mrfishy34

we do deer drives. but i am going to try stand. but i still like the drives. and yes they do get you alot of exercise.

TJF

I am just north of mrfishy34 and drives is the main style of hunting for my area. Road hunting is the second most used method if you can call that hunting which doesn' t quite cut in my book by a long ways. We have very few trees here so stand hunting is not much of an option. I just can' t quite force myself to build a shooter shack out in the middle of nowwhere here and sit 2.5 weeks in a small cramped shack as that is not for me as I like walking. Shacks are for ice fishing here. I am not much of a fan for drives of more then 5 people just for saftey reasons. I will walk for a group of friends on their drives, but I generally like hunting solo by stalking, tracking or just wandering using the method needed at the time. I do like 2 man drives where one guys pushes the cattail sloughs and the other guy stays up high and slightly foward off to the side but is also moving with the pusher. Unlike a big drive with posters on the end and the wind needs to be in their favor, a 2 man push allows you to hunt in the wind with the pusher moving slowly, silently, zig-zagging, backtracking and stopping a lot. The deer get up close and both may have a shot. You will have running shots no doubt but standing/trotting shots are also possible. Terrain and how the deer use it dictates how you hunt. What works in one area might not work in another and drives are hunting. Some might disagree with that but then as hard as it may be to believe, some people actually like chevys. [X(]

Tim

Allen Denton

Here in Virginia we are aloud to use dogs, and we do. But on days that the club is not hunting and if I can get a few people together we have small drive hunts and they have proven to be very worth wild. Just like someone said earlier the fellowship is half the fun. Good luck.e

benhuntin

If you have a gun and are looking for a deer, you are hunting. I prefer to use 2 -5
people at the most. After the rut when the bucks hole up in inpenetrable cover, My friends and I leave our stands around mid morining and start pushing the thick stuff. We have taken alot of very nice bucks this way and most of the deer arnt
running wide open but are easing along and picking their way. Some people use alot more hunters but I just prefer to use as few as possible.
This is better than sitting around camp waiting for an evening hunt.[:-]

Wickman (Buckmaster)

I mostly stand hunt, but once and awhile we do some drives!

silentassassin

So is cutting wood but that don' t make it hunting. I am certainly not going to criticize the way anyone hunts. I am just pointing out that you might want to refine your argument if you plan on swaying the undecideds. Do I think it requires as much skill as reading sign and setting up a stand that puts you within archery range? NO! Is it still hunting. YES!

Deleted User

[Deleted by Admins]

jerseyhunter

I Hunt solely by myself, usually in a stand and have gotten a deer these past four years from a group that drives in the area I hunt. So I must admit I don' t mind people who Drive deer, especially if it is a well planned one. Not just a bunch of guys roaming around hoping to get lucky. The drivers and myself stay in contact with radios. Also when hunting is slow it helps pass the time away listening to the drives. Sometimes I can hear the shots on the radio before I can hear them in the distance.

TJF

silentassassin

Drives are a lot of work. Instead of letting the deer bring the hunt to you, you take it to them. Stalking, stillhunting and tracking also takes that approach. Just like stand hunting any idiot can use any method and have a chance to kill a deer. I think they call that luck. To be successful (not luck, although a tiny bit is always apperciated) takes a bit of brain work for any method. Drives are no different. Bring familar with the area helps, knowing the escape routes or where they will head to hole up, placing posters to capitalize on either, reading sign to figure out what needs to be thoughly walked/back tracked, kicking up does during rut means a buck is close by and more then likely crawling away so you start circling, kicking up a fawn or doe and watch where she looks if she stops to look back when she is not looking at you ( Hint.... there is a reason she looks back to a certain area and a smart hunter would know why ), and many more but no point boring you with details as only tree standers are smart enough to read sign and know the ways of deer. Hunting is what you put into it. Implying stand hunters are smarter shows us how much you know of the other methods and doesn' t give us much a challenge for arguements sake. Safe to say I could put a deer well within archery range for you. Course I don' t recommend using a bow for drives as you would only have the hoof print on your forehead to show for it when the deer ran you over.

Tim

Nomercy

I kind of agree with rack buck, taking shots at dead sprinting game isn' t ethical, no matter how you cut it. I drive hunt, but in a manner that will spook deer up into a bottle neck where someone else is positioned, or into an open area where we can flush them out to to get good, open shots. BUT, it' s done in a manner that keeps them trotting and looking back over their shoulder, not sprinting. Do that too often and you' ll push all of your deer away for good!! I agree it takes a lot of skill to place a bullet properly on a moving target, but it takes no skill at all to loose a bullet at a sprinting deer and call it skill when you accidentally clip it somewhere that drops it within a quarter mile. Knocking them in the dirt at a run is a skill, knowing that you can do so nearly everytime at any given distance is a skill, loosing rounds because you see fur doesn' t count.

I occasionally " drive" deer (snapping twigs, and dragging my feet) to drive them to cross an open area into the range of a partner, i.e. when one draw dies off, and the nearest creek (running parallel to the draw) isn' t the one I want them to go to, but the one that starts up a eigth mile north of the end of the draw, push them hard and fast for a little bit in the draw, and they' ll run north to the next creek/draw/woods, and pass on simply side stepping me to the parallel creek, claimed many a deer doing this in years past. BUT, that' s only one man, with no screaming, and only snapping twigs and scuffling feet, not banging branches and whatnot carrying on, just keep them moving fast, a dead sprint doesn' t do any good, because they won' t stop, while a deer at a good clip will usually stop and perk to a sharp whistle or a blunt " hey" .