Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game ATV's..... out of control ????

LMAO.. Yeah, them horse apples never did feed the wildlife..

Yep, it's a crying shame!

I have had more trouble with horseback hunters than I have with atv's. I hiked 2 miles into a wildness area in the dark only to have a couple of a**holes ride thru the meadow I was watching just after daylight. And of course they were yaking away at the top of their lungs. tom

I talked with a Game Warden this year that said that 10 years ago maybe 20% of ATV were braking the off road rules, Now he said it's more like 80%, The only one that can issue a Ticket is the one law Nat forest inforcement officer that works In the area. He covers the entier Medicine Bow Nat. forest. Anyone can turn in a ATV but you must testifie and have proof of the ATV that did the Violation. Lic plate, Nat forest permit # or a damed good Photo.
I hate the things with a passion, I don't wave at them or talk to them.
I pack my game out on my back, I walk in to hunt and I don't want to hear them or see them.

getlost,
Those of us who use our atv's legally hate the lawbreakers as much as you do. My atv has never ever been operated illegally and I have as much right to use my atv in a legal manner as you do to walk in. If you want to be an ass when someone that is using their atv legally passes you on the trail and waves at you then so be it. As to atv use I find myself using ,my atv less and less. I haul it along when I go, but tend to leave it in camp and hike in to areas that are not open to any kind of vehicles. I also bring my cabelas mag hauler (2 wheeled cart) along. I don't understand the forest service rules that ban me from using my cart in a wildness area to retrieve my game because it is a wheeled vehicle, but allow a travois attached to a horse. Now that does some serious damage.
tom

Your right it's a shame that I'm being an ass to 20% of ATV'ers But the other 80% I'm treating farely.

Hey Tom, after you get back (and the snow is gone) maybe we can use our ATVs to get a feel for that area we talked about
I've never been in there. I assume there are some roads? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Yes there are. There is an atv/trailbike trail that runs fo the road and in for about 3 miles to the divide and on the other side of the highway there is a jeep road that goes up to the divide also. The other trials that I hike in on are closed to vehicle traffic. tom

getlost,
unless you can post a link to a study that proves your numbers we can only presume that you are puling them out of your butt. And just because somone told he thought they were right does not make them right.

I tend to believe people who live and work in a area and it goes with what I've seen. Going for a joy ride or seaking in to pack out an elk does the same thing, it lays down a new trail and others will follow, they see the trail and follow it, it may lead to a quite meadow or a gut pile they don't know. Don't tell me you've never seen it , every year there's new ones they show up faster then the forest service can block them off.
It's not just hunters
Ride an ATV it you want , But the ass in the pic to the left will not wave at you or even say Hi.

get lost is exactly right. With more and more ATV's out there, hunters and joyriders, you'd have to be blind not to notice new trails everywhere. At least in the national forest I live by. There is also many new trails in no vehicle area's. Unreal. My friend was archery elk hunting a roadless area (well signed) and had 4 ATV's come by him one evening in the rain. They're lucky they wern't wearing arrows after that.

Sorry have not seen it in the area I hunt. I keep hearing about it from you atv haters, but I have never seen it in person.

It's not so much that I hate ATVs, as I have one myself, but for me, it has to do with whole hunting experience. I know each of us has their own idea of what makes a great hunting experience, and to me, it includes enjoying all of nature, and feeling like I'm being absorbed into the wild.
I was born and raised in Colo., and typicaly, have been hunting in one of three areas, for over 35 years. It was probably in the late 70s, when we started seeing ATVs showing up by where we hunt, and the numbers just exploded from there. One of my favorite areas, is around 105,000 acres of public land, and in the first 10 years of hunting that area, I may have seen 15 people in or around some drainages that I routinely would hunt. Partialy due to it being about three miles from the nearest road or trail. Then, by the mid 80s, I'm seeing these ATVs cruising through the creek beds or rolling along the ridges of the hills, or just "stump bustin" through the timber, and easily 75% of these riders never getting off of their butts, just glassin' and gunnin'.
The other units or areas that I hunted, also began to show the same problems with ATVs, with folks just going wherever they wanted to go, and the amount of ATV traffic on the BLM service roads was UNBELIEVABLE! From an hour or two before daylight, to an hour or three after dark, the ATVs were cruising the roads, and heaven help you if you happened to camp within 100 yds of a road or trail.
We've almost always used horses and or mules, and I've yet to see a pack string do the kind of damage that ATVs do, or be as disruptive.
Granted, there are some good folks that use their ATVs very responsibly, and are very mindful of others in the area, and there are some that would be very limited in how they would be able to hunt. The thing that bothers me the most is, as long as they're allowed for everyone, there will be more and more of them in the woods, and with little, if any ability to enforce any restrictions on how they're used or when, it will make it tougher and tougher, if not impossible for someone who wants a hunt that's filled with sounds of nature, not a four stroke engine, that enjoys the smell of sagebrush, that wants to feel as if they have escaped civilization, and just wants the wilderness feeling, to be able to find and enjoy that type of hunt. It just hacks me off that, in order for it to be easier for someone else to hunt, or because someone doesn't want to have to pack an animal out themselves or by horse, I have to be prepared to have my hunt ruined by having the pre dawn quiet spoiled by the sounds of 4 stroke engines rolling across a sage flat I'm watching, or have to ride through clouds of dust raised by the hordes of ATVs running up and down the service roads.
I think the push to make hunting just as easy as possible is going to do anything but harm to hunting, and it's not limited to just ATVs. It's all about making it easy, making it comfortable, don't require special skills or effort, that way, everyone can do it! Heck, maybe that dude in Texas had a good thing started with his "computer deer hunting". Yep, you could sit right there in the comfort of your office or home, give him your credit card number, and he hooks you up to a computer operated rifle, overlooking a bait station, and as the deer come into it, you use your mouse to control the aiming of the rifle, you pick out the buck you want, and BOOM! SUCCESS! And you didn't have to get hot or cold, no snow or rain to deal with, no aching muscles or tired legs from hiking up and down any hills, and no problem packin this one out!

Maybe I'm getting old, I don't know, but I do know hunting was more enjoyable before ATVs made there way into the woods where I hunt. At least it was for me, and I was there first. Does that count?

Maybe I missed this exact point from an earlier thread, but I think it boils down to enforcement. I've put many a legal mile on my ATV around here to get to relatively remote places and then hiked my S off from there. Usually through the timber but other times down closed trails. There's always ATV tracks in the closed areas and sometimes I run into the riders. But never have I seen any type of LEO enforcing the closed areas. Probably because they'd have to be on foot or hoof. I've only ever run into DOW and BLM folks, I've never even seen anyone from the USFS on the trail. And those meetings are always on the road.

Here in CO we pay a minimal fee to the state to license ATV's every year. I'd gladly pay 2x or 3x what that costs if I knew it went straight to fund people and horses to enforce the rules. And give the fines some teeth. Confiscate the ATV's from people riding the closed roads. That might get some folks' attention.

But it sure chafes my S when the criminals (that is what they are) make a bad name for all of us ATV riders. And that drives the various land management agencies to close even more roads every year. They think since it's now wilderness or wilderness study it won't cost them a dime in maintenance or fire protection money. When in actuality, it should be costing them more to enforce the wilderness rules. It's a vicious cycle.

Dave

I just returned from Elk hunting yesterday and I can report that 6 closed gated roads have been used by ATVs. They have cut and or ran over the trees and sage brush to get around the gate. We walked down one of the gated old forest service roads to get into an area that I used to hunt just to find a camp set up that was completely hauled in on ATV's. Twice in my five day hunt did I see people driving their toys on the ridgelines where there is no roads and they left a set of spin marks up the sage hills while getting up there. One night we were packing out my Elk to find that another moron was trying to sneek up a hillside in the dark on his ATV to do somthing, I assume they were getting out an Elk also. I truly feel bad for the honest but I am now nearly certain that they will ban them during huning season within a few years. I actualy ran into the law enforcement officer for the forest service and he has had it with the abuse. He said that he is the only enforcement in the area other than the Fish COPs and unless other hunters start helping out by turning them in with some pics or other evidence to help in court they will have to do something major because it has to stop now. Take a pic of the registration stamp that will link the ATV to the Hunter.