Do deer leave clubs with heavy atv use?

[mallardsx2]

Someone mentioned above that deer avoid the area until after dark with ATV traffic. I see this a LOT on a camera because someone in my club drives right through the middle of the property on their 4 wheeler and hunts several times a week. For some reason the deer are always at that stand he hunts on camera but ALWAYS well after dark. He hunts there because he says they will show up sometime in daylight but they rarely do.

I hunt the bordering stands a few hundred yards away in each direction counting on his ATV to scare deer to me and it almost always does.

The deer have him and his machine figured out and they never know where I will be in a tree. I like it that way.

Use other peoples downfalls to fill your tags. Thats how I have killed half of the animals I have killed in my life. Do what others are NOT doing and you will be successful.

The ride their ATV
You Walk

They put out bait
You hunt edges or thickets with no bait

They call
You sit there quietly

They sit there quietly
You call

They hunt the edge of the property
you hunt the middle

They hunt the middle
you hunt the end

They dont pay attention to the wind
You pay attention to the wind

They dont use scent control
you use scent control

They hunt fields where they can shoot 400 yards
you hunt thickets where you can shoot 40 yards.

Jumping around from tree to tree with my climber
they sit in the same tree all season seeing a couple does.

If 10 people are doing the first, you do the second.

The real question that I CANNOT figure out...Why do the deer go to that specific spot on the property to get their picture taken with all of his human scent in the area? I may never figure out the answer to that one. But I sure like showing him the pictures of me holding the deer he is after. Just kidding. I would be just as happy if he had killed them.

Bottom line is that deer are affected by ATV's especially the bigger deer. They just do NOT tolerate intrusion where I HUNT. It may be different where you folks hunt.

 

[spurrs and racks]

My buddy's club is full of people who ride atvs to and from the stand. Literally 10 or so atvs on 800 acres every weekend, most parking right near where they are hunting. Sure mature bucks can learn and pattern humans, but at what point does the atv thing push mature bucks off your land altogether?

Do mature bucks adapt to the frequent atvs on the club roads or do they leave?

I don't think they PUSH mature deer anywhere. I think any deer learn ATV traffic equals danger. Any racket in the deer woods that is not something they hear or see every day send up alert signals to the deer.

The best quality deer management tool is a side by side or ATV.....for me....... I walk everywhere I go. Always have , always will.

 

[AugustaDawg]

That’s because they believe the story about the chicken crossing the road and they think they can do it too.

I think they just do it on a bet.

 

[HunterD15]

According to Grant Woods from Growing Deer, whom I have a ton of respect for, he says to allow deer to associate the ATV/UTV with something good like feed or working or just increase the use of them for the rest of the year, and the deer will head for cover and then continue on their course once danger clears. Parking one next to a stand is not recommended, but he does suggest using a buddy system allowing one person to drive the ATV/UTV and everyone else to ride and then have only one person (the driver) walk to their stands. Deer will use their nose more than they will use the noise to deter them from coming to an area. Using the best scent systems known to man still will spook deer if they cross that hundred or more yard trail that you walked in on. I keep my clothes in scent storage, use an ozone generator, spray when I head out, wear rubber boots, and still have deer coming down the trails to the stands and spook. You can't outsmart the nose and in my opinion they associated human odor with danger at a much higher level than an ATV/UTV.
Just last weekend my dad shot two does out of the oat field while the farmer was in the bottom 150 yards from them with the tractor running feeding his cows. The deer never even looked his direction and fed out into the field. He was upwind of them but the tractor was running which could be heard over the whole property. The deer no longer associate his tractor with danger so we don't typically fret it.

 

[mallardsx2]

A Piece of farm machinery operating under normal farming practices is completely different than a 4 wheeler in the middle of the woods.

They KNOW...lol

 

[reflexman]

like milkman said you cant beat a golf cart n mine will go almost anywhere all jacked up that's all I got to say bout that

 

[reflexman]

n yes deer know the difference between a farmer on tractor n four wheeler. Like anything else atvs bother some deer but not others.

 

[mguthrie]

A Piece of farm machinery operating under normal farming practices is completely different than a 4 wheeler in the middle of the woods.

They KNOW...lol

Not if that/those 4 wheelers are there year round. Our club is a year round club with 4 wheeler traffic most every weekend. The deer get used to it there.

 

[nick_o_demus]

I, by no choice of my own, will be away from my stand for the next few weeks. When I get back to it after thanksgiving I plan to walk into the woods the whole way specifically to see if this might play a role in how many deer I see. I'll report back in a few weeks.

 

[Buckhead]

I am in a lease that is generally the same as the original post. 10 members on 880 acres. We have 2 tracts of adjoining land, however, it is irregularly shaped and hilly, well over a mile and a half from one tip to the other. Most of our members are 55 or older, so driving a truck or ATV to certain spots is almost a necessity for certain members. We have a pretty good network of logging roads throughout.

Been a member in this lease for over 30 years. Back when I joined, there weren’t any ATVs on our lease. Now almost everyone has one, including me.

Not that it is related, but these days we see more and harvest more - better quality than back in the day.

I used to oppose ATVs and swore I would never own one, but do now. I do try to limit use though. I guess are deer are conditioned to it. I watch them on stand and they don’t even react to an ATV going by unless it is within sight.

 

[little rascal]

Why not forget the stand and the 4 wheeler and just park your truck beside the road and hunt out of it?

An Old guy in our club years ago was bad to road hunt. His son said, I built daddy a nice new stand in good spot, he wouldn't hunt it until I went and nailed a truck door onto the front of it!!!!

 

[Tadder]

I hunt right beside a train track deer ignore it. But it sure is a good time to cough or do whatever when a train comes by blowing the horn

Lol, I hunted right close to a train track when I was younger, Them deer had tracts on the train tracks , funny thing was I think they road the train outa there, cause I never seen the 1st deer on them workout trails and I could see 5 different crossings from where I sat. Just wasn't for me, moved on too different land.