Thanks for the comments. I can see your line of thought on dogs running through properties, but fortunately the club I hunt with is over 6000 acres and growing. The problem I don't understand is sometimes through just inexperienced hunters and young teenagers we sometimes let the deer get out of the hunt. We respect other clubs rights and private properties, we have tracking collars on the dogs so no big deal they will eventually come back to us. There are still-hunters that would just as soon shoot a dog to get rid of the problem they think they have. No our club isn't 200 acres, with a bunch of people sitting on dog boxes. As a primarily dog hunting club, we work hard to drive deer out of those swamps and creeks where the bucks lay up. Our Dog drivers, me included, we walk the woods, interior part of the hunt and do what some aren't willing to do, "Busting Briars". All of our standers are on the perimeter of about 1000 to 2000 acre section of club hunting with shotguns (rifles aren't allowed on dog drives for safety issues). I have been a stander, and let me tell you something, you have to still hunt even on a dog drive. I can not tell you how many times deer have come by me and not a dog any where around. All of our dog men have told numerous stories how they walked right up on deer. The deer is not going to move unless you move him. If dogs run through your stand, the deer has already been through there. And if the deer went that way out its going to come back that way. I can't tell you how many times the dog drive has ended and I chose to stay on my stand or move to the spot that the deer went through and I saw the deer come back!!!! I like to still-hunt but I love to dog hunt too. I can not imagine hunting deer without my dogs. The dogs get more pleasure than I do, and that's saying something! I just think still-hunters that have a problem with dog hunting, should think about what it will do to us if we aren't allowed to hunt the way we like to hunt. How would the still-hunter feel if their land were taken from them because dog people grumbled all the time. This is a real problem. I have 16 dogs all black and tan coon hounds. All of them eat good and go to the vet. I am not the only hunter that has dogs that would be affected. This thing with dog hunting can and will hurt the economy, it will hurt the animals, and it will hurt most of the dog hunter. I get meat everytime I go on a dog drive. I don't get meat everytime I still-hunt. And for the dogs, some of the dogs I have right now I have acquired because they have put out in the sandhills because of this new no-dog-running change, I feel sure. I am not against still-hunting, I like it, but I think a person ought to have the right to hunt game the way they like to, as long as it doesn't break any rules in the regulation books. IF YOU HAVEN'T BEEN ON A DOG DRIVE, DON'T KNOCK IT UNTIL YOU TRIED IT.

In response to Benjismokin, while I respect your opinion, I still disagree. On dog drives it is mandatory on our club that all hunters use shotguns. We are spaced out on a huge tract of land and contrary to what you may believe the deer isn't going to hear the dogs running one deer and all of them jump up scared and be running in every direction. I have sat on a deer drive before and dogs be running through an area close by and leave, hour or two go by I am still sitting there and a deer just walk right in front of me. No help from the dogs!! Basically still hunting. Besides if you are a deer hunter sitting up in a tree watching no should I say baiting (which mind you when I am not dog driving is just what I have done)deer, where is the sport in that. The deer walk right out in front of you, and you kill it while it is eating!!! What you then, executioner giving it its last supper? On dog drives the deer is given fair chase and it knows we are there and depending on the knowledge of the hunters its up to them to have enough of sense to know where the deer is more than likely to go or run to. And let me tell you most of the time, the deer is not run to death, we usually "harvest" the animal once its jumped within twenty minutes or so. As for the major help, you may need it when one night in the future(after they ban all dog drives) when you driving home after still hunting (more than likely hadn't seen a thing) and a big buck or doe jumps in the front of your vehicle and completely demolishes it. How many deer do you kill in a year? We have harvested over 100 a year for the past two years that I have been keeping record. There is a over abundance of deer you cut out dog drives and see how many car-deer accidents occur. We do the people driving back and forth on the roads a justice.

Thanks CountryboyKrc!!! Some still hunters do not really understand the importance of dogs. I went still hunting last year just to try it out, because I hadn't never tried it before. I was stopped by a man that was hunting on the other end of the bottleneck I was hunting. We had some words, in short he didn't like the idea of me being there. Well, this in itself made still hunting a bad experience for me. I had permission and the guy was just mad because I was there. So I told him to call my uncle if he had a problem with me being there. I went on to the stand and began waiting. The day before I let a nice buck walk because I felt I couldn't get a kill shot with my shot gun. So I waited for the buck to return. This day, my buck came within 20 yards of my stand. He never knew I was there. To all you dedicated still hunters who spend all that money on scent cover you are wasting your money!!! Good ole cedar limbs that I carried into the field from my house done the trick!!! (I had chips in my clothes also.) Needless to say, I felt this might be my only chance since the guy was irritated with me for just being there. I took my shot the buck jumped I shot again and he went down. I stayed in the stand for a good five minutes because I wanted the deer to bleed out and the last thing I wanted was a mad buck running me down!!! The light was gone. I called my uncle and told him what happened. The only thing the deer had slipped through the bean field while I waited and was not where he fell! I told my uncle to bring my black and tan hunting dog, within 30 minutes we had found the deer and drug it to the truck. This deer left no blood trail. I shot him in the neck and chest. So tell me what would have happened to my nice 145 lb. 8 pt. if I had not had deer dogs? I will tell you, my deer would have become coyote or buzzard food. On dog drives, we are a family. Everybody gets along, and we all sit around and talk about what the dogs did or what trick the deer tried to pull on the dogs. But the best thing is we all have fun. We all get meat every time we go hunting. I have not killed my first deer at the club I hunt with yet. But even though I am female, I can't wait to be iniated into a group of people that I have come to love and respect as true sportsmen. I sat in my deer stand my uncle built for me about 2 hours, quiet, alone, and even though I killed my first deer (a buck at that) I was wishing all the time I had someone there to share it with. I climbed down from the stand and took my deer to the processor. There were no guys around to pat me on my shoulder, there was no story to tell how I got my deer. The only story I had was a disgruntled still hunter trying to stop me and my dog finding my deer. My buck walked into that field looking for the corn I put out, and the doe he thought he heard calling. There is no sport in still hunting. That deer has not a chance in getting away when he comes in range of your gun. A hunter a true hunter who wants to be challenged, will get out there on a dog drive and test his ability to kill a deer fairly. Shoot at a moving target and then see if you are as good a marksman as you brag to be!!!! Or listen to the dogs running, do you have what it takes to know that deer is about 5 sometimes 10 minutes ahead of the dogs and while you are sitting there on a dog drive basically still hunting on the ground that deer the dogs is running way on the other side of the property may have done slipped right by you and you never even saw it. Dog driving is in my blood. I am pleased to hear other young people have the same passion as me.

Thanks laplant! Yes hunting deer with dogs is very exciting. I went yesterday to get their rabies vaccinations. They thought they were loading up to go hunting!!! Its a shame its illegal there because if you enjoy coonhunting its just as exciting. Last year I got more out of dog drives than still hunting. Its a socialable sport where we all come together and have good clean fun and we come up with meat everytime. It used to be people had to dog hunt because it was necessary to get meat to eat. It might get to be that way in the future. Its in our blood down here in the south. Those that have not done it, need to try it once with a club like ours. We have two meals a day, we have radios to communicate to others where we are and which way the deer are going. We (dog handlers) put a lot of work in to get the deer. But when you hear a pack of my black and tans and walkers mix with my buddies beagles running two of the biggest bucks ever seen in this part of the country it is worth every second of it. The best part I like about dog hunting is you get to see things you don't get to see everyday. Deer and Dogs are very intelligent animals. I have seen deer circle up and down a creek to loose the dogs jump the creek and the dogs pick up the trail and keep going. I guess thats the reason I have such good dogs, they are black and tan coon hounds. If they can track a coon they would almost certainly have to track a deer!!!Its in their blood too.

Thanks! That is more of what I was hoping to hear. We all love to hunt the way we seem to enjoy it best. My question to you, KingFisher907 is "Have you ever been on a dog drive?" I really wish you could come to our club and try it one time. There are a lot of dead set still hunters on our club that really enjoy dog drives just for the excitement and the fellowship with other hunters. I do realize that not all dog hunting clubs have the same ethics as we do, which give clubs like ours, a bad name. As you could also say some still hunters who do disrespectful things give you all a bad name. All I ask is where do we stop arguing among ourselves and stand together and stand up for our rights. And I wish you all the luck in your future hunting as well. I can't wait til this season. We shall compare deer!!!!!

Sorry about that Clay Cooper. I am sorry you have had that experience. The club I hunt with is very strict about those kind of things. If you do it, you get kicked out and your money is nonrefundable. About the trespassing, well again we have thousands of acres of timber company land leased in the country where mostly nobody lives and we respect peoples properties when it comes to our dogs trespassing. We stay put. As for the alcohol if it is found on the club you are kicked out again. We are firm believers in safety first and believe that dog hunters and still hunters alike have the right to drink or what ever else but not on a club where everyone has access to loaded weapons. It just isn't safe. As for the bad experiences, I have had my share from still hunters. I was stopped by a very wealthy drunk landowner who has property connecting to where I still hunt. He not only told me in not so many words he didn't want me there, he later came back stole my corn and sabotaged my buck scrapes. He rode around shooting in the air, rode through my stand with his Gator. Just because I killed a big buck out of my stand. (I used my brains and sat my stand in a spot where the deer cross the field and come out to feed) On the club I hunt at, we have found where still hunters killed a mother and baby cut out the back strap and threw away every thing else. Wasting the meat. Down below my house my uncle has dogs at his house, who happen to be hound mixes. They used to jump deer right there at his house, just in their nature to do it, and run through all the gravel pits. Well the still hunters club that just behind his property, lets just say they put a stop to my uncles dogs period. I don't believe in killing small deer, or dogs for the sake of deer meat. Lets face it, deer meat is good but we aren't starving to death we are all out there doing it for the sport. You have bad apples in everything you go at. Don't give all dog hunters a bad name because you have had bad experiences with the ones around your house. I am a proud still hunter and dog hunter. But I just favor the dog hunting more I guess because I love my dogs and I love to mingle with good decent people who love to dog hunt as much as I do. And lets face it if you are spending around 40 to 50 dollars a week in dog food for your dogs like I am, you want them to run and bring home the meat!!!!!

I don't know where you guys hunt but here in the country of SC hunting is nothing like what you describe. We have no problem with the deer moving to more "remote" areas. For the past five years we have averaged about 100 deer killed on our club which leases land in both SC and NC. We have over 6000 acres in which we hunt. Fortunately for us, Our dogs do not look like a coyote or deer because we have tracking collars and bells on them and another what kind of stupid hunter is going to pull a gun on a target without identifying it to begin with. As for the deer moving, the deer may leave one block of land onto another but it hardly ever leaves our leased land. And when they do, my friends the deer go right back to where they came from. Because we have pulled our dogs off the track of the deer going back into the hunt. Tell me one thing, how is hunting deer with a dogs unethical? What is so ethical and respectful about you hiding in a ground blind or up in a deer stand watching a corn pile and that poor deer unaware of you walk to get something to eat and gets shot 100 to 200 yards in front of you. Where is the sport in that? Anybody can go out there find a deer track and bait it and kill a deer. Not just anyone can go out there and jump a deer and in turn kill it. All your skills are tested on a dog hunt. You got to know where the deer run, what kind of trick the deer is going to play on your dogs, your shooting skills are tested. How well can you shoot at a moving target? Not everyone is cut out to dog drive, because lets face the truth they are just too scared of the work that goes into it. (Really all the work is done by the dog handlers) Another thing I want to add to this interesting topic. We hunt about 4 to 500 acres with maybe 2 to 3 packs of dogs. We have about 17 to 20 standers. These standers are standing on the ground with their shotgun, they are put out surrounding the block of land. Each stander is still hunting. Because from my experience and not just hear say, the deer are sometimes so far ahead of the dogs they have time to come to the stander turn go along parallel to them until they find a spot not covered or until the dogs push them on out. That deer has a chance to get away just like the stander has a chance to kill it if he stays his butt still. I have shot at deer that come out on me, because I wasn't marching like a soldier on duty!!

For the dogs, I will say this. My dogs are not stupid. My dogs are out there because they know if they do their job they will reap the benefits. No part of our deer is wasted. Yes, we feed our dogs the entrails and I might add they love to clean their teeth on a nice buck leg! My dogs do not run no road barking their head off. This hunting season I will take pictures and send it to you guys, my dogs go to those remote areas you talk about and bring the deer out to us. He is scratched all up doing what he loves to do. No this is not shameful because when he is home and running loose he don't have to hunt, but its nothing to hear him open up and run a deer all over this place. They love it just like you do. The only difference is they are willing to go get the deer in places you wouldn't put a foot.

Oh, by the way, did you know that veterinarians now are promoting a dog food that is primarily venison. They have found that venison fed to dogs have great health benefits. Might be why my dogs look so good and have great stamina.

Actually Mr. BigWoodsHunter57 its people like you that made me get on here and try to educate you. We as dog hunters do track down and hunt the deer we just do differently than you. It takes great skill to get out there find the deer trails, their beds, their rubs, their scrapes and know exactly where the deer is going to go out. The dogs job is only to move the deer at the time of our choosing. Mostly to go in and move hopefully that big buck. There is no way on gods green earth me or you or anybody else can go where them dogs can go. And who would want to follow them. Thats where still hunters come in. ALL deer drives have still hunters. Every stander dropped off on their stand on the perimeter of the hunt is a still stander. Now I have seen people march on their stand, smoke on their stand, eat and drink sodas. Then they ask why the deer turned when it came up to them. Then you have still-hunters who come on a deer drive and cant kill a single deer because all they know is shooting a still target!!! I am telling you something I saw something last year I couldn't believe. The dogs was running down the woodline from me and I kept looking out in front of me and to the sides. I knew they rolling fast so the deer was just a little ways in front of them. I looked in front of me again and all of a sudden I saw lightning. Yes, that buck was stretched out flat of the ground and was going so fast I blinked he was gone. Much less trying to get a shot. If you enjoy to hunt as I am sure all of you do, if its legal in your county and state this season I challenge you to find a decent dog hunting club and try it. If you choose to go out there and not still hunt on your stand you are not going to see a thing. But I promise if you go out and do as I do, get on your stand, get comfortable in your chair or own your knee, and sit there perfectly still do not get on the phone or radio just sit there and open your ears and listen to the dogs. You become one with nature, and you start to hear the same things as if you were up in that stand 20 feet up in the air. Dogs are the real hunters it is true. But it takes a skilled hunter to get on his stand and bring down the deer when it comes at him at full speed or to be able to hear that deer sneak up right behind. Hunting is hunting. Some people find some hunting techniques more enjoyable than others. But all of it is done with the same purpose. To harvest meat. I don't know about all of you but here in the south we hunt deer because that is mostly what we eat. We hunt it the way so we will be promised some meat at the end of the day. And we usually harvest about 4 to 5 deer every drive.

Thanks Huntcamp! I love hunting period. I just dont get why all of hunters cant agree to disagree that everyone has their style. We tried man driving a piece of land that the timber company we rent from banned dog running on. We had no luck at all. Of course there was a lot of the land we just couldn't get into. Where there is water thats where the deer tend to head when they feel threatened. Deer I shot at last year on a dog drive doing its bobbing as you put it, I shot him a gut shot unfortunately. So we tracked a good blood trail across this big bean field. Found where the deer went in and we couldn't go any further because it was a beaver pond. We put our tracking dogs on the track and she went in baying and when we couldn't get in to her she came back bloodied. So I know I got the deer but it was in a place that no sane person would attempt to go. Hot weather, Moccasins, rattlesnakes. Nope not for me. Although I did go in as far as I could. With that said there are plenty of idiot hunters of all styles of hunting. My belief and hope by debating this issue and many more concerning hunting is to educate people that we are all hunters and we don't need to fight or grumble about each other. This is a dying sport whether any of you know it. How you gonna hunt if they take our guns? Stand together, quit all this funnel vision thinking. There is a big world out there, there is room for us all. And believe it or not at the club I hunt at there is room for both still hunters and dog hunters, duck hunters and deer hunters. If we can all hunt together on over 4000 acres, I am sure all of you can hunt beside private properties with different people.

I agree country road. The high road is the better road. Hard and difficult but sometimes leaving something unsaid makes hard feelings between the two type of hunters lesser. People do and say some terrible things in the heat of the moment and then regret it later on. Besides the cycle has got to be broke sometime. It is respectable hunters like you and our fellow bloggers that will bring the sport good attention instead of the humiiliation that some people heap upon the art of hunting!!!!

Welcome Moishe!! Dogs are really helpful in bad conditions...dog hunting has been legal here Chesterfield County, SC as long as I can remember..I love to use the dogs...they love the sport and when you really want some venison, if you know what you doing you are almost guaranteed a deer...I will say though with everything becoming more populated..dog hunting has been dwendling and is only done in the extreme country and on large clubs...fortunately for me I still live in the country and is located in a place where timber companies and farmers own most of the land between me and the Great Pee Dee River...so I have quite a few deer with less complaints...if you havent never did it you are really missing out on a treat!!! I will keep you all posted on my hunts this year, so you all can see just what I mean..dogs add a skill to hunting that makes it more of a challenge and tests your skills as a hunter and a person!!! Wont be long before opening day here Sept. 15!!!!

Yeap, I know where you are talking about. At least the general area at least. My uncle ended up in Rockingham one Christmas getting his black and tan coon hound!!! We had a dog that had to go the Aberdeen Animal Hospital. We join up with quite a few clubs around us. Marks Creek, State Line, Marshwood, A & D Hunting Club and still another still hunting club dont know the name of that one. We have never had any trouble with the still hunting clubs as some of these guys on here want to say goes on. These guys actually benefit from us pushing the big bucks their way!! We had a wonderful time Saturday. A great day of just doing what we love best!

There is one thing I would like to comment on to all those dead bent on still hunting and only still hunting. Monday am my uncle (dog man) was sitting at my table where he just got through eating breakfast. It was 9 am. and the phone rings. It was a still hunter who shot a 4 pt. buck which came under his stand. He had a bad shot and the buck was hit in the gut. He asked my uncle to bring his deer dog over there and track his deer!!! My uncle put his dog "Big Mama" on the track and she took off! She went a little ways and got some guts. She eat that and kept going eating deer guts the whole way. She was singing a song that only a dog man knows what I am talkiing about. She had that deer and she knew it! She dragged my uncle through a thicket of briars around a field through some pines through more briars and finally ended up behind the stand that the still hunter had shot from! A complete circle. Point is: Still Hunters want to go out to their stands and some make bad shots and then call on a dog man to track their deer through all kinds of conditions. My uncle was all torn up from them briars, but he didnt grumble. He laughed it off and actually enjoyed it because Big Mama did what she loves to do. Dont go dis-ing dogs and hunting with them because you may never know when you will be sitting up in your deer stand wishing you had a good dog to track that deer you know you hit but cannot find. I shot a buck last year and he didnt bleed out, and went on in a bean field. Have you ever tried looking for a deer in a bean field? Thank God, my uncle had my dog to bring and he went right to the deer. One less deer wasted. There is a statement you hear a lot in the hunting world. It is "Hunt Responsibly". You know one way that can be broken down is if you are a hunter, then respect every way of hunting. Dont complain about hunting with dogs, because there is far less deer wasted with dogs than there are by still hunters. Dogs dont quit, they arent scared of water, briars, or even the deer for that matter. I have done seen it all!!! Dogs mean to get what they hunt. Maybe people need to be a little more like the dogs. Dont shoot a deer still hunting if you not going to work to get the deer!