Hunts
State
Interest | ManagementKansas deer hunting regulations may seem troublesome as it appears that Kansas State is not following a path to effective whitetail management. From our Kansas resident perspective their is much to debate about past and planned whitetail hunting regulations. We will offer that one central aspect of why we have the trophy whitetail that we do is first what many recognize and that is a declining rural human population. Second, the peer pressure of local youth where to shoot a scrap rack would bring ridicule. That second aspect alone may account for more of our trophy whitetail than all the deer management efforts by Kansas State itself. After getting past the bureaucratic nature of Kansas deer hunting regulations the hunter will find a range of whitetail deer habitat that frequently defies what many deer hunters believe to fit preconceived ideas of what holds trophy whitetail deer. While many will recognize that Kansas is a trophy whitetail deer state of a long standing reputation, many of the same do it yourself hunters come prepared to hunt large wood rather than the predominate whitetail habitat that is very prevalent throughout the state. In this case it is the hunter that must change as the trophy producing habitat will not adapt to the hunter. It was a non-resident hunter many years ago that thoroughly explained to us the cause for his lack of success is that our leases were for "bird hunters" and not deer ground as we did not have enough trees for cover habitat. This first conversation many years ago led to the adage that hunters need to come to hunt trophy whitetail, not trees. Proof our our hunter success and of Kansas' trophy whitetail habitat is in the gallery and many letters telling of hunts to include those that were not successful with those same hunters telling how they will return for another hunt. RecommendationsWe recommend those in their first year of MAHA to stick to a specific set of leases so to concentrate and learn patterns. This is opposed to jumping around trying to cover too much ground or states and simply pushing deer about. When reviewing our lease land maps it is readily apparent that we have concentrations of leases within specific areas and many areas where no land at all is leased. We go to where we get the best return on our money. In this case the right whitetail habitat in the region that has a history of trophy production. Even within these areas where we do lease land not all of those areas are for whitetail and not all leases have whitetail huntable habitat. Some of that land under lease is actually for upland birds or heavily into the Mule Deer region.
SeasonThe next consideration is what deer hunting season the self guided Kansas hunter will hunt. The obvious benefit for the deer hunter and our approach to making the entire and all Kansas deer hunting seasons available is the hunter has a choice covering archery, rife and muzzleloader deer seasons. The choice limiter is that Kansas limits all hunters to one primary tag.
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