I have hunted on a friends 900 acres about 100 miles SW of Austin Texas, and have personally seen deer spook when an ATV was headed in my direction and still half a mile away.
At my 300 acres in East Texas, I had a similar experience with both deer and ferule hogs.
Anyone else have similar experiences or have I just had a couple of odd occurrences.

YES!!!

I have witnessed it many times.

Some folks do not believe it, but I have watched deer spook at the sound of an ATV, but not really pay any attention to a regular pickup or SUV.

There is a difference in the sound of the motor.

I have been cutting hay with my tractor and unless you are going to hit them,they do`nt even move.I guess someone has been chasing or shooting at those animals off an ATV.

A friend and I were glassing for elk from a fire tower years ago when we spotted a good bull about a mile from the peak we were on. He was alone, and feeding in the middle of a huge meadow when he suddenly threw up his head, paused and then ran clear out of sight.

My partner and I were curious about what might have spooked that bull, so we glassed for another ten minutes until we saw a pickup truck moving slowly on the two-track trail that led to where the bull had been feeding.

The guys in that truck obviously had no idea they had pushed the biggest bull in the country out of that meadow, or that their pickup truck had sent that elk running from more than a mile away.

Bill Quimby

Walk, otherwise you're screwed!

Elk are one thing, whitetails and muley's, depending on location from my experience are different.

Everyone's mileage on this varies, but to me ATV's spook game more readily than pickup's, at least on the properties I guide on.

Of course all of it depends on how conditioned the animal of whatever species is to vehicles. Any animal of any kind will spook when they relate vehicles to danger.

But the same animal will not run if there is no danger. Examples being; farm tractors that commonly are in fields, deer browsing on the side of the road in a residential area or where I live elk standing in the road. Sometimes if I leave my house before dawn I have to wait until they move before continuing on.

If you drive through a really wild area with few people most animals could care less or move off slowly. Bottom line is it depends on if they have a reason to disappear. I do notice that really loud vehicles tend to spook just about everything in sight regardless.

quote:

Originally posted by OLBIKER:
I guess someone has been chasing or shooting at those animals off an ATV.

This.

They associate ATVs with danger if people are shooting at them from them.

We hunt deer on 40 acres. The deer ignore my pickup and tractor. While hunting I have seen deer scatter from our food plots at the sound of an atv a mile or more away. Our atv stays parked during hunting season!

quote:

Of course all of it depends on how conditioned the animal of whatever species is to vehicles. Any animal of any kind will spook when they relate vehicles to danger.

Correct When game is not shot at by people on or near vehicles. The tend to stand around and look at them.

If the game has been shot at by people near or in vehicles they soon learn to get out of the area fast.

On the Reservations I worked they do a lot of shooting at game from vehicles. The roads there are some of the safest to drive on as far as car deer crashes.

The surviving deer run from any type of vehicles.

In areas where game is not shot at most of the time most of the game will let you drive by while they just stand there.

I drive and ride MC's ATV's cars trucks and bicycles.

I found that game birds are very jumpy around bicycles I think it is the silent gilding motion. Like a bird of prey gliding along.

Deer bears and other big game could care less.

Did have a wolf totally fly away at the sight of my pickup the other day.

Full speed not a hint that it stopped any time soon.

A good respectful sign in my book.

so again I think it is all about the pressure they have received.

quote:

Originally posted by Aaron Neilson:
Walk, otherwise you're screwed!

So true! Get in early and let the others push the game to you!

My experience here in Colorado is that if you are within hearing(elk/deer hearing) distance of an atv trail you are probably wasting your time.
C.G.B.

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I guess someone has been chasing or shooting at those animals off an ATV.

Not necessarily, ATV's simply make a different noise.

Yes, does not matter the vehicle, because if an animal is shot at from one, if it isn't killed, it sure won't set still long enough to be shot at by the next vehicle.

Coyotes in this area learn real quick or die real quick.

Those that have survived take off the instant they see a vehicle, whether it slows down or not.

Planting corn in no till I had a coyote come out of fence row and walk around tractor waiting for mice to move out. 3 separate rounds. As I moved further from the fence row he wouldn't come out. I've also noticed wildlife key in on changes in speed. Farm equipment is slow steady and even. You can drive right by a deer, but let off the gas for closer look they show a heel

True, I used to hunt coues deer in a ranch were they paid practically no attention at all at trucks and would just stay looking at the vehicle, one day we were sitting at a waterhole when a couple of does came to drink, then they started getting nervous and then I heard the faint distant sound of an ATV that should not have been there, the ATV was still some distance away when the deer spooked and ran off, had it been a truck I don't think that would have happened.

I see the atv thing often enough.
even roads that get heavy truck traffic doesn't bother them.
many years I have watched over a dozen bucks get shot off the side of a 5 mile stretch of dirt road.
but as soon as an ATV comes along they just scatter long before it even comes into view.

I have an area that I back pack into and the reason I hunt there is because it is surrounded by a road that is used pretty consistently by atv's during the hunting season.

I can sit and wait in a couple of different spots and the deer will run right up to where I am.

If ya want to ride up close then make it a horse you are riding.

quote:

Originally posted by OLBIKER:
I have been cutting hay with my tractor and unless you are going to hit them,they do`nt even move.I guess someone has been chasing or shooting at those animals off an ATV.

I have noticed in WY, where a truck creeping along making frequent stops will spook antelope and deer whereas they ignore a truck (well service truck, etc) traveling at a normal rate of speed.

Greatly depends on the hunting pressure. Feeding and checking, general ranch PU use, cattle during the year, I see lots of mature bucks and tons of does and the act like Im their best friend..After the first guns start poping they get ouchy pronto..

quote:

Originally posted by wasbeeman:

quote:

Originally posted by OLBIKER:
I have been cutting hay with my tractor and unless you are going to hit them,they do`nt even move.I guess someone has been chasing or shooting at those animals off an ATV.

I have noticed in WY, where a truck creeping along making frequent stops will spook antelope and deer whereas they ignore a truck (well service truck, etc) traveling at a normal rate of speed.

My limited experience says reactions are inconsistent. I've seen antelope ignore pickup trucks in one area, see them take off two miles away in others.
In one encounter a group of otherwise calm mule deer took off at the sound of the Cummins starting about a half mile away.

The deer where I live aren't too scared of vehicles. Mostly they'll ignore an atv, truck, or tractor unless you stop. Then they bolt.

On my property, the Deer associate the sound of my ATV with me filling the feeders, dumping apples, or getting rid of day-old bagels from the town bakery. I remember one time turning around after loading a feeder and a Black Bear was sitting on his butt about 30 feet away waiting for me to leave.

quote:

On my property, the Deer associate the sound of my ATV with me filling the feeders, dumping apples, or getting rid of day-old bagels from the town bakery. I remember one time turning around after loading a feeder and a Black Bear was sitting on his butt about 30 feet away waiting for me to leave.

Conditioning!!!!!

Ever read about Pavlov's Dog?????

Reminds me of a story:
My daughter and I were in a deer blind in a ridge overlooking a mile of cover with our south boundary fence less than 200 yards south of us. We were watching and calling to a huge buck and a doe just south of our fence when we heard the put- put of a UTV moving north along a fence line, so we watched the deer step back into cover it as the UTV reached the corner and turned East in the two track. As the UTV slowly rolled east, the deer stepped back out to feed again in the two track; the hunters in the UTV never knew they were there.

Unfortunately for us, the deer did not come onto our property where we could take a shot.

While deer hunting several years ago, I was watching about 20 deer that were scattered over a fairly wide area to my N.

I heard a truck coming up from the S and then started to see the deer just lay down in the sagebrush. By the time the truck came around the corner, all the deer had laid down. 3 guys got out to glass and saw nothing.

After they drove back the way they came from, the deer started to stand back up and continued on with their day.

Fascinating to have seen that.

I would have to say halve the time mule deer stop and stare when I’m on my ATV and the other half run.