"Deer aren't scared of the ATV traffic in the hunting lease, they're used to it" - Fact or Fiction?

"Deer aren't scared of the ATV traffic in the hunting lease, they're used to it" - Fact or Fiction?


  • Total voters
    178

across the river

Senior Member
Those deer are conditioned not to fear humans. You walk through my hunting lease and you smell like a predator.
I think we are saying the same thing. If humans hunt them, deer associate the smell with a predator. If humans feed them apples, they associate humans with food. Same with bear. Similarly, how they react to an ATV depends on their experience with ATVs. If “predators” ride them they act differently than if every time they hear one of the feeder gets reloaded.
 
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Ace1313

Senior Member
When I used my Gator on my old farm the deer became conditioned to it as the feed wagon. I used it every weekend on the farm filling feeders, riding to the pond and hauling food plot supplies. Hunting season I set aside a parking area that was central to most of the stands on the property. Everyone walked several hundred yards to the stands. This wound up working better for overall deer sightings.

Now, I park my truck in the front of the property and walk in. The though occurred to me during turkey season. I walk all of this place during the season turkey hunting may as well do it for deer season. It seems to work down here in Farm Country
 

Mommasue

Member
On our lease the owner rides year round in a side by side, we fill our feeders with our side by side, when hunting I park the side by side 150yds. from the stand, almost always see something. I would say it depends on what they are conditioned to.
Either way and to each their own but we have never finished the season with an empty freezer.
 

Son

Gone But Not Forgotten
Having managed hunting property for many years gave me some insight on vehicle and other modes of travel noises. Maintaining one property for over 14 years, I soon noticed. Deer ignored my vehicle and tractors. They had become accustomed to the sound of those vehicles and knew they were no threat. Much like the family dogs knows the sound of your vehicles. But let a strange vehicle, or any they don't hear often, and off they go. Just to be sure, we tried a family member of the property owners vehicle. Rode around the entire property and saw nothing. About 1 hour later, took them around in my vehicle and saw several bucks, and does. Deer merely looked up, and just stood while we drove by.
So, on my hunting property guess how I do. Yep, At least three times a week, I ride the property, using truck, tractor and golf cart. They are used to me, I see plenty. Hogs don't play that game though.
 

JustUs4All

Slow Mod
Staff member
View attachment 1046151
I hunt this stand religiously. It’s 600-800 yards from camp. This road gets a bunch of atv traffic on a daily basis. Between me and my son we saw 10 deer out of this stand this past weekend. He killed a big doe. I’ve hunted here for better than 10 years and I can tell you the deer are conditioned to atv’s,generators and loud people in camp. I’ve seen deer step out in the road and watch an atv after it drove past them. I’ve had atv’s run deer off the road and have them come back out to feed on corn within a few minutes. Now if you go drive through a secluded spot on our lease I’m sure it would spook the deer

I can't believe that I missed the rear view mirror on this stand earlier. Does it have turn signals too? What about cup holders? I know it's got cup holders. I got to fix mine up some.
 

Bucaramus

Senior Member
Having managed hunting property for many years gave me some insight on vehicle and other modes of travel noises. Maintaining one property for over 14 years, I soon noticed. Deer ignored my vehicle and tractors. They had become accustomed to the sound of those vehicles and knew they were no threat. Much like the family dogs knows the sound of your vehicles. But let a strange vehicle, or any they don't hear often, and off they go. Just to be sure, we tried a family member of the property owners vehicle. Rode around the entire property and saw nothing. About 1 hour later, took them around in my vehicle and saw several bucks, and does. Deer merely looked up, and just stood while we drove by.
So, on my hunting property guess how I do. Yep, At least three times a week, I ride the property, using truck, tractor and golf cart. They are used to me, I see plenty. Hogs don't play that game though.
I had a friend with a cattle farm in Gray. Same thing. Ride in the farm truck and you'd see does and bucks. They'd just look at you. Ride in any other vehicle and you'd see nothing.
 

NE GA Pappy

Mr. Pappy
I know of some guys that when 4 wheelers first came out, would ride back into the woods on property they knew held deer. They would ride 2 to the 4 wheeler, and while they didn't really rev the engine a lot, they weren't in real stealth mode either.

Several deer were killed each year as they stood in the fields, logging roads and small openings watching the 4 wheeler drive thru the woods
 

mguthrie

**# 1 Fan**OHIO STATE**
I can't believe that I missed the rear view mirror on this stand earlier. Does it have turn signals too? What about cup holders? I know it's got cup holders. I got to fix mine up some.
Why yes.Yes it does
 

Son

Gone But Not Forgotten
Running this old 4020, breaking land or mowing. It was often turkeys and deer would come out to check the fresh ground or fresh cut vegetation. Also had hoards of cattle egrets coming to swallow field rats and mice whole. Even had a few hawks that would follow the tractor around.
 

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We drive atv's and tractors around our club most all year and I think they get used to it to a degree. everyone always freaks out when loggers show up and the noise they create. Deer adapt quicker than we give them credit for.image0.jpegimage1.jpeg
 

frankwright

Senior Member
I think it might depend on the land location!
If it is a pristine,isolated,normally quiet piece of land then any disturbance by ATV,vehicle or anything may alert the deer.
I hunt on a small farm, Tractors,ATV's,Golf Carts are a daily happening and nothing seems to bother the deer.
I was watching a decent 8 point but had decided to let it pass when the landowner started beating on the bucket of the tractor with a big hammer to remove a hay spike. It sounded extremely loud. The buck never even looked up from his eating.
 

Rich M

Senior Member
Hunt lease I'm on - lease holder's 10 yo kid started hinting it this past season. Tearing the place up hunting every day, running all over, etc. Every stand is overhunted.

I was running ATV thru a wetland area and see a HERD of deer off to my left, IGNORING ME. The kid musta gone thru there 1,000 times and they just ignore the ATV. I shot 2 of em. Came thru after processing and there were more deer. The next day there were more. I saw 15 to 20 deer in there from running ATV and they were not paying it no mind - even when I left it running and started shooting - they only run off when I went over to get the dead deer.

SO - ATVs will cause deer to relocate and may affect the number of deer walking by a given stand but they just adjust their movement. If you have a kid running an ATV thru there daily, the deer will just ignore it, even at close range...

Even if you think the ATV noise tells the deer you are there, ever think to try an fool em by walking into your stand while your buddies ride to their stands (and still shoot just as many deer as you)???
 
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