Deer Drives

[wztirem]

Hunting State Land on opening day of gun season for the past several years, it never fails to see guys start driving deer by 9am. As I hunt from a ground blind which is clearing marked with blaze orange; these one day and done guys serve a useful purpose in moving deer. For the past several years I was able to fill my tag within twenty or thirty minutes of them passing by. Its magic time. Thanks.

[bubba]

The majority of my deer hunting has been making drives in the am, watches in the pm.  We do 1 or 2 man drives with three to four watchers depending on how many showed up.  This was deep in the swamp on state land.  We have had as many as 3 deer killed on one drive.  One guy walking quietly can move deer very well.  My buddy and I do one pusher one watcher drives a lot. We have both been very successful.  Oh btw none of us ever wore orange and none of us ever got shot at much less shot.  The private land I hunt now, the neighbors do drives.  It still works for us as the deer flee to the alleged safe zone.  We still do drives on state land, but as I said,  we are deep in the real swamp after the ridge runners move all the deer out there.  There are times I am half way to my knees in water while being on watch.  Very productive way to take deer.   

[fasteddie]

Bubba ---- Do you float the deer out of the swamp ?  ??? .. ???

[bubba]

actually yes.  We use the back side where the creek is and boat them out.  Drag them to the bank and gut them there. to keep them clean then into the boat.  We are like star trek we boldly go where no man has gone before.  But we have seen and harvested a lot of deer that way. 

[nyslowhand]

Usually opening day & again on Thanksgiving weekend, my neighbor does drives on 2 sides of my property.

As a stand hunter, it works out very well for me!!

[wztirem]

Usually opening day & again on Thanksgiving weekend, my neighbor does drives on 2 sides of my property.

As a stand hunter, it works out very well for me!!

Deer drives on State Land where I hunt are usually not organized events. For the most part they are the result of hunters who are both impatient and cold. These hunters constitute the "one and done guys" and they benefit the hunter who is is willing to patiently remain at their stand.

[epanzella]

I'm a newbie here in NY because deer drives pushed me right out of our hunting ground in Ct. My sons and I make lots of scouting trips in the fall (6-8 full days) and we each try to pattern at least two bucks. Opening morning we're all cozed into our trees at Zero-dark-30 waiting for our efforts to pay off, then at 7am twenty or more bozos come sceechin', hootin' and hollerin' thru the woods stinkin' up the place. If a skipper so much as blinks, there is a barage of 30 or more shots in 5 seconds. Five minutes later, I hear the trucks start up and they're off to ruin another spot. These guys don't even take the time to look for wounded deer. On two occasions their target, (a doe in both instances) ran by me and stopped for a rest right near my stand. Both times they not only survived the spray of shotgun slugs, but were without a scratch. If the deer doesn't drop in it's tracks, these guys head for the trucks. No B&C buck is gonna get caught up in these drives, but they do hunker down for the rest of the season. It's a miracle nobody gets shot. We had been regularly passing up 110 inch deer and bagging bucks up to 140 in that (public) forest but since the drivers started hitting it hard deer sighting of any kind are down 90% and even 110 inch sightings are rare.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

I appreciate the story and feel bad that your hunt was ruined....just one question. How do you know the does that came by you were the target if there wasn't a scratch?

[epanzella]

One of the episodes a few of the drivers came up to me asking if I had seen a deer go by. So I told them. The other time the shooting was in some pines about a hundred yards behind my tree. As I was a brisk 5 minute walk (after reaching the trail) from the road and 5 minutes later I heard their trucks starting, it was obvious they weren't tracking or dragging anything. But I can see your point as it's certainly possible they were shooting at a different deer running where I couldn't see it. I'm not totally against deer drives as we've done them ourselves the last day or two of the season when the deer are hunkered down anyway due to hunting pressure. I am against drives that upset natural deer movement on the opening few days and I think any ehtical hunter would be against a group that wouldn't spend fifteen minutes looking for blood after firing 30 shots. We're going to try Allegany State Forest this year (first time) as it looks like there's plenty of elbow room and Cataraugus county seems to have it's share of slammers. Any info on that area would be appreciated.

Ed   

[Culvercreek hunt club]

I have never hunted there but some really nice deer come out of there every year. Good luck....it is always hard the first year in a new woods. One benefit we have here in NY is we do have quite a but of Public land (compared to CT)...some of it is really big woods and not the greatest deer habitat but they are there and plenty of "elbow room"

Good luck

[epanzella]

I have never hunted there but some really nice deer come out of there every year. Good luck....it is always hard the first year in a new woods. One benefit we have here in NY is we do have quite a but of Public land (compared to CT)...some of it is really big woods and not the greatest deer habitat but they are there and plenty of "elbow room"

Good luck

Thanks,

Ed

[Bleitten04]

Ive been apart of small medium and large deer drives.  Basically anywhere from me and my dad to 20 people.  I would say the drive with 20 people was actually more safe then I thought it was going to be because not one person took a shot that was dangerous.  Also everytime a deer was shot at the time was spent to look for blood even if you knew you missed it.  I can't say I have had a ton of success doing drives but there is strategy to them to that I don't really think I know yet. 

[bushnell]

The largest deer drives that I have been part of was a 6 man drive. But now our gang (8 guys) sit all day. Once in a while we will put on a drive consisting of 2 guys driving and 2-3 watching. That is usally done on the 3rd to 4th day. Other than that we sit from dark to dark.

[hang fyre]

I have been against deer drives in the past thinking of the safety.  I woudnt do a drive opening day or even the first week.  Last year I was invited to do a drive the last sat in m/z.  I was very reluctant since I have always hunted on my own or with guys I have known and feel comfortable around. This drive was being put on by a friend of a friend etc they needed more guys and since I hadnt filled my tag yet I agreed  figuring that if it was unsafe or unorganized i would bail.  I was very relieved that safety was the most important element of the day.  I had a great time , met some great new friends and will definitely go again this year.  btw most of the tags filled that day the deer were donated to the county food pantry.

[Bleitten04]

Whenever I have been apart of a big drive there is always a meeting before anything is even started.  They guy that is in charge tells everyone the lay of the land and that you better be wearing orange.  Also that no deer no matter how big is worth someone's life. 

[newbreed]

Im not 100% sure but wasn't the world record whitetail killed during a deer drive or as Milo Hansen called it "pushin the bush" im not saying that this makes them good or not good but i thought i head that somewhere. i personaly do little pushes with my father on out land and it has and hasnt worked and on the other hand the land next to us the knuckle heads to 10+ man drives on sunday after thanksgiveing and they just tromp around makeing all kinds of racket........i never hear them shoot at anything though.