I have a pretty large piece of property I hunt. It is a long walk from the truck to the stands which are at the back end of the property. I've used my quad last year once the beans were off and parked in the middle of the field. I stayed 300 or so yards away and walked the rest. This year its in corn and I plan on doing the same around the edge of the corn. I wish the quad was a bit quieter but I'll be creeping my way in so its pretty quiet when I do that. The neighbor watched deer around my truck a couple years ago about 150 yards from where he was sitting. And have seen then walk past his quad. So it seems they ignore those things for whatever reason. So what are your thoughts. I don't plan to get within a couple hundred yards just in case. But do you use a quad to get in or just to recover or what. I'm using the quad as a tractor for my food plots etc. too (earlier this year).
Motorized vehicles don't bother deer if they are use to them. In fact, its much better then walking in. I'd just make sure you are parking upwind from where you are hunting and it is out of sight. A couple hundred yards is plenty. Do you run trail cams on the property? If so, start using it to check your cams regularly.
Yeah I have one Trail cam on the property now and have been back there every week for a few weeks about three weeks ago this Saturday. I was late getting a food plot in but did that 3-4 weekends ago I think. Hopefully it is growing now. I checked the cam the next weekend. Did some clearing etc. From what I have seen they could care less about them. But I just wanted to ask... I'll upload a pic of my spot.
Obviously lots of food around. My hope is catch something going between the bedding area behind me to the corn. Then later when the corn is gone I'll have the food plot hopefully to keep the fed late season
Probably wont hurt a thing. I have watched deer walk right by my golf cart and 4 wheeler many times from a distance.
This has been a topic of discussion between my dad and I over the years, sometimes he even gets pretty upset nowadays if I even mention it by accident. Our property is a little over 170 acres that we can access from the N and S. From the north would be my dad's end and the south is where my uncle lived and is mostly a walk in since any 4 wheelers would be on the other end of the property. For many years I believed they didn't make a difference, often we would be riding and ride right past deer that were bedded. Often deer would be spotted near our parked 4 wheelers while we were hunting further away. So many times we would still see deer after a ride through the hayfield with deer in it before daylight. What I started thinking about though was the bigger bucks. Sure we saw deer, mostly young bucks, does and fawns in and around the 4 wheelers. I then remembered spotting a big buck bedded on a hillside as I rode over a hundred yards away across a valley. That buck got up, whirled and quickly disappeared over the hillside without ever raising his tail. If I hadn't spotted him I would never have known he was there. Then there were mounting times where my dad or someone else would ride nearby, maybe within 2-300 yards of me while I was in stand. Quite often I would have deer and a couple dandy bucks come sprinting past me from that direction, obviously spooked by the 4 wheeler. I would ask my dad if he saw that deer or those deer and most of the time he would say no. Most of the time he never knew they were spooked from where he was passing through. Now that I have decided to only use the 4 wheeler during deer season when trying to get kids to stands or perhaps to retrieve a deer or SD cards from a camera I feel that my success at spotting big bucks has increased, my opportunities at them have grown and in the last several years I have had better success at killing better than average bucks in my book. Most of my stands are now meticulously planned to give me quick and quiet access without blowing through feeding areas. I am using a creek for several locations where I can access right from my dad's end and travel quickly and quietly to pop up on ridge edges to hunt the trails leading to and from bedding to feeding. A couple stands I still use I do walk the edge of a field to access but they are walk ins from the south now. Those I used to ride a four wheeler all the way from my dad's well before daylight just to get to, blowing who knows what out of the way. I do think it has made a difference on the bigger bucks, no doubt about it to me. Does it matter for smaller bucks and does? I still think it does but my dad will then reply with a 'well I was sitting there with the 4 wheeler next to me and out pops up 3 does 20 yards away, I coulda shot every one of them if I wanted' LOL!!
There is a big difference between what a doe, fawn, or yearling buck will tolerate and what a mature buck will tolerate. Just my opinion, but I'm not driving an ATV within a half mile or so of my stand if I can help it. I take mine with me whenever I travel to hunt to make recovery easier, but I won't drive it within a half mile or so of my stand on the way in/out. Depends on the farm I'm hunting I guess........this year on the three farms I'm hunting I wouldn't use one on any of them and two of those farms have well over half mile walks to some of the better stands.
I won't take one in when hunting, my stands are just shy of 1/2 mile so I would likely only be driving in about 1/4 mile and I don't even think it is worth the gas to fire one up and drive it that far only to shut it off for the day. Sometimes the deer don't mind, and other times they do. I don't want to risk it.
My atv stays in the truck only use it to retrieve deer. But i have been working on getting a mountain bike fixed up for my long walks to my stand. My smallest farm I hunt is 310 acres so I will only be walking or using the bike.
I just measured it on Google earth. .92 and 1.26 miles from the truck to my stands. I'm not looking to ride right up to the stand but a mile is a long walk in the dark carrying all my stuff getting all sweaty. I'm just looking to get half or a little more the way there and walk the rest. One of my favorite things about this property is how far it is from the road/houses etc. I hunted on huge public lands in WV and MD before I moved back to Ohio. So I miss being away from the sounds of people .... as far as what is around now this is the best I have.
I am of a similar mindset...now granted I don't hunt HUGE pieces of ground either though...but if I did I'd probably just use the ATV to shorten the hike by cutting in half or so and like stated only if I have a good upwind spot to store it, get ready and finish walk into my stand from quite a ways away. Chances are it won't faze the deer at all though. Our one 70 acre property the landowner drives his Kubota basically everyday twice a day around his property...deer have gotten used to it, so long as it keeps puttsing along, it is when it stops the deer have issues.
That sounds similar to what my dad says about 4 wheelers, if you keep moving they will watch you go by. I've seen many times that isn't the case. Maybe for a few deer that get caught real close that he has spotted it can be to some extent. I think the difference in our situation vs. your's Ty is you mentioning the landowner doing it on a daily basis. My dad or any of us on a 4 wheeler for that matter on our place is a one or two days a week occurrence.
All I am planning is about half the distance. Walk a mile with all your gear and you'll be a bit warm IMO and that may do more harm than riding half that. I'm gonna stick back a bout 3-400+ with the ATV and walk in the rest of the way. Oh and as far as spooking the big boys. I'm not sure. I rode in last year about 200 yards from my stand on Thanksgiving. At first light I saw antlers. Watched him for 2.5 hours before he got up. 45 yards and he walked the other way. I videoed him after he walked away. The neighbor shot him opening day of gun. 170 class buck. Guess it all depends on multiple factors. Mainly if they hear or smell you I guess. He either didn't hear me or didn't care... Not sure. I'll hang back a bit more. Also trying to get my daughter in to her spot too. Not that she can't walk but I want her to continue to hunt with me for many years. So I try to make it a little easier on her. Once the crops come off I stick to a waterway in the middle of the field. I had a close encounter with what I believe was the same buck, as I watched on thanksgiving, and two others on our way into the stands. If they hadn't planted corn across the one end I'd be using it now...well that and the corn is tight and noisey
My one property that is down south is about a mile long funnel of timber between ag fields. At it's widest point it might be 1/4-1/3 of a mile across the funnel. I have something like a dozen cams strung around both sides of the timber so it's about a 2 mile long string of cams total when I do the entire loop to pull cards. All cams are on field edges right now as I don't want to have to tromp around in timber to pull cards. I start on one end of the funnel with my ATV to pull the cards, and almost every time I end up getting pictures of deer that I never saw and were pushed by the ATV by another camera further down the funnel. I've always assumed that this is what happened but now I know it.
I hunt 53 acres and I still drive our side by side within a few hundred yards of my stands. I check my field edge cams with it every time... I guess I'm just not that worried about it.
I mowed one of my clover plots last weekend with the z turn. 20 min after I left, a mature doe walked through on camera. This a very remote plot so they don't see a lot of motorized equipment, but I do check cams regularly with the 4 wheeler. If I was hunting a specific deer I wouldn't bring a wheeler in within a 1/2 mile on a hunting day. You're talking about introducing not only sound but exhaust/gas/oil and bringing that with you right to the stand for the duration of the hunt.
