We operate on the honor system with a zero tolerence policy if cought lying and another member could possible hear too, but its really not a issue because we go through extreme measures to cover our scent and not push deer, its the ONLY way we can hunt inside the sanctuaries, but again the conditions have to be perfect or we dont even think about hunting in it
What you are saying makes sense; I hear you, you don't take your hunting lightly, and you are fully aware that hunting sensitive areas is very touchy. I think that we are all kind of saying the same thing; hunting a mature trophy buck is a very careful business. And if you have hunting buddies who might not be as serious about it as your are, you might just have to threaten them so they take you seriously.
But about the scent thing, just like you can take a boy out of the Amish but you can never take the Amish out of the boy; you can lower your scent profile, but you can never eliminate your smell, deer will always know when someone has been inside their sanctuary, no matter how many pool noodles you stack up.
A human releases approximately 4,640 quintillion molecules of sweat per second on average, that's how my neighbor's tracking dogs can track a rider on a bicycle a half a day later, by the airborne scent particles that blow onto the weeds at the side of the road.
"When a person walks through a deer sanctuary, they are, for all practical purposes, destroying the sanctuary." Or, in effect, undoing what made that place a sanctuary for deer.
I mentioned earlier that we hunt inside of our sanctuaries two days per year average, but that is splitting hairs, if we draw our unmarked sanctuary lines just short of the closest shooting plot and technically make them smaller, we can honestly say that we never hunt in our sanctuaries, it's just a matter of interpretation. By either interpretation, what we are doing is still making a tradeoff, we are fully aware that we partially ruining (the edge of) our sanctuary for a oneshot chance at a trophy. I know a lot of hunters who make a last ditch effort on the last day of the season, hunting special areas that they normally have off limits.
What are some good alternative options? Not many if the shooter buck is hanging tight in the middle of the sanctuary and never comes out in daylight, even if in the middle of the rut (although we never give up hoping and hunting the rut out side the sanctuary, as the rut often brings the old guard to their feet). If you are hunting with a rifle, what
@BenAllgood said makes a lot of sense, getting up higher to see into a sanctuary without physically going there except to retrieve that buck of a lifetime. If you are archery hunting, what we are doing is probably one of the best options, drawing deer out to the edge of the sanctuary with a small food plot.