Bow hunters and big deer drives

[Five Seasons]

i have never done a "big block deer drive" i'm not totally against it but my hunch is big drives involve inexperienced hunters or hunters who haven't had a crack at a deer all year and are ready to let the lead fly no matter what and this can lead to wounded deer.

I have done a bunch of 2 to 3 man drives when i was younger but they're generally reserved for late season, someone without a lot of time to hunt or because someones freezer is empty. However, when tandem hunting probably 75% of the time when we get down in the morning, someone walks over to someone else unless we feel there are other hunters nearby.

[Doc]

Any drives that I get involved with anymore are more like still hunting toward a standing hunting partner. They are very low-key activities. We have also done two-man still hunts separated just enough to still be within sight of each other, with one point man out ahead a bit. The one lagging behind is traveling through where the deer are expected to be bedded. The theory is that when a bedded deer spooks, their route of flight is usuall out ahead of the guy that spooked them and also the beginnings of a circle to get behind the intruder. It often works quite well. We have an area that is heavy mature hemlocks along a ravine that is about 200 feet deep with near vertical walls so escaping deer can only go straight ahead or off to the uphill side (where the other hunter is).