I think I hate ATVs.

[David58]

Taking a rest after hunting a loop in the snow, and enjoying the quiet. Then came the ATV....side by side, rolling down the road quite fast and loud. Two "hunters", and they hooked a left off the road to go explore "up there." Rather ruined a hunting area for some hours if not for the day. I guess if I had an elk down, I would be less irritated, so grain-o-salt I guess.

But I do hate the things.

David
NM

 

[Johnny Bravo]

ATV/UTV's are like jet ski's...fun if you are the one on/in them, but when they screw up something else you are trying to do, you hate them

 

[Tradewind]

Taking a rest after hunting a loop in the snow, and enjoying the quiet. Then came the ATV....side by side, rolling down the road quite fast and loud. Two "hunters", and they hooked a left off the road to go explore "u there." Rather ruined a hunting area for some hours if not for the day. I guess if I had an elk down, I would be less irritated, so grain-o-salt I guess.

But I do hate the things.

David
NM

i'm with you in that one

 

[OverlordBear]

They should all be destroyed when they come onto public land. No mechanized travel off any established forest service road. I wish the center for biological diversity would sue Polaris for disturbing Wolf reproduction rather than game agencies.

 

[ForkieShooter]

They should all be destroyed when they come onto public land. No mechanized travel off any established forest service road. I wish the center for biological diversity would sue Polaris for disturbing Wolf reproduction rather than game agencies.

Problem is that them and the snow machine and lobbies have really put the “multiple” in multiple use on federal lands.

Walking is so “elitist.”

 

[Flatbrimmer]

Problem is that most don’t abide the rules. They ride Willy nilly thru the brome and bluebunch….

There’s certainly push back against RMEF for the non motorized access part. To them, I say . Can’t have quality habitat without lack of disturbance.

 

[Sytes]

Walking is so “elitist.”

Signature worthy! Haha!

 

[BearFoot]

Taking a rest after hunting a loop in the snow, and enjoying the quiet. Then came the ATV....side by side, rolling down the road quite fast and loud. Two "hunters", and they hooked a left off the road to go explore "u there." Rather ruined a hunting area for some hours if not for the day. I guess if I had an elk down, I would be less irritated, so grain-o-salt I guess.

But I do hate the things.

David
NM

I dislike them when they roll into my space, but if you owned one, oh yea! Ride it baby!

 

[Mustangs Rule]

Four things happened in the 1980's which have forever damaged the public image of hunters.

In 1988 Honda produced the TRX 300 quad 4x4. There would be 530,000 of them sold and the quad explosion was underway

In the mid 1980's the tidal wave of cheap AK-47"s began being imported into America.

Next, after Colt lost the patent on their AR-15, cheap knock offs were everywhere.

Lastly designer camouflages clothing began to be marketed aggressively in America.

And then the new image of hunters was born, riding a quad, dressed in camo and carrying a military rifle.

 

[BearFoot]

I've been running ATV's 40 years now. 3 wheelers, 4 & 6, plus SxS, and big buggies. Gets me to places where, I park, set camp, and hunt by foot from camp.
More and more, I witness folks that hunt like they are cruising a big city strip on friday night. looking for a hook up. So many have no clue.

 

[Mustangs Rule]

I've been running ATV's 40 years now. 3 wheelers, 4 & 6, plus SxS, and big buggies. Gets me to places where, I park, set camp, and hunt by foot from camp.
More and more, I witness folks that hunt like they are cruising a big city strip on friday night. looking for a hook up. So many have no clue.

Mechanized recreation and mechanized hunting have both dramatically shrunk the amount of quality habit available to wildlife. Even if the actual plant forage is available the "Ecology of Fear" still kicks in from this invasion and browsing patterns are reduced, there is stress placed in calving grounds, and bull elk and buck deer become less sexually aggressive during the rut.

This leads to many does and cow elk not being impregnated and in turn creates an unnatural second rut, the calves and fawns of this second rut being born too late for them to make it through the coming winter.

Regarding the change in browsing patterns, herbivores become much more nocturnal under stress-pressure and do not come out to browse during the late afternoon which is when many browse plants are at their highest level of nutrition from being in the sunlight photosynthesizing all day. As soon as dark comes the chemistry/food value of plants can start dropping off quickly.

The % calf abandonment by cow elk also increases with disturbances.

 

[AlaskaHunter]

In Alaska a problem is the organic mat insulates the permafrost.
Compress or remove that organic moss mat and thawing of permafrost is accelerated.
The thawing permafrost creates a saturated zone which leads to a permanent pond area.
ATV drivers then tend to drive around the new pond creating more trails.

The 40-mile caribou hunt on the Steese was a classic example a couple years ago
where thousands of dollars of geogrid trails were ruined in one day by ATVs driving in
an area that by law was restricted to walk-in hunters.
That made the front page of the Fairbanks Newspaper, not a good message to non-hunters.

I use my ATV for plowing snow.
I either fly or boat in to my hunting spots.

 

[Mustangs Rule]

In Alaska a problem is the organic mat insulates the permafrost.
Compress or remove that organic moss mat and thawing of permafrost is accelerated.
The thawing permafrost creates a saturated zone which leads to a permanent pond area.
ATV drivers then tend to drive around the new pond creating more trails.

The 40-mile caribou hunt on the Steese was a classic example a couple years ago
where thousands of dollars of geogrid trails were ruined in one day by ATVs driving in
an area that by law was restricted to walk-in hunters.
That made the front page of the Fairbanks Newspaper, not a good message to non-hunters.

I use my ATV for plowing snow.
I either fly or boat in to my hunting spots.

If you Google "Desert Talc" the only reference, you will find will be about some cosmetic from desert flowers. if you study desert ecology the term will come up in regard to a stable dust layer that causes water to "roll off" the surface thus protecting it from erosion.

Naturally creating this protective layer took forever and a day, cutting it open takes one pass with an ATV then the cancer of erosion begins.

In times past i used to hunt different varieties of desert deer, Los Burros and The Inyo deer were my favorites. I even drew a desert bighorn tag and took my ram. I restricted my hunting to wilderness areas free of machines, though old damage from years gone by was still evident.

In the non wilderness areas the ATV damage was and is appalling.

 

[beginnerhunter]

In my state u can't take them off established roads on public land. IOW, u can't take them anywhere u can't also take a truck (except for a handful of established atv trails). Sometimes people will go around or over the mounds and gates but it works for the most part, rendering them superfluous.

 

[gouch]

It aint the ATVs, it's the bastards riding them.

 

[NR_Hunter]

Man there really is nothing worse than getting to a spot before dark, thinking I’m about to enjoy a quiet sunrise, and right as the sun starts popping up, the only noise I hear is the drone of OHVs and 4 wheelers getting louder and louder until I’m eventually surrounded by fatsos.

 

[wyoelkfan15]

I despise ATVs, they can be useful but 90% of the time they ruin a hunt area for others. Last weekend we were hunting late season cow tags, I took Friday off to do some scouting. Found a herd of 200 elk way up on a mesa, 3 miles from the nearest trailhead. We got there early Saturday morning, after 3.5 miles of hiking and 2,500 feet of elevation gain, we got within 800 yards and were figuring out how to make our last push to get into shooting range. All of a sudden all the elk get up and are looking back over top of us. We look back over the ridge and two old boys in a snowcat are driving right down the ridgeline perfectly sky lined going straight around the basin right at the elk. They had taken an old jeep trail up the mountain. Needless to say the elk ran two counties over. Hunt over for the day.

Main thing is to learn how to use them to your advantage and hunt where they aren't supposed to go. Doesn't always work out, in college my brother and I were hunting a wilderness unit outside of Laramie. Couple miles from the truck we start hitting elk sign, things are looking good. Then we hear a put put put of a small engine, some big ole boy comes puttering out of the timber on his ATV, 2 miles into the wilderness.

 

[Nick_CO]

There is no aspect of ATV's that I enjoy, aside from turning in people that take them into places they shouldn't be, which I do at least once or twice a year. I even dislike driving and riding in them. The noise, dust, cold, exposure to weather, having to pull a trailer around, and feeling like a kid in a go-cart, are all good enough reasons for me not to use them. I'll take a ride in the quiet, heated cab of a truck to wherever I'm going to start walking. Like an adult.

 

[Jwill]

The ATV companies' marketing messages are definitely working, folks around here act like they need an atv to hunt a 40 acre woodlot...

 

[Salmonchaser]

I could care less about ATVs on open roads, most of the guys who have them spend more time road hunting then climbing into and out of the canyon. As others have mentioned when they are ass holes and drive off road into the wilderness etc. I’ve no use for them.