Most hunters think a lot of land is needed to create a place for deer to hide and feel secure in. This is not true. The fact is, only a small tract of good cover is required to create a sanctuary that deer and other wildlife will use. The key is to plan these types of areas wisely in order for them to be useful to deer. In order to attract and hold deer on small tracts of land that are 150 acres or less, you must create habitat that deer will want to both feed and bed in and, most important, won't have to leave often.

On our farm, anyone who hunts the farm can only kill bucks with 8 points or more and that are 3.5 years old or older. We also require that a mature doe that is at least 2.5 years old or older is taken. Our complete quality management program (including food plots, creating watering holes, buck and doe bedding areas, and good doe management) has helped us to increase the antler size of our bucks considerably. It has also helped to provide a healthier deer herd. However, the most important practice to help keep deer on the 192 acres has been establishing a sanctuary.

The key to creating these non-hunting zones goes beyond just not hunting them. A true sanctuary has to be just that a totally safe haven for deer. That means that this designated non-hunting area cannot be entered into for any reason whatsoever.

You should not go there to look for sheds, rubs and scrapes, tracks or any other reason period. Only by strictly observing these rules can your safe-haven for deer really be effective. If you enter it for any other reason, deer will not use it as a safe place to escape hunting pressure.

Right after we bought our farm, my wife Kate, our son Cody, and I walked the land several times. We then marked off a 26-acre parcel of land in the middle of the property as a secure sanctuary. (It is important to note that a refuge can be as small as five acres.)

After we marked off the boundaries of the sanctuary, we didn't allowed anyone to enter the sanctuary even if they wanted to recover a dead or wounded deer during daylight hours. Instead, a wounded or dead deer that enters our refuge can only be looked for or recovered at night when the other deer have left the area to feed.

Over time, our safe-haven has developed into a high-traffic area, especially during the deer season. There are countless deer trails leading in and out of the 26 acres. We see deer bedding or standing in these areas during the summer as we plant the fields. It only took a year for them to learn it was a safe area in which to bed. During the second year, deer from the neighboring farms figured out where to run when the pressure started.

By keeping to our "no-entry for any reason policy" for the last nine years, the deer have now totally realized that no matter what is happening outside their protected area, there is no human pressure inside the sanctuary (fortunately, we have never had to recover or look for a deer in the sanctuary). This has enabled us to see and take more mature bucks. More interestingly, it has increased our overall deer numbers during the season. Our sightings of bucks and does have gone up as the season progresses instead of going down. As a bonus, in addition to deer using the area for safety, so do turkey and waterfowl in a small pond located there.

Small refuges will attract and hold deer as long as they are totally free of human pressure. During the spring and summer, we try to maintain a low profile on the land by not hiking close to the sanctuary. When it comes to deer and human pressure, out-of-sight equates to out-of-mind. This encourages does and young bucks to remain on our property year-round.

Heavy impenetrable cover is always better when it comes to creating a sanctuary on your land. By creating an area that is totally free of human intrusion during the rut, the additional does attract transient bucks. We now own 310 acres (between my cousin and me) and have 35 acres (two sanctuaries) which is about 10 percent of the land dedicated to refuges. Even on small properties of 100 acres or less, dedicating 10 percent of the land to a safe-haven will pay off in big hunting dividends.

The key for our refuge program is that we totally enforce the rules of our off-limits policy not only among ourselves but equally important to all our guests. If any guest is foolish enough to break the rule and is caught, he or she is asked to leave the farm immediately and is never invited back. Over the nine years we have had the farm, this has only happened once.

This tactic will work anywhere you have a situation where you want to attract and hold deer on your land. It will fool the deer every time as long as it is not hunted hard or over pressured. I promise you can take everything I mentioned in this article to the "deer hunting bank" for immediate success. Create refuges on your land, and you will see the difference in the numbers of deer using your land in just one season.

The trick is to stick strictly to the rules of the sanctuary you create. Don't give in to the pressure of your hunting companions to hunt the area when the deer seek cover in the refuge. When this happens, deer sightings drop in the hunted area of your land, and everyone gets "antsy" to hunt the sanctuary.

Remind them that when deer sightings drop as the pressure of hunting season grows it means your refuge is doing its job! The excitement is that you may be in the right place and the right time one morning or evening when a hot doe forces a buck to leave your safe haven and walks past your stand. Then you will realize the importance and practicality of creating a place of safety for deer on your land.

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