MossyOak722

I think deer drives CAN be effective. Last season my friend shot a 145 3/8 class buck off of one...and this year another buddy shot 2 does off of one...BUT I dont care to do them on my property...strictly because you are pushing deer around that might potentially never step foot back on the property.

mauser06

me and my crew only do deer drives. from the first day of rifle to the last day of flintlock. opening morning we stand hunt till lunch time. after that its all drives. we dont start every day till about 11. the "leader" is a dairy farmer and works till 10 or 11. then we drive. some of us (me) stand hunt before we drive...depends...

i started when i was 16 with them. so i got 4 seasons with them. we are decintly successful. killed a couple wallhangers that otherwise wouldnt have been killed by stand hunting. the pressure in the areas without us driving is very high..the only way to see deer IS to drive them out...

takes alot of knowledge though. we dont run with 25 guys. we run with 4-10 generally. we like to have a couple drivers and a couple shooters. (drivers still carry guns unless they are tagged out) over the 4 years i hunted with them we killed a pile of deer as a whole. i personally killed 4 does and 1 scub 6pt. passed 100s of does and bucks. sucks having to cou nt points...i know i passed 1 legal buck(buddy killed it) and probably more than that...but thats hunting

its a good time...we have fun..lots of comrodity etc...gotta watch for the A-holes though...pick your group wisely. this year i got prettty upset at my buddy...hes my best friend...3 of us were hunting. 1 driver..me and a buddy sitting. my buddy was on the next ridge 100yds away. a NICE 8pt was running RIGHT at me in flintlock season. i crack back the hammer and sneak the gun up...i was gunna wait till he was on my lap to drop him. i was sitting on the trail he was running. when hes 30yds away my buddy fires. told me he didnt think i was gunna shoot and he knew he wouldnt hit him...but had to shoot at the buck. i was jacked...hes still my best friend....i got pretty mad at that though.

also....your drivers(we call em deer dogs lol) gotta be in shape. to keep deer running the right direction you gotta keep on them. if they climb a hill guess what...you climb the hill. they run in a multiflora rose patch...you gotta get them out...

gotta know your stuff...gotta know the escape routes, where to send drivers, where to post the shooters, where the deer will be, where the deer will go, where the deer will disappear and sneak out to etc...

gotta have permission on ALOT of land. we will cover probably 4-6 properties a day...we got about 15-20 areas to hunt...some are big, some are small...alot comes from the farmer..he farms alot of land and knows alot of people..we generally dont hunt the same area day after day...we usually loose the deer to posted land etc and gotta wait for them to come back...all depends..

gotta have good shooters. nothing will ruin a day worse than a gutshot deer. that will make everyone mad. bad shots happen....but deer coming out of a drive will stop and give you a good shot. no need to waste a day chasing a wounded deer around...noone likes that.

with a good group of guys serious drives are a great way to hunt. weve done it on small wood lots clear to giant spreads of forest...smaller lots are easier...big BIG woods give the deer too many outs...

furgitter

driving deer will get meat on the ground.It will also get deer wounded,as most people dont know how to stop a deer before shooting.It also increases the chances of an accident.And its just my opinion that a buck shot on a drive is because he was too smart to kill any other way.Its kind of a slaughter to me.And somehow shooting a buck on a drive is differant than shooting a doe.Thats just me talkin though,so no offense to anyone out there.I dont have trouble stalking or standing so to each his own i guess.

TexasOaks

The reason I brought this up is I just saw a huge buck killed on Dream Season; I dont like the idea of scaring deer off my property though.

bigcountry

Yea, I have been on deer drives. Yea, they work. I find them annoying and basic slob hunting. I do not call it hunting, but driving. Hunting to me is learning deer sign, and how to read it, doing your homework, and it paying off. Hunting is sneaking in that critters home and him not knowing it. Driving is basically stranding an animal, giving him very little way out. I would love to see it banned, myself. I killed a large 8 point 10 years ago on a drive. And I was never proud of that kill.

Rebel Hog

Have never done it! I like tohunt it and out smart it on his own turf!I like to think that I am getting better at finding Tracks, Rubs, Scrapes, Bedding areas, Funnels and all the rest of the knowledge that it takes to out smart it. Hey, this is JMO!

findinbone

After the first couple days here in Pa. our group does alot of drives and we are very successful.I agree with whoever it was that said you need to be familier with the land your driving.We also do some 2 and 3 man drives with alot of success.We shoot alot of does but we also get a few decent bucks off drives.On 1 drive last season a group I know of killed 5 yotes in 1 place.The secret is dont drive to big an area cut your spots into smaller chunks and take alot of ammo.

eatsleephunt

I have been involved with numerous deer drives over many years. They were all good hunts, and most provided meat to a few lucky individuals. However, when numerous persons get together in a "party-style" hunt, inevitably someone eventually shoots something they do not have a tag for and you are involved. In spite of how you personally might feel about that, it's not a good thing for your future as a hunter.

Drives can also be pretty dangerous as afore-entioned. If you are going to drive deer set some rules:

Don't carry a weapon unless you have a tag... don't shoot a deer unless your tag will "fit" the deer in question, and finally, prepare yourself mentally for what you will do when other members of this party do not adhere to the rules.

MdDave

sometimes its a must... i dont care how sneaky u are or how good u are at "fiding deer sign" after 3 or 4 days of guns goin boom from daylight to dark deer "vanish" they know somethings up.. there on high alert they eat at night lay all day... if u wanna see deer u MUST push them...

NEW61375

You would love to see driving deer banned!! I still can't believe some of thethings I read on this site from fellow hunters. Slob hunting?? Come down here to Southeast VA and hunt some of these swamps and thick woods andsee how much deer movement you see during daylight hours after the first week or two of gunseason. For the first 6 weeks of season(archery and blackpowder) we stand hunt, then for the first couple of weeks of gun season we stand hunt, after things slow down the last few weeks of season we stand hunt in the morning and do drives during the day and then sometimes sit on a stand againjust before dark. My dad, my brother and I have been doing two or three man slow push drives for as long as I can remember, we must be no talent/skill slob hunters. "Hunting is learning deer sign, how to read it, doing your homework,"and all of those things still apply if you want to do a successful drive. Like any of that is real hard to do anyway, like killing a deer in a stand is so difficult and hard to do, yeah right. Next time you kill a deer take a look at the size of its brain, killing them is not that hard unless you make it that way or live where there are low numbers. Quotes like the one abovemay be justopinions butthey arealso direct attacks and aninsult toanyone who may be used to that style hunting or have been brought up in a region where that is a common practice. Is itimpossible to state your opinion, that you don't like driving deer, without adding that itin your mind it is slob hunting and should be banned?

The most important part of that quote is the first three words. Is it so hard to understand that justbecause you don't like it or it isn't hunting to you doesn't mean that others might consider it hunting and actually enjoy it and take offense to your above comments? Don't get me wrong you are certainly entitled to your opinion it just seems like more and more oftenon this site and others that the contents of manyopinionsconsistsof bashing other hunters more than anything else.