How many of you have ever tried incorporating a sanctuary within your hunting area?
One of my hunting spots is a small piece of land. It is 40 acres with about 25 acres being crop fields. Of the remaining 15 acres, there is about a 5 acre buldge of thick nasty stuff in the middle of it. Right away I noticed that the deer, especially the does liked to hang out in this spot. So I told my hunting partner that we should never set foot in there and only hunt the edges of it from a distance. It basically has a north and a south exit/entrance. By leaving it alone, and only hunting a safe distance from the enterance/exits, the deer remain on our piece all year long. During the rut, the bucks come and go through it all day long. It's perfect!
This works really well on smaller pieces of ground, where you could push the deer off if you weren't careful.

The property I hunt is mostly field surrounded by small patches of woods in a suburban setting....I try to treat the whole property as a sanctuary. I do as little as possible to disturb the deer making only necessary trips into the area. It's just enough property to hold the deer for the most part but it's easy for the deer to wonder...during the rut, all bets are off....I've seen the same deer miles from where my stands are......

Greg, I am in a position just like you. I hunt apropety that is 13 total acres. It is cronered by a lake where deer like to bed so it is just a huge trap. I seen 100's of deer in their this year during bow season. The thing is, the bucks know it is a trap. Our bowseason in Michigan runs from Oct. 1 - Nov. 14, then gun season opens. From Oct. 1 - Nov. 14, I seen over 200 does, and never seen a buck. Buck rubs were all over, scrap lines, you name it. But the bucks just knew not to come out until dark. Gun season opened, and it runs Nov. 15 - Nov. 30. The rut finally kicked in about November 19, and I seen 7 different bucks within a week. It was amazing.

Have a your ever read Giant Whitetails by the Drury Brothers. The focus on Sanctuary's throughout there whole entire book and if gives you great information!

We use the same type of strategy, once we see that the deer are bedding in a certin area we notwill go into it , and we will let the wind tell us how to go around these areas . also we will only hunt the edges of them, the funnels that they use to get to themtoo. seems to work pretty good, our buck kill has gone up since we started sticking to it.