| There are other stories of early and easy success, however the most common story of the most successful January Iowa and that of Kansas September deer hunters is telling about how they were lucky and that the days were long. While many of these deer hunters will credit luck being on their side they will also tell when digging into their actions immediately before their harvest they were walking slow or pausing, they were casually observing or glassing and the key part, they detected deer movement before the deer detected any hunter presence. Once deer, meaning any deer and not necessarily a trophy whitetail deer, was spotted a more slow stalk developed into seeing more deer clustered around and then a shot opportunity on a trophy deer. Deer hunt closure with and without deer hunting success. A shot opportunity did seem to bring most deer hunts to a close. That closure was true whether a trophy deer was tagged or not. These Iowa and Kansas non-rut deer hunts are fatiguing to the point greater than stand deer hunting. Most Kansas and Iowa muzzleloader walking deer hunters either successfully or not at filling a tag if given a shot opportunity did quit the hunt. The ending of the deer hunt with a tag filled is the obvious desired outcome. The ending of the deer hunt without a successful harvest combined with the physical drain of long walking days, limited success at finding deer, any blown shot opportunity and the spiritual satisfaction of having deer hunted hard all seem to culminate in either ending the hunt at that point or subsequent field walks being more causal walks than deer hunts. In most cases of the hunters that made it to a shot opportunity, they expressed satisfaction the elements for success were present. Those that hunted and did not get to any shot opportunity often complained about lack of deer, too much hunter pressure (Iowa late season, not Kansas), too warm for deer hunting and any other rationale other than deer hunter commitment to the deer hunt. The two illustrations above about Iowa and Kansas muzzleloader deer hunting just touch on the benefits and consequences of these two deer seasons. The deer hunter that hunts these deer seasons but once rarely gets to maximize the advantages and general encounters all the consequences. These muzzleloader deer seasons and hunter success is related as is all deer hunting to the hunter that makes deer hunting a study and sticks within one portion of the rut to hunt and deer hunts that rut portion for years. Those hunters that attempt to hunt all seasons not relative to prior experience or understanding whitetail movement patterns have the least bucks in truck success. At this point we remind ourselves and the hunter reading this article that we are not a hunting training or hunter trainer organization. We are in the hunt execution mode only. The discussion above is only meant to show just to what extent we offer a range of hunt options.
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