Anyone still do drives?

[ApexerER]

We are planning on doing some driving this coming Sunday and I assume we will the following Sunday as well. I really enjoy doing the deer drives. I get to see a lot more of the guys I hunt with as we finish up with a drive and plan the next. We aren't as quiet and do a lot of BSing that we don't get to do when we meet up and then split off to our stands for the day. Most of the time we knock down a deer or two with last year being unbelievable killing 3 nice bucks on the last day of the season. Its one of my favorite times to hunt along with early Nov and opening day. 

The one thing I would like to change on our drives and I am going to try to talk the guys into it this year is I would like the pushers to still hunt while they push. Usually we walk pretty fast and hoot and holler etc. This leads to pushing lots of deer but they are generally running. I would like to try bumping them into the watchers where they are up and moving but hopefully not on a sprint. 

How do you guys that do drives do them?

 

[Dinsdale]

I did drives with a few guys years ago, all have either passed or moved away. Miss doing them.

Pushers still hunted and took some time; but deer came through walking often when we set up on likely escape/travel routes.

Just some pressure to get them moving; for us that was 3 walking and 2 sitting and sometimes still hunters got in a shot too.

Fun times with guys I trusted.

[The_Real_TCIII]

I love a deer drive. And I definitely recommend the still hunting. I think the hooting and hollering allows the deer to know exactly where the drivers are and theyll sit tight and let them go right by. We call it a "push" rather than a drive

[nosquibs]

We used to do it both ways, when I was young dumb I hooted and hollered and moved quick and rarely saw anything and never got a shot off, as I got older and smarter a slowed down and saw more deer and got a few too instead of sending them all to the 'sitters'.

[DanD]

Love to do deer drives with responsible hunters. I normally kill more deer while being a pusher rather than a stander.

 

Deer drives seems to be going the way of the buffalo. I don't see many people doing them anymore.  

[Robhuntandfish]

will be doing one on the 8th - last weekend of gun.  Its gotten to be a tradition on our lease.  It is thick and nasty and swampy and guess who usually, as in always, is the pusher! - lol.  Cause i usually have at least one deer in bow so i drive to the boys.  Its a small drive but i do the push, two guys posted in stands and one guy goes with me on the trail i go in/out of for those deer that shoot the gaps.  And usually i drive one right by my buddy that misses it .  lol Quite a tradition.  But it is def fun and some action.  We usually sit for the am hunt for an hour and a half then i start the drive.  Love when i hear the deer take off out of the stuff and wait to hear and hope for a shot.  We dont do it til last weekend cause we are def blowing out the bedding areas.  And I am def getting soaked and scratched up! 

[rob-c]

7 minutes ago, DanD said:

Love to do deer drives with responsible hunters. I normally kill more deer while being a pusher rather than a stander.

 

Deer drives seems to be going the way of the buffalo. I don't see many people doing them anymore.  

I think the biggest thing is no one has the land to do them any more. We used to have 800 acres of woods to drive.loved doing drives.. 

Edited November 28, 2018 by rob-c

[E J]

I still get in on a few small pushes with a couple of guys that I have hunted with for 20 + years..... Man I'm getting old!

[dbHunterNY]

29 minutes ago, rob-c said:

I think the biggest thing is no one has the land to do them any more. We used to have 800 acres of woods to drive.loved doing drives.. 

this. most properties have been hacked up. people still do them. preferred method for people later in the season around here that are basically trespassing thus poaching deer. we don't really encourage it because it inevitably drives deer off our property. if a hunter has been tagless for a while or a newer hunter we've done them on the farm and other places we've had permission. the social aspect is the best part probably.

[JRod 8G8H]

myself along with a couple friends will push our properties the last week or weekend... we have some spots that are small and separate so we will do a small push and then re-group.. we will head into the thick swamps and thickets and cat tails which we normally stay out of all year long...

the worst part of doing a deer drive?? having a buddy come up to you saying, "did you see that buck? he was huge why didn't you shoot?" haha

[nodeerhere]

I wish everyone lots of luck with the deer drives! And stay safe! I have had a few slugs fly by me in my years of doing them. I think those days are over for me. But we did kill lots of deer. And I really hate wounding one and not being able to find it because it ends up on posted property. But please get them up and moving! I need something to come by. Haven't seen a deer in wks now 

[turkeyfeathers]

Lets go push Darien  lake state park    Can I be the one carrying the American flag or do I have to play the drums? better yet, I'll bring my wifes good Caphalon pots and pans to beat on to payback for soaking my good cast iron pan in the sink with soapy water last night 

[grampy]

I pretty much just hunt with one other guy. Besides our kids and grandkids. We do small loops, or pushes to each other. Usually the one that still has a buck tag is on the watch. The one moving is always in still hunt mode. Not to actually shoot, but to keep the deer at a slower pace. We have both been able to fill buck tags, over the years doing this!!!

Was doing this last weekend. I had an idea where a certain buck may be hiding out. Caught a glimpse of him slipping out the back door on us, as I was focusing on some of his rubs. 

I'll be back at it again this weekend.  

[Nomad]

Like many here loved them, but now mostly a thing of the past . We had up to a dozen guys , many who’ve done them for decades . Small farm woods and creek beds, I’d put red buckets at spots I wanted new watchers to sit, don’t move the bucket ,don’t stand ten feet away , sit on the bucket .

I got a couple,guys from work their first deer, by having them stand on a two foot square of ground and just waiting .

We,often had watchers  1/4 to 1/2 mile away sitting on the next woods over , and could predict almost to the  tree where the deer would run .

Great fun, don’t miss all the walking in muddy farm fields for hours .

Edited November 28, 2018 by Stay at home Nomad

[dbHunterNY]

2 minutes ago, turkeyfeathers said:

Lets go push Darien  lake state park    Can I be the one carrying the American flag or do I have to play the drums? better yet, I'll bring my wifes good Caphalon pots and pans to beat on to payback for soaking my good cast iron pan in the sink with soapy water last night 

no joke if i still lived that way i could show you three spots that are driving or opening weekend perfection. also my little brother was hunting alone one day. he got into some thick stuff on the south end. he pushed an 8 pointer while trying to get through it on his hands and knees. guy shot it. shooter, buck, and brother were all within bow range and never knew it until the guy fired. brother had on an orange hat too. i saw one guy standing on the pipe line while his buddies where driving deer to him. he pointed to crossing that had to be all of 300 yards out or more saying he was watching it and another on the other side of him. didn't have the heart to tell him his skills with a 20ga probably couldn't reach that far, especially at a running deer. i could hunt that place like a pro. i often got too picky though when trying to hunt really big bucks that would only get taken across the road off the park.

[WNYBuckHunter]

I usually do them with the guys down at the farms I hunt. This year I havent been down there much, so I havent done any. I have been enjoying the natural deer movement through gun season on my low pressure piece of ground, but I kinda do miss the group hunting with the guys. Lots of memories from those hunts.

The best way to do drives, IMO, is to do them with people that know the lay of the land, the typical escape routes, and use the wind to your advantage. Like Nomad explained, we have spots that we would drive where we send sitters to the next woodlot, as we know the deer are going to head there if they get past the others. It can be very effective if done properly.

[Eric J]

Still do Drives to this day... Usually late in the year... Friend used to have property near Watkins Glen (8R) and we hunted a farmers vineyard too alone with fallow fields... those fields Always produced!!!  No need to hoot an holler.... just a nice slow walk... that way the deer will not Bolt but sneak out. Right into our sites!  :)

[UpStateRedNeck]

It's been close to 20 years since I've done a drive.  We still have the land, just not the people.  I didn't like the group of people that did it back in the day, pretty sleazy bunch.  Mostly my dad's friends who have had falling out with over the years.  My dad just doesn't hunt much anymore, I'm the only person that hunts our 900 some odd acres more than 5 days a year.  Our neighbor below me is up on weekends, but that's about it.  Oh and the 5000 acres of state land adjacent is totally empty after opening weekend.

[Fletch]

Grew up doing some cool deer drives on big old Adirondack hunting camps. 10-20 guys. Old timers planning it out like a chess game, like battle or war! You had to earn a spot as a trusted driver. It could take seasons to earn trusted roles. Some of these drives would take a couple hours and had great names like the "Meat Drive" ,  "Dead Man's Push" and "The Battery Drive". Man brings up fine memories. There was no unsafe actions ever or you were never invited again.

 

Now a days we get 2 to 5 of us and may work fresh tracks, loops to each other, slow strolls. More still hunting than driving. Mostly on state land. We may push a quality private piece or two the last week if we are hungry!

 

I did run into a group of 20 guys driving right through my watch on state land last week. They did more shooting than hitting but they had deer moving.

[Will_C]

Hunted this way with my cousins in Pennsylvania for years. They own a 700 acre dairy farm and probably had permission to hunt double that acreage. Used to be about 15-20 of us. Until about 15 years ago, nobody stand hunted. We would meet in front of the barn at 7:30, do 3 drives in the AM, have lunch and then do 2 drives in the afternoon.

We averaged close to 80% success on bucks, and close to 100% success filling the doe tags we had. I'll be honest, it was the most fun and exciting hunting I ever did.

Pa. Antler restrictions and the fact that many of the surronding properties started to become off limits, as well as our age-I am the third oldest hunting there now-have made us all stand hunters. We still do well, but I miss the shouts of "buck coming your way",  "2 doe headed to the briars"' etc.

Will

[philoshop]

4 hours ago, Dinsdale said:

I did drives with a few guys years ago, all have either passed or moved away. Miss doing them.

Pushers still hunted and took some time; but deer came through walking often when we set up on likely escape/travel routes.

Just some pressure to get them moving; for us that was 3 walking and 2 sitting and sometimes still hunters got in a shot too.

Fun times with guys I trusted.

There's the key. I did drives many years ago with people I didn't know and wouldn't trust to even bring me a hot dog from the concession stand. It was scary.

[Swamp_bucks]

Theres 6 of us who do them. We will start this weekend and usually all the final weekend.  I prefer the still hunt methods of the drivers.  But latley its become more of a chore we dont kill much when we do them. Kill more sitting in stands.  More of a chance for the 6 of us to hang out and bs for the day.   But we stopped brining in guys only 1 or 2 of us new,and its shotgun only. Dont no if its any safer but i dont like the idea of walking towards someone with a high powered rifle.  But we also set it up so sitters are always shooting into a bank or down into a bottom.  Just the little things to help keep people safe.

[cynthiafu]

I do a couple for my sister and her husband . 

[G-Man]

I do drives late gun and muzzleloader with muzzleloader being the largest 5 or 6 walkers and 8 to 10 sitters. There are times to move fast and make noise and times to be quiet and stealthy.. the main rule is to stay in your stand till drive is done  I dont care if you shot a world record you dont get out of stand and go look till drive is done.. the pushers shoot as many deer as the standard and sometimes more as they bounce the deer back and forth between them as they try to double back. 

I enjoy the drives the best. And the smaller ones in regular season can also be productive. The best advice I can say for all drives is listen to the one in charge and do what they tell you to do!

[ApexerER]

Glad to see other people still do this. Good luck on the drives, knock some down and most of all, be safe!