Deer Sanctuarys
 

I just read article about how it is a must to have a place on your property that is off limits to any access.
It also stated this is true also if you have a food plot especially to keep big bucks around.
How many of you have a area that is strictly off limits? If you have one do some of you wait until
real late in the season and a tag that is not filled then go in?
I myself kind of have one and what I mean by this is the farmer does let 2 others hunt the same property and some years they go into this sanctuary and some years they dont. Yesterday they went into this sanctuary but only manage to drive out a spike and doe that they had seen.[:@]

*Reference North American Whitetail Nov 07 for more on this*

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

I have a 55 acres set aside that nobody is allowed in. I will walk in there early March and look around. I am not sure if it helps or not but I also had read somewhere that it was a good idea. I have had it for 4 years. I have to say I almost alwayssee deer when I am out hunting.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

Fraley

I have a section that is off limits until the rut, but i can get in and out with a deer knowing.

If you can do the above I say hunt it.

Here is my belief on plots these days. Unless you are hunting an area with little food they are worthless. Deer have so many options on what to eat around me, they hardly even touch them. The reason the seem to work is when we watch the shows and see a pile of deer in them. What they don't show is the deer have over browsed entire section they are in, and need the plot to survive.

I have found cover is best for my area, and our farm is loaded with it now. I have shot 4 mature deer in 5 years since putting more cover out.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

Its buttercup to you;)

That section I am talking borders that section I had on the map with your name on it. I do not do food plots.
They might work lets say mid dec until first week of Jan when season ends.
Did you mean cover or clover?

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

Cover I have 3 20+ ACERS of CRP fields

Switch Grass
Blue Stem Long and Short

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

Ahh ok, Yeah I have a lot of thick cover available I am just wanting to get a non during the rut mature buck.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

Even though I just purchased my land, there is an area on the west side of my big pond that I have told my son to stay out of. It's only about 5 acres, but I have seen a big bruiser in there and a lot of slickheads too. Next spring, I'll be putting in a clover field in there to offer the deer a little dessert after a meal of corn and beans. It's all worth it if you leave it alone so the deer come to know the area as a place to be safe from pressure.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

Germ, I agree with the plots. I put one in this year and it has been a waste with all the corn and acorns around.

I am not sure it is possible to sneak in where the deer won't know you were there. I like having an off limits area.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

I would have to agree if you go in some have to know your there and you just would have no way of knowing this.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

A sanctuary will help you if your neighbors putallot pressure on the local herd. I have about 25 acres that I only enter in the spring to do some shed hunting ,the rest of the year its off limits to all.
This area has a pile of blow downs and a bunch of multa flora rose that makes for some thick cover.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

I have 3x sanctuaries on mine, 2x of them right off food plots. 2x of them never get hunted, maybe a quick walkthrough in March or so to look for sheds and that's it. The other area gets hunted, but I can get in and out without being detected, and ONLY hunt when the wind is in my favor in there.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

The sactuary on our farms is about 10-15 acres and we never go in there except to retrieve a deer. The deer literally live in there and we just hunt the edges during the rut. It has made a world of difference.

I disagree on the food plots. I think it helps to have out another food source that is different than the others for the deer. They rerouted their trails to take them through our plots and they browse on them frequently. Are they necessary? No. Do they help? I think they do.

Like Germ said, cover is the most important thing as far as I am concerned. I am adding at least 10 acres of long and short bluestem next year. The 10-12 acres I have that is just reforesting is a magnet for deer right now. They used to never use this field, now they are in it consistently. It will take years, but I will get my farm right eventually.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

I don't give 'em a square foot of sanctuary. I push the limit and hunt every nook and cranny of the land I have access to.

Ahhhh, but the untold truth is....I hunt a man-made breakline that's the border of their 230 acre sanctuary. Parks system.....no hunting. Perfect scenario. If it didn't exost the way it did.....I'd probably screw it up by hunting in there. As it is.....it keeps ME in check.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

Joe Brooks always tells me.

Plant what you do not have.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

Germ:

He tells you to bait, too.;)

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

What are you planting? Maybe I planted the wrong stuff[8D] I have 3 out right now, deer just do not bother them[:@] My neighbor has a great one, never seen a deer in it. I see the deer on the river bottoms eating the greens.

I do agree plots will work, for some reason not for me. I am curious to see how others who hunt river bottoms do it.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

The way they run dogs after deerin my part of the state, sanctuary is only available in a church!

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

Well, I am not necessarily hunting all river bottoms. Our land is bordered on the west by a large creek, but it then goes up eastaway from the creek and goes up about 75-100 feet vertically. We planted a mixture of clover, chickory (sp?), and turnips. They don't go into them and just eat for 10 minutes, but they will browse through them very frequently. Our plots are small and we placed them just outside known bedding areas. I am no food plot expert though. I just know what has happened here.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

Same here, clover will last years with a light spraying of round up to control weeds but round up will kill the chicory & for the money purple top turnips seem to really produce allot of forage per acre.
And both grow well in poor soil.:)

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

I am going to try

Chickory next year and turnips, I have seen deer do exactly what you stated. Kind of browse their way through the plot.

I guess my post came out wrong. Plots don't work like you see on TV where the deer browse in them for 30 mins. I think a lot of people have a mis-conception of how plots work. Sometimes you plant them, and nobody shows up:DWhat I did not do is plant them close to bedding areas, I am going to try that next year.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

I do this in the places I hunt. I wrote a post Titled "Sanctuary's" a couple years ago but of course, got minimal replies.

BTW, it works excellently.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

Mine do..........you can watch them every night in the plots, sometimes for an hour or more.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

Ok Rick

What the are you planting, are you lacing it with nicotine:D

I woul love to find something they like around me

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

Germ I had a plot the last two years and it work wonderfully. For one reason or another they have spent little to no time in it. I blame the amount of corn that is now around my property however my deer sighting are now down by any means. Plots have worked good for my in the past just not this year.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

We had a small food plot that the deer would hardly touch in the Spring....clover, rye grass, brassicas. We replanted on Labor Day with turnips, and peas and it looked like a cattle crossing! Shot a doe last weekend between one of our sanctuaries and the plot. She was going to the plot, and her stomach contents had only green...no acorns, corn, etc...

Wethrew some chicory onthe plot last week for the spring...from what I have read, it won't come up in the fall. We won't hunt this plot again for a month.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

Germ, a buddy of mine has 120 acres with 40 of it in crops every year. All the way around his property is nothing but cropland. He put in a food plot with 7 differrent types of clover which all blooms at differnent times of the year growing season. Deer love clover because it's sweet. I've sat in his cabin and watched the deer come out of the soybeans and corn at night to munch on the clover. It's like offering candy to a child, they can't pass it up. Now I have one food plot in with the same mix and two more plots tilled to be planted in the spring. My buddy got his clover mix from www.whitetailinstitute.com. I went to the local feed store and he made basically the same mix for me at 1/4 the price. Give it a shot and I doubt you'll be disappointed.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

On that piece of ground I hunt that is private..the one I had all the tresspassing problems with, I have 50-60 acre mountainside full of brush and thick timber that I absolutey do not enter unless I am shed hunting it in Jan-March..
It works great because all the land around is either public or pressured private ground.. Deer and elk hole up in there big time.

I can't plant anything on this land, but if I could I would till up all skid trails in this sanctuary and plant a summer protein and fall carbohydrate combo

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

I am AF Hunter

Going to plant Clover and other stuff next year:)

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

Yeah Jeff I have been trying to find a spot likes yours just over the border in Illinois.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

Can you dig it up I am would be greatly interested?

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

I tried but I'm lousy using the search feature.

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

Sheesh I am surprised you can understand my typing, lol
I will do a search and see what I can find.
Thanks

RE: Deer Sanctuarys
 

We have 4000 acres 5 miles North /South by Two miles East /West (Approx.)
We have about one hundred stands of all kinds around property. The sanctuary
areas are scattered thoughout. Some are small and some are quite large. We find the
deer populations are about the same in all the areas. So what does this say?
Deer will find their own hinding areas based on the least amount of human travel.
It doesn't matter if it is3 acres, 100 acres or just the cluster of short pines
right behind camp. They will go where no one "Ussually" goes.

This weekend I found a bedding area right behind one of my most hunted stands.
It was by total accident that I explored this area. The beds were everywhere.
Droppings everywhere. All buck. I have to rethink the way I hunt this area now.
They had "ME" patterned.

Don't let santuary make you miss good deer. Know where they are first and then adjust!
Eric