Tips from The Hunting Public: Locating Big Whitetail Bucks on Kansas Public Land

For the third stop of The Hunting Public’s Deer Tour, Ted Zangerle hunted whitetails on Kansas public land with his bow. Zangerle, Keith Robinson, and Aaron Warbritton scouted for several days before the hunt. They focused on agricultural fields like soybeans and corn edges. Here’s what they learned and how you can apply it to your hunting.

Gain Elevation for Glassing

The Midwest lacks glassing knobs and mountains, but you can still glass. You have to be creative and find ways to gain elevation.

In the Kansas area they were hunting, Zangerle and the crew used small rolling hills to glass down into ravines or onto the next hill. It’s not like glassing in the Western states, but the elevation change helped them spot a few bucks before the opener.

Warbritton even drove onto a bridge, parked safely, and glassed an entire river bottom from the elevated bridge.

“Climbing a tree and using it as a ‘glassing knob’ is another option. Even 10 to 15 feet of elevation can provide a better vantage point,” says Zangerle.

After scouting for a few days, Zangerle and the crew primarily focused on large tracts of public land. On opening day, they planned to hunt areas near the observed feeding locations of bucks in the agricultural fields. They assumed the bucks would be bedding or traveling through the timber stands and small hedgerows.

In the morning of opening day, Zangerle set up in one of these areas, but had no luck. Frustrated, they decided to move to a similar area nearby, but the outcome was the same.

On the second day, they knew they needed to change their approach.

“Keith had scouted a bean field a couple miles back in a massive public tract. He had seen a few shooter bucks feeding in the field, so we decided to hunt the edge,” Zangerle says.

The crew made their way to the field, being mindful of wind direction, and found an oak tree 200 yards from where they thought the buck might be bedding. The area had lots of acorns and clear feeding signs.

“We should have set up, but we kept pushing and ended up spooking the buck. Then we found another bean field up the creek about 300 yards away on the map,” says Zangerle.

They reached the edge of the bean field, found a patch of acorn-dropping oaks, and decided to set up there. That evening, they saw a few does and, just before last light, two big bucks came and ate acorns at the base of their tree, five minutes after legal shooting time.

Don’t Overlook Smaller Acreage

Zangerle and the THP crew usually focus on larger tracts of public land, simply because they have more acreage and can escape from other hunters. However, the unit they were hunting in Kansas had smaller tracts they overlooked during scouting. With limited success on larger tracts, Zangerle decided to mix things up for the last two days of the hunt.

“Once we got back to camp that night, we dropped off our equipment and drove around with a spotlight to check some small tracts of public land. We wanted to see if bucks were feeding in the fields,” Zangerle says.

Zangerle spotted a nice buck on one of these small tracts during their scouting trip. The following morning, they entered the small tract to hunt the buck they had seen the night before. Although they didn’t encounter the buck, Zangerle had a game plan for the rest of the hunt.

“We did a lot of driving around to these smaller tracts, trying to get eyes on deer. This led us to find more and more spots. We didn’t see another shooter, but we found areas with deer and lots of sign,” says Zangerle.

Stay Mobile to Discover New Areas

Zangerle used the hunt as a scouting trip because there was a lot of public land to cover. Initially, they scouted and hunted large tracts of over 10,000 acres. In contrast, the smaller tracts they hunted in the later days were around 500 acres each. Zangerle found it more efficient to break down these smaller tracts and find suitable hunting spots.

“These small pieces have only one or two little draws with trees and a creek. Once you find a piece that holds deer, it’s easier to pattern them in a smaller area.”

To quickly assess the smaller tracts, Zangerle chose spots based on where they spotted deer while driving around. They would set up and hunt for a few hours in each spot. Along the way, they continued to scout, looking for trails and feeding areas.

Zangerle noted that if they went into these small tracts only to scout, they would likely spook the deer. They always made a hunting plan for a specific area within these small tracts to minimize disturbance.

If you often hunt large tracts of public land and have limited success by going deeper than other hunters, try finding one of these small off-the-wall public tracts and make a move. You might be surprised by what you find. Zangerle will be back to Kansas later this month to put his new plan to the test.