Editor’s Note: After interviewing thousands of trophy buck takers, one ingredient critical to consistently taking big bucks is sanctuary. If you have a deer sanctuary on your property:

* Other hunters will drive big bucks to your land.

* Bucks can grow old in a sanctuary where they can move without being seen, leave at night to feed and return to the sanctuary before daylight.

* That sanctuary can provide an opportunity to take older-age-class bucks almost every year. And, knowing the habits of a big buck can put a trophy deer right under your stand. Here’s how to do it.

Trophy buck deer are mysterious animals rarely seen and not understood by most hunters. These animals also outsmart most of the hunters who go afield. But there are outdoorsmen who study the haunts and habits of trophy deer and have moved into their secret places and successfully brought them down. Not only have these hunters solved the riddle of trophy bucks, but they also have discovered the secrets to successfully taking big bucks regularly.

A hunter must have certain skills if he is to take a deer, any deer. He must be able to locate the animal, get the animal to within the effective range of his bow or his gun and place his arrow or his bullet accurately enough to make a quick kill. To bag a trophy buck, a hunter must be able to do all this as well as outwit one of the wiliest creatures in the woods. Remember when hunting trophy deer, most of these animals have lived long enough to know their survival depends on eluding hunters. These deer will be the smartest bucks in the woods. Here’s what three men who wish to remain anonymous who consistently take trophy bucks have learned. To do so, not only must they find the elusive trophies, they must also elude the other hunters in the woods.

One of my friends has harvested enough deer that merely taking a buck isn’t the challenge it once was for him. In recent years, he’s successfully concentrated on bagging trophy bucks. Primarily hunting one piece of property, he has the advantage over many hunters of being very familiar with the land and its animal residents. Because he’s spent thousands of hours in those woods, he’s learned what causes the whitetails on his property to move, where they go, and what they do when they arrive there.

Another friend of mine is a serious student of deer behavior who devotes his weekends and vacation time to learning everything he can about the deer he hunts. A young graduate-student friend of mine who’s working on a master’s degree in forestry has a job selecting timber for a company to buy. He’s in the woods much of the time. While there, he makes mental notes of the types of places where he sees big deer. Over a period of time, certain factors associated with trophy deer hot spots have come together in his mind to form a pattern. That information has helped him develop a complete picture of what a big-deer area looks like. These three men have put the puzzle parts together. What they’ve learned will teach us where trophy deer are and how to take them.

To learn more about hunting deer, check out John E. Phillips’ book, “How to Hunt Deer Like a Pro,” available in Kindle, Print and Audible versions, at (http://amzn.to/YpoQHA).

Tomorrow: Seeing What Three Trophy Deer Hunters Have Learned