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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 9,429 Likes: 1
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 9,429 Likes: 1 |
Easy choice for me. I don't have an ATV, so I walk. Sure would be nice to have one to haul deer out of the woods though.
Always remember that you are unique, just like everyone else.
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Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 1,706
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 1,706 |
My 450 lb hunting buddy drives his Grizzly to the ladder, climbs the tree, and shoots a deer. Every year.
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 46,755
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 46,755 |
Well sure you can shoot a deer by doing it. But if the goal is to shoot a mature buck…they’re a different breed of critter.
Camp is where you make it.
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Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 7,762
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 7,762 |
Well sure you can shoot a deer by doing it. But if the goal is to shoot a mature buck…they’re a different breed of critter. Good point..Just killin a deer is one thing but to consistantly take mature bucks every year it is a whole other ballgame....Hell i can kill a deer every year sitting in a lawn chair in the bed of my pickup 😁......Hb
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Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 3,575
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 3,575 |
Big deer and elk know the difference between hunting traffic and normal traffic, including the individual vehicle, whether it's an ATV or pickup. Don't you know it when a storage car pulls into your driveway? Still, whitetails believe in hunkering down, and I have seen may just stay still and let a truck, ATV, or even a canoe pass.
PM SU35 about his experiences; I've seen the same thing myself. Of course, an aTV is wonderful to help retrieve game, and I'll use one when I can.
I'm all for ATVs, just don't own one. Yet.
I do not entertain hypotheticals. The world itself is vexing enough. -- Col. Stonehill
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 3,695
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 3,695 |
Good points, all....
Look at it like this:
Your in your car and have several open alcoholic containers. A State Trooper drives by. Your no doubt thinking “ oh oh, I need to get rid of those”...... The Trooper passes by without even looking at you and you relax. BUT - if the Trooper makes eye contact with you and pulls over and exits his vehicle...............!
Guess who just shat his pants and wants to disappear! 😲 Laffin
BT53 "Where do they find young men like this?" Reporter Savidge, Iraq Elk, it's what's for dinner....
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Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 20,294 Likes: 24
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 20,294 Likes: 24 |
Another thing to consider is that when walking, at least you have a chance of spotting the deer before it spots you.
I think it would be a very rare occurrence where a deer would be unaware of you if you come by on a 4 wheeler, even with a muffler silencer on it and the wind right.
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Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 4,382
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Sep 2017
Posts: 4,382 |
People don't realize how far sound travels in an absolutely quiet woods. Hunting big woods just off private property I saw a lot of difference seeing deer when I rode my ATV within about a quarter mile through my buddy's property and then walked from there. Then my buddy said that he was worried about soil erosion and asked that I walk instead of ride through his property. What a difference in deer sightings! Deer have way better hearing than people and if I can hear an ATV, a deer sure can and isn't going to be moving for a while in that area.
My other auto is a .45
The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory
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Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 3,729 Likes: 2
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 3,729 Likes: 2 |
I have been killing deer in a particular ATV staging area fir over 24 years, some big, some smaller, but I can normally get a deer or two put even with the constant ATV traffic.I don't mi d them and neither do the deer
scopes are cool, but slings 'n' irons RULE!
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Joined: May 2003
Posts: 16,972 Likes: 2
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 16,972 Likes: 2 |
The answer is - It depends on the property
I have a place no one frequents …. If you drive a truck in the driveway there you can literally see deer crossing out of the area within 30 minutes, if you walk to your stand you will see maybe 5 deer. Now park on the road and walk into your stand without crossing the place - and you’ll see 30 deer.
So how educated the critter are is huge Are ATV’s on the property at all
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Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 594
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 594 |
I would think that if you ride the area you hunt often on an ATV that the deer would ignore it but also think deer say here they come, hide. I hunt 1200 private acres in NE PA. There are 3 or 4 trails through the area. I ride it often in an ATV or a UTV. I ride up next to deer and bear often, sometimes less than 10 or 12 feet. Some animals do spook but they are a low percentage. I think they believe it is just another vehicle and most exhibit little if any fear. If I walk that same area I am not going to get close to any animal. They will be gone as soon as they detect me. I should note that we have never hunted any animal from an ATV and never gave them a reason to fear an ATV.
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1,447 Likes: 1
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1,447 Likes: 1 |
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 7,205 Likes: 1
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 7,205 Likes: 1 |
Yearlings are dumb. Put a silencer on your ATV for a very different experience, you really don't think that animals are not stupid enough to not know that the sound of 4 wheelers cranking up is not DANGER, Do you? We hunted off of 4 wheelers for years, then went to electric vehicles....man, what a difference in the number of animals you see! Deep creeks that have to be crossed are often the demise of the use of electric vehicles, and we had winches on the front of the vehicle with an extra 100' cable wound up in the back. Most people are not deer "hunters", they are just shooters. Check this out, and they work: https://atvsilencer.com/
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Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 12,664
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 12,664 |
Yearlings are dumb. Put a silencer on your ATV for a very different experience, you really don't think that animals are not stupid enough to not know that the sound of 4 wheelers cranking up is not DANGER, Do you? We hunted off of 4 wheelers for years, then went to electric vehicles....man, what a difference in the number of animals you see! Deep creeks that have to be crossed are often the demise of the use of electric vehicles, and we had winches on the front of the vehicle with an extra 100' cable wound up in the back. Most people are not deer "hunters", they are just shooters. Check this out, and they work: https://atvsilencer.com/They help but in my experience with one on a Grizzly 660 they make the engine run a bit hotter from the back pressure. I removed the muffler in the Spring and reinstalled once the temps got cooler in the Fall.
The Karma bus always has an empty seat when it comes around.- High Brass
There's battle lines being drawn Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
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Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 6,879 Likes: 4
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 6,879 Likes: 4 |
When I hunted my 200 acre farm in GA, I debated the ATV vs walking question off and on. I know that when I walked in the dark and spooked deer, they seem very disturbed, maybe because they could hear me but not quite make out what I was from time to time. Observing deer from a stand when an ATV was near by and passing I would watch to see how the deer react. They would lift their heads and turn their ears but as long as it continued, they did not seem to care. This is not what I'd call wilderness, mostly farm area. My overall opinion is that deer (in this case) are not as disturbed when they can hear something coming and going that does not catch them off guard, especially when they are around farm equipment. I theorize that they are less spooked when they hear an ATV vs the walking disturbance of something they can not identify in the dark.
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 3,003
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 3,003 |
Increased noise and scent makes deer tend more toward nocturnal and staying in the thick. ATVs are smellier and noisier than a walking hunter.
Living in a world of G17s and 700s, wishing for P7s and 202s
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Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 2,666
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 2,666 |
I've hunted an area where riding a quad you can literally ride 30 yards from deer and they'll stand and stare at you. But if they see you walking, at any distance, they immediately bolt.
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Joined: Feb 2015
Posts: 622
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Feb 2015
Posts: 622 |
In my neck of the woods we use an atv for lots of things hunting is one of them. I plow snow ,ride to work (in the summer) go camping ect. For hunting I find a place on state land 10-40 miles off the HWY and camp. Then walk 0-5 miles in any direction to find game, use my atv as base camp game transport not hunting. But no one is packing out a moose on a pack frame plus rifle and backpack with all your gear.. Meat would be rotten by the time you got half your animal back to the truck. An atv/utility vehicle is a must have.
At some point my hobbies became my life.
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69,556 Likes: 25
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69,556 Likes: 25 |
Deer will feed next to a busy road and the cars won't bother them. It's when one leaves the road that they come alive. If they're used to atv's on the mountain, they'll largely ignore it as long as it follows the same trail each time. They have to get used to them being around.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” ― George Orwell
It's not over when you lose. It's over when you quit.
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Joined: Dec 2015
Posts: 8,069
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Dec 2015
Posts: 8,069 |
I've never used an ATV to get into hunting areas. That's because I hunt Corps of Engineer land and WIHA, both off-limits to motorized vehicles. But, buddy, let me tell ya'- if I owned my own land, you'd best believe I'd be rocking one.
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