Deer drives--- Good, or bad?

[oldrank]

I have done a few large deer drives with 10 or 15 guys and some small 2 guy planned out pushes. We were successful in both styles. I did however not really enjoy the large push it seemed very dangerous and chaotic at times. The small 2 man pushes were a lot more my style n seemed like pretty a pretty good tool to have in the bag for harvesting whitetails.

[vanceg]

The best part of deer drives is the social aspect of them. When someone shoots a nice deer on a drive that you were involved in, it's almost like everyone involved had a part in killing that buck which leads to great memories and stories for many years to come. Without the stories and the camaraderie what's the point?

[SneakyHunter]

I'm not a fan. I know its legal and people can hunt however they want but i wish it was only legal on private. I deal with a local group that consist of anywhere from 5-20 guys on a given day. From the first day of archery season they start doing drives, they don't care who else is already hunting there. They'll walk right by you in stand and push off the bedding area you're watching. Sadly there is a definite lack of respect for other hunters with most of the local groups. They're never the first ones hunting an area, they wait til it breaks daylight then push everything off.

[Milk Weed Seed]

Good article. I'm not a big supporter of drives, seen to many button bucks and shed bucks shot this way. A lot of the guys seem unsafe IMO. Plus I like to hunt the late bow season and I think it really adds way to much pressure to them. Late bow hunting areas with drive activity have not been good for me. Call me greedy...

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[SamPotter]

I have participated in drives but it's been a few years since the last time I did. The past few years I've really come to loathe them. Sure, they are legal but they aren't really hunting. More like busting rabbits from the brush using a football playbook. Lots of action for sure but too many questionable and dangerous shots. Most of the shooting accidents in NY happen during drives.

I remember reading a cover story in North American Whitetail a couple of years ago. A woman shot a 200+ typical in Iowa during a true OK Corral gunslinger drive in Iowa. If I remember correctly she shot at the buck multiple times and finally hit him in the back leg. It took several more shots from different shooters to put him down for good. I couldn't believe that story even got published in a magazine??!! That deer deserved better.

[OH nontypical]

Been involved in many small drives (less than 10 people) when friends and I use to gun hunt more. We now don't gun hunt much so rarely happens anymore. I think they are ok for private but do agree with what some have said about organized large drives being dangerous on public. I always wanted to do the pushing because I used it as scouting and ended up seeing allot of deer first. I do think guys take too many crap shots at running deer when driving.....just my 2 cents.

[kenn1320]

I grew up in a family that did deer drives. I shot my first deer with a gun on a deer drive. I started avoiding deer drives since it's not really my style. I may very well have shot deer bumped by others when they get up and move around. I also got a bad taste for them when the local dairy farmer would gather all his relatives and workers and have 30 man drives orchestrated with radios/cb's and trucks. You would see groups of 20-50 does herded up in an open field with their tongues hanging out, waiting for the trucks to make the next move. These guys started driving opening morning at daylight and hunted wherever they wanted.
As for the article Dan, I kinda agree with some of the guys on here that are not in favor of drives on public land. While you likely had no bad intentions with your comments, I read it as screw the sap who has no choice but to hunt public and go have fun driving deer at his/her expense. I read on a local Michigan site that a group drove some public at daylight on opening day. The thread was started by hunters who were not involved with the drive and left there speachless as these guys pushed the area. I wouldn't mind seeing drives only legal on private, or at least not allowed on public till X number of days into the season. I've also heard through relatives that neighbors drive the private I have sole permission on, the night before gun opener, hoping to push deer to their side of the road.

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