Thoughts on the value of a sanctuary...

[G-Man]

I had food plots for several years and though they drew in game,the group i hunt with never saw a huge improvement untill we decided to set an area aside as a sanctuary. We located it toward the center of the property, on a piece that was almost clearcut by the former owner. we now see 20 to 30 deer heading to it every opening day including 6-7 buck. We never hunt it and only enter it in winter to further cut undesirable trees to help keep it thick. We now consistantly take 1-2 nys"book bucks" off the land, as well as see many more decent bucks, our neighbors benifit as well as one took his best buck in over 50 years of hunting this past season! We have no point or spread restrictions and just post trail cam pics of our better bucks to our hunters e-mails... i guess just knowing that there are better bucks around seems to make them hold out for one of the better ones on camera! This way all the hunters in camp are making their own decision on what they wish to harvest and are happy as a result. Anyone else try something like this?

[SplitG2]

When I picked up my property 10 years ago from a logging company.  They left all the tops on the back east of my property and became our sanctuary.  It's about 15-20 acres and we don't go in there except winter.  Food plots are great but COVER and a place where deer are undisturbed is KEY.  I had a point restriction in the first few years but my family and friends weren't having a good time anymore hunting with all my rules lol.  But when we started to see mature big deer they started to pass on the young bucks.  They just had to see it first hand to believe it.  I would like to make the center of my property the place to be for big bucks to bed.  It's an open field about 25 acres which will be planted in the middle with NWSG, pine and shrubs.

[G-Man]

Splitg2, Yeah its amazing how fast guys that would shoot any buck start to hold out for a better buck once they see a few in the woods.

[SplitG2]

yep, it's like Xmas everytime we pull the sd cards out of the cams to see what's roaming the grounds!

[Geno C]

creating safe havens or sanctuaries is where its at. It plays a vital role in deer managment. It truley is key to holding deer on your property especially when gun season comes and deer are pushed all over. Sanctuaries will house those deer no doubt and will add a bonus to anyones property... But staying out of those designated parts of your land is whats needed to create that cover for deer.

[nyantler]

creating safe havens or sanctuaries is where its at. It plays a vital role in deer managment. It truley is key to holding deer on your property especially when gun season comes and deer are pushed all over. Sanctuaries will house those deer no doubt and will add a bonus to anyones property... But staying out of those designated parts of your land is whats needed to create that cover for deer.

Well said Geno!

[Geno C]

Thanks joe, it will probably be one of the first things i would do if and when i buy some land 

not even to benefit myself but just to add that feature to the property and give the deer the option... i think there are plenty of places that lack that addition and creating that can change alot for that particular woods...

[gjs4]

Although in most instances a sanctuary would be benfitial-  it all depends on location. The premise is th eimportant part- no disruption of deer within an area- treat your whole property as a sanctuary (as die form edges; providing the layout allows this)

[erussell]

The last 2 yrs I have stayed out of the center 40 acreas of a 200 acre pc of land I can hunt. Last day of muzzleloader this yr I slowly made my way into it to see what was there and came up on 13 doe and 4 bear ( mama and 3 cubs) sharing it. Not sure why but bucks really do not like the property. There are lots of rubs, but they seem to walk right off the property and not stay. I planted food plots last yr and dug a few knee deep watering holes that they use the heck out of but its very rare to see a buck up there before or after the rut. Im thinking there are to many does and might try to shoot atleast half of them this coming yr( not by myself of course). This yr I shut down all 4 wheeler and snowmobile traffic and blocked all the trails so Ill see if that helps to.

[Geno C]

that area might be used as a doe bedding area of some sort. You might not get bucks to really bed up much in there but that might be a great place to set up on the fringe of the area and focus on some travel routes in and out of that area. when that rut comes those bucks will know where to find those does and get those bedded does up and moving about.

one thing i heard of too when creating this sanctuary is to mark it off perhaps as a reminder to not go in there. Ive heard you can put alittle sort of fencing around it, like a noticeable wire around the area or ribbon or marking just to know where it is you are setting those boundaries. i am not saying a tall fence so dont get that illusion but something that says hey, this is an area created for this and i do not want to disturb it. and it can be a 1 acrea area or bigger to create this sanctuary depending on the peroprty size you have. Obviously the bigger the better but it doesnt have to be huge to offer that bonus to the deer.

but does anyone else use a marking system to identify this area??

[First-light]

Next to my property there are some huge pines that are really thick. The deer and the bear love it because you can only hunt the cuts through the property. It is real important that you have something like this near your property. To take it one step further an outfitter in Ohio I know creates doe sanctuaries. These areas are so thick that the big boys can't get through to harass the does. Mainly consist of blow downs stacked on top of each other. He says it keeps the big bucks hanging around

waiting for the does to come out. Seems odd but he says it works, to what extent I don't know.

[SplitG2]

From my own experience a large sactuary will be taken over by doe group or groups.  This happened to my 15-20 acre sanctuary.  I'm in the process of hingecutting small pockets to encourage the 3 1/2 and older bucks to bed on my property.  I'm also going to try NWSG.

[G-Man]

A nice thermal cover sancutuary thick pines for example is a great thing to have for late season. I agree that a large sanctuary can become a doe family group bedding area, but if you have the does the bucks will come by to check them, you might want to create a thicker area downwind of your doe area, the bucks will "lay in wait" there for the does to come into estrus.

[nyantler]

Bigger bucks need more than just heavy cover sometimes.. they seem to bed where they also have a good vantage point for spotting approaching danger... predominant wind direction into an area I think plays a big role in where bucks choose to bed as well.

In my experience tracking bucks i have found that they usually bed with there backs against heavy cover facing into the wind... making them tough to see coming up from behind them... I have found myself looking right at bucks bedded 30-40 yards away without seeing them

[SplitG2]

Bigger bucks need more than just heavy cover sometimes.. they seem to bed where they also have a good vantage point for spotting approaching danger... predominant wind direction into an area I think plays a big role in where bucks choose to bed as well.

In my experience tracking bucks i have found that they usually bed with there backs against heavy cover facing into the wind... making them tough to see coming up from behind them... I have found myself looking right at bucks bedded 30-40 yards away without seeing them

Cover

[Dave]

Guys I agree in principal with the creation of sanctuaries . It's a great idea if you are there to monitor your property. Even better if you live on the property with the sanctuary. But for the guys who either lease or own your property and live far away we may be creating a nice honey hole for the locals. We own property and were told by the locals we only own the land when we are there and when we are not they do. During hunting season we see pickup's driving the road past our property to see if we are there, then turn around and go back the other way. They know when no one is there and then they hunt or drive your land.

Dave

[erussell]

Guys I agree in principal with the creation of sanctuaries . It's a great idea if you are there to monitor your property. Even better if you live on the property with the sanctuary. But for the guys who either lease or own your property and live far away we may be creating a nice honey hole for the locals. We own property and were told by the locals we only own the land when we are there and when we are not they do. During hunting season we see pickup's driving the road past our property to see if we are there, then turn around and go back the other way. They know when no one is there and then they hunt or drive your land.

Dave

I have heard of people buying maniquines and dressing them in orange and giving them a toy rifle and setting them in a stand on the edge of the propertys to keep people out. Might be something to look into. Find someone who has some old camo to dress them up in and get some orange material from Wally world to make vests with.  Make wooden permanent stands and tie the dummies to the trees. use screw in steps to get to them and take them out when you leave so the dummies don't steal your dummies    Sounds like a lot of extra work but from what Ive read it seems to work really well. Especially along field edges where people like to drive by. The more orange on the dummie the better.

[Dave]

Guys I agree in principal with the creation of sanctuaries . It's a great idea if you are there to monitor your property. Even better if you live on the property with the sanctuary. But for the guys who either lease or own your property and live far away we may be creating a nice honey hole for the locals. We own property and were told by the locals we only own the land when we are there and when we are not they do. During hunting season we see pickup's driving the road past our property to see if we are there, then turn around and go back the other way. They know when no one is there and then they hunt or drive your land.

Dave

Very interesting, will look into it. Thanks

Dave

I have heard of people buying maniquines and dressing them in orange and giving them a toy rifle and setting them in a stand on the edge of the propertys to keep people out. Might be something to look into. Find someone who has some old camo to dress them up in and get some orange material from Wally world to make vests with.  Make wooden permanent stands and tie the dummies to the trees. use screw in steps to get to them and take them out when you leave so the dummies don't steal your dummies    Sounds like a lot of extra work but from what Ive read it seems to work really well. Especially along field edges where people like to drive by. The more orange on the dummie the better.

[G-Man]

the sanctuarys we have are defined within a perimiter of logging roads, hard to miss that boundry with a 10 ft wide road running around them.

[Geno C]

yes this is true greg... your designated area, is it thick?

[G-Man]

The one 30 acre area has a visability of about 30-50 yards, the second 30 acres has about 10-15yards....thats line of sight getting a bullet or arrow to go more than 5 yards would be tough. The biggest thing i am lacking is thermal cover, dame pine and spruce won't stop growing... have new areas planted and just need to wait ten years or so for them to get good!

[Geno C]

hey, atleast the steps in planting them are done. now its just a waiting game.

[G-Man]

Yep, wait  for the trees to grow and wait for the buck to get some age on them....

[5.9cummins]

I grew up hunting a relatives property that was about 600 acres. Nothing phenomenal to write about with the exception of a 60 acre piece of it. The valley as it was referred to had a 5, 10, and 20 acre patches of spruce and pine which were so thick you had to belly crawl into them. The very bottom had two beaver ponds with all alder and willow. There were apple scattered around the property with the inside of a L shaped piece of pine being a solid 5 acre apple thicket.

I would consistently see 10-30 deer a night during bow and at the time I only had one stand at the edge cover between the bedding area and apples. I remember days seeing 10+ racked bucks with better than half of them being outside there ears. Even during gun season you would still see deer during the middle of World War III.

It was the absolute BEST hunting i have ever experienced.

I say was because my relatives decided that the deer were to "comfortable" in the pines and they needed to get in there and get after them.

I tried to convince them to do some edge management and cut some of the outer trees and push them into a brush wall between the neighbors property and ours creating a funnel through our property but my advice wasn't taken.

It was decided that the solution would be taking a chainsaw and timing a 3 foot wide 7 foot tall stalking path through the bedding area.

The spot is still decent during bow when no one else hunts it and i stay out of the area but as soon as gun rolls around the place is devoid of deer.

[G-Man]

yeah thats a bummer, sanctuarys only work if you stay out of them,much better hunting the fringes than blasting thru the center... thats one of the reasons its nice to own your own property..