So I bought an atv for the new lease. Lots of up and down terrain so felt like it was a good investment. Especially with all the flooding last year. That being said, there’s been a couple times I come around a patch of woods and see deer hauling tail across a field.

So my question: how far away do you park from your stand/blind? I’m wondering if the deer are wise to the sound of the atv, and bunker down.

Edit: Novice deer hunter caveat thanks for the help!

Depends on the terrain, time of day and location. Anywhere between 100-300 yrds. If I’m on top of a hill hunting down maybe 50. Never hurts to be farther away.

Depends where you are in the state, terrain, can you come in up wind on most occasions, and a couple other things.
Where I am in east Texas I don’t fire the atv until something is down. I walk everywhere granted it’s only 500-600 yards to my stand.

Anywhere from 20 yards to 125 yards depending on how thick and tall the brush is I can make an ell shaped road that dead ends into the brush. One of my bowblinds I park about 25 yards to the north of it and never had a deer see the Ranger. I road feed with the Ranger so they are used to hearing and will come back quickly as the season goes on. I have to park close are I will run deer off as I am getting into the blind a little later in the season.

I have a stand on a 1/2 acre food plot that's a little over 300 yards South West of our ten man campground. There's also a shooting bench at the edge of the campground with a target range facing South East. I can sit in that stand watching deer on the plot at the same time I hear guys shouting and banging around the camp ground or taking a few shots on the rifle range. The deer don't react to any of that activity. But if someone cranks up an ATV at camp the deer immediately go on alert and usually vacate the plot.

A lot will depend on what they have been conditioned to. Examples above STX uses his to spread corn, The ones not worried about noise at camp but leave when a ATV or 4 wheeler is cranked up are not worried about normal activities but will leave when the expect intrusion into their space.

Deer pattern us much better than we pattern them

I walk to blinds. I have found it to pay off.

Lots of times I drive with in 50 yards of the stand and have deer at the feeder as I am going up the stairs. But that is in west Texas. It's different in different parts of the state.

This x2.

Deer don't seem to care at all about pickups or tractors or any human movement around or on pickups & tractors on our places.
The Rangers they take notice of & usually slowly move to cover if you drive towards them.
Crank up a chainsaw, weedeater or zero turn and they run until off the properties.

It depends on what the deer consider normal human activity, if the human activity level goes up or changes they become much more sensitive to it.

I was on a lease with two other guys who had ATV's who rode everywhere. And never saw anything. I walked and rarely made it to my stand without taking a shot at a hog, or seeing deer.

I'd walk in as much as you can, given the terrain

Makes sense...The land owner still lives on the property and works cows. They seem to always be driving around working on something, so I figured it wouldn't be a big deal. However the side of the property I put my stand in, is away from most of the traffic and down in a dip next to a creek. I can hear one of my buddies fire up his ATV from my stand maybe half a mile or a full mile away, but he doesn't have the option of walking to his spot.(too many ups and downs and it's a long way from camp) That being said I'm thinking my side of the property is one of the key bedding areas, probably due to having less traffic and the deer feel safer. I'll probably walk in from now on, won't hurt to get some exercise and see if it makes a difference.

Thanks for all of the replies!

It all depends on whether the deer are used to seeing the ATV's, if you only use them during teh season, then they will be skittish around them. Our farmer feeds out of a pickup, the deer ignore the pickups. An ATV will scatter our deer, while a pickup can drive through teh pasture without much more than a look. On another place the rancher checks the cattle using his ATV, the deer are used to it and ignore him.

I park my truck 400 yards away from my stand. I walk 395 yards before I can see my feeders N and S of my stand. Then I have to go up the stairs 15 feet! Sometimes I get trapped and spend up to 45 minutes waiting on a nice buck to leave.

The more you walk the more you see. After seeing first hand how deer react to the sounds of an ATV and other hunter movements, I'll easily walk a half-mile to keep deer from hearing the sound of my ATV. I also believe firmly that deer know the sounds they hear when so many are after them are not the same as those created by farmers and ranchers during the off season.

If you're hunting in an area with lots of hunting pressure, I would encourage you to stay late and wait until others have cranked up their ATV's and UTV's and made it back to camp. You might be surprised at how many deer you see when others are back at camp taking a nap or watching football.

Good luck.

On my lease, you have to use an atv or truck to get to your stands. I do see deer running from atv's in the day time. On morning hunts, before daylight, I sometimes pass a few yards from deer on my atv with my road feeder going full blast. Most of the time, they just move over off the road, then come back out to the road and eat corn. I park almost under my stand.
On evening hunts, I get to my stand before they come out to the road or the feeders.

I think getting to your stand before daylight in the mornings, and before deer movement in the evening starts, will help when driving to your stand.

And, get them used to the road feeder.

It depends on the area and what kind of traffic it gets. I park an atv right next to my stand and deer don’t mind all. I corn the road most times I head to my stand; even in the summer when doing work. This helps; they associate the atv sound with feed. Especially mule deer. Whitetail will still run just out of sight when I come by, but mule deer will run out into the road waiting for corn.

That being said, I could see it being an issue on a ranch that only gets traffic during deer season.

It has more to do with changes in daily traffic than the how you get to your blind area. More than usual traffic or traffic at unusual times on a lease is the issue. I am driving around my place in my Ranger at all hours of the day. I start in August driving around before daylight and after dark and I always run the road feeder at different times.