Whild_Bill
New Member
In here? Would love to bounce some ideas with you
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Any Sanctuary Builders / Developers
- Thread starter Whild_Bill
- Start date
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
There are lots of people like that on here. Make your post, and I'm almost sure someone will respond.
Whild_Bill
New Member
well we have had some good success here in Alabama with defining sanctuarie boundaries and then slipping into them and making improvements, only if the wind and thermals are in our favor. We added a hedge row of bluberry & blackberry bushes along a wet weather creek in way that was they forced the deer into a crossing area. We only installed an observitory stand there where we documented several bucks
George
Well-Known Member
Yeah, if they smell your chainsaw exhaust you would be busted. An observatory stand in the sanctuary? Do the deer know it is stand for observing only?
G
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
That sounds like a winning plan, you already have some big key requirements nailed down as follows;
-Defined boundaries
-staying out except when working on habitat
-using planting to manipulate travel corridors
-means of observation without alerting deer
-watching wind direction when working on habitat (this one is too demanding for me, I've never done it, but we are usually doing the work in the winter right after the season when deer patterns won't affect hunting or fawn drop times)
I really do like the novel idea of an observatory stand, if the terrain allows enough elevation to observe deer in the sanctuary from an elevated downwind stand, undetectable on the boundary of the sanctuary. This would be one feature that will make most hunting property managers slobber with jealousy, because without the correct terrain, they won't be able to replicate it.
If an observatory isn't possible in a sanctuary I'm not opposed to some solar powered cell cams in the sanctuary, but if you want pics of big bucks they shouldn't have visible flash.
Whild_Bill
New Member
Ya we only hang sets at 45’ can’t remember the last time anyone got winded most folks simply don’t put their lock ons high enough. We don’t run chain saws in the sanctuary, ever period.
Whild_Bill
New Member
George they can vary but we like to build them at a minimum of 40 acre put that depends on a lot of factors
swat1018
Well-Known Member
Come on George, you aren't hanging your stands high enough!
Whild_Bill
New Member
Swat be honest you sit in a green field or a 12’ ladder stand most hunts am I right? Be honest here
George
Well-Known Member
I actually did hang a stand 26' last year. I sat in it once with a bow and once with a muzzleloader. It is too steep a bow angle shot down for my liking.
G
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
You need to hang lights for the airplanes up there? I'm not making fun of you, every man to his own game, and I admire someone with enough stamina to get that high. When I was younger I got up pretty high sometimes, never measured to be exact, just absolutely need a safety belt up there.
As far as not running a chainsaw in a sanctuary, IMO a chainsaw is about the best sanctuary tool ever made, because prizes for the best sanctuaries for deer aren't awarded by acres, they are measured by line of sight distance. I have one 5 acre sanctuary and several 100 plus acre sanctuaries, and the 5 acre one is by far the best, because it's so thick in there even a coon hound would think twice before entering.
A designated whitetail sanctuary in wide open woods where sight distance is measured by hundred yard increments is almost worthless, because the deer are probably going to bedding in the neighbors thick swamp.
Some of the best sanctuary fixes are; #1 TSI logging and promoting well spaced mast-producing trees , #2 fire if you are allowed, #3 hinge cutting, thinning saplings, making funnels, or taking down junk trees with a chainsaw in March, #4 planting switch or conifers and food type shrubs in field type habitat, #5 digging small ponds or seasonal water holes, and last but not least, #6 pressure management.
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
Do you even need a bow at that height? Dropping an arrow could do a lot of damage, in WWI pilots would release the canisters of flechettes over the enemy, raining down the arrowheads that had enough kinetic energy form falling to penetrate helmets and go right through a person.
Whild_Bill
New Member
It ain’t for the faint of heart and it ain’t for everybody but we just know it works and we just know what works for us
George
Well-Known Member
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
I really like this sanctuary builders/ developers topic, as we're always looking to pick up random new ideas for our management, and also to bounce some of our ideas off of others to get opinions on what we are doing. Interestingly, for us, this bunny trail of how high to hunt is not as far off of this sanctuary topic as one might think.
I'm going to point out a very interesting deviation on sanctuaries here, with us being deer managers who really buy into the sanctuary concept, we do something that might be considered very sacrilegious by many, while some others are doing exactly what we are doing, we actually hunt inside the boundaries of our sanctuaries (although never in the center of the sanctuary, usually we are just hunting a shooting plot close to the boundary of the sanctuary) which makes hunting concealment methods very important.
Back to the bunny trail of getting higher off the ground to hunt deer, elevation is the number one best scent control method, and it also helps a lot with sound and movement detection. A few tradeoffs are accuracy and safety, however, both of these can be negated to some degree.
In my 20's and 30's, being a barnbuilder by trade, I used to actually enjoy heights, but as I get older I'm not climbing trees with a climber as much anymore, and when I do I'll find the military crest of a ridge to do it on which makes height less important.
So these days my number one hunting choice is to hunt out of a 360 Hunting Blind over one of our dozen or so planted 1/2 acre fall shooting plots, most of these being what we consider being inside the edge of a designated sanctuary. (By the nature of the realestate none of our larger destination fields are inside a sanctuary)
Here's the argument that could be made; Well, if you are hunting inside your sanctuary boundaries, it's technically not a sanctuary, or at least that part with the plot is not a part of the sanctuary? Because a sanctuary by definition is a place that you never ever enter except to work in off season.
I'm ok with saying the plot is not a part of the sanctuary, but for our management purposes we treat it exactly like the rest sanctuary, except for hunting out of an enclosed blind two to four days a year. Otherwise we don't go in there except to mow and plant the plot with a tractor, a tractor being the one piece of equipment that generally doesn't drive deer out or their habitat. When we do go in to hunt, stealth and timing are key, we watch for a cold front with the correct wind, drop off and pick up the hunter up after dark with a golf cart so as not to spread scent and spook deer with a person walking through the sanctuary.
So, are we habitual deer management offenders that are handling our deer sanctuaries a deviate and delinquent way? Or are we just defining our sanctuary boundaries differently than some?
George
Well-Known Member
Perhaps you could not be a delinquent and just call the hunted sanctuary edges, huntable transition zones.
G
Whild_Bill
New Member
Well we take it to the extreme no doubt its kind of fun with the approach we take, hunting right in the Sanctuary but we are obsessed on how we interact withthe sanctuary, one example is we always coat our boots in Ever Calm, all the steps going up to our hang on sets are lined with cut noodle's (the swimming floats) and coated in Ever Calm. If you take extreme precautions you can interact within and even hunt inside the sanctuary
