Personally, I don't think this is even hunting anymore.
Some say the same about baiting or the use of dogs. Same argument can be made about "primitive weapons" hunts using scoped muzzle-loaders shooting sabots or Compound crossbows. Get over it, odds are you saw the deer you did because those folks were driving. Had you got a deer because of this, you'd probably be here bragging about your hunting prowess.
Deer drives in Wisconsin are just as deeply ingrained as deer camps and the season wrapped around Thanksgiving. If you do not know this, you haven't hunted Wisconsin for very long. As for the multiple bullets buzzing by your head, I tend to be a bit leery and think there may be a bit of embellishment there. But solitary deer hunters shooting at deer randomly walking/running thru the woods can be and are, just as dangerous. Those most vulnerable to unsafe deer drives are those involved in the drive themselves.
In many areas, driving deer is the only way to see deer or make them accessible to hunters. I guessing you were on public land. Hunting pressure on public land makes it so deer do not move naturally during daylight hours.
If you see a deer during daylight hours during the gun season on public land in Wisconsin, odds are, you or another hunter kicked it up. Most folks on private land wait till later in the season to make drives in hopes the neighbors aren't on stand to shoot the deer that leave that property. In states where deer drives are illegal it is like baiting, or using dogs, more of a unfair advantage or regional thing, not because of safety, unlike the restriction of firearms.
As for the fish drives, many folks think that's what trolling is, and have the same sentiments towards that as you do about deer drives. But in many of the states waters, trolling and the use of down-riggers is the only way to get a bait effectively down to and in front of the fish. Don't like it yourself, don't do it, but if you don't do it, don't condemn those that do it safely, ethically and legally, just because it's a effective method you do not employ.
You don't say where in Wisconsin you were hunting. I have hunted many of the states large parcels of public land. Hunting them during opening day of gun season can be frustrating and bothersome regardless of whether there are drives going on or not. Generally later on in the season, you have the whole place to yourself. While you may need to employ tactics other than just taking a stand and eating sandwiches while you wait, there are generally deer left and quality field time to experience. If those driving areas " pretty much cleaned the entire area" they probably didn't do it by killing all those deer, they just drove them somewhere else where drives are not easy to make. Deer on public land pattern those folks that make the same drives in the same areas time after time, day after day, year after year. If they didn't there wouldn't be any deer left to drive.
So not happy, but not wanting to ban them either.
