Driving deer is a controversial tactic in many areas. Some hunters feel that driving is bad because you might run the resident deer off of your particular hunting grounds. Well, back in October or November, when there's still plenty of hunting to be done, I might agree with them. But this is January!

Once this season ends, there's no more hunting to be done until the following fall. If you have good deer habitat, any animals you spook out of the area on a drive are probably going to come back, once the season ends and the hunting pressure is gone.

If you've hunted an area for a while, odds are you know the lay of the land. You know the funnels and the deer's preferred escape routes. As a result, you now know where to place your standers to get a shot at driven deer.

If you don't yet know an area well, study topographic maps to figure out how and where you want to move the deer. Pushing deer into a funnel -- a peninsula of woods that enters a field, or a thicket that necks down until it peters out in open timber -- is your goal. Place a stander at the pinch point to watch for deer.

As I said earlier, deer in January tend to bunch up, due to the lack of suitable security cover and food. In those areas that have both, count on finding deer -- lots of deer.

A few years ago, three buddies and I got together for a day of deer drives during my state's late, late muzzleloader season. We moved deer all day -- and we even managed to kill two -- before we headed for a large swamp surrounded by farm fields.

I drew the coveted long straw and got my choice of places to set up as a stander. And I knew exactly where I wanted to go.

The swamp was almost a perfect square. But within that square, most of the area was dominated by tall grasses. Back in fall, when the reeds were still standing, they had offered deer loads of cover. By January, however, those tall grasses usually get matted down due to the incessant pounding of wind, snow and ice. That wilted grass now afforded minimal cover.

I expected that this time of year, the deer would stick to the L-shaped line of timber. I knew my buddies would start at one end of the timber, so I opted to stand at the other. There was no doubt the deer were between us.

I could see my partners' orange coats off in the distance as they started into the woods. Barely a minute later, the deer started coming my way. One by one, 25 deer hustled past my post through the thin stand of trees.

When a nice fat doe stopped briefly to check her backtrail, I leveled my muzzleloader and squeezed the trigger. My rifle belched a thick cloud of smoke as the bullet struck home.

That winter, there was no shortage of backstraps and steaks!

For deer hunters, January is the end of the line until next fall. Don't let those tags go to waste. Get out there. Be aggressive. Leave no trick in the bag and you just might find a way to punch one of those tags!