One of the hunters on our lease swears up and down that parking his ATV right next to his blind does not affect the deer coming to his feeder. I personally think it has no affect on younger deer but an older buck will not come into the feeder. Can I get some feedback on this?

we used to park our jeep right under the blind.

the deer had no way of seeing it from the feeder though.

I thinks it depends on what the deer are used to seeing.

On the lease I had on the Clear Fork for 21 years, the deer saw cowboys and pumpers in pickups every day. Thus, I parked my truck and UTV as close to the blind as possible.

The vehicle only garnered a casual glance from the deer. But a hunter walking in to his stand from several hundred yards away caused the deer to run to the next county.

Generally speaking, it is better to let the deer see a vehicle than to see a hunter.

It just depends on which ranch your hunting

I used to hunt the Spade Ranch. There was a lot of activity on that ranch and saw very little deer. Shot one cull buck in the two years I hunted. Now granted the ranch foremans son used to drive the ranch all day long pig hunting and trapping and that might have had something to do with it.

It's all about what the deer are use to. You drive our pasture in a truck the deer pay you little to no mind. Try it on an atv or utv and they scatter for hours.

good post

Deer are creatures of habit and it is all about what they are used to. They do not like things out of the normal for them.

Oh yeah. The Texas flag in your sig is still hung backwards and is being used as drapery for that window.

I think that the older and smarter the bucks get, the more they are aware of us and our gear (ATV's, etc.). Over the many years of hunting deer, I've observed very intelligent behavior by big-racked mature bucks. Some of that behavior was surprisingly 'aware' of potential danger.

If you want the really old big bucks, you have to work a little harder. They know the sound of an ATV means hunters. They know where your box blinds are. If you want the big bucks, I firmly believe that you have to hunt them where (and sometimes when) they don't expect you to be. When I realized that and changed my hunting approach, I started seeing the big ones that I knew were there, but were hard to find. That doesn't mean that I shot that many more big ones, but I did find them.

Totally agree. I always park my truck in a different spot at least a 1000 yards from any area I plan on hunting and always up in the trees so its not just sticking out. The doe and small bucks dont care, but the mature bucks will catch on to your habits very quick. I always change my hunting approach every time I go out, and have seen quite a few mature bucks. I killed a 11 point last weekend that had never been seen before due to a different approach i decided to take on that day. The big ones are smarter than you think!

I have a combine parked 100 yards from stand. I park my truck right next to it. The deer are used to the combine and don't even notice the truck next to it.

I park mine about 200 yds downwind...so a little of both

I parked my Mule under my stand yesterday and saw 3 mature bucks. One walked less than ten yards from it.

Depends on whats a normal process on the ranch... if atvs, trucks, tractors are a regular thing on the roads and trails then even the mature deer will get use to it... I use to park a full size UV right next to the later of my blind and would have 4-5yr olds walk right by it.. late season...not so much but while they are rutting they can care less. Now if you drive up to a new area that dosnt get much traffic they most likely arnt going to enjoy that buggy being parked there

All deer are not the same. Younger deer generally don't pay as much attention to vehicles - pickups or ATV's. Younger deer generally go to feeders during the day.

The reason big mature "trophy" bucks have survived as long as they do is because they don't feed at corn feeders during daylight hours, they DO pay attention to vehicles entering and leaving their area, etc.

I have always taken the approach that you should CAREFULLY use ATV's to get around. I use a Polaris EV (Electric) Ranger and even then I generally hide it as best I can and then still walk the last quarter mile to my tree, stand, blind, or whatever.

I think if what you are after is just "normal" 1-2 year old does or 3 1/2 year old bucks, an ATV is not going to hurt you. I would not worry about it unless you were really after a big mature buck, but even then if you hunt during the pre-rut (like right now), that ATV won't bother him a bit during these next couple of weeks. He has his mind on something else.

Krayton, I'd pay to see you park your truck up in the trees! (Just kidding...)

I used to just sit in my truck overlooking wheat fields and hunt. Saw more deer doing that than probably any time in a stand.

X3

I will never forget the time I traveled back to Mississippi for a late season hunt with in- laws. I decided to put up a ladder stand in an area that was between to existing box stands and on a direct line between a bedding area and a food plot. About an hour after setting up the stand, I took my best Mississippi buck ever.

While luck is what put me in the spot at the right time, it was my belief that mature bucks know how to avoid all signs of human activity is what made it the right spot to hunt.

Since then, I just keep my mouth shut and let other hunters keep doing what they do with their ATV's and such. Besides, few people are going to change their opinion anyway. One the deer have them patterned, I choose setups that take advantage of their noise and movement.

Big bucks don't get old being careless and stupid.

I posted pics last year of a buck chasing a doe around my truck while it was parked less than 75 yards from my tripod. I've had bucks of all ages walk right by it and had a post mature buck walk with 10 feet of it yesterday.

It's just a matter of what they're used to seeing. When I was still single, I used to spend almost every weekend at a buddies ranch. He kept an area for us to hunt and leased out the rest. We'd see bucks pushed onto us when they fired up their atv's that we didn't see at other times.

It's just a matter of keeping their environment the same. I'd stick to trying to mimic whatever occurs when you're not in the field.

Even a different color of pickup will attract the attention of the deer and cause them to scatter.

It's all about what the deer are used to seeing.
If you hunt a place that is large where they don't see very much traffic and then deer season rolls around those deer will spook to the sound of a vehicle and surely if they see it parked.
If the deer are used to seeing vehicle traffic they may look but they don't get scared off. Big or little bucks doesn't matter.
I hunted a place a few years back that I could see the neighboring ranch from a tall tower blind maybe 1/4 mile away. I had some deer feeding in from of me on the sendero and suddenly they looked in the direction of the neighbors place. I kept watching over there wondering what they were on alert about.
Just then a guy on a 4 wheeler came down the road on that far ranch and those deer spooked and hit the brush running. I'm talking a loooonnng way off folks.
I hunt a place now where the rancher next door uses an ATV to check his cattle every day and the deer could care less when he goes putting by.
I park my Jeep and hunt from it....I shot an old cow horned spike this morning at 165 yards out of my Jeep parked off the pipeline a few yards. They walk right past me most every time I sit.

Oh yeah, again thanks for your concern and have a nice day.

Just go ahead and admit that you are jealous of that BIG BUCK next to that illegal displayed, backwards hung flag and get it over with

It is a great buck. I don't doubt many of us are jealous of that. Just a question though, is it backwards as viewed from inside or from the outside?

To tell you the truth I don't know and could care less.