Got ya. And after I thought about it, there is quite a bit of timber in the Iowa River corridor.

how we did >90% or our hunting the first 25 years I hunted then it went down a little every year , so many places getting broken up to smaller and smaller parcels it gets harder to do , we do a few drives year now.

I remember folks down in eastern Iowa surrounding a plum thicket and all walking to the center. I never figured out how those folks didn't kill each other. They'd get towards the center and the amount of shots fired was stupendous.

It's still big around here. Lots of guys out there.



Most of the deer I shot with a gun were not standing still. Lots running pretty fast. In fact, I don't recall the last one I shot standing still. I do remember a couple many years ago, but surely I have shot one standing since then. Shot one in mid-air as it was jumping a fence, perfect shot placement too but it was only 40 yards or so.

A lot of the big river timber is south of here, here you can see across the river from a mile away.

A couple groups still get after it in NW Pa.
The one bunch is from, gulp, Pittsburgh.
Many ended along with the camp traditions,
and flat-out laziness.

Sometimes you get them standing still, sometimes they're trotting a long, and sometimes they're running full tilt. Just take the shots you're comfortable with.

Still do it here in pa. But hunters are getting lazy and most sit next to the truck.

you have to have discipline

you have to work the terrain

sometimes you're carrying your gun to have it on the next drive where you are the stander.

you have to know your crew

you have to train your crew

we used to do a few drives where the driver was on hands and knees for most of 200 yards in a overgrown Christmas tree farm
there were a few brakes in the trees where you could see , everyone stopped at those made sure everyone was back in line then big arm rotation given and returned so everyone saw and knew when to go.
as an example of working terrain we always drove it west no matter the wind , it started 20 feet off a road but ended going over a ridge the standers would get about 50 yards back down low from the ridge , the way deer shot out of the west end of the pines you never had a chance to shoot at the top of the ridge any way about 20 yards down the other side they would start to slow down , you were shooting into a hill side and you broke the shot when they hit the bottom , if you dropped them right there you could drive the truck down a field road and load them no dragging.

soon as the orange was out of the pines they held at the top till everyone was out , then the drive was over as it was not uncommon for deer to still be pushing out after the first guy was out , someone might have gotten 20 yards behind and that was enough to hold deer.

3 steps , stop look for 3-4 seconds , 3 steps , stop look 3-4 seconds , it sounds a little like a squirrel hopping through he woods , a very slow push , we had drives with multiple ridges in them where often the drivers shot as many or more deer than the standers , because deer want to circle back so they would get up walk out and turn and walk right into the view of the next driver over , you stayed so you could just see each others orange.


really glad my son got to experience it , it is a dying culture and I think we did it really well.
if I get grandkids , I doubt there will be hardly any drives left by the time they would get old enough

we used to team up with another family down the road , we would go over how slow we wanted them to go , they were an all right bunch but we had to stagger us and them so that we could keep them in line or they would get to walking and it is slower than a slow walk

you can also do 20 minute leap frog 2 man drives first guy gets in legal shooting distance off the road and a touch more then down about 50 yards 5 minutes later second guy walks in slowly , very slowly to find his spot he might go about 70-90 yards in but 50 yards over , then after they set 20 minutes , guy one goes he goes in so he is about 70 yards past his partner , then sets 20 more minutes go buy and the partner goes about 70 yards past his partner , and you do that slowly so you set for 30-35 minutes move for 5-10

some people do top and bottom of the hour. but you get the idea , it moves deer and when they go to circle around you they run into your still setting partner

My son usually has one or two a year at their place to help thin some does. Always a fun time and generally a good many does killed.

Grew up doing drives in both MN and WI. The WI gang had at times 20 hunters. Some of the drives were 2 miles long. Often the drivers had the most shooting. My dad had a hard time walking so he was always put on stand. His most memorable WI drive was having 44 deer come out and not a one had horns. Most of the gang is dead now and the guys that do hunt are young and drunk. These days I have my own land and am content sitting in a ladder stand.

WS

Very common here.

But, there is a pack of hounds doing the driving.

The hunters are in 4x4 trucks spaced out along private roads and standing on their dog boxes with rifles....waiting for their opportunity.

Very sociable and traditional way to hunt deer in the pineywoods swamps.

I like “moving” deer to one or two shooters using the wind and going real slow and stopping a lot. Keeping a smoke on the go helps move them and keeps track of the wind. On river islands the “mover” always starts off walking away from shooters on up wind side of island. If you go slow enough the deer don’t bust to the water but rather circle around to the shooters end of island. We usually do this bow hunting and it works very well. The deer are walking slow and stopping often to check on the mover. Offers good bow shots.

Works good on narrow strips of timber too. Sometimes if it’s real narrow I don’t even enter the timber, just walk field edge away from shooter on upwind side. Deer circle to shooter. Shooter is best set up at 1/3rd of island or strip length rather than the end. The deer seem to get nervous when they get closer to the end. 1/3 from end is about where they “hang up” and start thinking about circling back.

We all got too old or dead and the younger guys would rather sit and play video games.

Used to hunt deer with dogs 40-50 years ago in Eastern NC. Sometimes at lunch we would walk out a few heads. Can be lots of fun.

Up until about ten years ago, I had a 12-15 man crew for bear and deer driving. We had about 2000 acres of private ground to push off. It was a blast. Unfortunately, time and old age caught up with us.

Always exciting when you were mid drive and the watchers started shooting.

Used to 30 years ago had around 20 guys never hit the same piece of ground each day.most of us had 2 permits and would usually tag out every season.between land getting sold and some of the guys getting older we make a couple small drives and sit the rest of the time.we made alot of memories and had a ton of fun.

Not much driving going on anymore. I try to get a group together to do some one day each season but usually can only get 5 or 6 guys at a time so its not enough to be truly effective. We used to have a group of 15 to 20 guys that hunted together. We drove every day. If you were available you just showed up and joined in wherever the group happened to be. Now its increasingly difficult not only to get the guys, but also finding the land to do it on. Many of the places we used to push have leased out the hunting rights and many others have had sections sold. More and more people from the city come out to buy a "hunting property" which often consists of a 5 acre tract in the middle of a larger woods. They typically will absolutely not allow anyone on their property, so it often effectively shuts down driving of many of the neighboring properties as well.

Why would I crawl out of my deer blind, abandon my Mr. Buddy heater and waste freshly thrown corn from the deer feeder just to maybe get shot on a deer drive?

I've been part of a few back in the old days. They can definitely work.

We have dog drives here whether you want one or not. Trapping season starts the same day deer hunting with dogs starts so I hang up my deer hunting gear and break out the traps. I dont think it's ethical hunting deer with dogs. They chase deer day and night for 6 weeks. Then in the spring when the does ard dropping fawns the dog hunters just have to turn the dogs loose on them again. It's really good for the coyotes because those dogs separate momma from the fawns making them an easy meal for the coyotes. I've never understood that!