| Self guided hunts and in particular deer hunts have been part of Mid-America Hunting Association for a long time. This length of service to the hunter capable of making his own hunts is our singular purpose giving us much experience at making those hunts as productive as possible. Deer hunters being largely the self supportive type in most aspects of life know there is not any free walk even after paying to access our lease land he still must make his own hunt. Making that deer hunt successful is the purpose of this article. The basis for our self guided hunter organization is private lease land access without competition from other deer hunter. All of that is easily definable and we will expand at this point on the competition aspect of our hunts. A quality self guided deer hunt is the goal. We long ago adapted our rules with the singular objective of enhancing hunt quality to the fullest of our capability. two approaches were tried. The first was a narrow focus and the second, a method by which options were always available. The narrow focus approach quickly lost due to failure to renew memberships citing low success at eyes on quality deer. The options approach most found far more desirable, especially by those that had success at trophy deer hunting. The narrow focus approach was that every member had a dedicated lease to hunt the entire season and all members paid a membership that was average of all lease land costs regardless of any one lease contracted price. This was an all or nothing program that while the hunter was limited to one set amount of acreage in one spot the deer were not. The options approach allowed all members whose still paid the same membership fees access to deer hunt all leases thereby giving choices to the deer hunter where to deer hunt. No competition from others was sustained through a reservation system that prohibited anyone from hunting a lease reserved by another for a set number of days. This system allowed all flexibility to adapt to changing rut conditions and that of weather to favored farms. It has continued to work since. There are other evaluative models to assess the feasibility of our self guided hunter approach to deer hunts. Simple math of comparing acreage available to season length to hunters/members shows that few times will anyone bump heads with another. When that happens it is a matter of bad luck rather than organizational design. When bad luck happens that two deer hunters conduct similar scouting, both find a cherry little 40 acre wood patch and both decide to hunt the same day, it is a matter of who calls in first for that reservation. Getting beyond the negative onto the more positive aspects of how to make a self guided deer hunt successful is once the new member receives his membership material and can access the online map library. The next step is to call either Jon Nee or John Wenzel and get their right to the lease number recommendation of where to deer hunt/scout. The deer hunter then goes to his own favorite aerial website and using the Association lease maps draws down his own aerial photos of the recommended leases. Of all the photos he develops a priority list from first to last lease that he wants to spend boots on the ground time with. At that point, a check of the calendar and making travel plans to scout, and scout some more, are made. The deer hunter then makes a telephone scouting reservation, travels out and spends all daylight hours walking the leases. From that first weekend scouting effort easily three deer spots should be found with more than one stand location for each. The next scouting, hunting or spring turkey season trip the deer hunter picks up where he left off and builds outwards to different farms. Soon that hunter will find more farms that meet is deer hunt preferences than before and grow to the level of having more knowledge of leases in that locality than time to deer hunt. It is at this point the deer hunter then expands to a different part of that state or breaks into another of our three states and resumes his scouting and deer hunt preparations. There should be nothing surprising in this description of how to make a self guided deer hunt possible. The two aspects the MAHA membership brings, the lease land and jump start staff recommendations, will simply speed the hunter's knowledge of where to hunt. Jon & John, Hey guys, [name deleted]. Just wanted to let you know about my year in MAHA. This was my third season in the association and as always very educational. I did a lot of scouting this year in [locations deleted] and had a very good time. I'm learning more about the terrain & farm land deer each year. I also drew a [location deleted] and my buddy & MAHA hunting partner [name deleted] did as well. [name deleted] & I scouted & hunted together this year and I sure want to thank you for putting us together with the buddy program. This makes the second year we've hunted together and he is a great deer hunter & person. [location deleted] | First year leases are always a concern. Report to our office any irregularity - we can fix them through the landowner. |
Opening weekend was a little hectic. I was hunting on a new piece that was added in 2006 and had a little trouble with trespassers. However, the matter got resolved and I was able to get a buck. He was not the one that was dominating the area, but I was happy to take him considering the circumstances. I would like to add that I hunted for 3-4 days trying to kill a doe and all the deer spotted were bucks! Not bad at all. The weather was great this year and I can't wait 'till this fall.
| A consequence and benefit to our season long hunts is the self guided deer hunter can pick the season, or portion of the rut he wants to hunt. Those that hunt a portion of the rut outside of their comfort zone find the most to learn about different deer movement patterns. |
[location deleted] This was probably my biggest educational deer hunting experience to date. [name deleted] and I arrived the last couple of days of the [earlier season] season to set up things for the [sequential season] opening day. The weather was unseasonably warm and we endured lots of rain. Many of the local hunters had made drives on surrounding properties and the deer were really spooked. I've never seen deer run so far & so fast when bumped. After a few days of not having much luck we moved west to another unit and the deer were much calmer. I was able to shoot a doe and a buck, however we didn't really see any big boys. The weather was still warm and there were lots of doe. I know there are some big ones there because I saw the signs. It was a hard hunt but rewarding because of the knowledge gained. Those late season hunts can be tough, especially if the weather doesn't cooperate.
We always like to see the doe harvests, thank you for taking that extra effort! 
As I prepare this letter my plans to scout in late March are underway. Doing this has expanded my knowledge of the land and helped with my success. I hope to see you guys in March and will keep an eye out for the quail, turkey & pheasants for you. Thanks again for another great year & hunting experience. Respectfully, [name deleted] 
  
We delete names and locations to protect those spots found by deer hunter. We assist the new member with were to hunt and our recommendations are valued as we have the goal of getting that hunter to return for future seasons. We also reply to all letters and pictures sent in by members with the latest entries from our log book of observations. Our lease land observations are over the entire year and we cover far more ground than any other. There are more than a handful of members that can partially credit their personal best harvest due to our recommendations and logbook feedback. |
Whitetail Deer hunting Mule Deer hunting | 
