Suppose you have found an un-penetrable thicket or swamp that you consider a likely deer sanctuary and you have decided you want to hunt submissively. The next logical question would be where I should put my stand. A very deserving question, because if you put your stand smack dab in the middle of the buck’s sanctuary, there will be no way you can hunt submissively getting to it. Before we go any further let me emphasize the best time to scout the sanctuary is after the season is over. It may take some aggressive hunting to find the best vantage point for a stand and that is best done during the off season. Something you can do to dampen the effects of going into a sanctuary aggressively is to only go into it just before a rain is imminent. That way your scent won’t be around very long to alarm deer. Rain disperses human odor rather quickly. There is only one best vantage point in ever sanctuary and it will be located within the 50 yard wide band of vegetation that surrounds the sanctuary. Another factor guiding you to the best vantage point should not be the view of the surrounding area so much as the direction the wind will be blowing when you plan to hunt the stand. In this regard, your approach to your stand and the stand itself should never be in a position that allows your scent to blow into the sanctuary. The third thing guiding you to the best vantage point is the manner in which mature bucks travel around in their sanctuary. In open areas mature bucks tend to travel through thick veins of under story growth but in thickets and swamps, where 90% of deer sanctuaries’ are found, the reverse is true. They tend to travel in open areas. One more very helpful thing, although not absolutely necessary, is to have a barrier preventing deer that you chose not to harvest from getting down wind of you. Some barriers preventing deer from getting down wind of your stand may be a lake, creek, or an open meadow or a field. Any barrier is sufficient to do the job, if it requires the deer to leave their sanctuary and subject their hide to harm in order to get down wind of you. In review the best place for your stand, enabling you to hunt a sanctuary in a submissive manner is: On the down wind side of, and on the edge of the sanctuary that gives you a view of an open area within the sanctuary and has a down wind barrier preventing deer from getting down wind of you. When you have a stand meeting those criteria not only will you have the best stand in the sanctuary, you will most likely have the best stand in the whole woods! Now, it’s an understood fact your stand is going to be hard for you to get to. The very fact you’re hunting a sanctuary tells me that. As far as I’m concerned you have two options when it comes to accessing your stand: The aggressive approach or the submissive approach. Much of what you read tells you accessing your stand from a different approach every time is the best way to get to your stand. Think about this: If you are an aggressive hunter taking a different approach to your stand every time you go to, or come from it, you will be filling the whole woods full of alarming sign. I guess it may be possible to confuse a buck enough so that he would wonder under your stand. In every instance, during my twelve year material gathering experience, when I went meandering in different directions through the deer’s domain — I was perceived as a predator.When I confined my travels to my trail the deer were at ease. They were familiar with me being there. I was just someone going somewhere and they wouldn’t give me the time of day. As soon as I had gone down my trail they considered me gone — they knew that I wouldn’t just happen up over there somewhere — and they fell right in behind me. Submissive hunting dictates that you have a trail, a way you travel every time, leading from your camp or auto to your hunting stand. This trail should follow the same way other hunters travel until you reach a point where most hunters turn around, because they have traveled as far as they care to go or the going gets too tough. From that point and leading to your stand you must construct a trail that I refer to as my sanctuary trail. Don’t drag out the flagging tape, limb markers or florescent thumb tacks this will only serve to lead other hunters to where you plan to hunt. In short, cut the traffic down to one … you! The most crucial aspect of submissive hunting is constructing, maintaining and the use of your sanctuary trail. Remember, one of the mature buck’s definitions of a sanctuary is: A place where hunters can not approach without being detected. Make no mistake about it any way you approach a mature buck in his sanctuary you will be detected. If you make an aggressive approach he will detect you as a predator entering his domain. On the other hand if he detects you approaching in a submissive manner, on a trail he is familiar with, he will have confidence you are not going to encroach upon him. When he hears you no more — he will color you gone — you will be forgotten. I have found that if I do my job while I am on my stand of camouflaging my presence, never hunt the stand with the wrong wind direction, and use submissive hunting techniques, the so called “Stand burn out,” theory is eliminated. In the heavily hunted public land where I hunt, where most hunters are happy if they see one buck during the hunting season I have seen as many as twelve bucks in a single season. I hunt a sanctuary with two stands, one for northerly winds and one for southerly winds. My conclusion is stand burn out is a result of aggressive hunting. A few instructions on the construction of a trail are in order. Have you ever noticed how a straight line through the woods, a fence for instance,disappears as soon as you step off of it — even for one step? A straight ditch through the woods disappears, as well, but a meandering ditch will present a view of its route even when you're off its course several yards. Construct a straight as an arrow, very narrow trail. It will be perfectly visible to you, but for wandering hunters it will be next to impossible for them to discover or stay on if they do discover it. I go as far as carrying a stick with me to move small twigs and branches out of my trail. I use my stick to make me sound like I have 4 legs. It hits the ground in-between my regular steps. This adds no more than the sound of a rustling squirrel or an armadillo or another deer, not nearly as bad as the sounds of a two legged predator. Plus it helps me keep my ballance and keep my head down and my eyes on the trail. I call it my stalking stick. I hope by the time you have read this far you have had a change of attitude about deer hunting. Mature bucks going nocturnal, not a problem! Hunting pressure, not a problem! I’m in the wrong place, not a problem! Stand burn out, not a problem! In Chapter 7 I will dispel the final negative; is the rut came and gone or is it yet to come — not a problem! CHAPTER 7