Deer drive or sitting-what do you do?

After reading the WI deer tally post, this question came to mind. Seems in WI, very strong opinions either way.

Question is: during WI/MN gun season, do you drive deer as your main form of hunting?

I’m all for deer drives on private land but I strongly oppose deer drives on public land.

During the 9 day WI rifle season, almost every piece of public land within a 3 mile radius of my cabin is driven by hunters. Most spots are driven 2-3 times per day by different parties.

For stand sitters like me, its a little disheartning to know that no matter where you sit, you will have company walking past your stand. I’m no longer able to seek out the spots that look the most promising to hunt, I feel like I have to seek out the spots that cannot be driven in order to be successful. I know some feel that the deer are accustomed to these drivers and it shouldn’t affect my hunt, but to me, it takes the excitement and confidence out of my stand location, knowing that a group of hunters just came in and educated every deer in the section that they were there and they need to be on alert.

Also the few groups who have no regard for others safety (like the guy on Saturday who decided to park at the end of my driveway and shoot out the window of his vehicle during a drive)make me scared to even share the woods with some drivers.

Just a few reasons why I won’t be participating in the WI Rifle Season next year, and going on an out of state bow hunt instead.

Sorry for the vent guys, but this is one of my hot buttons.

Sitting gives a sense of being one with the woods…….love it, won’t change.

On the other hand, sitting for 8-10 hrs is hard so we will

push with 1-3 people. Not a drive per se but more of a

creep-stalk toward covered escape routes. Not as hard on

the body either

I do know large groups who do nothing but drive, from opening morning until seasons end. They do get alot of deer, many big bucks too. If that’s what they like, so be it. To me it’s a little too stressful and darn right confusing at times………who has the trucks parked where?

Where the hell are the gun cases? Oh crap, we lost Joe! Who has the keys? Keys???… Joe has the keys!……

After sitting all of opening weekend, I’ll only sit for a couple hours in the morning/afternoon during the rest of the season and still hunt the rest of the time. There are a few drives I like to do through some small thickets where I know the deer bed after opening weekend, but its hard to get guys around me to want to do them. As far as driving public land goes, I think it should be banned! The key to a safe drive is to know where every one is at during the entire push and that’s just not possible on public land.

Due to our property size, and long term goals, driving is out of the question. I wonder how long it will be until driving is not allowed on public land-huge saftey issue there. With the country getting carved into smaller parcels, will driving be a thing of the past in some locales? Personally, I would rather not drive deer, but that is a personal choice on my part.

Where is the choice for “some of both”? Also, what do you consider a drive? 2 guys sitting and 2 guysmilling around slowly, does that count?

I some of each this year. Sat alot, a little just milling around, and some organized drives, with 6 or 7 guys one day, and 15 guys another day. To be honest, the 15 guy drive was pretty disorganized and walked (ran?) through the woods WAY too fast.

IMHO, sitting is sitting and driving is driving. If you are ‘stirring the pot’,small 2 man pushes or using a 50 man army, it is all still the same, you are moving deer. Any form of getting deer ‘up and moving’ is not natural deer movement. Nothing against driving, but it is what it is. Not trying to cause an agruement, just a survey here.

I sit just because i like having deer to stay where they are on your land instead of pushing them, possibly, off of your land. although when it comes down to it, and you need meat, a drive will happen. but driving every weekend will get deer to move “unaturally”

During rifle season not much at all anymore. We use to do alot of it. Due to the increased age of our group we just don’t do much of it anymore. I do plan on doing a little this weekend with the smokepoles. Not so much a hardcore drive just more of a small one or 2 person push.

Quote:

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IMHO, sitting is sitting and driving is driving. If you are ‘stirring the pot’,small 2 man pushes or using a 50 man army, it is all still the same, you are moving deer. Any form of getting deer ‘up and moving’ is not natural deer movement. Nothing against driving, but it is what it is. Not trying to cause an agruement, just a survey here.

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Not trying to cause an argument either, just looking to clarify. The poll asks “Do you drive deer?” – I would answer yes.

The question above the poll states:

“Question is: during WI/MN gun season, do you drive deer as your main form of hunting?” – To this I would answer no. Do some drives, but is not the “main form” of hunting.

A group of us still get together for a least a little bit of the season to do some pushes (usually during smoke pole season). With a Garmin Rino in everyones hands we can do something as simple as just setting a guy upwind of a swamp and another still hunting the down wind side. Usually there are 2 to 6 of us. I don’t think we have ever had more than that. I feel alot safer with the garmin than I ever did before.

We have a group that averages about 13 guys and we sit for the first few hours of opening morning and then drive the rest of the season. I do manage to get out during the week and sit an hour or so here and there. For the people that sit all day every day I belive these people are the ones that say we didn’t see deer well thats because the deer have no reason to move they know gun season is on and they stay put in a safe area until dark or until the 9 days of hard hunting is over. Somebody said they believe the deer will move out of there area well I have to disagree with that. We pushed one side hill 5 times and seen and killed deer every single drive. In my opinion the deer will move back in to there core area maybe our hill is one of the lucky ones.

I would add stalking to the vote. It’s a very effective way of moving th4roughout the day without kicking many deer out of a large parcel of land