Was on texas bowhunter forum (not a member there just lurk from time to time) and the question was raised about driving to stand or walking in. The question wasn’t really what i found interesting but it was the responses that made me laugh.

Way too many: “i spook off more deer walking in than driving in”

Not one person replied to these with “when you walk in you hear all the deer running off, but when you are driving you never hear them run off so you don’t know they are running off”

Truth be told, i have walked right in on deer before, i have driven right up on deer before. I think things are very situational based on ambient noises and a clam day deer are spookier than a mild breezy day, and wind noise covers a lot of human made noises.

Just surprised to see so many people fall victim to their own biases and sell them as reality. Not saying driving in or not is the correct method, just more about the personal biases people base deer hunting claims upon.

What are other “personal biases” that hunters you know (or yourself) live by that make no real sense?

I ran some deer off heading to corn really late on Thursday evening. Due to rain I could not get there any sooner as allowed the roads into my place time to dry. Some deer never left at all, I checked trail cams then road fed off.

I am a firm believer in road feeders and leaving human scent around the areas that I hunt. Most people are afraid that they will move deer or make them nocturnal, whereas I believe that traffic and human contact is a good thing. Those who try to keep it to a minimum or only go when they have to have to take more precaution to me. I just hunt as if I was out checking things on a normal day. Same traffic and same random times and random routines work for me. Other ranches or leases this may not work, but for me it works well.

I can't drive to my stand because of an unimproved and very cow-rutted creek crossing. Nevertheless, I don't think I would. I have just a short walk from the other side of the creek. A couple of years ago I went to my stand late on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I climbed up into my stand and before I sat down, saw a big doe at about 200 yards. I pulled up my rifle, sat down, and shot her. Fastest hunt I've ever had. There were a couple of other does around, but cleaning one deer at a time as sundown is approaching is as much as I want.

In the past I've driven up on deer both in a truck and on a motorcycle. Sometimes they'll run, sometimes not. Except for this time, I've never walked up on one while going to a stand.

I generally walk to my blinds, but a buddy came out to hunt on my place last year hoping to get a doe. We were a bit late getting to blind the first morning, but I went ahead and drove him in on the Mule cuz I wasn't sure he would find the blind in the dark. Dropped him off just a few minutes after legal light, and started drive back to house. As soon as I rolled up, I heard him shoot - maybe 10 minutes after I dropped him off. He said as soon as I turned out of sight, the deer moved in and he actually waited to pick the largest doe.

As far as big bucks, I think any (walking or riding) activity in the woods gets them skittish, until the rut. During the rut, don't think it matters too much, but I still walk most times.

I am more inline with this belief, to me its like with show animals and playing a radio at home so they don't get spooked at shows.

My situation demands a long walk. Our place is huge, and rarely any human intervention on most of it. Deer would be used to the noise from a Ranger or a truck, but never at night. (The ranch hand drives a Ranger or a truck) I actually plan on taking my truck since it's very quiet in the AM. I'll walk 4-500 yards, farther if it makes sense. I'll also make a huge loop, a couple of miles, to approach from an area that won't disturb my prime ground.

I've seen too many deer react to the sounds of ATV's and vehicles to say they can't link these sounds to human pressure. The largest buck I've ever taken in East Texas was moving away from the sounds of ATV's that passed by in the distance some 30-45 minutes earlier. I suspect the buck stayed bedded until things quieted down and then began easing my way.

I also believe you can't compare how a buck will react to the sounds of humans during the off season and the first week or two after the season opens to how they'll behave once they know that so many are after them.

"The largest buck I've ever taken in East Texas was moving away from the sounds of ATV's that passed by in the distance some 30-45 minutes earlier. I suspect the buck stayed bedded until things quieted down and then began easing my way."

Suspect is correct. Quite suspect.

I could have shared the time I watched two young bucks come running past me after a hunter on an adjacent lease cranked up his ATV to leave his stand but they were too small to shoot.

That experience taught me that if you just stay put until late in the morning after so many have been sitting back at camp, you might be surprised at what you see.

Do you think the amount of time you spend on your place affects it? I believe you spend quite a bit of time on your place, where others who only spend a weekend a month outside of season may find different results?

I feel like the less driving in vehicles we do around our place the more we see. On long weekends when the pasture has been driven through etc. our sightings seem to go down.

On the other hand, we predominately walk to stands and hand throw corn, the deer often will cross a path we walk and undoubtedly catch our scent trail. Some show little interest, some snort and go back to normal, but I have seen a few hit the line I walked all of a sudden get nervous test the air blow and walk leave spooked while I'm sitting silent in a tower bind 200 yards away down wind.

When in Beeville with 7 hunters on a thick 1,400 acre pasture, Thanksgiving was a big weekend for everybody to bring guests. Tay Tay and I would come in Saturday evening and enjoy the campfire and be prepared to hunt the whole week. Sunday, we would stay in late and just wait for the hung over hunters to return from every corner of the ranch. Go out out early Sunday PM and enjoy whatever was out there.

Beginning Monday, it was better with more to observe. On Tuesday morn, it was like a whole new world.

and TD is right about the ATVs. Not sure about his biggest buck story, but in general he is on the $.

It all depends on what the deer are used to. Where I hunt in OK, the ranchers drive pickups all over the ranch all the time. Deer will just watch a pickup drive past and not spook. Get out of the truck and walk, and they'll bolt. FIL's place in Navarro, they'll let you about run them over with the tractor. Zero fear of the tractor. But the ATV will send them to the next county.

Two key findings from studies made with radio-collared deer on how they react to hunting pressure...

#1 Once they feel pressured, deer know when and where to hide based on the behavior patterns of hunters and their knowledge of the area. These are often thickets and other hideouts that are relatively close by. Deer simply know these small pockets of thick cover provide relative safety because hunters never enter them. Add a source of water and you may never see a deer during daylight hours once it feels pressured.

#2 Once deer have been pressured, Thursday is the best day of the week to hunt based on the levels of human pressure during other times of the week and the weekends especially. Also, roughly 90% of the harvest during any given season happens during the first two weeks when deer are still adjusting to hunter pressure. Put these two together and your best chances after the first two weeks of the season is right before any given weekend.

Of course, all bets are off during the rut.

I don't think any critter likes the sound of an ATV. I walk in as much as I can

Three of us on my lease use electric golf carts to get to our stands. Our deer are a lot more spooky than down south. You start an ATV on our place and the bucks are gone.

Corn the roads form a 4 wheeler 2x a week for a few months and see if that changes. It's all about what the deer associate the noise with.

I agree 100% - hill country and the deer are certainly more cautious to smell and noise -

South Texas? Ha Ha - the louder the better - make noise so they know you are throwing corn in the senderos - wind is irrelevant down there - in my years of hunting South I bet I have heard a total of 2-3 does snort - they are just use to traffic in the field

Over the years, when I got in the stand early, the sound of the late hunters on ATVs did alarm the deer. But here, the deer apparently know the sound of the ATV and the related sound of my throwing corn. Had one run up close recently as I was throwing corn. She just stood close by till I left.

my deer don't give a second thought to a UTV....they will sit and watch it drive by.


Its been my experiance that on most places you will spook many more deer by walking in than by driving in. On that note, for whatever reason I've noticed the deer don't like the sound of a ATV. On our place in south texas, you could run all over it in a Mule, Polaris, Tractor, Diesel Truck and they didn't give two shyte's about it. Run an ATV thru there you wouldn't see a deer that hunt. They just hated the sound of it.

Always associate your presence with the sound of food, period. Road feeders are important.

Doesn't matter if it's an ATV/UTV/truck.....always lightly feed when you're in their hood. They will get used to loud vehicles if you feed. Makes a huge difference FME.

Been on several places where I was the only one doing this, kinda like always feeding the hog traps every time you are there.

It doesn't work that way. Everyone needs to be on the same page. Everyone needs to be doing it, year round.

It matters lol.

Used to hunt some public Corps of Engineer land in the river bottoms. It was also a popular ATV riding place. Countless times I witnessed groups of deer scatter off the trail when they heard an ATV coming, then go back to the exact thing they were doing before. Shot several that were within 15 feet of my ATV. It all depends on what the deer are used to. Hunted other areas that had super spooky deer, and anything even slightly out of the ordinary would send them into the next county.

On a place my ex-wife had permission for us to hunt on, we would get the rancher to drop us off at our evening stands. He always went out and fed his cows around the same time every day. The deer wouldn't even leave the field as he drove thru, we always got out with the truck between us and the deer. If I drove my truck thru to drop her off, they would all scatter, I guess they were used to the sound of his old beat up farm truck.

A rattling hay spike trailer really helps, but I don't own one.