Driving Bluffs??

[NorthStar]

My hunting party (wife’s side of the family) hunts the second gun season in Minnesota which is usually at the end of November. My hunting party consists of a group of guys that no nothing of Beast methods and probably would never want to know, ha! They just like the tradition of getting out there and hanging out. Having said this, they do get disappointed with the fact that they haven’t shot a single deer in the last 5 years. No joke, I am the only one out of 10 guys that has a tagged a deer each season. I also don’t stay up all night drinking and I spend most of my time in the woods instead of the bar or in bed, ha!

One thing we do have going for us is strength in numbers and a handful of young/in shape guys. My thought this year was to do more deer drives. We hunt bluff country and I was wondering if anyone has any tips for how to drive the leeward side? Do you send one guy to walk the 2/3 mark while everyone else posts up at the top of the bluff? Where do the deer tend to go when pushed on these hill sides? Uphill? Downhill? Do you drive stealthy or do you want to make noise?

My goal this year is to tag multiple deer and I am hoping you guys can help me with this! Thanks!

[NorthStar]

You know your post is controversial when.....

1. No one replies
2. Everyone Replies

haha!

[Whitetailaddict]

Never done it but i have watched clips of people doing it but never picked up any strategies. I'd assume they'll use the quickest escape route they have which i would think would be an area they have been watching our smelling. I'd hate driving steep bluffs as I'd be afraid of sliding down them and I'm not sure of the safety of since of the shots uphill I'd assume you would possibly run into

[matt1336]

Don't make noise intentionally when you drive deer. They know you're there. IMO you don't need a lot of guys to drive hills. Use the wind and intelligently set up drives to get deer on their feet and moving toward your posters. You need to look at google maps or whatever site you prefer to pin point likely bedding and escape routes. Set your drive up accordingly. Drunk, hung over, and/or unmotivated aren't who I'd choose to do deer drives with. Sorry if that sounds harsh...but that's how I feel.

[matt1336]

^^^maybe to plan a drive and tell the guys that wake up call is 0600. The guys that want to partake are the guys that you want to hunt with. The others that choose to drink would probably just complain that it's too hard and take the path of least resistance anyway= unproductive drive.

[Jeff G]

this works for us in hill country. break in down into smaller pieces. find long narrow ditches. posters go in first on one end of the ditch. setting up about 1/2 on hillside and in the bottom. use 3 people for the example. one on each hillside and one in the bottom. put them in portable stands. on the other end of ditch put the drivers. the key to this is have 2 guys on the outside. they will begin walking before the guys more toward the ditch. they are flanking the top and pushing any deer toward the bottom. if one scoots out the top side they have a shot at it. you are making a wide "V" shape when pushing towards the posters. you want the posters in stands shooting downward for safety.

we will be doing a deer drive podcast soon. we will address this during the podcast.

[JoeRE]

^^^maybe to plan a drive and tell the guys that wake up call is 0600. The guys that want to partake are the guys that you want to hunt with. The others that choose to drink would probably just complain that it's too hard and take the path of least resistance anyway= unproductive drive.

THIS!

I am serious that is definitely step one. Its one thing to surround deer and attempt to machine gun them down, another to to bump them and intentionally kill them on known escape routes with high quality shot opportunities.

I know from tons of experience with "bad" drives that drives do not work when there are multiple people giving orders, people are lazy, or don't know the land, or move too fast or move too slow, or just don't know how to work together. So weed those suckers out as a first step if you want to succeed. You are far better off with 3-4 hunters working as a team than 10 who do not....100% serious!! It is definitely a team effort with a captain who gives the orders.

Bucks (any older deer for that matter) are gonna go where they think they can escape. That is the only rule. Sometimes its uphill, sometimes down, sometimes along a ridge, sometimes I have seen them go up and down ditches to avoid being seen. Around here, where big drives are common, older deer learn to run into the wind to detect blockers. So you gotta bump them into a just off wind and that works best with only a couple guys doing it. More hunters upwind means more scent. Other places I hear they run with wind to back more often.

It takes some experience to learn how fast you can move....I go super slow when bumping bedding then I might speed up to darn near a jog getting over a ridge or across a valley where I don't expect to bump deer. I have a lot of luck coming up on deer from behind like that as part of a drive or what I prefer to call a "nudge" because I am just getting deer on their feet and letting them go where they want....and if we planned it right, another hunter has that escape route in their cross hairs with thier scent blowing just off the side of where deer will smell it.

The third challenge is quality shot opportunities. I am a lot pickier than many hunters, will almost never shoot at a running deer with a gun. But you only need a split second pause to get a decent shot if you are ready. Deer very often pause when crossing a cover transition (from timber to field or just from thick to open timber) and they also frequently pause when crossing ridges, roads, and fences. If the driver did his work the right way and just gently bumped them, you can get slam dunk shots. My two brothers and I have learned from a pile of mistakes doing this since we were kids every gun season and the last few years have had a lot more success.

[NorthStar]

this works for us in hill country. break in down into smaller pieces. find long narrow ditches. posters go in first on one end of the ditch. setting up about 1/2 on hillside and in the bottom. use 3 people for the example. one on each hillside and one in the bottom. put them in portable stands. on the other end of ditch put the drivers. the key to this is have 2 guys on the outside. they will begin walking before the guys more toward the ditch. they are flanking the top and pushing any deer toward the bottom. if one scoots out the top side they have a shot at it. you are making a wide "V" shape when pushing towards the posters. you want the posters in stands shooting downward for safety.

we will be doing a deer drive podcast soon. we will address this during the podcast.

A lot of good information here but I need to make sure I am understanding. When you say "ditch," is this the same as a Ravine? If so, what size ravine/ditch works best for this drive?

[Jeff G]

this works for us in hill country. break in down into smaller pieces. find long narrow ditches. posters go in first on one end of the ditch. setting up about 1/2 on hillside and in the bottom. use 3 people for the example. one on each hillside and one in the bottom. put them in portable stands. on the other end of ditch put the drivers. the key to this is have 2 guys on the outside. they will begin walking before the guys more toward the ditch. they are flanking the top and pushing any deer toward the bottom. if one scoots out the top side they have a shot at it. you are making a wide "V" shape when pushing towards the posters. you want the posters in stands shooting downward for safety.

we will be doing a deer drive podcast soon. we will address this during the podcast.

A lot of good information here but I need to make sure I am understanding. When you say "ditch," is this the same as a Ravine? If so, what size ravine/ditch works best for this drive?

Ravine or ditch both same to me. Long and narrow work best. They act like funnels then.

[tim]

I used to partake in some huge drives in buffalo county Wisconsin and we had a lot of people. We would evenly space drivers and stay at same pace. We would put standers out in front on bottom on top. The big bucks loved to run out ahead then go to the top run back and drop back in behind us(that's why the person on top was key). I can tell you this though, standers shot more deer---drivers shot better deer. The giants will hold tight.

[Jeff G]

[NorthStar]

Thanks for the drawing! I have plenty of spots like this that I can try. I am assuming that the width of the ditch determines how many pushers you will need? Most ditches I have acces to are about 100-300 yards wide so I am not sure 5 pushers would be needed or not?

[matt1336]

Nobody covering the backside Jeff?

[carmmond]

I used to partake in some huge drives in buffalo county Wisconsin and we had a lot of people. We would evenly space drivers and stay at same pace. We would put standers out in front on bottom on top. The big bucks loved to run out ahead then go to the top run back and drop back in behind us(that's why the person on top was key). I can tell you this though, standers shot more deer---drivers shot better deer. The giants will hold tight.

Same for me over the years word for word...... I have had the big boys jump up on me less than 15 feet away. And yes once in awhile our dads would get a big one out of the drive but time and time again my cousins and me driving got the big ones

[Jeff G]

Thanks for the drawing! I have plenty of spots like this that I can try. I am assuming that the width of the ditch determines how many pushers you will need? Most ditches I have acces to are about 100-300 yards wide so I am not sure 5 pushers would be needed or not?

Use as many as you need to cover so they can't get thru