"Another thing that I used to do with positioning blockers back when I did drives with my clients was to position them away from the timber that was being driven," said Hughes. "If we were driving a block of timber and there was an open area between that timber and the next timber, I'd put my blockers a short distance inside the treeline of the second timber. That's because I want the deer to have time to calm down and slow down a bit. They seem to calm down after they move across an open area, because they can look back and see that nobody is on their backtrail. Put your blockers just inside the treeline, out of view, and the deer will walk right in on them."

WALK, DON'T RUN
Walking deer are rare on a deer drive. Many hunting groups intentionally sweep through timbers at a brisk pace with the intent of moving deer past blockers before the deer have time to evaluate alternate escape routes. The result is a deer stampede that fails to outwit mature bucks.

"Does and young bucks will panic and run straight out of a timber ahead of a drive," said Karam. "I've noticed that mature bucks will stay with does and young bucks for a little bit, when they first notice the drivers moving through the woods, but it's not long before the big bucks go their own way."

Professional guide Hughes noted that mature bucks often defy logic, moving back toward the line of drivers or making an end run and escape to the side. "They don't consciously decide to outsmart us by going back toward the line," he said. "Big bucks are just working off instincts, reacting to their environment.

Today's shotgunners can choose from a myriad of rifled barrels and slug designs, and both scopes and open sights. Outfitter Rodney Hughes recommends opting for familiarity in preference to gadgetry.

"One thing about big bucks is that they don't like to go into the unknown. They know what's behind them, and are comfortable with sneaking through a line of drivers in order to get to someplace they know is safe rather than moving ahead of the line into an area where they haven't recently been."

Karam advised that hunters in a drive line should work as a team, but one whose members move more or less randomly. "You've got to all be on the same page and move through the woods uniformly for safety reasons," he said. "But they need to move at an uneven pace: sometimes fast for a few feet, then slowing and maybe stopping altogether for a few seconds.

"Don't walk straight ahead; sort of zig and zag left and right. If you all move through the timber at the same pace, keeping an even spacing, big bucks can pattern your movements and either lie down and let you walk past them, or find a wide spot in the line and sneak back through."

Because of the fondness of mature bucks for reversing directions and getting behind drivers, some shotgun hunters have two hunters "walk drag" a couple of hundred yards behind the main line. Those drivers, under strict orders not to fire toward the main line, don't get a lot of deer during a season -- but any deer they do tag will tend to be the big, sneaky bucks that would have escaped otherwise.

BE WEAPON-WISE
Technology has brought shotgun hunting for deer into the space age. Three decades back, shotgunners had merely standard slugs fired from unrifled barrels, and used little more than a bead front sight. Today's shotgunners can choose from a myriad of rifled barrels and slug designs, and both scopes and open sights. Hughes recommends opting for familiarity in preference to gadgetry.

"All the fancy scopes and rifled barrels are fine," he noted, "and can help. But I recommend my clients use whatever they are most comfortable with. If a guy is used to shooting and is accurate with an old smoothbore shotgun with nothing more than a bead sight, he'd be making a mistake if he showed up on opening day with a new gun with a rifled barrel and a scope. Technology doesn't help unless you're comfortable with it and can use it to put your slugs exactly where you aim."