ATV for hunting

[Mogrod]

In my camp we have been debating about the use of an ATV to get to hunting spots. I am old school and leave the machines in the shed until we need them to get a deer out. The younger generation looks at it as no big deal. I seem to be losing the debate as some friends use their machines and still have luck shooting bucks (some are shooting real nice deer).

 

I would like to hear from the members what their opinions are?

[GreeneHunter]

I think it would be best to leave the ATV at camp - get to your stand silently - shoot - go back and get your ATV to retrieve your deer !  Just an opinion !

[BellR]

It depends for me.  I have some places I hunt up at my father's house that are 1-2 miles in.  For those ones, I'll take the wheeler to about 1/4 mi away and then park it and hike in the last bit. For anything less than a mile I'll usually walk, but I just don't like having to get up an extra half hour early for those ones way back in.  Lazy I know, but that extra bit of seep does seem to keep me from... resting my eyes shall we say while I'm hunting.

[WNYBuckHunter]

I have a stand or two that are at the opposite end of the farm from where I enter. These are pretty good sized farms, not a 50 acre block. For afternoon hunts, Ill run to the other end of the farm with my side by side, park 300 yards or so away, and then walk to the stand. Ive done that and seen deer within 10 minutes of getting in the stand. I only do this for a few stands for time savings and so Im not all sweated up once I get all the way back there.

[Doc]

Having had a small stroke (no lasting effects), I try to compromise between pure walking, and riding. I live at the base of what I have nick-named "Cardiac hill". We did lose a neighbor to a heart attack on that hill, so it is aptly named. So unless I am still-hunting my way up the hill, I take the ATV. I drive to just under the ridge of the hill and park and then start walking quite a ways back in. In the pre-dawn hours, that keeps me from getting all sweated up, and the machine is silent for at least a half hour while I quietly go up over the lip of the hill and back to my stand up on the level hilltop. The last couple of years, I have used the ATV for taking the deer off the hill when possible.

 

During gun season, we usually have a bit of snow on the ground, and that makes the hill a bit treacherous for ATVs. It can and has turned into a bobsled. So when there is too much snow, I just take a very slow, post daybreak still-hunt up the killer hill and across the top.

 

I don't have any problem with the use of ATVs, even for the youngsters as long as it doesn't interfere with someone else's hunt.

[dbHunterNY]

parents land is something between a hill and a mountain (around 400 feet in elevation change).  routinely ride an ATV to the top using only an access road and before I get to many fields on the other side.  then I walk the rest.  couple be 200 yards into the timber or could be 1/2 mile.

[ants]

 I have no problem using ATV's for hunting, I would never go tooling through someone else's hunting spot though.  I park a good 200+ yards from my stand. One of my best spots is over a mile away from the road and all hill. Im still in decent shape but why leave camp 45 minutes early and get to a stand drenched in sweat when you can ride there with out bothering anyone else??

[G-Man]

I don't allow them at camp, walk in walk out,saw to many big bucks head for hills immediately when hearing them, opening day of gun or weekends you may get away with it as Others are using them and moving deer unknowingly to your party, but I and neighbors own large tracks and it is dead quite all year in the woods, surrounding properties are small and the deer head to my nice quite woods as soon as they start up their rides and the big ones move in the week before when they are checking stands and riding trails scouting.

Edited August 14, 2015 by G-Man

[G-Man]

If you ride them every day in your woods at a similar time of day perhaps the game will get use to them, same as a farmer on routine to milk his cows every morning and evening is ignored by them. I have a small tractor we use to retrieve deer ,but we do it at lunch and almost dark most of the time.

[HuntOrBeHunted]

No ATV for me until I need to get a deer out. Noise depends on the wheeler I have a quad 4 stroke. And it's pretty loud.

[sailinghudson25]

I don't own an ATV atleast yet.  But I  in a hunting club that uses them.  People who use them see very little deer in the Adirondack 700 acre spot we go to.   The guys who go on foot see them often.   About 1/3 of all deer I have seen while hunting is walking there.

 

Good for dragging them out, not too bad for making the place you hunt better, but for getting there, won't be me.   You don't know where the deer will be, so as soon as opening day starts and I got a gun in my hand, it's game on.

 

If I oversleep, I wait a few minutes after the quad pool leaves in the morning.  I have seen a few a few minutes after the wake they make.

[thphm]

I take mine right up to where I am going to post . Last year In my blind with the ATV right out side I had deer walking 15 feet from the blind and not spooked at all. I have driven right past them , they would get up look and go and bed down where they were.

It depends where you hunt, I only hunt my property and am on the ATV almost every day also there are a good amount of farm land around me with tractors riding around every day.

[stoneam2006]

For me it depends on a few factors...

Distance to stand

State of woods (crunchy or quiet walk)

If my dad or son are tagging along

If I'm pretty confident I will need it (doe tags)

But generally I enjoy walking into the woods as I may cut a nice track and decide to still hunt or change location