Should deer drives be a legal hunting method?

B

BJE80

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Do you think deer drives should be legal? Is it really hunting? In SE Wisconsin there are many groups that never sit during the gun season. They just drive from wood lot to wood lot and "push" it.

For those that say "no", do you say that only for selfish reasons?
 
I've never been part of a drive, but I think they should be legal if the goal is to put venison on the table. I believe it takes some strategy to know what direction to push and where the escape routes are the deer will take so posters can be placed there and for the drive to be done safely.

My Brother-In-Law teaches at a high school in Barron County. He told me a story of one of his students that went to a public hunting ground to hunt. When he got there he found a group had just got done driving it. He decided to hunt anyways and ended up shooting a nice size buck. So driving a piece of land is no guarantee that you will move all the deer out of it.
 
They are not legal on the property I own. But I only own a little chunk.
 
I've never been part of a drive, but I think they should be legal if the goal is to put venison on the table. I believe it takes some strategy to know what direction to push and where the escape routes are the deer will take so posters can be placed there and for the drive to be done safely.

My Brother-In-Law teaches at a high school in Barron County. He told me a story of one of his students that went to a public hunting ground to hunt. When he got there he found a group had just got done driving it. He decided to hunt anyways and ended up shooting a nice size buck. So driving a piece of land is no guarantee that you will move all the deer out of it.

Spot on Kabic.

I grew up hunting with a roster and doing deer drives in large state forest lands. We also did some stand hunting. we would drive the same chunks of ground out every day and still see deer. we also didn't kill a massive piles of deer. It does take a fair bit of strategy and knowledge of the land to be consistently successful....especially in the big woods and mountains. I don't hunt on a roster that much anymore....I'm more of a bowhunter now. But in rifle season i will hunt with a smaller crew and we will do some drives in the big woods.....mostly "silent" drives using the wind to push the scent of the pushers into the cover and get the deer to more slowly move to the watchers.

In farm country with small wood lots and pockets of cover i can see it being a different ball game. We also did a lot driving for bears. We only have a fall bear season and baiting bear is illegal...so the best method is driving...or setting up in cover in areas that get driven.

I also used to hunt with a small crew in suburban NY and we would do drives with bows....the last week of archer season. We did pile up the deer on those drives...deer densities are insane in that area and we needed to remove as many does as possible.

Plain and simple the deer drive has its place and can be an effective method to hunt deer....but it isnt a blanket method that should be used everywhere all the time....but you can't legislate exactly how, where and when it should be used.
 
No deer drives on our land. Period.
 
No deer drives on our land. Period.


I would not allow it on my land either. But that isn't really what the debate is about. Should deer drives be legal?
 
I don't like participating in deer drives. And likely won't again anytime soon. I would love for them to be illegal for selfish reasons. Having said all that, I think they should be legal taking a logical approach to the debate instead of putting emotion into it.
The biggest thing about deer drives I hate is the running shots. We preach in bowhunting so much about taking good shots and shot placement. But many many many deer drivers just shoot Hail Mary shots without giving it thought. See brown, and shoot no matter how far or how fast the deer is running. That in my mind is disrespectful to the animal just to blast away. The guys that drive deer and take good shots I have no problem with even though I won't participate. JMHO.
 
The whiskey public land hunter needs a quality experience. 1) ban deer drives 2) ban baiting 3) ban gun buck party hunting. Everyone's hunt would see a marked improvement.
Everyone excpet for the people that only drive deer. Their "hunt" would be banned.
 
FYI, drives account for the majority of gunshot accidents.

One of the many reasons I will not participate.
 
FYI, drives account for the majority of gunshot accidents.

Deaths due to falling from tree stands equal or exceed deaths from firearms related hunting accidents....so what? Ban tree stand hunting? That is the same logic gun control advocates try to use to ram rod gun control down our throats...guns kill people so ban guns. Utter farce.
 
What constitutes a drive? 2 guys doing a slow sneak at the same time? 5 guys pushing a block of woods with 2 standers? 30 guys pushing with 4 standers? One guy sneaking through a narrow strip of woods hoping to push a deer out of a known escape route to one stander near that escape point?


2 guys doing a slow sneak at the same time? No
5 guys pushing a block of woods with 2 standers? Yes
30 guys pushing with 4 standers? Yes
One guy sneaking through a narrow strip of woods hoping to push a deer out of a known escape route to one stander near that escape point? Yes
 
Barry and Gene Wensel killed some giants by coordinating stand switches throughout the day. 2 or 3 guys using their watches to know where each other are and then switching spots mid day, bumping deer to each other. Believe they killed this deer with those tactics.

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I would not allow it on my land either. But that isn't really what the debate is about. Should deer drives be legal?

my deeper point is that, yes,,,, they should be illegal. You talk about poor shot quality and lots of untretrieved deer.

Sick way to hunt if you ask me.
 
Deer hunters in general like to complain and make excuses when they are not seeing deer. After opening weekend at our camp it's common to hear "nobody's out there moving the deer so they are laying down all day". Funny because before the season starts and on opening day it's common to hear "WTF those a-holes driving the deer and walking the woods are ruining it for us".

I believe deer drives are tradition and are an effective way to harvest deer. Should they be legal, yes. Do I want my neighbors driving the heck out their woods, no.
 
I believe deer drives are tradition and are an effective way to harvest deer. Should they be legal, yes. Do I want my neighbors driving the heck out their woods, no.

I like it when my neighbors drive their woods. Years of cumulative education has the deer knowing where to come and be 'safe'. If you are hunting deer that live on your neighbors and not on you, it makes hunting tough.

This year the guys who hunted the property east of me bought heir own chunk up north. They have not stepped into the woods. I believe it is part of the reason my cameras are quieter this year.
 
Why aren't 2 guys doing a slow sneak at the same time a drive? I can't tell you how many times my cousin and I used to do that on my folks' old place. Neither of us got much over the years, but my dad and uncle usually would see something during the process. Sounds like a drive to me.

How about a group of guys who leave the cabin after lunch heading for their stands. 5 guys came in for lunch, 3 stayed in their stands. The 5 guys headed back to their stands bump some deer to the guys who stayed in their stands. Drive?


I would consider a deer drive as a coordinated effort with people walking through an area with the sole purpose to push deer to other people waiting at a certain location specfically choosen because of the others pushing efforts.


So if two guys are slowly walking (still hunting) that is not a deer drive even though it may push deer.


Guys leaving and returning to a stand is not a deer drive.

Posting guys somewhere just to catch deer running from the people walking through the woods just to push deer is a deer drive (to me).
 
In large blocks of woods. No it could not be proved. In high Ag areas with small woodlots it would be easy to prove.
 
I'm not so sure. If the guys on the other side of my neighbor do just what I said above...5 guys go back for lunch, leave a few other guys in their stands...then the lunch goers "take a roundabout way" back to their stands in a few hours (with the intention of pushing deer to the guys who stayed on stand)...on a small woodlot surrounded by ag...how would a warden "prove" that was a drive and not just guys going back to their stands?


If they did that it would be hard to prove. But that is not what many deer drivers do (at least in SE Wisconsin). They have a group of 20 guys on a 4 acre wood lot. Post every available exit route. Then a few guys push it. Nobody ever sits down to hunt. They never sit the entire gun season.


Then they get back in their truck and drive to the next woodlot 4 miles away and do it again.
 
Barry and Gene Wensel killed some giants by coordinating stand switches throughout the day. 2 or 3 guys using their watches to know where each other are and then switching spots mid day, bumping deer to each other. Believe they killed this deer with those tactics.

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We used to try to do that quite a bit. Of course we never had anything close to those results!
 
Yes they should be a legal hunting method. I'm more of a fan of having a bunch of hunters in tree stands and having just one lone person doing the deer driving.
 
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