Push or sit?

[Backyard]

Hey guys I was just wondering. At this point in the gun season is it best to sit in a stand or do you pretty much have to push deer at this point. I almost always hunt alone and prefer to sit but sometimes get down and creep around the woods some. I have gone from seeing deer almost everytime I was out bowhunting my property to seeing only 1 since the gun seaon opened. I heard that yesterday that the only way to find deer now is to push them out especially if they have been pressured. Just want to get your guys thoughts on that.

[Fletch]

It really matters where you are hunting and how much pressure has been on it. If you are limited on space, continuous still hunting or pushing will make the deer move off or go nocturnal or both.

Now that the big days of opening weekend and Thanksgiving are past and the second rut oncoming I prefer to sit first and last hours and still hunt / push during the middle of the day on bigger state land.

[cynthiafu]

if you hunt public land ( near me ) push them get them up and moving ( right to me ) . i hunt with my sister and her husband we do small drives . they like to hide in some thick bushes that we know of . i will put on my heavy clothesor my sister will and plow thur it ( lots of prickers ) i make lots of noise so not to get shot by somoeone who shoots at moving bushes . i sing i laugh i curse at the thorns . it has worked for us .

[joe12]

Like fletch said - sit mornings and afternoons and do small drives from 10 am - 2 pm

[Backyard]

Where I hunt it sounded like a war zone all around me opening day and a few shots during Thanksgiving week but has seemed to quite down alot. There is an amazing amount of scrapes, rubs and trails on my property and I saw alot of deer during bow season. Sometimes I would get 50 pictures in a single night on my trail cam and now I dont get any since the gun season started. I tried hunting on some federal land the other day but didnt like the amount of people there and didnt see any deer either. Almost ready to give up on this season but I just cant stay out of the woods.

[Guns&ReligionCop]

Agree with everyone else. I sit in the morning push the afternoon and sit before dark

[Backyard]

Thats kinda what I have been doing in the morning when I get down from my stand I will usually take a walk around before I head back to the house. Never really did any big drives. I have seen 20+ plus guys push a bunch of deer out of the woods and then they all open fire and that doesnt seem too sporting to me. Part of the reason I like bow season better.

[G-Man]

No one has hunted here since opening week , except myself. the deer are returning to normal patterns. i like to do pushes or drives during last weekend of muzzloader, as the woods are devoid of everyone but my group. i will not do them on reg gun season weekends as surrounding properties push them all to us any way. Best way to have deer late in the season is to have a thick area as large as you can and stay out of it all year!! no scouting, no hunting, deer retrival only after dark. perhaps cutting some trees in the dead of winter mid day to keep it thick. any pressured deer will find this unpressured area and move in and stay through the whole season. find an unpressured area(way in on state land / close to houses, that clump of trees in the middle of a huge field,that everyone walks by cause its so obvious, and you will find the deer...

[Five Seasons]

only thing i hate about pushing is that you may push to the "other guy" and you put pressure on where they may not come back in to bed for a few days. But if you're freezer's empty. Push! haha

[the blur]

when you guys do drives, how far do you start out from each other ??

[ELMER J. FUDD]

Pushit.

[G-Man]

Depends how thick an area we are pushing 20 yards between drivers sometimes. The standers are all in elevated stands,and have to wait to shoot till deer are past them, and do not leave the stand till the drive is done and all drivers are out,even if they shoot a world record! Safety first! Drivers can only shoot straight ahead, or maybe strait ahead or off to one side if driving on a diagonal. Setting up a well coordinated drive is like creating a painting. Escape routes are learned and must be covered, as well as coordinated movement of the drives at the correct pace, not to slow but not to fast. It really is a thing of beauty when it all comes together.

[the blur]

So how far do the drivers start out from the standers ?

[wheelieman]

The distance you drive, is depending upon the cover and terrain, Set your standers so the wind is at their backs and blowing into the area to be driven sounds silly but deer around here tend to run into the wind, Now it never hurts to put a guy back where the drivers started your gonna have deer get through and kick back behind you and its a good spot to ambush them, Whoever is setting up your drives has to have knowledge of the area and the standers need to wait for the deer to get past them before shooting, We generally do not allow drivers to shoot in our drives, No deer is worth killing your friend or family and in the thick stuff you just cant know where everybody is, Besides most of the stuff we push you cant carry your wallet in and expect it to be with you when you come out, We call these places no mans land, Because after you do it no man wants to do it again, Good luck be safe,

[Doc]

Push or sit .....

There is a third choice that is very effective. That is to still-hunt. We always assume that getting deer moving involves some kind of drive. I just wish hunters would simply get off their rumps and move around the woods a little bit. It seems that out by us, we have the guys that go into the woods and plop down under a tree or up in their treestand and that's where they stay...... all day long. And yet, if you listen to all the shooting it is obvious that all the shots that take place come from the hunters moving into or out of the woods. After that little bit of hunter movement, the deer all find a nice comfy place and stay there. So there you have it .... the hunters nodding off in their stands, and the deer nodding off in their beds, and inevitably the shooting comes to a halt and everybody winds up just sitting there .... doing nothing.

back in the "olden" days, before all this space-age clothing, guys would sit for a couple of hours, get frozen out, and then out of necessity, they would start still hunting. With that many guys moving around in the woods, they had to stumble onto some deer. Sometimes they would get one, and sometimes the deer would move out to the next still-hunter. Either way, it would get the deer moving, and the action (shots) would continue through the day. Hunters would be bumping into deer and deer would be bumping into hunters.

That is one of the reasons that we assume shortages of deer. The deer stop moving and the shots stop happening, and we automatically think there's either a shortage of deer, or a shortage of hunters. Actually the shots cease because there is a shortage of hunter movement.

[phade]

I'll be honest here, I really don't mind well-organized pushes later into gun season/muzzleloader season. I think they can be safe and effective and are actually fun after a long grinding season. I don't think it's something that should be done all the time, early in the season, etc., but it has it's place.

I just don't know enough hunters and don't hunt but with one other person at a time, if that, and I'm on a few small parcels spread out over great distance (three counties). Anything other than a slow one man push to a stander on the parcel after a morning sit is impossible. Not feasible to hit multiple parcels due to drive time and how short the pushes would be.

I'm early 30's myself, but some of my fondest memories as a kid was a late season day of pushes with the family and extended friends. Safe, and fun. Doesn't happen any longer as pretty much everyone in the group has left hunting as a whole. Something to be said for that style of hunting. Kicked off by a good breakfast and planning meeting...

[Dad 6424]

We only do drives if the season has not put some meat on the table there is a 60 acre spot that is part swamp thick brush along with wild rose bushes my sons and I have stands on all sides for bow and gun we only push that peice out if no one has taken anything or if we see big daddy going in and out on camera for the last thing in the season for a freazer filler doe but for the most part every one around us is running there 4 wheelers and making all kinds of noise so we sit and let them do the work lol

[Paula]

I hunt alone so i hope people moving or shooting from somewhere will push to me

[Five Seasons]

I'll be honest here, I really don't mind well-organized pushes later into gun season/muzzleloader season. I think they can be safe and effective and are actually fun after a long grinding season. I don't think it's something that should be done all the time, early in the season, etc., but it has it's place.

I just don't know enough hunters and don't hunt but with one other person at a time, if that, and I'm on a few small parcels spread out over great distance (three counties). Anything other than a slow one man push to a stander on the parcel after a morning sit is impossible. Not feasible to hit multiple parcels due to drive time and how short the pushes would be.

I'm early 30's myself, but some of my fondest memories as a kid was a late season day of pushes with the family and extended friends. Safe, and fun. Doesn't happen any longer as pretty much everyone in the group has left hunting as a whole. Something to be said for that style of hunting. Kicked off by a good breakfast and planning meeting...

ditto to all of this. pushing has its place and many good memories for me when i just started out