| Private land hunting is the only hunting land option we provide. We further limit our private land hunting to self guided hunters prohibiting any and all forms of guided hunts. There are more limitations as we do not share our private land access with anyone or other group, we do not have variable access plans or memberships. And, we carry the idea of membership parity both in terms of organizational design and personal conduct to the extent some would describe as extreme and inflexible. Our response is that life can be simple and we will keep it that way. Perhaps the greatest value of our approach to private land hunting access is the return to the average hunter private land access of those lands owned by large farmer, investment and trust landowners that do not have doors to knock on for access and any land resource use offered by these business oriented landowners will be by pay alone. This is the bottom line in terms of private land hunter access. Rural land is no longer dominated by small farmers of limited resources. Farming today is dominated by large acreage operations where every aspect of the land resource is for income generation be it for crop production, federal subsidies, conservation programs or hunting access. And it is the collective purchasing power of MAHA that brings the large acreage back within reach of the average hunter. Few individuals and small friendship groups can afford to lease land from landowners of 5,000+ acres let alone tens of thousands of acres. Not only is it a financial prohibition it also includes most of these landowners think in terms of liability and organizational structure of the one wanting the lease. That last aspect has far greater impact than most hunters will want to believe. That impact is that large acreage landowners want to work with a fellow business operation that has the extent of experience and controls installed to maximize income security, reducing landowner operating procedures and minimize risk. MAHA fills those needs. The next aspect of the average hunter access is that once this private land access is achieved our annual membership cost is less than land mortgage payments, private leases and the support equipment of bows, guns, dogs, stands etc., that hunter's willingly spend money on. Then add the flexibility factor that each hunter under our system has three states of several regions to pick and choose when to hunt throughout the entire season. Regardless of the analysis model used it does all come down to private land access being the first roadblock to overcome. In terms of large acreage landowners unless that one hunter has a large financial capability he is not going to get access to that land for free. This is the niche occupied by MAHA. MAHA has the structure and financial capability to bring back to the hunter land controlled by corporations. There is still some small acreage farms available for the knock on door free access hunter. That hunter simply needs to get out there and do the work. We do caution that free private land access hunter to temper his hypocrisy about paid private land lease access. Most knock on door hunters expect free private land access consuming a resource of another and that same hunter is most likely never to give any resource he owns away to another for free. Traveling Deer Hunters We traveled from our home state of Massachusetts for a 4 day bow hunt in late October. We had originally reserved a different piece of property [location deleted], but after a day and a half of hunting there we decided to move to another lease that we felt would be more conducive to bow hunting. After a phone call to your office, it was suggested we try [location deleted]. We arrived at this property in the mid afternoon and quickly set 2 stands to observe the afternoon deer movement. The following morning found ourselves in the same stands. Around 9:00 am Joe decided to do a rattle sequence with the hope of getting things moving. A short time after he finished he looked over his left shoulder and about 5 yards away was this beautiful 9 point with his ears laid back looking for a fight. Unable to move all Joe could do was watch the buck do a semi circle around his stand and finally walk off into a thicket. After the buck went out of sight Joe decided to give it one last try and lightly rattled and worked his grunt call. This time he was ready when the buck came back and presented him with a 25 yard broadside shot. Joe’s Black Widow recurve did the rest. While Joe was waiting for me to finish my morning hunt he met the landowner who provided invaluable help for us in getting the deer out and provided a place where we could process the deer. 
For the evening hunt I moved my stand to the edge of a soybean field that looked promising. It wasn’t until the last hour of light that things started to get exciting. I had several small bucks come by earlier. With about 5 min of shooting light left I could hear a grunt coming from the thicket behind me. There were 2 bucks coming and the first one looked like a shooter. As he came to my shooting lane I moved slightly to get into position to take the shot. He spotted me in my stand and froze. The deer then jumped and ran to the edge of the bean field then stopped. Because he was now in the field I could see him much better with the light and felt confidant taking the 30 yard shot.
After the shot the deer ran about 100 yards into the bean field and fell over. Joe arrived at my stand about 3 min later and I motioned to him where the deer went down. He walked out into the bean field (uncut) and couldn’t find the deer. I told him it has to be right there just keep looking. Meanwhile I was getting out of my stand and told him I would be right there to help. By the time I got out of my stand and to the spot where I thought the deer should have been the sun had fully gone down. To make this long story a little shorter all I will say it took us about one and one half hours to find that deer. The deer didn’t move after he fell. The problem was a 150 acre uncut soybean field is like the ocean, it all looks the same, especially under a full moon. It wasn’t until I got the bright idea of maybe we should try to follow the blood trail that we finally found the deer. We were still in a bit of a predicament because now we have this deer down, it is 8:30pm, we are in the middle of a bean field and we have to be in Kansas City for our flight home at 8:00am. Joe suggested he head back to the landowner's home because the landowner has told us that he would be out that evening but if we needed his truck he would leave the keys in it for us to use (ya gotta love the people from the midwest). I stayed behind to field dress the deer. After finishing with my deer I sat down to reflect on all that had happened on this short trip. The scene I will never forget was when I was sitting on my beautiful 9 point deer, in the middle of a 150 acre soybean field, with a full moon rising in front of me and coyotes howling all around. When people ask me why I hunt I usually just shrug my shoulders and walk away. How do you explain moments like that. 
Enclosed are some photos of our deer. Unfortunately I was not able to get a well composed photo of my deer due to the fact that we had to leave that evening. Thanks again for what you do. Where else can 2 easterners walk onto a piece of new land with treestands on our backs and walk out with two nine point trophies.
Sincerely, [name deleted] Thank you guys for the very detailed hunt account, made for an interesting read. Especially the part about reflecting on that special satisfaction that is gained. |
Lease Land Discussion More about our deer hunts | 
