The whitetail hunting landscape has changed immensely since the 1970s when I first started hunting. Not only has the gear we use evolved unbelievably, but the mindset of today’s deer hunter is also far different from what  it once was. Back in the day, nobody would have thought of buying land for the expressed purpose of hunting deer and yet today that seems to be every hunter’s dream and a reality for many.

Somewhere along the way deer habitat consultants got started, and with each passing season more and more whitetail aficionados are offering this service to other deer hunters/land managers. In the interest of full disclosure, I want to state right here that I too do a bit of whitetail consulting each year. For me it started several years ago with requests from a few readers who followed my writings in magazines such as this. They were apparently intrigued enough by my articles to ask if I would be willing to visit their properties and offer advice. With my insatiable appetite for anything whitetail, I soon took on my first consulting gig.

My experiences in this arena have given me a unique view and helped me form some strong opinions on this subject. Each year I turn down more clients than I accept because I want to be certain that I can really give clients their money’s worth. Thus, the purpose of this article is not to drum up more business for myself but instead is designed to help potential consulting clients get the most for their money no matter who they hire. There are many really good, ethical deer habitat consultants offering their services today, so with a little thought and planning you can find and hire one who will help you shave years off the learning curve.

Hire the “Right” Consultant

Notice I didn’t say hire the “best” consultant, but instead said hire the “right” consultant. There really is no best consultant in business today. With the whitetail’s expansive range that includes so many different habitat types, as well as the varied goals of each client, there is no single consultant who is the best fit for every situation. You need to find one who can offer the most help given your goals, your location and the specific property you own/hunt.

To narrow down your choices you really need to consider a number of factors. I advise folks to start by looking at the geographic area a consultant comes from. That will be where the lion’s share of his or her experience was gained. If your property is in Minnesota, how practical would the advice be if it comes from a consultant who hails from Texas? Even if that consultant has hunted numerous times all over the whitetail’s range, spending a week or two each fall in an area is no substitute for living there for decades.

Different regions of the country have different tree, shrub and plant species that all factor into a good plan for a specific property. Nobody will know these types of details about a specific region as well as someone who lives there and has dealt with them their entire life. I know of a couple of situations where a consultant offered advice on planting specific tree species on sites where they would never survive. Such mistakes can cost landowners a good deal of money, as well as wasted time and labor. What makes it worse is that they were simply following advice that they paid for! In a nutshell, look for a consultant whose experience largely comes from a location similar to yours.

Watch episodes of Grow ’em Big from land management expert Steve Bartylla.

Once you have narrowed down your list and found a small group of consultants to consider from your region of the country, it is time to look at each one more closely. Specifically, you need to look at how your ultimate goals compare with what the potential consultants have already accomplished. For example, if your goal is to consistently kill bucks with your bow that score 150 inches or above, how can you expect to get meaningful advice from someone who is not already doing that? Don’t be fooled by the success of past clients because this can be very misleading. I, or anyone for that matter, could give you a list of deer hunters who have tagged some impressive bucks through no input from me whatsoever. If a consultant has 100 past clients, some of them are bound to kill nice bucks whether the consultant did anything to help them or not. Don’t get me wrong, the success of past clients is a consideration, but not nearly as important as the success of the consultant himself.

You also need to consider how a consultant killed his bucks. If you are primarily a bowhunter and a consultant has killed many of his best bucks with a gun, the level of guidance he can offer you is probably not as great as a consultant who strictly hunts with a bow. This is not a knock against those who hunt with firearms, but consistently getting mature bucks within 20 yards of your treestand is a far different proposition than getting them within rifle range. If your goal involves consistently killing bucks of a certain caliber with a bow, you would be well-advised to have an accomplished bowhunter doling out the advice.

You should also look closely at the type of properties a consultant hunts. If you are looking for help to make your 40-acre property the best it can be, is a consultant who hunts primarily on huge tracts of intensely managed private land the best option? Probably not. Find a consultant whose success came on properties similar to yours.

When you have considered the factors mentioned thus far, you should have your list of potential consultants narrowed down to two or three. At this point you need to come up with a list of questions for each. Give each candidate a thorough interview and find out exactly what you will get for your money. Will you get a detailed written plan specific to your property, a generalized plan or no written plan at all? What will be included in the plan? Food-plot locations, treestand locations with entrance and exit routes, habitat improvements, etc.? Be sure you know exactly what you’re paying for.

I caution you to not get caught up in a consultant’s notoriety. Just because a particular consultant is on TV or writes books and magazine articles does not mean he is the best choice for you and your property, although there are good consultants who have done all of these things. Celebrity status means nothing to a whitetail, and when you are selecting a deer habitat consultant it should also mean nothing to you … unless you just want to brag to your buddies that, “Joe Blow visited my property.”

Hire a consultant who has already accomplished what you hope to and has done so on a property similar to yours in the same geographic area — one who will provide you with a detailed written plan specific to your property.

Before the Visit

Once you have decided on the consultant who best fits your situation, you need to schedule a visit. Make sure that your visit happens during the right time of the year. Personally, I will only visit a client’s property during the period from the end of hunting season until things green up in the spring. This allows me to get the best possible feel for the property. The lack of green vegetation allows me to best see deer sign and the details of the property and the fact that hunting season has just ended allows me to canvas the property without alerting the deer residing there. This timing also allows the client several months to start implementing the plan I have designed before the next hunting season opens.

I have lost a few potential clients because they called me to arrange a consulting visit after the spring green-up and were too impatient to wait until the following winter for me to visit. Instead, they hired someone else to consult with on their property during the late-spring or summer months when vegetation was at its thickest. While I certainly respect a client’s right to decide when a consultant visits his property, in the interest of offering up the best possible advice I also must strongly state that you as the client will get a better designed plan from a consultant visiting during the right time of the year, no matter who that consultant might be.

Beware of any consultant who will go anywhere at any time of the year. Those are the ones looking to make money rather than help others.

Prepare Your Consultant

By the time the day of your scheduled consulting visit takes place, your chosen consultant should have already seen and studied an aerial photo of your property. He should have asked you a series of questions regarding your property as well as the general area where your property lies and your goals as a whitetail hunter/land manager. In other words, your consultant should have done his homework and not just showed up on your property totally blind to what awaits him there.

Do all you can to inform the consultant about every detail regarding your property and your goals long before he arrives. I closely study aerial photos of the properties that I consult on as well as give plenty of thought to possible ideas before I ever step foot on a property. On the actual visit I am often verifying things I have seen on aerial photos and solidifying the plan I have in mind. Other times I will see something totally different from what I was expecting and scrap the preconceived plan to devise a better one.

If the consultant you are hiring is more concerned about getting your deposit and getting you scheduled on his calendar than he is about learning as much as possible about your property and your goals, you might want to keep looking at other consultants.

In Summary

The decision to hire a deer habitat consultant is one with no right or wrong answer. Doing so does not mean someone is ignorant or a bad hunter. I find that the vast majority of my clients are extremely successful in other endeavors to which they have devoted much of their lives. I have consulted for professional athletes, major business owners, doctors, surgeons and other extremely talented, intelligent and successful people. Most are well into middle age and are slowing down a bit from their careers. The deer hunting bug has bitten them and they are trying to shorten the learning curve in the whitetail woods so their successes come quicker and in the form of larger antlers.

If you are one of the growing number of deer hunters considering hiring a consultant, let me sum up my best advice. Start by looking at consultants from your region of the country. Then consider which ones hunt on properties similar to yours and hunt with the same tools as you but whose whitetail hunting success has far exceeded your own. Finally, decide your specific goals and compare those goals to what the consultants you are considering have already accomplished. This is the consultant who will best be able to take your whitetail hunting success to a higher level.

As I have stated, there are a number of well-qualified consultants offering their services for hire. Among this group there are probably one or two who are best suited to your specific situation. Find them and your hunting success should take a step in the right direction within a couple of years. There are also a few snake-oil salesmen who want nothing more than to take your money. With a little bit of homework you should be able to separate the good from the bad and find the right consultant for you.

— Don Higgins is an avid and successful big buck hunter from Illinois. He owns and operates Higgins Outdoors, a company focused on wildlife habitat and conservation products and services. For more info go to www.HigginsOutdoors.com.