Deer Drives

I've taken part in many deer drives in my time. It works. Sometimes.

The deer will most definitely move if pushed, it's a matter of knowing and being where they'll move to. Some of my most successful hunts have been the result of hunting pressure.

If left to their own devices many deer will just bed down in the thick stuff all day long. Having some pressure (intentional or not) helps keep them moving which helps get them dead.

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Drives for muleys do work in the right situation. The best I've seen it work is with a buck bedded in the timber of a tight draw below a saddle. One hunter got down below him where his scent would drift up, and the shooter positioned himself atop the saddle. In this case, there was almost no doubting where the buck would come out, and that's what happened. A couple things about this setup: don't push the buck as in a classic whitetail drive; a lot of times the scent alone will get the buck moving. If its done subtly enough, the buck won't be hauling the mail when the shooter gets an opportunity. Also, the lay of the land here was perfect. Rarely does a buck have so few escapes. In my experience, unless you are really pressed for time, it almost always better to wait a buck out unless the location of the buck is pinpointed and the lay if the land is perfect.
 
We used to do deer drives in PA. It works. There is no doubt about it. The thing that always bothered me the most was people who couldn't hit what they were shooting at and most of the time it was all for nothing.

One thing I do know for certain is that the majority of the deer and bears we killed were killed by the drivers, not the standers. So dont get bummed out about walking and not standing....for the record, I never was a stander. Ever.
 
I've tried to drive mule deer more than a few times, but there are a lot of variables. I think many big bucks on public land have learned to stay put in thick stuff during western rifle seasons, especially when they feel surrounded. This makes it so you practically have to kick them up like a pheasant to get them moving.

We've had better opportunities with less people if you analyze escape routes and then do a passive push, using one person getting upwind of where you think the deer are and then still hunting towards them, the other people cutting off escape routes. This seems to get better shots and is easier to do with just a few guys. Big bucks make it hard to shoot with all that adrenaline going. A big buck running like a bat out of hell makes it REALLY hard to shoot.
 
Customweld said:
Driving works. Just a heads up though. If you are in Idaho, and you are tagged out,best not get caught helping in a drive.
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I just leave my rifle at the truck. My uncle was so pissed one time when he found out we were pushing trees without my gun (I’d already tagged out). But I like my hunting license.


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robby denning said:
I just leave my rifle at the truck. My uncle was so pissed one time when he found out we were pushing trees without my gun (I’d already tagged out). But I like my hunting license.


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That’s the best thing to do. My FIL got a nice ticket a few years ago, cow hunting with his wife.
 
robby denning said:
Because he was packing a gun with no hunting License or worse?

Just curious


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He sat his wife down on a stump about 200 yards above a road and drove up to the top of the draw to work it down to her. In the meantime a CO drove past my MIL and asked her if she had shot recently and she replied she hadn’t. Any way he claimed he heard a shot and wanted to know where her man was because women her age don’t hunt alone. She told him the truth, that he was working the draw down to her. My FIL gets down to them eventually and got a ticket for hunting without an elk tag. He had a wolf tag in possession and was packing a rifle ( no shots were fired by him).
 
I’ve shot one of Whitetail on a drive, though it was in mule deer country. Ironically it had a mule deer rack with split g2s (this area is a mix of whitetail and mule deer). Anyway I posted up on the backside of a point watching the draw down the other side. My uncle and cousin looped around the other side of the point and started to still hunt down the draw. Only running shot I’ve ever made. From what I’ve read it’s smart to have someone watching the back door, especially mature whitetail seem to hunker down until the drivers are past, then slip out the way the hunters came from. I know dan Infalt at the h in big beast has highlighted this a few times on their whitetail drives. I’m sure mature bucks do this also.
 
Customweld said:
He sat his wife down on a stump about 200 yards above a road and drove up to the top of the draw to work it down to her. In the meantime a CO drove past my MIL and asked her if she had shot recently and she replied she hadn’t. Any way he claimed he heard a shot and wanted to know where her man was because women her age don’t hunt alone. She told him the truth, that he was working the draw down to her. My FIL gets down to them eventually and got a ticket for hunting without an elk tag. He had a wolf tag in possession and was packing a rifle ( no shots were fired by him).
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Without the admission probably would have been difficult to prosecute if it went to trial.

I can see where the CO might be going with it as Idaho defines hunting quite broadly to include essentially chase of any kind.
 
idahohikker said:
Without the admission probably would have been difficult to prosecute if it went to trial.

I can see where the CO might be going with it as Idaho defines hunting quite broadly to include essentially chase of any kind.
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If you read the definition in the regs, it definitely does. My FIL didn’t try to fight it, just paid his fine and learned a lesson.
 
Customweld said:
He sat his wife down on a stump about 200 yards above a road and drove up to the top of the draw to work it down to her. In the meantime a CO drove past my MIL and asked her if she had shot recently and she replied she hadn’t. Any way he claimed he heard a shot and wanted to know where her man was because women her age don’t hunt alone. She told him the truth, that he was working the draw down to her. My FIL gets down to them eventually and got a ticket for hunting without an elk tag. He had a wolf tag in possession and was packing a rifle ( no shots were fired by him).
Click to expand...

So he got jacked by a CO.

Grrrrrr


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eLightfoot said:
Groups ranging from 8-25 guys, carrying anything from open sight bolt actions to full on ARs and SKS’s. They make noise and shoot regularly to jump the smart black tail bucks that hold tight in the thick brush.
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The drives we did as a family were not a riot! We still hunted through the brush, each man/woman in sight of the next. We didn't shoot off rounds to make noise, we just worked through the heavy brush. Theres a difference between people who know how to make a drive and those who don't. This quoted statement sounds like a bunch of drunks out scourging the woods! That IS NOT how proper drives are done!
 
I think a lot of the negativity towards deer drives are because of the impact they have on other hunters (on public land). Hunting private property (or public land with very little pressure), i'm sure nobody cares. If you can use corn for deer, I doubt doing a deer drive is any less sportsman like.

However, if you have crowded public land, it's probably not appropriate to do deer drives as it will have a dramatic affect on every other hunter in the immediate area. Same reason why hunters get upset at hikers/campers who walk through prime deer basins during the season (although I believe they have a right to the woods just the same as hunters do).
 
Most of the drives I have done have been just me and a good buddy that I hunt with very well. It usually is more of a still hunt through cover with the other guy sitting on potential escape routes.
 
In Iowa that’s about how 50% of hunters hunt during shotgun season. I think it works well with an organized/responsible group but seems like most are shooting at the first thing that moves and gets pretty hairy quick. I don’t participate in the drives anymore as I don’t enjoy them personally. Not really sure how it’d work out west with Mule deer in big open country, would take a bunch of people in some of those areas I’d think.
 
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