People don't realize just how much rolling resistance snow and mud can cause.

I think bucks that make it past 3.5 are on alert 24/7. They know the roads we travel, when we travel them, and where the stands are. They know they are under the most danger when it's daylight. I don't think ATV travel significantly alters their travel patterns as far as where they go, but I do think it can affect their daylight movement. My personal opinion is that in my part of the state, this is the reason so many good bucks are killed the first week of the season. As the traffic and commotion on a piece of property steadily increases you will see an corresponding decrease mature buck sightings and kills until the rut in mid-January when bucks seem to just pop up out of the ground like popcorn for about 10 days. They've been there the whole time but just laying low until dark and stay back in hard to access areas. Of course you will still have some nice kills as evidenced by the photos on Aldeer. Heck, on Saturday, one of our members in our Lowndes club killed a 205lb 8 point on a food plot 100 yards off THE main ATV road through our property.

Dr. B

If you drive the fourwheeler around often in mid day or times they're not feeding they get used to it and pay it not attention. Hunting pressure is gonna be the biggest denominator always. I personally don't think the fourwheeler bothers them.

I haven't seen any adverse effects. Some deer don't like anything, some don't care about nothing.

We used to drive a pickup into the center of a large field (about 30 acres) and park it so it would be centrally located. That driving added a lot of noise to the silence of early morning. I didn't know just how much noise until my buddy had to drop me off and then go back to the camp for something he forgot that morning. I walked on to my stand, which was about 300 yards from the parking spot, and was set up waiting by the time he returned and parked. Sitting there in the dark, I heard every gate chain rattle, hinge squeak and truck door noise. And we thought we were being as quiet as possible. Since that day, we walk in every time. When hunting, we only drive to retrieve a deer.

Heck ya it bothers them. Next question.

I was exactly 1 mile from where my uncle was hunting a couple weeks ago and I knew exactly when he was on his way out because I heard his buggy crank up. I was a little surprised at how well that sound traveled. You would never hear a truck that far with normal exhaust.

I prefer walking but it's probably a toss up.

The deer on our property are like cattle except the mature bucks. When they hear the sxs leaving from filling up the protein feeders they immediately come sometimes within minutes. But the mature bucks even the ones who would come in within minutes when they were younger tend to shy away until nightfall. It is of my opinion that they get a little more cautious and a lot more lazy. they wait for the other deer and coons to knock the feed on the ground and feed in the coolness of night. As for whether it affects them from a hunting stand point I would tend to believe as long as you didn't park directly by them or have the scent of the atv blowing to them it would be of minimal impact. I figured some loggers would give their stories of big bucks walking up to their equipment because of their curiosity but I think that has more to do with the smells of the disturbed earth than it does their machinery

Here's my problem. I have and atv and a electric cart. Our club is 2000 acres and the main road from the camp to the "back" is over 5 miles. Plus when it rains the first mile or so is real muddy which the cart can't handle. When I get about halfway back there is a real steep clay hill that would kill the cart dry must less muddy.
My perfect solution would be leave the cart at the bottom of the hill and then use it from there but I have no way to charge batteries back there. Plus I guess it's useless when the other club members would drive their atv back there anyway.

My dad farmed for about 20 years and has told me numerous stories of deer coming in the field just to investigate, with 2 of the bucks being the largest he had ever seen. Something about the smell of diesel exhaust and the low RPM smooth running diesel doesn't bother them. I also have a friend who uses a kubota RTV diesel to get to the stand, drives through the middle of their food plots and still kill good deer every year. A gas 4 wheeler though, they run for the hills.

I think it depends on how much you use them. I used to hunt deep woods deer where any motorized noise would spook deer.
I now hunt on two farms where we use atvs regularly for checking cattle, fixing fences, pruning peach trees, almost daily. The deer don't seem to pay much attention to them at all. I've got pictures that show mature bucks walking a firelane just 10 minutes after I drove down the lane checking fences.

I am convinced that if deer are accustomed to sounds, it doesn't bother them at all. For evidence of my assumption - drive down the interstate at night and count the number of deer standing on the side of the road.

I killed a very large 8-point a few years ago within 2-minutes of the property owner leaving. He had pulled up to my stand and talked to me for about 20-minutes and left. After he drove off, the deer walked straight to me without a care in the world. The deer on this piece of property hear that same truck every single day driving around the property.

And probably thought the farmer had gone home and was safe to come out and lay lol.

I seriously think you are correct. I wonder if the sound of whatever vehicle departing and getting quieter makes them think the associated danger is gone.

I like to stay late on fields. I will be the last person back to camp usually. I can�t tell you how many times I have watched a distant 4 wheeler clear the whole field.

Correct.

However, older bucks waaaay back in the big woods that have never seen Farmer Brown a wheeler bugs them a lot.

They are the absolute best thing ever created for deer recovery, and the absolute worst thing ever for hunting.

It obviously would bother them. One of the properties I hunt stretches 3 miles. It would be impossible to hunt without some sort of transportation. We've killed good deer using fourwheelers to navigate the property and will continue to do so.

I'll hike much more and much further then most normal hunters would consider, but I ain't about to hike a 6 mile round trip in hillbilly land.

Years ago I was in a CLUB WITH A PIECE OF LAND IN fT dEPOSIT.
Opening morning a fella was in his shooting house early. when the other members came in on their four wheelers they ran a mature bachelor group by him. He killed three mature bucks that morning. That afternoon he killed a four point. Typical Bama buck hunter.