Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Hasn’t seemed to matter

If properly done , seems I have done just as well still hunting , set hunting , or tree stands .
Cant say either has been any more productive than the other .
Kenneth

I prefer the zen meditative ground sit under a tree, rifle on lap.

Yeah but it has to be the right tree.

What does matter is the skill of the hunter, and to hunt where the deer are.

I agree, especially with hunting where the deer are. The clowns on most of the TV's hunting shows prove that hunting great places produce results, even if you halfasss know what you're doing. I could put those mullets on my mule deer place and most of them wouldn't see a deer in a week, much less kill one.

Knowing the habits and habitat are the real keys to successful whitetail hunting. Knowing how sunrise and sunsets move whitetails through heavy cover is very important. Knowing the fields they feed in at night and setting up in favorable wind at sunrise or prior to sunset gives you a great chance at a big buck traveling coulees, creek beds or river bottoms either coming to feed or going to bed down.

You summed it up quite well. Look for scrapes also.sitting on the ground seems to bring me ticks.

I wouldn't say that has been my own experience. I've been seen or scented way more frequently when I've been on the ground than when I've been in a tree stand. My biggest bucks have all been killed from tree stands and the shot presentation has been much better from an elevated stand on an un-alarmed animal.

Agree 100%. First and foremost, gotta fish where the fish are.

You did not include a deer drive, which is in my quiver.

The part about hunting where the deer are is a given. Skill of the hunter does not always matter , case in point is if you put a low skill hunter on stand in a deer drive they have a good chance of scoring.

It’s all effective. Where I hunt, pressure from other hunters, and lately from dog walkers and birdwatchers is key to how and where I go on the WMA. With normalization well along, I expect that those pressures will be reduced on weekdays, at least.

As a stiff old man, treestands are less alluring than they once were, especially the hanging part. Sitting on the ground ain’t much better, so I bought a nice Alps stool with compartments and added shoulder straps. Only a fraction heavier than my regular pack, and it puts me high enough to see and shoot without cramping. Still hunting is risky on public land unless the parking lots are empty. It’s a great way to find good sitting spots too.

Hard to find people that do deer drives anymore. Too many watch hunting shows. Sometimes you have to beat feet and rattle the bushes to get them to move.

We used to do them when I hunted in Southern Maryland as a lad. Mostly just exercise, and if anyone got any shooting, it was usually a driver. Have to admit they weren’t very well planned.

Deer drives are a blast!

M1A and a big ol mag full of 168 OTM

No doubt that drives move deer and the camps that drove deer back in my youth always had a full meat pole. Our camp was mostly made up of dad's older lodge friends and sons of lodge guys who also didn't know what they were doing. Us younger guys were along to drive the green swamps for the old guys and do dishes. We got more deer when I started my own deer camp. Drives were fun for the camp that was making the drive, but not much fun if you were from another group posting on public land when the drivers came through and emptied the woods. People everywhere was pretty much the reason that I sold out in NE WI and drove 350 miles across the state to get away from people. Brown is down was the mentality in the NE and the older deer live where people aren't.

No doubt deer drives can work for you or against you on public lands. There have been times when I learned a large group was going to hold a drive and I had doe tags in my pocket, I purposely placed myself in the drive and shot deer. On occasion when driving public land other hunters were caught up in our drive and they shot deer. I can recall a handful of times that at the end of the drive we helped the hunter drag out their deer.

A drive does not always empty the woods as you say. One of the biggest bucks I have ever shot in Jackson County east of Black River Falls, WI was when I was on a stand along Hay Creek in public land. I was there at the crack of dawn and about 9:00 AM a group of hunters pushed a drive right past me. I waved as a couple drivers went buy. A few minutes afterward here come a buck and two does sneaking thru the tag alders right towards me.

Over the years I have learned a lot about deer behavior when they are subjected to a deer drive. At my Grandfather's deer camp in the big woods of northern Wisconsin, Dad, uncles, cousins, friends and myself we would take turns driving and standing. The drive consisted of a straight line, yeh, it had to be straight and we moved at a steady pace to the end. There was a lot of deer killed, but some of us noticed that a buck would stay put in what ever cover he was hiding in and after the drivers went by they broke out of there. I and some of the other youngsters suggested we slow down or stop and go the drive. Nope, the old timers said we have been doing it our way for years and shot a lot of deer. Plus, there was always another drive to be made and we got to get to it.

Years later, my brother and I established our own deer camp, although in the central part of Wisconsin. Built a cabin on land right in the middle of the Black River State Forest and next to acres and acres of county land. This was former ag land in sandy soil and the farmers went broke back in the 1930s drought years. State and county bought up this land and in some cases even relocated the farmers. My brother and I along with some cousins and a few friends formed a new way to drive deer. There was always 15 to 20 hunters in the group. We begin implementing a slow start and stop movement of the drivers in a straight line and this seemed to help keep deer ahead towards the standers. Then we noticed deer were moving left and right across the front of the drivers and the very outside drivers were seeing deer bust out of the drive formation.

We put our heads together and decided that if we set up a "V" formation with tip of "V" directed towards standers that this would confuse the deer even more than a start/stop movement. Wow! Did this ever change deer movement. The standers saw more deer straight ahead of them which meant the deer were not busting out left and right of the drive as much as in the past. Plus, the very outside drivers got more close shot opportunities.

A engineer in the group, my brother-in-law, suggested we set up a half-moon or half-circle formation with start/stop. The effect this had was the deer. instead of generally staying within the drive, were busting out of the drive and some trying to circle back in behind the drive. The very outside drivers got some shooting, but stander shots diminished, so we abandoned that idea.

What formation are we using today? "V" with two drag drivers at the mouth of the "V". Those drag drivers are catching some nice bucks who think it is smart to circle back behind the drive instead of busting out into the unknown.

Lots of good points here . Yes I did forget the drive and have only been involved in three , they were productive . Have been on several dog hunts , as any hunting , if the deer are there , it works .
But not my cup of tea , but like the drivers , if you're in the area , it can turn a dead day lively .
Never hunted a store bought blind but a couple times , not much luck , but setting in natural cover works great . Tree stands need to be located with concealment in mind too .
Checking the cameras , seems promising for a good meat harvest , but so far nothing like in the past . Number of hunters has took a serious upturn and seems the bug bucks have gotten less and less or moved .
Good luck to all , Kenneth

Roundoak, I've been reading here long enough to know that your hunters know what they are doing drive wise and you guys kill some terrific animals over there. The old guys in our camp were calling the shots and because we had pretty inexperienced guys making the drives, they insisted that like a lot of camps everybody barked like dogs or made as much noise as possible to scare the deer and to keep us all in line. We even had a guy who would shoot up half a box of '06's every drive because according to him, that really scared the deer. Talk about screwing up the peace and tranquility of what a lot of people posting are looking for in a hunting experience! No doubt those big bucks go nocturnal and need a push to get them on their feet, but how we did it was pretty ineffective and other hunters never wanted to be in the same woods with us. I also remember one time when I was driving my Blazer down a logging road when guys were just finishing up a drive and a doe came running out between me and a stander. It made my blood run cold when I saw him pull up about to cut loose on that deer. The difference in the number of shots that you hear today vs. back in the driver days tells you that most guys are stationary one and done hunters instead of the volleys of shots that we heard back in the '70's when everyone had a 742 Remington.

When I was a kid it was 742’s in 30-06 with an aftermarket (illegal) 10 rd mag stoked full of 180gr Sierra RN. Never forget they put this guy on stand who couldn’t shoot for [bleep], my uncle told him, we drive those deer down you drop every round in that magazine!

Sounded like all hell broke loose and when we got down there, there were 8 dead deer and 2 blood trails that led to two more.
He was grinning like an idiot and everyone else was trying to count how many tags the group could muster up really quick.
When we headed home that night they were all piled in the back of uncles baby blue econoline van. I’ll never forget how funny it looked all those deer piled up in there. I remember cutting and grinding meat for what seemed like an eternity and all the men drinking out of mason jars. I asked dad what it was and he said “some good old Mountain Dew”. Nobody does deer drives around here anymore.

I was born in Montana and lived there until I was 15 and moved to Wisconsin when my Dad moved the family to Wisconsin to take over his Dad's farm. Since then I go back to hunt Montana with my relatives there. They weren't too interested the first time I suggested a good old Wisconsin deer drive, but one day they reluctantly agreed to try one. After horsing around and jaw jacking near the pickups for awhile, I got them set up in a deep coulee to push from down low to high.

While getting into position one driver jumped a 30" buck and put him down. The drive produced another two nice bucks and a camp meat dry doe. Moved the whole gang (13) over to another good size coulee. While I was walking down a small coulee to get in position as a right wing driver, jumped a real dandy, but it was out of sight before I could get a bead on it. Saw it one more time way out of range heading for the Missouri to the north. When my watch reached the start time, I began moving and about 5 minutes later heard rocks or gravel rattle around a bend, but did not see a animal. Shortly after, 5 rifle cracks were heard. At the end of the driver there was three nice bucks down. They were part of a bachelor band of four.

Every year now the boys ask "when we going to do a good old Wisconsin deer drive"? The only thing that changed is the guys got rid of their cowboy boots. LOL

Agree 100%. First and foremost, gotta fish where the fish are.

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X 4 and roundoak...you have to know WHERE to drive also.

Jerry

Right place at the right time.

I shot my biggest buck while standing very still on a 16" tall tree stump in the middle of a knee deep clear cut. I was staring down a doe that approached and was about to blow when I noticed his antlers heading my way. I thought for sure he would turn tail when she blew. She blew and he kept coming. I slowly raised my rifle and waited for him to get about 20 yards away. The rut was my friend!

Last year my 14 year old son shot the biggest deer anyone at camp can remember. He was on an atv, riding with his buddy, heading back to camp for lunch. Noticed the deer coming off a ridge, about 100 yards away. Stopped the atv, got off, grabbed his friends rifle out of a loud plastic scabbard, loaded it, set up and took the shot at about 30 yards as the buck approached. Dropped the deer with a .300 wsm. 21-1/2" inside spread 8 point. Great deer for down in those parts.

I was surprised to find the slug just inside the hide on the opposite side of its neck. I need to ask what bullet that was. Again, the rut causes bucks to be reckless.

x 1000% !!!

Michigan tradition is to sit on a bucket (or in a blind, or in a treestand) & wait for them to come to you. Been very successful over the decades doing that, fishing where the fish are. I'm a meat hunter and get my share of does. Not really interested in trophy hunting, but never said "no" to any buck the good Lord has put in front of me.

But NOTHING beats a good old fashioned deer drive! Hunted Iowa for 15 years with a group of locals in farm country with access to 10's of thousands of acres over three counties. Every one of them good old boys knew all the local farmers & got exclusive access. Man, did we ever pile them up! Every drive started by diagramming each drive like a football paly and assuring safety of every hunter. But it paid dividends! Slowest year for our group of 12-14 hunters was 17 deer. Typical years were 25-30 deer. Our best years was 42! But that requires a whole different level of skill, shooting at running deer. Iowa was exclusively shotgun back then, and you really had to know how to successfully lob that football downrange. Harold's pole barn looked like a meat locker with all those deer hanging from the rafters. Miss those days.

You Iowa shooters must have been better shots than our Wisconsin shooters. At one time roughly half the state was shotgun slugs only for deer season until someone did the math and found that there was too much lobbing and not enough hitting. Statistics showed that there were more shotgun incidents than rifle incidents where those were permitted, so now the entire state is rifles allowed state wide.

The rut is a BIG help in making deer seem stupid. Not always, but sometimes. Here in PA the rut kicks in at the very end of archery season but is over by the time rifle season comes.

In more than 50 years of whitetail hunting I've shot them while sitting on the ground, leaning against a tree, from tree stands and box blinds. All have worked when hunting where the deer are, only shot one buck when the rut was hottest. He had his nose to the ground tracking the scent of does that had walked thru earlier. Nothing else seemed to matter to him although he did occasionally check the air above ground level. Last time he put his nose in the air I let him have a 12ga slug square in the chest, he was a DRT.

I hunt the blue ridge mountains the secret is choke points during the rut deer are lazy and take the easiest rout use the terrain I’m also surrounded by people with loud atvs going in after daylight I’m there before hand by walking

Hunting where game is is the #1 factor in success. LOL

The rut is pretty much over here in eastern Va when the general firearms season starts. Nonetheless, I've still managed to kill deer during the rut - with my truck. It does make them dumb. During the rut, you see dead bucks on country roads every few miles. But even though the rut is over by the time general firearms season starts, doe in estrus scent still works well. I killed a late December deer hauling ass up a riverine that had been shot at by another hunter several hundred yards away. It got to the scent and came to a dead stop and put its nose in the air.

I've killed the most deer sitting on the same stool I use for dove hunting behind a quick set ground blind I use for turkey hunting. I want to find a packable swivel chair as my legs and butt start to get numb sitting on that stool too long.

Still hunting has been productive for me, but I only do it on private land or on remote public land if there isn't any evidence of other hunters.

On high pressure public land, I tend to hunt the areas beyond the point where I don't see any more vienna sausage cans on the ground.

lots of my friends in PENN would have deer drives when we were kids. I participated in a couple of them and saw lots of deer, never scored on a drive though. The older bucks will lay down flat and allow drivers to walk by them, black bears will do it also. One of the issues was making sure standers stay put until the drive is over, especially the young guys.

If bucks are staying put when drivers come thru the drivers are walking too fast and not pausing. If a driver pauses momentarily near a laid low buck, nine times out of ten his nerves will explode and he will blast out of there.

silent drives are the best IMO. 3-4 man sweeping slow and walking noisy. standers sit tight until the drivers move well past. i've had bucks sneaking back through well after drivers disappeared. happened a couple of years ago. real nice half rack came in on me but it was too close and smelled me and split.

Couple years ago I hunted near a house where the owner would walk his lab every afternoon...on a lease and pulling that owner alone. I was set up in a ground blind as they would walk by 50 yards away. If I had a window unzipped as they approached and my scent blowing to that lab...he would smell me every time and he would go crazy wanting to come toward that scent...pulling on the lease. Now if I would have all windows closed...no scent escaping that dog would walk on past and never knew I was there. I saw this happen several afternoons so goes to show how well they can smell...and a deer can smell you better than that. Have seen them go on alert 200 yards away if they get your scent. Wonder we ever kill one.

Deer are like humans. There are dumb ones and smart ones. I’ve seen big bucks that had to wind me, keep coming right in. I’ve seen does where I know they couldn’t smell me or see me, just know something was up and zero in on me from 200 yards. I’ve watched deer wind me or see me and blow and take off, while multiple other deer, including nice bucks watched them do it and continued on with their business like nothing happened. On the other hand, I’ve had instances where I heard one blow and then listened as deer all over the place started blowing and stomping.

I used to get really upset if I got winded or spooked a deer, now I just continue hunting. In areas with a lot of deer, there seem to be nervous nellies who spook at anything, some who will spook but they need to see and smell it themselves, and some who don’t seem to care a bit no matter what happens. When you get in areas where you see twenty or more in a day and you are somewhat selective, you observe a lot of things and see deer with individual personalities and quirks.