I think I hate ATVs.

[Caseknife]

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

Correct, it is not the machines but the "entitled" riders that think they can go anywhere with them. Really makes you think about sabotage, but then just stooping to their level.

I am a tech at a motorsports dealership and had a conversation with a couple kids during the late whitetail season. They needed their 4 wheeler fixed because they couldn't hunt without it. I just looked at them and told them to use their legs. Uphill? Told them I just got back from packing out a cow elk at 9000' in Wyoming and I was three times their age. Fixed their 4 wheeler.

 

[Fixer82]

I broke down and bought a SxS last year for use on my property and for hunting. It saves a lot of wear and tear on my truck getting to trailheads/hunting areas. However, I feel off trail use should be penalized very harshly and seasonal closures should be more widespread. Colorado seems to do a good job with seasonal closures on their state land. I've also noticed in the past 10 years or so in the CO units I hunt, many motorized trails that pass through critical winter or elk calving habitat have been permanently closed.

 

[LuketheDog]

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.

Wow, nailed it again!

 

[Mustangs Rule]

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.

I used to live in Wyoming, both in the SE corner and then the NW corner.

The Medicine Bow Range is stunning country. Just drop dead gorgeous, but it got so filled with OHV's I moved to the NW area.

The fracking was hot and heavy then. Lots of roughnecks with too much money working a week or ten 10 days on then off.

They had these Mad Max OHV rigs with super long-range rifles, and some type of tripod that mounted on the OHV. The game animals got so spooked getting within 1000 yards was hard. More and more locals' hunters were going long range.

The hunters wanted access and they got it. The drilling rigs had roads built everywhere.

I left Wyoming and never looked back. Air quality went south. I just looked it up and my once gorgeous part of the Rockies there gets an "F" from the American Lung Assn.

 

[Sytes]

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

Ethics are lost on some and rationally excused by others. Agree 100%.

 

[JT88]

They had these Mad Max OHV rigs with super long-range rifles, and some type of tripod that mounted on the OHV. The game animals got so spooked getting within 1000 yards was hard. More and more locals' hunters were going long range

This is the part that frustrates me. Neither the buggy or the rifle are to blame. Somebody drives that buggy where they shouldn't be and somebody pulls the trigger when they shouldn't.

People need to take a long hard look in the mirror and decide what the word ethics means - getchya some

 

[TimeOnTarget]

The biggest problem I see is almost ZERO enforcement of laws already in place.

 

[Gellar]

The Iowa dnr has been getting pressure from atv/utv clubs and associations to open state managed forests and wma’s to atv/utv use. So far the dnr has been able to resist. But the pressure is heating up. The conservation officers stopped enforcing atv regulations because the Iowa Dot takes all the revenue from the licensing of the machines. The state troopers thus far have not been regulating them either. Currently in Iowa they are only allowed on county roads.

 

[Irrelevant]

I recently was glassing an opening that had an old road nearby, waiting on a whitetail to show itself. I heard an ATV coming closer, not because I could hear the motor but because I could hear the two dudes in it yelling back and forth to hear themselves over the motor. They drove by, then turned and drove it x-country up to a small exposed nob across from me so they could look over the same opening I was. They didn't even bother turning off the engine, just pulled up, gave it a quick once over with their eyes, then turned around and drove off. All I could think of, is that, "You sonsaguns just ruined this spot for the next hour and you couldn't even bother to actually do it in a way where you might have seen a deer."

 

[David58]

I have no desire to own an ATV. I have ridden a four-wheeler once. I would rather walk, elitist that I am.

I see too many tracks headed off the road into roadless areas, or posted for no motorized travel. I wonder, too, if those danged things could be muffled?

I keep trying to find places where I can get off and away from the road, and then there are ATV tracks headed right in.

From bow season in the rut, to multiple rifle seasons, elk are kept pretty stirred up down here. Elimination of ATV's would be a small step that wouldn't impact anybody's desired legal armament. If you are too fat or too old, well, sorry. And I am portly and aged, but I won't do an ATV (or an E-Bike). I do not like ATVs, Sam-I-Am!

 

[peterk1234]

Ah... the atv hunter. I was exposed to them for the first time last year. I was on a hike with my daughter and we had one come our way. This was bow season. He stopped 25 feet in front of us, hoped, off walked off the trail about fifty feet and then came back out. I figured he was looking for the elk he just arrowed. Nope. Bump into him again 20 minutes later, doing the same thing. If the guy would have just taken a second to break down what he was doing then maybe, just maybe, he would have realized that he will never shoot anything, especially with a bow.

I have thought about getting one as I age, but I just can't get past the smell, the noise and the disruption those things have to be creating. Ebikes are way better all around then those damn things. I guess I just need to stay in shape and pray that my body doesn't go to crap as I approach my 60s. Time flies when you are having fun.

 

[TheTone]

I’ve no use for them used illegally but it was pretty handy to be able to ride one right to this years deer

 

[D_Walt]

Never really bothered me until this year, I normally hunt well back into roadless areas. Snow had moved the deer down into the more roaded/accessible areas. Holy smokes was there ever a bunch of guys riding around. However, after 15 years of hunting Colorado I still have not seen one go “cross country” in Colorado. I have seen it in New Mexico.

Still, doesn’t really bother me if they’re on the road. If someone is “road-hunting” from a vehicle and ruins your spot…well, then you’re probably road hunting too.

Full disclosure - I have a couple 4 wheelers, they can be fun to ride and can get to the trailhead on a rough road much faster than a truck or jeep, but I guess I’ve never really considered just driving around on one hoping to see game while riding.

 

[Beignet]

Walking is so “elitist.”

Signature worthy! Haha!

Dumb thing is, I believe that was a grasping-at-straws rationale behind talking points from certain members of congress for possibly easing up on mechanized restrictions in big W wilderness areas and limiting the expansion of new wilderness designation.

Not 100% sure (but like 99%), I believe that this “elitism” position was floated by our current esteemed governor at one point during his brief tenure as a congressman.

Just ain’t fair that I can’t ride my SxS back to the Chinese Wall and shoot a pile of grizzlies.

 

[Farmerj]

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.

Dad has always maintained…” ban only military weapons….”

So go get me your 1952 wingmaster and let’s go destroy it. Pump action shotgun was very much used by the military…

 

[Sagebrush1]

Obviously driving off-trail is a duck move, but if your spot is such that a guy driving on a road can ruin it, I think maybe your strategy needs some work.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Had the joy of watching a couple guys driving off road for at least two miles according to the map this weekend. I had glassed a buck from a couple miles out, and was about 1.5 miles into a 2 mile stalk when these two idiots come driving over the hill and shoot him right in front of me. I hate them too.

 

[Dinkshooter]

Hate those things

 

[Sytes]

15 or so years back, Big Hole, tracking a fresh set of elk tracks.... bbbbbbbzzzzzzzzzzzzz - zoom! I found empathy for those who desire / maybe even follow through with one into the motor. I returned to my truck, snapped pics of the sled trailer and truck plates AND the sign with the sled tracks in the picture that stated no motorized vehicles.
Advised dispatch I was placing the complaint. A month later, I was advised I did not need to show, fine was paid. Bah! I bet they chance the fine and find it worth the sled rumble IF they happen to get caught...

 

[JT88]

Had a doozy just this weekend. Accessed some BLM by hiking thru a BMA with walk in only access. Miles from any accessible road besides the closed private BMA trail. Here comes a couple dudes in a buggy driving right in. Needless to say I was not excited to see them...

So, to answer some of these posts, no, you don't have to be hunting "too close to the road" to have a hunt ruined by a vehicle...