Horrible hunting experience…lost for words!

I had a horrible hunting experience this weekend back on the family farm back in Wisconsin with my dad, brother, brother-in-law, and uncle. I work hard and spend a lot of time and money year round in order to provide a successful hunting experience for ALL OF US! Bowhunting is my passion, but I also enjoy the commeradery of gun hunting. I’ve talked with my family about trying different tactics versus driving with no success. This weekend was a hard lesson learned for me…

I love to sit on stand all day at least for the first two days. I walk to my stand where I’m set-up 45 minutes before first light. I do not exit my stand until 45 minutes after last light. Personally, this is what I like to do to provide myself with the most success in the field. I DO NOT expect everyone else that I hunt with to do this – and they do not. They sit for 2-3 hours at a time and switch stands often. That’s fine with me and that’s what they like to do – I respect that! It would be nice if I got the same respect in return…

First of all in reference to deer drives… We have taken a couple of decent bucks and a number of does as the result of driving so it is a proven tactic that works. However, many deer have been missed, shot and never recovered, and wounded. It is also my belief that mature bucks do not tolerate drives and may disperse from the area indefinately. For this reason I do not like the driving tactic. To me, it is overused in our area and too often not used properly. I believe there are many other tactics that provide more of a chance for success (i.e. patterning, spot and stalk, still hunting…).

Sunday morning my dad said they were going to make some drives. I asked him if they would not drive the piece of property that I was hunting on. So…I hear them driving the entire property late morning, then at 11:30 they start driving behind me, to my left, in front of me, to my right, and even under my stand. They kicked a doe out of her bed – of which I spotted with my binoculars early in the morning. My dad shot and missed. She ran broadside to me at 155 yards. Minutes later my bro text me and said “what happened?”. I replied by saying “it’s hard to make an ethical shot at a deer that’s bounding and running 100 mph. That’s why I think driving is old school and overrated. It most likely would’ve came out later on it’s own”. He replied by saying “sounds like you’ll have to lease some land to do what you want with. This is more than just hunting its about family and commeradery to us”. Then, about and hour later my bro and uncle set up a blind 100 yards to the side of me. They traveled up with their 4-wheelers three times before my uncle finally sat in the blind for the last hour of daylight.

To say the least, I felt (feel) used and disrespected. I would never do this to anybody! I’m lost for words and feel like I should do just what my bro said – find some other place to hunt. They would be lost without all of my strategically placed stands and not knowing what’s out there with no trail cameras or scouting… However, I do not want to do this as I love my fam and I have worked hard to making this a successful property for everyone! Commeradery to me is sharing the experiences and talking about what may come in the future – not disrespecting your fellow hunters or family!!!

I just don’t get it!?! Does anyone have any intelect or ideas for me…I could use it!

who owns the land?

“To say the least, I felt (feel) used and disrespected. I would never do this to anybody! I’m lost for words and feel like I should do just what my bro said – find some other place to hunt. They would be lost without all of my strategically placed stands and not knowing what’s out there with no trail cameras or scouting… However, I do not want to do this as I love my fam and I have worked hard to making this a successful property for everyone! Commeradery to me is sharing the experiences and talking about what may come in the future – not disrespecting your fellow hunters or family!!! “

Have you said this to your brother or your dad, and what was their response?

I would be pissed if I were you, but it’s only deer hunting and it sounds like you are only there for the gun season (maybe?), if so it’s 9 days out of the year and family is 365 so weigh how big of an issue you want to make of it before you do. Some people’s families can have big knock down drag out fights and be A-OK after it’s over (mine is like that), and some are more sensititve and or will hold a grudge forever. Weigh all the factors carefully and moe forward.

I would probably have made a bigger issue of the safety of making a drive right toward where I was on stand!

1st off, family can really suck sometimes. I’ve watched how it stresses my dad every year when pheasant season rolls around. People show up un-invited. Hunt how they want. It’s frustrating for him and I just have to sit and keep my mouth shut because what I would have to say would lead nowhere positive.

OK, now that I’m done venting. Let the situation cool down!!! Talk to each person individually, especially your dad and brother. Express your concerns calmly without being negative towards their hunting methods/style. Ask them if they have room to compromise, but you must also. Lastly, prepare yourself to either hunt somewhere else or put up with their ways. I’m not sure who owns this land, but I’ve watched land issues tear families apart. Don’t let it. You’ll be better off hunting somewhere else vs. being ticked off at your family every opening weekend.

Again, I’ll be the first to admit, I love my family, but man can they make me angry sometimes.

I feel your pain exactly. My tempory fix was to just say the heck with all the prep work for one of the two places I hunt. Just show up and hunt like them; stoop to their level. Hopefully after a few years of poor success by the party, they will realize the benefit you provide and ask for some help. Then LAY THE SMACK DOWN

Find a new place to hunt. Period.

Until they outlaw deer driving, then your best bet is to move on.

I believe driving them to be unethical and dangerous, and thats aside from the fact that it completely messes up their patterns. Ive always called it a crapshoot, or was it crappy shooting…

If you are willing to take the time to plan ahead, you should be rewarded for your efforts. Good luck finding a new spot.

I know how you feel man. I have been there too, with both hunting and trapping. My best friend and I even got into it opening weekend for duck hunting.
This is my solution. Set up stands for them, put them in high trafic areas and save the best for yourself. Sure if the drive the land things will move off that you were on the verge of taking a pop at. Still they may drive some toward you as well.
I have found that with guys who like to drive hunt, it doesn’t take a whole lot to teach them to drive quietly and “still hunt” as they drive. Doing this has two huge advantages. 1st Nearly any human movement in the woods will be detected by deer, and they are going to move, but if you can get the fam to slow down the drive the deer will move slower. This will hopefully provide the drivers with more shooting oppertunities which they will enjoy.
2nd. When the deer are what I like to call “bumped” instead of pushed, they don’t take off like rockets. If you are on post the deer come out in sneak mode trying to find their way to the next timber without being seen. So the deer are not running at moch Jesus speeds and the poster gets a nice unhurried shot. By doing this the party that I hut with has had great sucess and very few wounded or unrecovered deer.
It may be nice comprimise for your crew.
I hope you find a way to work it out, family is the best kind of trouble.

Only you can make this call but it might be best to send them a copy of this thread, sometimes a person can express them self’s better when they put there feelings down on paper rather than face to face. I think you are very lucky to be able to hunt with your family and share the outdoor experience together and the camaraderie from deer camp that goes along with hunting with family. For the most part most of my family members are not hunters so I am envious of what you have. Maybe if they see this you can come up with a compromise but again only you can make this call and know if it is the right thing to do. I hope you can work this out with your family and share many years of great hunting memories togehter.

Quote:

---

I know how you feel man. I have been there too, with both hunting and trapping. My best friend and I even got into it opening weekend for duck hunting.

This is my solution. Set up stands for them, put them in high trafic areas and save the best for yourself. Sure if the drive the land things will move off that you were on the verge of taking a pop at. Still they may drive some toward you as well.

I have found that with guys who like to drive hunt, it doesn’t take a whole lot to teach them to drive quietly and “still hunt” as they drive. Doing this has two huge advantages. 1st Nearly any human movement in the woods will be detected by deer, and they are going to move, but if you can get the fam to slow down the drive the deer will move slower. This will hopefully provide the drivers with more shooting oppertunities which they will enjoy.

2nd. When the deer are what I like to call “bumped” instead of pushed, they don’t take off like rockets. If you are on post the deer come out in sneak mode trying to find their way to the next timber without being seen. So the deer are not running at moch Jesus speeds and the poster gets a nice unhurried shot. By doing this the party that I hut with has had great sucess and very few wounded or unrecovered deer.

It may be nice comprimise for your crew.

I hope you find a way to work it out, family is the best kind of trouble.

---

Very good post. I wish I could get some of the guys I hunt with to take that mentality and slow down and be quiet when they drive.

It’s always tough to get along with anyone when it comes to hunting, especially when everyone has their own way of hunting. Make sure to let your dad and bro know what’s on your mind. Remember that old habits are hard to break, driving has been done in wisconsin since the beginning. It is a proven way but I do agree with you as far as it being sketchy at best. If you do end up looking into a lease, let me know. Sounds like you and I are on the same page with style of hunting…..

You have to have this awkward and difficult discussion with your family. I’ve had similar type issues in different sports with my family and they don’t fix themselves unless you speak up. It might cause some sore feelings in the short run, but long run, if your family feels the same love you do for them, it will work out.

Tough love I believe it’s called!

Quote:

---

moch Jesus speeds

---

First of all:

That is funny!

Secondly,

Quote:

---

Very good post. I wish I could get some of the guys I hunt with to take that mentality and slow down and be quiet when they drive.

---

That is also what we do. We don’t drive, most of the time we “NUDGE”. Take our time and let the animals slowly vacate an area. We do not do it often and will only do it very late bow season, but this is how we do it and yes this is an great way to get some better percentage shots as deer are on slow mode and usually come by at a very slow and cautious rate and sometimes even stop for you.

HAPPY B-Day Cougareye!

i think you need to stop and take a good look in the mirror. you say you put in a lot of time and money to provide a successful hunt for “ALL OF US”. did you ever ask the others there idea of a successful hunt? (i didn’t think so)sounds to me the rest of the group is out having fun doing what they want to do.(i’ll bet at the end of the day when they’re all talking about the days hunt you don’t have much to say, this is the commeradery part).
you say your passion is bowhunting, use that time to have your TV hunts but to turn on family over some gruby deer you should be ashamed of your self. just the fact that you still have the oppertunity to hunt with your dad should be successful enough. i suggest you put your own desires a side for 9 lousy days a year and go join the group and have some fun. cherrish the time while you can they don’t last forever.

Quote:

---

you say your passion is bowhunting, use that time to have your TV hunts but to turn on family over some gruby deer you should be ashamed of your self. just the fact that you still have the oppertunity to hunt with your dad should be successful enough. i suggest you put your own desires a side for 9 lousy days a year and go join the group and have some fun. cherrish the time while you can they don’t last forever.

---

Slack, that is exactly what I do each rifle season. It was tough at first, but now I expect certain things not to go right, but still enjoy that time spent with my family.

I still get pissed at my brother when he shoots 1.5 year old bucks 2 years in a row.

Quote:

---

i think you need to stop and take a good look in the mirror. you say you put in a lot of time and money to provide a successful hunt for “ALL OF US”. did you ever ask the others there idea of a successful hunt? (i didn’t think so)sounds to me the rest of the group is out having fun doing what they want to do.(i’ll bet at the end of the day when they’re all talking about the days hunt you don’t have much to say, this is the commeradery part).

you say your passion is bowhunting, use that time to have your TV hunts but to turn on family over some gruby deer you should be ashamed of your self. just the fact that you still have the oppertunity to hunt with your dad should be successful enough. i suggest you put your own desires a side for 9 lousy days a year and go join the group and have some fun. cherrish the time while you can they don’t last forever.

---

^^^ Completely inappropriate^^^

He got shafted by someone and He should be ashamed???

he didn’t get “SHAFTED” by someone, he got his FEELINGS hurt because his FAMILY members wouldn’t hunt the way he told them to. i’m sure he knew what was going to happen going in. my point is if he is willing to put deer hunt before family somethings wrong

Hear your pain.
Welcome to the “Great Wisconsin Deer Shoot”
You have been given lemons, so make lemonaid.
After the first morning, forget about the natural movement senerio–it does not exist anymore if they are doing all that driving.
Your answer is: switch gears and set up your stands in all the major escape routes that deer will take; esp. the bucks that want to sneak out. If your crew is like most, they do the drives the same way every year. Mature bucks will pattern that as they played the game too many times.
In most areas, gun season after the first morning is all about escape routes. Find the good ones and you’ll have new life for sitting all day—and save face with the family as well.
One key tip to making this really work is staying scent free as possible-just like bow season. Deer will pour in from the downwind side, but sometimes those mature bucks will “tail wind” to a spot. I know it is hard to see it now, but all that driving may be to your blessing.
Soon, just my noting the wind direction, you’ll be able to predict which way the deer will be running to you-just always watch the other ways, mister pig might just come that way.

Good luck,

Jeremy

It’s too bad you had such a bad experience. But, it sounds to me like you are upset about a group that wants to group hunt–you appear to be happier on an individual hunt, if that is more important than time with family then make that decision. I am a party hunter and love every minute I spend deer hunting because I do it with my dad, brother and good friends. We drive deer and we do it safely and do it well. We fill our freezers–occasionally drop a nice buck and have a blast working together at it and being a group. Wouldn’t trade it for nothing!

–Whitey

I would move on. Let them know your going to begin looking and see what happens. Maybe they don’t understand what is truely bothering you and how badly. If for nothing else it may open up a dialague. If they don’t care. Well…. That’s your answer.

I would rather move on than watch a loved one get into a world of hurt when somthing goes wrong. (IMO Drives are nothing but an accident waiting to happen.)

Here is a copromize you could try from the thread drives or no drives

Quote:

---

If you can’t talk them out of doing drives right away, volunteer to be a driver and hold back(or get turned around ) at the beginning of the drive. There are a lot of nice deer shot sneaking between the drivers heading back toward the direction the drive started.

---

I see both sides of the argument here. I get to usually only hunt 2 days with my family out of the year. Do I agree with every decision they make, NO I don’t but it is up to them and as long as my safty is not at stake I am ok with it. They usually push stuff my way anyways. If it bothers you that much maybe you should quit hunting with your family. I could really care less if my dad walks by me when I am hunting. I dread the day my dad can’t hunt with me anymore. There is more to hunting than killing or seeing deer for that matter and no deer is worth more than my family~

Hey, look at it this way… you could always check out the General Forum post and take up poaching… I for the life of me, cannot figure out all the infighting with deer hunting this year… Maybe someone has a plan….

big G

Team meeting!!

Keep it low key, tell the clan how special they are but try to establish communication on EVERYONES expectations before stepping into the woods.
The main thing is to work it out and do it quickly. Losing family love over a deer hunt is a tough road to walk.

Sounds like you are very passionate about the sport but expecting everyone to suddenly adapt to one set of ideals will only lead to frustration.

Hope you can hammer it out and have many years of memorable hunts with the clan.

Also ask yourself ONE question. When did you become so obsessive over deer hunting? (Not a put down or an attack on you personaly) Remember back when your dad first took you and how much FUN you used to have. Sometimes we lose focus on what is most important in life. No rack in the world can replace a single family member! Hope you get it worked out.

Quote:

---

i think you need to stop and take a good look in the mirror. you say you put in a lot of time and money to provide a successful hunt for “ALL OF US”. did you ever ask the others there idea of a successful hunt? (i didn’t think so)sounds to me the rest of the group is out having fun doing what they want to do.(i’ll bet at the end of the day when they’re all talking about the days hunt you don’t have much to say, this is the commeradery part).

you say your passion is bowhunting, use that time to have your TV hunts but to turn on family over some gruby deer you should be ashamed of your self. just the fact that you still have the oppertunity to hunt with your dad should be successful enough. i suggest you put your own desires a side for 9 lousy days a year and go join the group and have some fun. cherrish the time while you can they don’t last forever.

---

Sorry SLACK I have to respectively disagree with you, I think you are being a little hard on the boy, this is family we are talking about so there should be some compromise on both sides. Why do they have to do drives on the fist weekend when it is a 9 day season To me that is just plain stupid. Why not compromise and save the drives for the last weekend, that is what a family is all about compromise. You make it sound like it is all his fault sorry I just don’t buy that. Both sides need to respect each other and try to find a compromise that will work for everyone.

Quote:

---

Hear your pain.
Welcome to the “Great Wisconsin Deer Shoot”
You have been given lemons, so make lemonaid.
After the first morning, forget about the natural movement senerio–it does not exist anymore if they are doing all that driving.
Your answer is: switch gears and set up your stands in all the major escape routes that deer will take; esp. the bucks that want to sneak out. If your crew is like most, they do the drives the same way every year. Mature bucks will pattern that as they played the game too many times.
In most areas, gun season after the first morning is all about escape routes. Find the good ones and you’ll have new life for sitting all day—and save face with the family as well.
One key tip to making this really work is staying scent free as possible-just like bow season. Deer will pour in from the downwind side, but sometimes those mature bucks will “tail wind” to a spot. I know it is hard to see it now, but all that driving may be to your blessing.
Soon, just my noting the wind direction, you’ll be able to predict which way the deer will be running to you-just always watch the other ways, mister pig might just come that way.

Good luck,

Jeremy

---

(DI-DO) Soon hunting will be a rich-mans sport!!!!

I would just plain find a different spot to hunt. Let them do what they want. If possible find somewhere nearby and use them to make your hunts better. Be where there pressure puts the deer.
Every year I have to adjust slightly, moving from property to property due to jerks getting in on me, trying to cut me off, etc. So I just go and cut them off and use their mistakes to my advantage. Worked great last year. Had some family not pushed me out of the spot I had been in for 4 years I would have never shot the big one I got last year.

Quote:

---

I would just plain find a different spot to hunt. Let them do what they want. If possible find somewhere nearby and use them to make your hunts better.

---

If deer hunting is more important to him than his family then that is what he should do but if his family comes first then he should try and find a way to work it out.

The fact that you publicly berated your own family has me at a loss for words. I can see you posting this situation about other people (strangers) ruining your hunt but your own kin? Jeez.

As you can tell from the responses everyone has a different oppinion. I’m sure the same goes for your family. I understand how hard the transition from bow hunting to gun hunting can be. You go from watching deer do their normal daily routine and acting normal then all the sudden everything changes drastically. You end up with a bunch of part-time hunters in the woods that don’t see the world the same as you do. I’m not on here to say what is right or wrong but I understand.