first time out, but typically, it takes a year or two to become familiar with the maps, terrain and weather to put things together.
Once the puzzle is put together it appears all they need is quality Iowa deer land and we have a lot of it.
A key fact about our self guided Iowa deer lease land is we manage the deer lease and place our eyes on the land and the landowners twice a year, once each during and off season. Anything less and problems could arise.
Once landowners realize we enforce our written contract we prevent problems. The benefit to our members is they can be deer hunting productive habitat having done their own scouting in the right region without the hassle of trying to manage their own deer lease or compete with other deer hunters on public land. For those that want a do it yourself Iowa deer hunt and would like a range of farms to deer hunt we provide that option without any public lands deer hunter mentality.
Iowa Deer Habitat
Iowa deer habitat presented in the small frame of a picture is tough to communicate the range of habitat variety available. These pictures below attempt to show the cover habitat of the many small drains that cut through crop fields that hold many a good and some trophy whitetail. The challenge is that these drains run for miles.
The benefit and consequence of a self guided hunter organization is which couple of spots to set up on for that trophy whitetail. When it works that special feeling of satisfaction is not possible by any other means than on a hunt on your own basis.
While there are many trees suitable for stands along these drainage's, shooting through to the other side is not always possible. Picking the right side for stand is as frustrating as it is rewarding.
One description provided by a hunter that has stuck with us is that MAHA takes away many of the reasons for not having achieved success previously. The land resource MAHA provides along with flexibility of use eliminates that most difficult to achieve deer hunter resource of private land access.
Iowa deer hunting is distinguished from our other states as Iowa is a shotgun rather than a rifle deer state. Many feel this accounts for Iowa's higher than average trophy whitetail production allowing our bow hunters to enjoy the highest ratio of trophy success across all seasons amongst our three states.
Deer Hunter's Choice of Deer Hunt
Hello MAHA folks...wanted to send you all a couple of photos from opening weekend deer hunt in [location deleted]. Believe it or not the doe were hard to come by and what we did see were usually getting run pretty hard by the bucks. I haven't seen this much rut activity during season in a long while. If you were willing to stay out all day you could pretty well count on seeing bucks roaming and chasing doe most any time during the day but the doe seemed to be hiding out. The best part about deer camp this year though was getting to meet other members from other states and in particular sharing a little bit of camp time with a group from Indiana. We still need at least three deer in the freezer so you can count on the kids and I hitting the later doe season pretty hard. I can't wait to start seeing deer stories and photos on the update page...it's always a real treat to see how other members are doing. Hope you all are having a good deer season too.
On a slightly humorous note...as you'll see from the photos...our 4 mo. old camp dog managed to find his way onto the camper from a nearby hay bale...he liked to stretch out in the sun and watch the goings-on in camp.
Matt Thanks Matt you have great perspective.
A second distinction of our leases are the large corporate farm leases.
Iowa corporate farms are willing to lease to our Association as we provide millions of dollars in liability coverage in addition to the release of liability form all Association hunters. Without that insurance, that costs the Association a good chunk of change, no one would hunt these large tracts of land as corporations are not willing to assume hunter risks. This is also a growing trend in Kansas.
Devils In The Details
We at MAHA committed a long time ago that we offered deer hunting, not only trophy whitetail hunts, but deer hunting for all. As we work with the self guided hunter that pays to hunt the trophy aspect takes care of itself. To promote the idea that we are deer hunters that enjoy the hunt, always seek the best trophy we can harvest we also committed not to illustrate on this web site only the biggest or top 10% of harvested deer. If we did that we would build unreasonable expectations, failure rate would be high and we would require to cycle in new members each year to back fill those that drop due to not tagging a top 25% whitetail.
In the case of this member he has a long string of great success enjoying the hunt, He is great to work with and always has a good time. He seeks to enjoy the deer hunt and his pictures clearly show that. To him we are grateful he has allowed us to show in pictures of others what fun a good hunt can be.
One point we find most do not consider is that the Missouri one side four point restriction zone boarders a significant stretch of the Iowa-Missouri State line where we lease land in Iowa. Those more mature deer cross that manmade boundary. That Missouri restriction zone has been around long enough that most 8-pointers are safe as most hunters seek out the larger 10's and 12's.
Deer Scouting
Finding a shredder rub of this size will motivate any deer hunter. Found during an Iowa spring turkey scouting trip.
Our lease land has produced many a trophy whitetail and most will readily recognize the overall production of Iowa deer zones 4 & 5 just from record book accounting. This is both a benefit and consequence for the Association self guided hunters. Invariably the year following a record trophy harvest in any one zone, that zone will receive an increase in the number of tag applicants and individual potential tag draw success declines.
The benefit comes the second year and beyond as the record book deer chaser competition wanes as those that chase record racks seek the latest record whitetail deer area, rarely the same zone as the previous season, and individual success rates for successful tag draw increases with the lower number of overall deer tag applicants.
A secondary effect of those that had deer hunted the previous season in such a case were more likely looking for those exceptional and rare trophy whitetail deer passing on many respectable racks that will gain a year or two additional maturity. The second subsequent year and beyond within any zone of a record book deer harvest will then rebound with a greater number of larger racked trophy whitetail deer and the cycle will resume with those that chase record book deer.
This has been our overall experience in the Association in all three states we lease deer land and a bit more advanced in terms of Iowa.
Iowa deer hunting provides the options of all of Iowa's deer seasons plus close proximity to Missouri and Kansas to continue any hunt beyond Iowa's seasons.
For those that successfully harvest a buck they can continue their hunt with the Association's Missouri lease land right across the state line. With Missouri's tags over the counter purchase many will find reason to continue their hunt rather than return early.
The bottom line when considering the Association is simply the opportunity for private land with good habitat in the right region of Iowa and without hunter pressure. This is true not just for our Iowa land but that as well as in the other two states we offer land access.
These are the elements: private land with habitat for the hunter that can hunt on his own. Add to this the ability of pre season scouting and hang stands and it is very difficult to find a better alternative.
Deer hunter feedback is always sought after. And, there will always be turnover in MAHA just like there is in a club anywhere. As a business however, we certainly appreciate those that tell us why they do not renew their memberships and we frequently call those that do not inform us of why they depart. This email is one such example of some good folks that did not renew their MAHA membership.
John and Jon,
Forgive me for taking so long to write but my family has been in the middle of a move since January. We are just now getting settled into our new home and I'm able to finally access my computer where my e-mails have been inaccessible for quite a few months.
Charles and I have tremendously enjoyed our membership in M.A.H.A.. As missionaries, however we are not aware of the amount of funds that we receive at any given time and so far we haven't had the money to renew our M.A.H.A. membership. I wanted you to know that this is the only reason we haven't renewed and that our experience with M.A.H.A. has been tremendous and we could highly recommend M.A.H.A. to anyone. The members that we've met have been tremendous.
I hope that you will consider us as worthy candidates in the future should finances be available for our membership. I'm sorry if this has caused you any inconvenience.
Blessings and God's abundant grace to each of you.
Chris
One aspect of this web site and our approach to the do it yourself deer hunter is that we will never promote ourselves as being the "premier, best, largest, most of anything" as we fully appreciate from our day's in deer stand just how hard deer hunting is.
All we offer is the right habitat in the right region of the state that provides the best potential for deer hunter success as we can afford to lease. That by itself is a lot.
While we do not guarantee deer tags being filled with the trophy whitetail deer dreams are made of, we will ensure all have the chance to hunt quality deer. That is the chance for the deer hunter to have far more days of failure than success. For as many years as we have been providing private deer lease land for deer hunters we have yet to find that one farm that comes with a guarantee.
Rarely, is anyone disappointed for the quality of our land or the opportunity to get on quality whitetail deer. Those that are it has been our experience, more belong to a deer guide service than a deer scout and hunt on your own organization.
For those interested in self guided Iowa deer hunts wanting to make their own success we provide the private land resource that is so very difficult to acquire by the individual work a day deer hunter. For the simple act of writing a check the Association deer hunter will access more deer lease land than he will be able to hunt. In short we provide deer hunting for the whitetail deer hunter that seeks to make his own trophy harvest.
Reading on through the many pages of this web site will offer several decision models with criteria to form a basis of analysis which of the many deer hunt options that exist is better than the other. We will also offer the basic decision criteria to those that call us to discuss possible membership application. What we will not do is to advertise that our approach to paid deer hunts is the right approach for all deer hunters. And of those that do call us, there are several that we state without hesitation they should not consider us the option for their stated desires.
One example of a deer hunter we would reject is the hunter that says: "He will join if (you fill in the blank with anything)". Any deer hunter that attempts to negotiate in contravention to our published rules will receive an immediate negative response, his name captured and most likely put on our keep out list.
The most common occurrence of this is those deer hunters that feel their membership costs entitle them to unlimited or any type of guests for that matter. The hypocrisy of this is profound. All deer hunters want to hunt without pressure from others, yet many of these same deer hunters feel they should be entitled to bring free hunters onto MAHA leases. Land is expensive and no one gets a free ride.
Whenever ready to call us for membership application having read our rules and several testimonials will give that applicant sufficient sources of information to make valid assessments. For all that truly want to experience hassle free Iowa deer hunting consider this just the first step to seasons of Iowa deer hunts to come.
Scouting
We have received a good bit of deer scouting feedback from those that have been and those that are planning a trip out before the season. One set of member feedback inclusive of the pictures below that were sent in to add some fuel to the standing corn and deer hunt quality debate.
The area where the cornfield extends back into the section over a ridge that secures the corn field from road and farm yard activity, the deer showed much recurring browse activity. The outside two rows along the secluded area to six rows in spots were browsed down. This side of the cornfield is boarded partly by a fallow pasture and mostly by hay ground. Inside the field showed no such browse activity and the majority of deer tracks were along this edge, not inside the field.
Evidence of recurring deer browse shown by the corn attempting to re-growing its main stalk.
From top of the ridge to the road, the outside corn rows were untouched.
Where the corn field meets a substantial wood patch we expected to see deer activity of a parallel trail and corn stalk browsing but found neither.
Second week in July velvet. A morning picture moving away from the cornfield pictured above (only crop for 1/2 mile) along the fallow pasture edge of a lightly wooded dry drainage that connects after about a 1/4 mile to another dry drainage. Nearest water is a stock pond in the adjoining pasture about a 1/4 mile distance.
The pictures on the motion camera were mostly of doe and small bucks, both day and night. Our binoculars allowed us eyes on a good sized 10 pointer that most deer hunters would seek, but the camera did not capture.