it may not be too unorthodox but it works for me. one day i watched a buck get jumped by a combine and i saw the exact spot where he ran and re-bedded. i made the decision to go streight in and try to get a shot at him with my bow. the ground would chunch very loudly with each step so i tried to imitate a lost fawn with my grunter, "worried bleating"i bleated onalmost every step, i would crunch crunch crunch quickly...pause, crunch crunch, all while bleating. the buck was hard to see in the weeds, i finally almost stepped on him when he jumped. for an impossible aproachable situation it got me right up to him, being able to see him for the shot was the coin toss.

I've been trying to ambush a deer out of an old barn on the property. During the rut, thereis alwaysactivity around this barn. I passed on some dink bucks, butI will connect on a bruiser there eventually!!

Magicman - I've definitely done the "self-deer-drives" but that's only something that I break out when I'm gun hunting.My technique is always to be as subtle as possible - and gentlymove (still-hunt)through known bedding areas, and steer thedeertoward a known"sanctuary" bedding area (that I've intentionally avoided)- and leave them alone. Then, I slip into the food source that most easily accessed from that sanctuary area - and wait.

If the deer aren't too spooked - they feel safety in numbers once they arrive at their destinationand calm down pretty fast. It's not long before you have deer filtering out into the food source, or slipping back to where they came from.

Since you've been intentionally avoiding the sanctuary, it is completely devoid of human scent and the deer tend to stack up in there...

It's really a pretty dirty trick. I call it a "roundup." LOL

Like I said - that's not how I bowhunt - but if I have a gun tag left... You're definitely the only other person I've ever heard say that they do that.

I cary all my cloths and gear out to the stand in big duffle/back packs. When I get to where I am hunting. I kick all the leaves away and burry all my extra gear under a pile of leaves. Covers up the scent and I dont have big bags hanging in my tree.