Deer Sanctuary ?

[growalot]

A sanctuary is where a DEER considers to be safe...No matter what we maybe thinking have areas one doesn't frequent often is important..though as I said you have to know your herds...I would never get away with what I do here at camp..and lets face it...it's why the guys don't shoot as many buck....I want those deer here to know I can walk past them and nothing will happen. I want them to know my scent and yes sorry they do remember. I want them to see my movements as non threatening...Because that will move them off others towards me...I really like the guys that treat their places as the holy ground . Won't go near it until season...because in hill country there rarely is a "good" wind...it swirls nearly always unless there is near no wind...my scent is part of their environment..I'm just another animal they live with. I learned this many years ago when I had a 12 pt step out in front of me while I was DRing a trail. He causally walk the trail in front of me and I continued on my way. When I had a huge 8pt leave a doe he was trailing to circle around me and come to within 3yards bob his head, paw the ground curl his lip, sniff me ,sweaty as all get out from working, then  turn around and walk back to the doe that had bedded down wind of me.  When I can stand out at the road and talk to the huge 6pt last year while he stood 30 ft away in my driveway. I don't feed them other than plots...but I do know how to read body language and in the woods, how to walk past a bedded deer without spooking it. I have had deer come up to me as I squatted in the dark ,trying not to get caught going to stand, to have a tine slide past my eye and him literally snort in my ear. I have been stomped at in the dark and knew what to do so he'd come back to me and not run for the hills..I called the buck in the  picture back to me twice as I walked to the ladder and climbed the ladder after spooking him up from his bed under it...just to have him circle me and come back right at legal light...So repeat what you have read...there isn't any changing what I know...

[growalot]

I need to add this...the buck above, I'd never seen...The neighbor on my high side had him on cams all summer long...once season started and he went in daily bow hunting him that buck moved to me  and yes..bedded right under my stand. when I sent a text I'd gotten a bow buck...he sent me a picture of him hanging at the bottom of their East facing slope.  A place that the buck hang out in the summer, not a gully but a bottom between two slopes..pasture on the west and "English woods" on the east.

Edited February 23, 2017 by growalot

[dbHunterNY]

18 hours ago, fasteddie said:

The area in blue is about 1/3 of my SILs 68 acre property . To the North and West are wooded areas . There is a large ditch on the West side of the property .The area in red is a lot of overgrown scrub trees . Not many big trees in the red area except near the middle . The Yellow dot is about 10 yards into what my son wants to make a sanctuary . 

He hunts the property maybe 3 times during gun season and I hunt the property 15 - 20 times between Bow , Gun and ML . I have had quite a bit of success on the Geneseo property . My oldest son has property in Italy Valley that he hunts as well as properties close to where he lives . I will be 76 this coming season so I am not all that much into a total deer sanctuary . Time is running out . 

The pond blind on the map is no longer good as the the guy that farms the land pushed much of the brush back so the deer no longer travel their previous route past the blind and go through the thick area . My youngest son shot a doe and a buck from the double stand in the woods on opening day of gun season this past season . 

I prefer having the deer get use to a blind but I have killed deer anywhere from same day to weeks later after installing one . Same goes for ladder stands . Trees in the thick stuff are small diameter and shooting lanes would have to be made . That is pretty much unnecessary with a ground blind that would blend into the background . And to reiterate , it would only be about 10 yards into the thick area . It would be an ideal spot for a pistol shot . That reminds me . I have to recheck the scope on my Contender 7-30 waters pistol . 

As for spooking the deer . I have had deer walk the same trails that I have gone on and walked up to the game cameras . . 

don't know about you but i hunt with everything else going on in life and often it's close to prevailing winds.  i can't drop my schedule and hunt around the weather like some can.  not like the deer are only out there during fronts and other opportune times.  they move more then, but are still around otherwise.

anyway, i assume your access is from the south. ditch is probably a good way to get to the back portion of the property.  your wind will swirl and be contained more in the ditch for anything close to prevailing wind conditions.  i think your blind would be fine. i'd go straight in from the south and straight back out. easily access.  have the intersecting trails north'ish of the blind so you're not cutting across them every time in and out. i wouldn't go walking around as i eluded to earlier.  during gun season deer hole up in these areas, so why not leave them be and hunt them both morning and evening.  high stem count you mentioned is perfect for bedding as it provides cover that's easy to lose a hunter through trying to get crosshairs on them.  i can't imagine you're recovering too many deer to disrupt things by successfully hunting it.  especially if your oldest is hunting with maybe extra DMAP tags or something in italy valley.

brush the blind in or not, but the deer know it's there.  i've had mature doe bed in front of a blind and had others spot it right away and get uneasy, so i try to set them up sooner than later with the windows left open only in the front.  stands for whatever reason seem to be different.  deer don't mind them nearly as much in my experience.

it's always risky trying to be a habitat guru like you know what you're doing, but i'd thin things out a little (not clear cut) in front of the blind to give more room for chasing within the cover.  i'd also open up spots along a trail, about 8' in diameter where there's high spots.  deer don't like to bed down with trees right on top of them, caging them in. little bit of space with plenty of side cover inside that thick stuff goes a long way.  each spot should be really in sight of one another.  you might get multiple doe groups and/or bucks bedding in there.  those conditions sitting in your blind would be perfect for an any time of day sit when the rut action kicks up.

ridiculous number of ways to hunt the place i'm sure but if i was walking in your boots that's what i'd do.  good luck and don't fill your tag with any of those invisible small diameter trees.