I am fortunate enough to be able to hunt but my options are very limited. With that said, how many of you park and walk in to your tree stand, deer stand, or blind? I noticed many vehicles on the side of the road this weekend at exact entrances into wooded areas and fields. I hunt on a small 11 acre lot and I am thinking of doing the same to minimize my arrival and set up. I can park the truck up the road and walk the rest of the way on to my blind. The truck just makes way too much noise. If I walk in... maybe I can go unnoticed. What do you all do?

Walk as far a possible but we have some blinds parking 100 yards away is not going to disturb a thing. Just depends. If I had a small place I would for sure park at gate and walk. Our deer run at any vehicle unless it is a tractor. On Sat I decided to park a little further than normal and have no clue if it made a difference but I got my buck. If just remember seeing a deer once where I normally park for that stand so I figured if I stay back a bit I would not disturb that area. There is a road 300 yards from that feeder but downhill and they don't flinch when a farm truck drives by.

One evening some crazy person drove that road honking the whole way and still saw deer.

It depends on where I am hunting at. I have one stand I park my Ranger 20 yards from the stand. The other stand I have to park about 150 yards away. With both of those I still drive up the stand and put in my gear then use the road feeder to feed the open areas where I want to see the deer. I still have to hustle once I park to get back in the blind before the deer get to the corn most mornings. On another place I have to park about 300 yards away and walk in to the stand. I hand feed corn on the way in at that blind. IMO I would rather use a vehicle to run the deer rather than them seeing or smelling walking in. Then by road feeding the area it is like a dinner bell they hear for 400-500 yards depending on the wind that they and they are heading to that stand as I am settling in.

Being overweight, I never park less than roughly a quarter mile from the stand, not only to get exercise, but because I have seen deer react multiple times to the sound of distant activity from humans. The stand I hunt most often is a half mile from where I always park, no matter if I take my truck or ATV to hunt there.

I believe it depends on what the deer in your area are accustomed to as to what will work best. I've hunted on a lease of 650 acres in Mason with 8 hunters on it. When we all walked to our stands we saw quite a few deer but after a couple of years or as we got further into the season guys started driving their four wheelers to their stands...and we saw A LOT LESS deer once this happened. So again it depends...

I agree, each property will be different, or even each hunt. Parking in a known travel spot, will almost always alter deer movement to a point. If on a new lease, I'd walk as far as I could, but for guys that hunt land they own such as myself, STX and many other people here, doesn't take long to know how your deer will react to different stimuli and what they will tolerate..

During season, I restrict all traffic from going into hunting areas, if they are going to hunt they can walk in, been doing it for last 5 seasons and buck sightings have gone way up....nother benefit is family fair weather hunters have quite asking if they can come hunt when they learn they will have to hike a couple miles to the blind

Had we just sat in the truck Saturday morning, my son would have tagged a beautiful wide 8 pt. Instead we parked about 400 yards from the stand and walked in. Found the buck's tracks in the wet mud and he walked within 30 yards of the pickup without a care in the world. He closed the distance and got to within 100 yards of us, but was right on property line so we couldn't shoot.

Same exact thing happened last year on our first ever hunt in this particular blind. Buck trotted into cotton field and never offered a good shot. He made it to ridge before pickup and turned perfectly broadside and just stood there for what seemed like forever right infront of the truck. Then he disappeared behind a terrace and we never saw him again.

I think it depends on where you are hunting.

I know if I walk across CRP to get to my stand, I have bumped a lot of bedded down deer before. I've never seen a running deer when I've driven my truck a little closer. When daylight would come, I would still see deer all over the CRP.

I started that little experiment because I would always park 1/2 mile from my blind. Co-workers would hunt my blind when I was out of town. They would park 100 yards from blind in clear view from the feeder, and they always saw bucks from my blind. In fact they have killed 4 deer out of that blind to my 1.

I think anything out of the ordinary may spook them. Apparently they are used to the rancher's pickup truck checking/feeding his cows. But I bet if you came in there with a UTV or 4-wheeler, they would be gone in a hurry.

Always made me chuckle opening weekend when people would lock me out of pumping my wells. They were just spooking the deer because the deer were used to my truck every single day, then they also wasted their money on a cut lock.

I can see my truck from my tripod. The truck is a 79 F350 with a 400, dual exhaust with glass packs, so it can be considered loud. I have deer walk in 30 minutes after I shut it off and again it is in eye sight, like 100 yards

I have killed my biggest deer from a high rack out of the back of a pick up. That being said, if I am bow hunting, I park quite a way away but if I am rifle hunting from box blinds, I will park within eye sight of the blind depending on stand location, and that's the key, where your stand is located in relation to where the deer bed, travel, stage, eat, etc....

The deer at our place associate vehicles with food. Whether it be a road feeder or a fill trip for protein and/or corn they get curious when any engine comes along.

With all the rain this past week, I did not have a choice but to park on the side of the road and walk in. I would have gotten stuck before I went two feet.

I walk to all my setups as well. Couple weeks back though I drove to within 60 yards or so of one of the feeders. Oh and we are talking aa 12 valve cummins which is by no means quiet. Walked over to change the camera card and a hog was munching away. Although the deer are way more skittish.

i bought a truck with the same engine as our foreman so the deer won't know a difference.

That's dedication. I hope you at least liked the truck

Our old lease deer ran at the site of any vehicle except the land owners old 70's model beat to heck rattletrap old pickup. The exhaust system was long time rusted out and this truck hadn't been over 10 mph on rough ranch roads for 20+ years. It had a unique sound and it was loud the deer would barely get out of its way when she drove it through.

Our deer run at the site of a vehicle or a person. We walk in and try to not be seen.

The deer at our place could give two craps about vehicles. When bow hunting I usually walk a hundred yards or so just to make myself feel better. But when I'm sitting in my box blind I park directly under my stand. I've had deer walk within 10 yards and not even look over at my bright red four wheeler.

Okay, I changed my mind after this weekend. I always park as far away as I can. Just something that I have always done. But it was raining and so darn muddy at the property that I was slipping and sliding with every step. My wife hunts with me and she is 70 and I thought, "why am I making her walk in the dark in all this stuff?" So, we have a mule and I went and got it and drove it with in 20 yards of the stand at 6am and parked it. At 7am, I shot this buck 20 yards on the other side of the stand. So from now on whenever she is with me, I'm taking the mule almost to the base of the stand.....heck, I might start doing that even when she is not with me.

I pretty much walk to the stand, but the other afternoon it was raining really hard. So, I drove the diesel Kubota and parked it close to the stand. I had deer on me in 5 minutes.

I walk in all the time as long as it isn't raining. I enjoy the quiet of the mornings and the exercise can't hurt. But It think it depends on what area you hunt. Back in the 60's my dad would hunt in his truck so he could listen to a football game in the afternoons. He had just as many gut piles as everyone else.

I ride the 4 wheeler right up to the blind, get my coffee cup, thermos, water and rifle in the blind. Granted, I normally get there at least a hour before first light. I've seen deer just as it gets light enough out to see anything. They have walked right next to the 4 wheeler and aren't bothered. I've done it for a long time though. Guess they are use to seeing and hearing it.

What a stud! Congratulations!

If you use the same vehicle all of the time the deer become used to it. It is the different sounding ones that show up at the beginning of the season that will spook them. If you show up all of the time driving a Army tank, they wouldn't give you a second look.

The girlfriend doesn't like walking in the dark so when she is hunting we take the UTV. We drive it right up to the stand and drop her off, then I pull it 15 yards away and park it around a corner. Next year we are going to hang a camo net up and drive it behind that. Figure the deer will get used to the camo met and when we pull the UTV behind it they won't be able to see it.