Alright here is my thoughts. A buddy and I have been after this monster of a buck for a couple of years now. I wouldn't doubt if he's pushing 160-170 class. I kicked him out of his bed one afternoon while driving through a meadow. He then went across the road to our other piece of land. Then when rifle season came along my buddies family drove that woods and kicked him up again. He was shot at but nobody hit him. A week or two later the neighbors saw him on their land. My question is, did we kick him out of our area? There is still sign of him around on our land but i'm not sure if it's the same buck. I would hate to see this big guy leave our property.
Most likely you will not see him again. At least not this season. He is that big for a reason. If you want to keep big bucks on your land you'll need to change your hunting style.
Big bucks may let you bust them once, but twice and he's learned. DO NOT ALLOW DEER DRIVES, and losing monster bucks to others will be minimized in my opinion. He may come back in a year or so if you have great cover for bedding, but not this year that's for sure....unless a little hot doe lures him that is.
I'm the buddy from the OP. I'm not a fan of deer drives because it throws everything I put into bow hunting out the window. However i'm not the only family member that hunts our 2 woods and cannot stop the others from doing deer drives. It blows, but there's nothing I can do. One thing about our area is that all the woods around us get absolutely hammered during rifle season and the deer bounce back and forth between the different wooded sections like pinballs. If the buck is being pushed out of everything around him will that push him completely out of the area or will he find somewhere that is pressured left? Blackpowder just opened up by us this last weekend and one of the neighbors bumped him up walking to his stand. So after 9 days of rifle season and a weekend of blackpowder he's managed to stay in the area this long. Think he'll still hang around or will he just disappear?
I would doubt he's going to leave the property, but I'd bet the only way you're going to see him any more this year is going to be once again bumping him out of his bed. His natural movement from here on out will probably be under the cover of darkness. I'm sure you've been hunting this style for years and if he's as big as you think, he is most likely 4 or older, he's been through pressure before.
I must say I hate Drives. I hate the fact of walking through the whole woods and scenting it all up and kicking deer out like this one i'm talking about here. But it's not my land. Only my buddies land that i'm greatful for him and his family for letting me hunt on it during the bow season. And that's what they do, they drive woods'. So it's not my place to tell them how they should hunt, but yes my guess is that he has gone completely nocturnal from here on out.
Okay I bit....they aren't hunting...drives are killing IMO. Before everyone jumps on me I said it's my opinion and I respect others with differing ones. Besides the above though your last sentence I guess wouldn't be too bad if it is true. Let him go nocturnal now and maybe, BIG MAYBE you'll have a shot on him in late bow season when food becomes the main thing on his mind or you can hope you can catch him next season...but him going nocturnal wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.
Even a better reason to stop driving deer all together. Everything will be pushed to your land assuming you have the habit to support them. Sounds like you all need to have a sit down and figure out what is import. Killing deer, or hunting monster bucks!
My relatives that do the drives always wait til second weekend to hunt our woods. A lot of deer get pushed to the woods then they drive them out and start blasting away like World War III. They're not stupid, just ignorant that we could have more chances at big bucks if they didn't do drives. I've tried to convince them otherwise but they always shoot me down because that's they way they've been doing it for x number of years. That's the sucky things about relatives. You don't get to choose them haha.
start threads like this and print them out and show them. It's insane to do drives on ground you want to have a more consistent chance at good bucks.
If a deer could truly understand everything that happens in the woods and everything around him that he see's everyday no one would ever kill a mature deer. Deer are just scared little rabbits hiding in plain sight for the most part until his brain between his legs gets the most of him then he walks in the daylight.I dont think he understands the term deer drive or whether he would even get up out of his hiding spot unless you almost step on him...more often he will let you walk by and then sneek out the back door to a clump of grass or small ditch in the middle of a corn field less then a foot deep and thats where he will stay until night fall. Once a deer gets into lockdown phase of the rut if you dont move them you may not see a deer while on stand,your better off bumping a buck with a doe then quickly moving a stand as close as you dare then wait until they try and move back in. Deer just are not that smart they are driven by fear and the single chance a year to have sex and food is just a after thought. just my 2 cents but we give this animal too many thing quality's that he is just not capable of understanding.
I agree. But I also think that prolonged pressure will eventually cause a big shift in a deer's train of thought. I've got pictures of this guy from three years back. No pictures since then, but sightings from the neighbors and some relatives and this year was the first time any sightings have been accompanied by gun shots. Like you said, we give deer too many qualities that are just beyond them. Hopefully short term memory sets in since this was his first run in with hunters.
I still see deer in Wildlife areas and such, places that get CRAZY year round pressure. Deer live where they live, period.
