Texasimport

To each his own but not for me. . . . .[:@][:@]. To me it is like fishing by draining the lake. . . .

NEW61375

Yeah its just like that, you just walk around and pick up the deer.

Austin/WI

My father and I do one or two every year. We've both killed deer this way. I think it can be a fun way of hunting, have to be careful and make sure you know where everyone is at, but besides that I can't say anything bad about deer drives.

We normally wil have one person go up wind of a bedding area and just do a very slow stalk through it to slowly push deer out. The deer that I have gotten on deer drives were all just at a slow trot or stopped. If you do it right, there is no reason you should have to shoot at a deer goin full tilt 100 yds away across the field. And as far as skill goes with this type of hunting, it involves just as much skill doing it the aforementioned method as does hunting from a stand does. They may be different kinds of skills, but that applies to all different methods of hunting. If I were to compare my skills to that of someone who hunts out west, it wouldn't be fair for either of us. Two totally different terrains and styles of hunting. The same goes for deer drives, stalking, stand hunting, ground blinds, etc. etc. etc.

AJ52

There is a time and place for Drives IMO.Been over 20 yrs but I've been on many well organized drives with experianced hunters.We would go from Farm to Farm and thin out the herd.Drivers in woods used 00-000 buck and standers only used slugs.Farmers were happy and we got our deer.

What's sad to see here is the "Slob Attitude" for anybody that Drives Deer.

MinnFinn

I personally don't like the idea of "driving" deer towards someone to have them hopefully wait until the deer pass them before shooting. Otherwise, you're talking about a potentially dangerous situation.
My brother and my hunting buddy used to do this with guys through cornfields no less. Both at different times had members of their party wounded in one of the drives. I'd never drive them through corn with people posted at the end who'd possibly shoot into or down corn rows. That's crazy.
Also, deer on the run aren't the ideal shot to take. Higher chance of gut shot or quartering toward, whichhave a low probability of finding.

I guess if you know and trust the people who you're hunting with and have strick rules of who will be shooters and at when they can and cannot shoot, it's okay. I'd rather stand on the ground and/or slow walk/stop/look listen/stalk personally.

uncle matt

Your brother and your hunting buddy are doing these drives where people got "wounded" (I assume shot) with idiots.

But your post starts out not making sense. If a deer is driven towards you, then passes you and then you shoot, then the driver(s) would be behind you.

You never shoot in the direction someone may be (down or into the rows). Push the deer out of the corn and set up to shoot across the ends of the rows, not "down or into" the rows.

Wellyou said they were only wounded - fortunately no was killed.

peakrut

concur

LebeauHunter

Although I don't agree with the lazy/slob hunter characterization, and have enjoyed drives (especially when younger),
they do increase the risk of getting shot, even with experienced, relatively safe hunters. On one particular drive at my
camp (I wasn't there), they had it set up well, but one of the deer was wounded and got between drivers and the guy
was trying to finish it off and a buckshot pellet got another guy about a 100 yards away (he didn't see) in the lung
(same thing can happen with big party tracking wounded deer of course). It didn't kill him, but it was bad.

Drives can be good management tools (keeping does in check) and a lot of fun if done right, but you should be careful
not to just rush into a drive with a half@#$ plan or participate in one with people you don't trust.

MinnFinn

I'm wondering how many shots at deer during drives are really good broadside or slight quartering away at the least standing shots that give you the best chance of a solid hit a quick kill?

I was hunting on private land a number years back standing on the ground in a river valley about 300 yards across. I could hear a lot of activity and then shooting up the river a ways and within3-5 min. a nice doe came on the other side of the river out of range of shotgun/slugs (that's the only firearm allowed that time of the season in southern MN deer season).Icould hear the slugs whistling through the trees above, so I got down low and behind trees.

The doe was limping along following the river valley toward a state park, which is the end of the legal land there.

About 5 min. later the bunch of shooters came along 75 yards behind me at the top of the river valley. They didn't see me at first. Then one did and asked if I saw a doe and told them I did. He was p...ed off I didn't take shots 200 yards across the river at "their" wounded hobbling doe. I had no clue who had shot the deer and didn't have a doe permit anyway.
When I shot at an animal, it better be a better shot than that and not expect someone else to cleanup a mess (wounded deer) afterward, just because they didn't take an ethical shot at it.

They had no clue who was in the area anddon't know they enven hadpermission. Apparently, they were shooting farther all the way across the rivervalley with shotgun/slugs. Pretty poor example to follow.

I never had the appetite for deer drives after that.

findinbone

I enjoy participating in deer drives but only safe ones.With some of the experiences that a few of you have had its no wonder why you dont care for drives and I dont blame you.The drives that I have been apart of have one person in charge usually the person with the best knowledge of the area we are hunting.He places people in certain spots tells them where the deer most likely will come from.Not all deer run panicked infront of the drivers.Some of them have survived previous drives and know how to circle back around behing the drivers.But as always all it takes is one person to mess it up for the masses.