Sanctuaries

[Stanley]

I agree, these guys hunt mobile.....
They may go in after them but they have lotsa differant spots developed by years of looking.

I only have a few.....

So I better make em count.

True that.

[dan]

I don't think my style of hunting fits every one... Outfitters could not possibly hunt there propertys with the numbers of clients they put thru by invading staging... I did it guiding, but it was one on one.
Also when there are to many people hunting a property sometimes its better to have areas where everyone needs to stay out during the season.
But, for me, I need to reach for the brass ring... Every buck is different. They each have different personalitys, they each have different levels of experiance with hunters. And I believe on private managed land stupid deer that would die on public or pressred survive to be old stupid bucks. They may even breed and pass stupid on... However, every where the whitetail lives there are some mature bucks that survive by playing it safe... Thats how some make it to maturity.
Growing bucks works... Hunting will get better haveing a sanctuary in a lot of cases, because most people are really happy taking 3 y/o deer and the occasional mature buck... Do sanctuarys work consistantly? No.
Most people rely on that short little window of the rut... The majority of my mature bucks were actually taken early season.... I live for more than a 2 week season.
The only method I know of that will work anywhere, public or private, to "consistantly" kill mature bucks 5 years old or older, is to hunt them where they stage on the edge of there bedding....

[Sam Ubl]

I appreciate Dan's beastly approach to laying down the bucks, it's ninja-like and I can dig it. I think it has a lot to do with patience, spending 2 days scouting for every day hunting that is, but it's a proven tactic that demands time for one, but PATIENCE for two. I used to think, how can a guy maintain a healthy family life at home, keep the honey-do list at a minimum, keep a steady job AND put the time in that is demanded for hunting Beast style... My thoughts have since changed. I now understand and am more open to the concept of considering a scouting mission or two per day in the stand an actual day of hunting, because in essence, that IS what you are doing. So a guy like me scouts hard in the off season, but my scouting during the season is from my tree stand as I observe. I have multiple stand sites and I'll sit them with consideration to my approach, how often I'm there, scent, etc; I hunt smart and I shoot deer and get many chances, but I struggle with leaving the bow at home to sit the woods during open season for the sole purpose of a dedicated scout mission. So thumbs up to the Beastly approach that Dan and the rest of you Beasts out there, I think it's awesome. I learned early on when helping kick discussions off on this website last year that the followers of the Beast mentality prefers discussions of hunting methods be based off of the Beast approach solely, but that method doesn't work for everyone and other methods do work.. So it's not what method is the best, it's what method works best for the individual. Lots of good points, that's why I brought this topic back to life.

[Stanley]

Some food for thought. In Iowa during the gun season party hunting is allowed. This means that for two straight weeks almost every buck is bumped or pushed during the deer drives. I mean almost every inch of timber and cover is raked through literally. 75 % of the buck population is killed off. Doesn't mater if a buck is smart or stupid young or old he is going to have to run for his life. The lucky bucks survive not because they are smarter but because the are shot at and missed. Now during this orange army assault guess where the deer are safe? They are safe in my sanctuary. I don't gun hunt and don't allow any gun hunting at all. Now what if all the neighbors had sanctuaries like I do? I believe sanctuaries work all the time but not necessarily like some thought. If you have a sanctuary it will benefit the buck population and this is where tomorrows bucks come from. The very bucks that will be in those beds 3,4,5 years from now. So really anyone that says sanctuary's don't work have really not thought about the big picture.

[Zap]

That sucks......




And its a good point, but how much would it hurt the safe area to hunt it one time a season?

[dan]

I learned early on when helping kick discussions off on this website last year that the followers of the Beast mentality prefers discussions of hunting methods be based off of the Beast approach solely,

Not true... We are always open for debating new ideas, or different ways of thinking. Its thru these sessions that we all learn a thing or two...

[dan]

Some food for thought. In Iowa during the gun season party hunting is allowed. This means that for two straight weeks almost every buck is bumped or pushed during the deer drives. I mean almost every inch of timber and cover is raked through literally. 75 % of the buck population is killed off. Doesn't mater if a buck is smart or stupid young or old he is going to have to run for his life. The lucky bucks survive not because they are smarter but because the are shot at and missed. Now during this orange army assault guess where the deer are safe? They are safe in my sanctuary. I don't gun hunt and don't allow any gun hunting at all. Now what if all the neighbors had sanctuaries like I do? I believe sanctuaries work all the time but not necessarily like some thought. If you have a sanctuary it will benefit the buck population and this is where tomorrows bucks come from. The very bucks that will be in those beds 3,4,5 years from now. So really anyone that says sanctuary's don't work have really not thought about the big picture.

I agree that its a good idea to have an area that you rarley go in during hunting season...
My bedding areas are treated more like a sanctuary than most peoples actual sanctuarys...
Areas like yours in Iowa, If I was hunting there a lot of my gun season would be spent patrioling the border, its a great idea to give deer a safe place on your property... Just for me, a few times a year I would be slipping in with my bow when the conditions are perfect...
On Andraes Iowa property the neighbors surround the borders waiting for a nice buck to come out. I will often go down there and he ain't hunting, he is working on the house or yard... I will say something like, your not hunting today? His response is usually "Patience Dan" hE WILL SIT BACK AND GLASS, check his trail cameras and wait... The deer are virtually un hunted, until the right buck shows up on the right pattern and then he slips in and kills it... Usually right in its bedding area. Most guys think cause of the number of record bucks he has that he hunts all the time, but really he scouts from a safe distance "all the time" but only moves in for the kill when everything is right. He likes to say "Hunt smart, not hard"
I am pretty sure he hunts less than most the guys on this site.. But his effectivness of precision strikes at the right time is what makes him successfull... His land is hunted way less than anything around for many miles. There is not much differance between a sanctuary and an area that gets hunted only a few times a year.

[BackWoodsHunter]

I learned early on when helping kick discussions off on this website last year that the followers of the Beast mentality prefers discussions of hunting methods be based off of the Beast approach solely

Let it go dude

There's constant conversation of all sorts of different approaches and tactics here...most of them happen to be more aggressive than sitting the edge of a sanctuary or a rut funnel or something of that nature. Topics like this one give the forum character because so many people have different views and its a healthy environment to discuss them. I think this is a great thread for discussion and learning...

[Stanley]

I learned early on when helping kick discussions off on this website last year that the followers of the Beast mentality prefers discussions of hunting methods be based off of the Beast approach solely

Let it go dude

There's constant conversation of all sorts of different approaches and tactics here...most of them happen to be more aggressive than sitting the edge of a sanctuary or a rut funnel or something of that nature. Topics like this one give the forum character because so many people have different views and its a healthy environment to discuss them. I think this is a great thread for discussion and learning...

Great point.
When I started whitetail hunting in the 60s there were no books, videos, forums, and only a few articles on deer hunting in Field and Stream every year. Most importantly there were hardly any deer. Bow season ran for about 5 weeks and gun season was 2 days starting at 8 AM and ending at 4 PM. When someone got a deer any deer it was a big deal, made the paper in fact. Now days we have the tools to learn and learn quickly. We also have deer numbers off the charts. I have learned through the years even if you don't agree with someones tactics you can still learn from them. Forums like this can be a wealth of knowledge you just have to absorb the useful and sift the not so useful.

[RaisedByWolves]

Sanctuaries no doubt have their place for regular hunters and Beast style hunters, lets just be sure we are all defining which sactuaries we are speaking of...private properties chosen to be unhunted, public acres that see such few traffic they might as well be "sanctuaries", or perhaps large patches of brush that are unpenetrable?? These can all be treated differently...some physically huntable within, some not.

[Brandon]

I learned early on when helping kick discussions off on this website last year that the followers of the Beast mentality prefers discussions of hunting methods be based off of the Beast approach solely,

No I think its the other way around....

[Stanley]

Stanley if that works for you and you are happy hunting that way I think we all say great. However sometimes different tactics are needed to kill mature bucks in different areas of the country or even in areas just a few miles down the road. I tried the "traditional" way of bowhunt for many years, setup sanctuaries and kept the "wind in my face" type stuff and all it got me was a whole lot of nothing outside the rut.

Only when I started to push the limits and the wind and go into the bedding areas or sanctuaries did I start to see and shoot mature bucks. You might think we are crazy for contaminating such an area but when you have 20-30 of these kind of places scouted out and you can hunt a new one every day you start to see there is a method to the madness. I let the other hunters sit back and wait for the buck, I want to go in after him and get him.

You are very fortunate to have 20-30 place like this to hunt. Unfortunately, most hunters don't have access to this amount of ground. I guarantee you couldn't afford to have 20 -30 parcels in Iowa. The days of free hunting are over. In Iowa if you can find 150 acres it will lease for $2000-$3000 or more take that times your 20-30 parcels do you see what I mean? I love to dream big bucks but reality must take precedence.

[BackWoodsHunter]

Stanley if that works for you and you are happy hunting that way I think we all say great. However sometimes different tactics are needed to kill mature bucks in different areas of the country or even in areas just a few miles down the road. I tried the "traditional" way of bowhunt for many years, setup sanctuaries and kept the "wind in my face" type stuff and all it got me was a whole lot of nothing outside the rut.

Only when I started to push the limits and the wind and go into the bedding areas or sanctuaries did I start to see and shoot mature bucks. You might think we are crazy for contaminating such an area but when you have 20-30 of these kind of places scouted out and you can hunt a new one every day you start to see there is a method to the madness. I let the other hunters sit back and wait for the buck, I want to go in after him and get him.

You are very fortunate to have 20-30 place like this to hunt. Unfortunately, most hunters don't have access to this amount of ground. I guarantee you couldn't afford to have 20 -30 parcels in Iowa. The days of free hunting are over. In Iowa if you can find 150 acres it will lease for $2000-$3000 or more take that times your 20-30 parcels do you see what I mean? I love to dream big bucks but reality must take precedence.

He's talking public land...not much of that in Iowa? Up here we have county land, state land, DNR owned and managed properties, I believe some federal lands are open to hunting, state parks, and forest crop land available to hunt. It takes hard work to find the deer and where they bed on these places...its unlikely a guy would aquire 20-30 spots in one season but you find a few that produce or at least have signs of decent deer each year and add them to the . I am a little newer to this but I probably have 10-12 areas I know of where bucks are hanging out. Most are too thick to shine and I don't want to ruin them with trail cams so I'll just wait til season to see whats in there.

[BackWoodsHunter]

Maybe it was discussed earlier but I think it would interesting for those hunting sanctuaries to define the SIZE of their sanctuary. Obviously its going to be a case by case basis BUT I see Stanley and Sam in favor of sanctuaries as a large untouched area and I see Dan defining the way he hunts bedding areas treating them like sanctuaries. If I'm hunting a bedding area and a specific buck I would consider his bed and staging area his sanctuary. Whatever is within view of his bed in my mind is his sanctuary and I'm going to get as close to the edge of that without busting him out of there. On private or managed lands with sanctuaries I could see an area of a few acres in size in thick brush and tangles as being a sanctuary. Our northern WI property has about 5-8acres of absolutely impenetrable brush and brambles. The deer are in there but its impossible to sneak in and hunt them without kicking them onto the next property or out across the highway because of how nasty it is. That area is a "sanctuary" simply because I don't have another option...

[cornfedkiller]

Stanley if that works for you and you are happy hunting that way I think we all say great. However sometimes different tactics are needed to kill mature bucks in different areas of the country or even in areas just a few miles down the road. I tried the "traditional" way of bowhunt for many years, setup sanctuaries and kept the "wind in my face" type stuff and all it got me was a whole lot of nothing outside the rut.

Only when I started to push the limits and the wind and go into the bedding areas or sanctuaries did I start to see and shoot mature bucks. You might think we are crazy for contaminating such an area but when you have 20-30 of these kind of places scouted out and you can hunt a new one every day you start to see there is a method to the madness. I let the other hunters sit back and wait for the buck, I want to go in after him and get him.

You are very fortunate to have 20-30 place like this to hunt. Unfortunately, most hunters don't have access to this amount of ground. I guarantee you couldn't afford to have 20 -30 parcels in Iowa. The days of free hunting are over. In Iowa if you can find 150 acres it will lease for $2000-$3000 or more take that times your 20-30 parcels do you see what I mean? I love to dream big bucks but reality must take precedence.

He is talking 20-30 stand locations, not 20-30 parcels of land. A good piece of property with ample beds might have 10-15 of those locations..

And as BWH mentioned, most of these guys hunt public land..I dont know for sure, but Im pretty sure Dan doesnt own any hunting land, and he's mentioned before that he has like 50-100 stand locations that he has scouted over the years..


Investing in the DVD would answer alot of questions about how guys like Dan and Andrae hunt, and it would probably make alot more sense to you after watching it...