Sometimes the ones on the outside was there before you got there

I don't even carry a gun in that country. Them boys are to clanny over there. They scare me.

Man I miss deer drives. I think my Dad was a better shot at running deer than standing. But, around here now if you do drive deer you probably would get shot by a non resident land owner who think they own everything or the QDM guy because of antler envy…

I grew up jump hunting deer, basically still hunting the heavy coastal brush, if you made too much noise those blacktails would just slip out of there before you ever got close, but if you slipped up close before they realized you were around they would panic and take off. Shot a lot of deer that were in mid jump when I seen them and would have been out of sight by the time they hit the ground. I don't do it too much any more on mule deer and whitetails, but is still about the funnest way to hunt. Also grew up elk hunting by tracking them, usually dry ground. As the older guy who taught me how to elk hunt always said, "get'em running, they are easier to track that way." If you are in good enough shape you can run elk down in a little while, they'll be standing there with their tongue hanging out, looking back to see what's chasing them. I've missed a few shots at deer or elk running through the brush or timber, usually by swinging and leading them and hitting something that is between us, but not too many.

I hate the stand hunt mentality these days. I guide lots of hunters that are unable or unwilling to shoot offhand, much less at anything moving. Makes it a real challenge to get them an elk, you are about stuck with sitting evenings, because hiking in the mornings when you see one it isn't likely to stand around and let you take your gun off your shoulder (I often threaten to cut all my hunters slings when they show up, if you don't have your gun in your hand when you see an elk your chances of getting a shot off just dropped at least 50%) find a rest, and fiddle with your scope. Now if they can shoot 5-600 yards that is a different story, but most of them are only comfortable to 200, and then need a rest and a perfect broadside shot.

Curious how many wounded deer y’all have running around up there, lol? What bullets y’all shooting at running anything? I know if our little deer can take off down here being shot at 50-100yd broadside and travel a ways, how do y’all even know if you hit it or not? If they drop you hit it, if they keep running you missed? Anyone go look 300-400yds away and look for blood?

I realize there’s many different ways to hunt deer. I always disliked the idea of pushing bush.

Milo Hanson buck was the result of guys pushing bush. I’d shoot a 120 all day over a 160 pushed by the bro’s to me.

We ain’t pushing drugged deer, lol?

We push small pines (bush) next to the highway for two reasons…
1) Someone wanted to sue the landowner when they hit a deer in front of the property.
2) Owner is tired of his landscape being destroyed by deer.
Some find it cool to wake up and see deer off their front or back porch. Down here when they’re finishing up your $10K landscaping when you wake up you get a little ticked off. He’s almost to the point of high fencing the entire place and killing every deer on the property. It seems the more we kill, the more there are, lol.

Of course you look for blood. Usually easy to tell if a deer has been hit, but you need to check anyway.

I have shot many more running deer than standing , 125 yards being the farthest , we try and put standers close enough that everyone is able to see the stander to each side of them and really cover the drive so none slip through.

I definitely would not call it open country at all where we did drives you could seldom see more than 150 yards and often less than that we worked terrain and elevation a lot to make drives safe a few drives the drivers only carried their guns so that they had them later , they were not going to shoot driving the pines
other drives the drivers are almost as likely to shoot a deer as the standers

the buck I shot at 125 yards I put 3 of 4 rounds in a softball size group in that deer.
I missed the first shot when it was doing the bouncy run, round 2 the first hit would have been a fatal shot but I hate chasing them so shot it to the ground and when it looked like it might get up gave it one more.
semi auto 30-06.
it was just 3 of us doing that drive 1 driver 2 standers they stared giving me a hard time for shooting so fast till they saw the group.

I actually prefer when they go to head down because it flattens the back out and it doesn't bounce up and down I make sure I am on them for 2 strides then squeeze off the round , keep following can do a round every 2-4 strides till on the ground

most of my deer are 12ga shotgun slug deer and ranges are under 80 yards most between 20 and 60 yards

we used to do drives all day

you also start to learn where they will run most often this was aided by there being stone fences on many of the drives and they would run to the opening in the fence so we would post up a shooter behind a tree about 15-20 yards inside that break in the fence so that the deer basically runs right to them.

there are things you can do to get better at shooting quick and accurate enough , we had a drive that almost always put a left right runner at 20-40 yards in front of me I got really good at the hard right clay from station 5 at the trap house starting with the gun in 2 hand ready carry not mounted to the shoulder. My uncle would peu me on that position every time unless I had already shot a deer because I rolled a lot of deer on that drive.

getting my son ready for the quick shooting I would put up paper plates as targets staggered left right down the gravel road down the rifle range give them numbers and call off numbers he had to shoot on the plate hits count misses don't and I started calling time sooner and sooner. he got very frustrated by it for a while but he got it when the time came to shoot the deer that ran to him , saw him stopped and it was down before it had time to change directions

you are absolutly right in that it is not for everyone and it takes planning to do it safely.

I used to run elk down. Never seen anyone else talk about that. It works.

There were 12 gun related accidents in WI so far this year. Here is #11:

The victim was deer hunting from a ground blind on private property, adjacent to public hunting land, when a group of seven individuals conducting a
deer drive, shot at two running deer. The victim was struck by a bullet in the leg. The victim was driven to hospital and treated. Victim and shooter
were not members of the same hunting party.


https://widnr.widen.net/s/fz29sg7r6j/2022_hunting_incident_synopsis

Yes, I suppose those small bodied deer in Georgia probably tip over after been hit with a 22 bullet ? But, big bodied northern whitetails that have a live weight of 200-300 lbs can take a lot of lead. I have lethally hit many big bucks with 30-06, 180 gr bullet, in the Adirondack Mountains that have had to be blood trailed to find them. As for shooting at running deer, if you are still hunting or tracking in the snow in the big woods of the Adirondacks or Maine, and don’t shoot at running deer, you will be rarely successful.

Always interesting how ppl judge/disagree with different hunting practices than they are used to. The western hunters can't stand setting and waiting on a stand. They would rather spot an stalk which is impossible in certain areas an takes many many acres. The Midwest an eastern hunters like to have heaters in their apartments they hunt from....I can an have killed deer everyway imaginable. They all taste the same. Like a goat

GreenC=pete got it down to a science
military planning at it's finest


auto correct
was not that buck acouple of years ago pushing 190 of yours

I typically use a 125 grain .30 cal bullet coming out about 2900 fps from a .308. I've also had a .22-250 using a 70 grain bullet as a back-up rifle, I've shot a few deer coming up out of CRP grass with that one. As I've said in my opening, I've emptied my rifle a few times but usually if I have started shooting at one, it ends up going down and found. Given that most of the ground is open and often a person is driving the heaviest cover, a seriously wounded deer is usually spotted fairly easy standing out in a field and then a strategy to get up on them to finish them off can be done. I can't speak of open area hunting surrounded by much heavier cover where deer can escape to, that generally doesn't exist in say much of South Dakota.