Noticed an article in one of the hunting rags (Deer and Deer Hunting) that mentioned these as a way to get nocturnal bucks to move during the day. Using a few guys to drive deer out of thickets and towards standers was common back in the day.

Granted, using dogs to chase deer in Texas as long since been illegal, but is it also illegal to drive deer with other hunters? I can remember the guys doing the driving would often be the ones to kill a deer when the tactic was common decades ago. Of course, you had to be a good shot to hit a deer that's been jumped out of bed.

Legal or not, I often use the anticipated entry and presence of other hunters to drive deer in my direction on public land.

The only difference between stalking a deer and driving a deer is the speed of the hunter. Be kind of hard for a warden to give you a ticket for excessive speed while stalking, but I guess it could happen.

Deer drives work in a coordinated effort where two or three hunters purposely drive bedded deer towards other hunters so they can get a shot at a deer that would otherwise remain bedded most if not all day. I believe the practice is still common in states with much shorter seasons where relying only on still hunting tactics lessens your chance of success, given you may have only a few days to hunt during the entire, two-week season.

As the article suggested, it can be a good way to get a buck that has gone nocturnal to get up and move when he wouldn't otherwise. Otherwise, you're pretty much limited to seeing him move when he prefers, which may be only at night until traditional hunting pressure ceases.

Granted, in Texas where feeder watching is the core of deer hunting tactics, it's definitely an outside the box approach.

Your point is well taken. Two or three guys stalking deer in the same direction and towards other hunters would achieve the same purpose. Of course, hunter safety would be paramount as the stalkers approach the area of the other hunters. But that itself could be easily achieved with the use of hunter orange clothing.

I also remember the practice being a lot of fun honestly. But it does require a true teamwork mindset, rather than a "loner" approach that focuses on watching one's feeder.

Deer drives with humans is legal.

I should call time out at this point and say that anyone only interested in using feeders and food plots PLEASE ignore this thread from this point further.

Now having gotten that out of the way, the D & DH article also commented how deer drive success depends greatly on knowing the location of bedding areas, as well as preferred escape routes out of them. Obviously, the escape routes become the places where hunters are positioned for a possible shot.

It's really no different than the "you go in the front door and I'll cover the back" approach that is common to other situations. And again, the primary focus is bucks that have gone nocturnal, either as a result of hunting pressure, or just from age and wisdom. Yes, these are the ones that otherwise die of old age because they've long since learned that staying bedded all day is the sure fire way to survive.

I hunted in northern Kansas during the rifle season this past year, and deer drives were common. In my opinion, it ruined the hunting for all the properties adjacent to the drives. After a day or two you couldn't find a deer during daylight hours. Additionally, many deer were wounded and escaped. Nothing worse than a bunch of overly excited hunters shooting at running deer.

This is the first time you've heard of deer drives, Dan?

Do it all the time when the does get overly nervous late in the year and there are management tags to fill.

Have a buddy that spent an entire weekend doing deer drives to take out an entire herd in a place that was high fenced for a vineyard. Operation was supervised by TPWD and the game wardens.

Deer drives are an awesome way to get those pesky nubbins and young bucks out of the population...

No, I participated in them often as a kid living in Mississippi. Again, it was mention of them in the D&DH article as a way to get nocturnal bucks to move that prompted my post for discussion.

I could see them being a useful, late season tactic even here in Texas where feeder watching is the standard approach. Every season the deer get much harder to see as the season continues and the deer respond to hunter pressure. How many of us know of the guys who give up as soon as the deer seem to disappear. If the deer refuse to move, why not get all those guys who gave up weeks earlier and try something new during those final days when the season might otherwise end with little or no action.

As I mentioned earlier, deer drives take a very concerted, teamwork approach between hunters. But with all the heated debates around neighbors hunting property lines and paranoia over trespassing, hunting tactics that require teamwork might never see a shed of light, at least not in Texas.

Not to be overlooked, deer drives probably fell to wayside when it became legal to bait deer. After all, why put forth so much effort to drive deer to someone else, when you can wait for them to come to you while playing on your smartphone.

Yet another hunting tactic based on strategy lost to the ages.

I have used the technique Dan and been very successful but mainly harvesting does. Smart bucks can elude the drivers. We would never use more than 2 drivers and be careful to be as scent free as possible to try not to contaminate the area with a concentration of human scent. This never negatively affected the hunting afterwords. I can envision it being more successful for bucks if you used more drivers like they do in the midwest but this also creates more running deer shot opportunities and can really shut down the deer activity for quite a while do to alot more people walking through the hunting area.

Thanks for sharing Pitchfork. Your comments point to why i envision deer drives as a late season tactic, perhaps the last weekend or two of the season when very few deer are taken anyway. Some estimates put as much as 90% of the harvest happening during the first weeks, at least in those areas with an early season rut.

I should add that I remember guys who preferred to be the drivers, rather than the standers. And that was for good reason. They were the ones that we great snap shooters who could bring a deer down quickly and cleanly. Some would sometimes see bedded deer and get them before they jumped.

These were also times when success was measured more in what goes into a ice chest, rather than on a wall.

They use deer drives all the time in Wisconsin, the gun season is only 9 days long and after opening weekend the deer turn nocturnal. Usually drives are reserved for the second weekend when people need to fill their tags as it does drive deer onto other peoples land for them to shoot. Plots of land up there are small usually 40 to 200 acres so neighbors will get together and make pushes. You need about 8 guys or more to be successful (the more the better) that gives you 5 drivers and 3 sitters. The drivers walk about 50 yards apart through the thickest cover you can find while the sitters wait where they can shoot in open land. The deer can fly out in any direction but the downside of all of this is your shooting, usually, at moving deer, which is why I don't do it anymore. Also make sure you are doing it with responsible hunters as shots present themselves with drivers in the distance, so sitters need to wait until the deer clear the unsafe zone and present a safe shot. We used to rotate the drivers and the sitters from drive to drive. So long story short, get a big group (the more the better) of responsible guys, find small sections of thick bedding areas, strategically set up your shooters, and get to walking! Wear blaze orange and be safe, good luck.

Funny thing is, when I told my buddies how they hunt with feeders in Texas, they couldn't believe it, while down here nobody does deer drives or can't believe that people hunt that way. It's weird how different people in different parts of the country hunt the exact same animal in two completely different ways.

We did them in Michigan all the time. 14 day season and we always did drives starting Thanksgiving day until the end of the season on November 30th. Usually small woods(15-30 acres) in the middle of fields.

Also used to have the farmer cut down all of the corn around one of the small woods, then position hunters in the woods and have the farmer start harvesting again farthest from the woods. When he got down to the last 50 rows or so you had better be ready.

Yes it is.

Coordinated deer drives that include neighboring hunters is a completely different mindset than what we find here.

In fairness, we weren't feeding year round or investing near as much as hunters in TX do. We got our tags and went hunting. Back then raised blinds were not allowed so we made them out of logs laying around. Food plots were pretty much a waste because you could never compete with all the crops, apple trees etc.

The best shooters were chosen but the meat was shared with the drivers so there weren't hard feelings. Plus we all grew up together, helped out on each others farms etc. Different time, not sure how much of it they do these days.

I've done them in Oklahoma. Pushed deer out of draws and crp

Also done them in CO when I was a kid

This is a landmark late November event in Europe. Last 2 weeks of November to the first week of December is the Drive hunt for Roe, Fallow, Red Stag and wild boar.

I have seen pretty good shots on moving deer, but I still reserve those for shots on wild boar. Deer can get messed up something awful by a poorly placed shot while on the move.

Opening day in Southern Ohio National Forest. Our group is lined up before dawn. Shotguns cannot be loaded before legal light. Two old timers, with old school muzzles head out to a pinch point. The rest of us hike down a mile and enter the forest. We have 12 drivers, all in orange. We push deer toward the old timers, and then a flash, blast, then another. One doe and one buck down. The old timers have been given the respect and honor. They retire to camp with their meat and the rest of us spread out over 2000 acres. Now that the deer are moving,I had an easy shot on a 180 lb doe. Sitting in a draw, back against a hickory. Shot the doe with a sabot slug at 85 yards. The drive worked, and the old guys got to tell another fabulous story. Not sure why we don't don't do it in Texas these days. Guess we are not hunting a large enough tract of land. Sometimes I think those traditions out east are what deer hunting is all about.

IMO, you see them more up north because of the terrain, limited stands of vegetation and shelter belts. Plus the short seasons.

We do them fairly often on my place in Texas. Being on the place for 20 years has helped some of us to learn typical "escape" routes in different pastures when pressured. One particular pasture, we learned from watching the rancher check his cows. He circled a certain path through the senderos and pushed about 30 deer out one end, across a waterway to another stand of trees. We rarely attempt a drive until late season.

Being that most of our land has vegetation and cover of some sort, drives are a little more difficult because the deer can easily circle around instead of being directed to the ones sitting and waiting.

I also agree that there are possibly more deer wounded during drives than otherwise, since you are more than likely shooting at a moving target. The pasture mentioned above allows the "sitters" to be stationed in a band of trees about 800 yards away. The deer are typically slowing down, and many times stop in the edge of the tree line for a shot opportunity.

Drives wouldn't work on any of the places I hunt. Too thick.

It's good to know the tactic still exists in some areas of the country. I hate to see any good aspect of our sport come to an end, and especially those that require teamwork between hunters.

They exist with relative normalcy here in Texas.

I think you're off the mark on your assumption that it's become a rarity in practice.

Again, we do them all the time when the does get spooky and there are still tags to fill.

I going to go out on a limb and say everyone reading this knew what a deer drive was before you explained it to us.

I'm going to go out on another limb and say that deer drives have not been "lost to the ages"- especially since I note that I continue to hear about them, see them on numerous television shows, and read about them (complete with illustrations of various techniques) several times a year in publications like "Field and Stream" and "Outdoor Life".