I've heard a lot about leaving a sanctuary in the middle of your property that nobody ever enters to encourage deer to stay there and feel safe year round. Does anyone here use this tactic, how strict are you with it, and about how many acres is the entire place that you practice this technique on? I can't see a person being able t do this with a spot any smaller than about 40 acres.
I do it with about 60 acres on a couple of properties. The only time I ever step foot in there is to shed hunt and turkey hunt in early spring. Other than that, zip. Its the most important thing you can do to encourage mature deer to stay on your property.
We have areas that we try to stay out of/can't get into I'd say they are about 15 acres together and less than on entrance per year Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I own 40 acres and last winter I did alot of hinge cutting and large tree felling to create sanctuaries. it started working immediately. there were bedding areas in the snow that were easy to see facing the sun in the SW sky. Earlier this summer i took a walk through and jumped several deer in different areas I had created. it does work, the hard part is to keep the self discipline to stay out of the area and to only hunt the edges. Check out forum member Tynimiller's website for more info, or check out the food plot and habitat management section of the forum, it's a very active section of the forum.
About half of my land I leave alone. I will go in and cut wood in the winter but that is about all I ever go on it
We use to own 20 acres (18 of which were wooded). I designated about 3 acres as a sanctuary and killed deer every year either walking out of or heading to it.
IMO sanctuaries are absolutely critical to having a great deer hunting property....in fact i think the smaller the property, the more important they are. Every farm i hunt i have a designated sanctuary. Even on a 5 acre property, a sanctuary can make it hunt better. If you make 4 acres a sanctuary and only intrude on a small part of the property, it will hunt bigger than it is....deer are smart...it won't take them long to figure out that those 4 acres are a safe zone. This fact is obviously multiplied on larger tracts. The more area you can keep untouched the better. Human pressure is the number one influence on deer movement...the less you have, the more deer will feel comfortable moving while the sun is out
We do.. have them as large as 20 acres and as small as 5 acres. They are key to holding deer once the hunting pressure starts. Another thing we have found is that your property will drive where they are. Not so concerned that they are in the center of the property as much as they are in a location that offer deer security coming and going and has a water source available to them. Our rule in no entry unless you have to track a deer into it. Shed hunting is allowed mid Feb - March. We set a 100 yard no hunting buffer around them also! They work!
Yes I have done this for several years. I also have funnel areas (stand locations) that are proven that I do not use trail cameras or scout because it is obvious that they are there and it would be foolish to go in there for any other reason than to kill one. I have not walked my favorite stand location since February and do not plan on hunting it until the end of October. In the Midwest and during hunting season, I will always argue pressure or lack of is more important than anything else.
