Do ya park? Be it truck or 4 wheeler etc?
W the truck there are spots I have to walk 1000 yds
But w the wheeler I get as close as I can....I think the wheeler is less disruptive than me actually walking through
Tim B
Varies with me as I hunt public land and use my bike or canoe to escape the madness. My bike rides are probably 1000 yds with a short walk to follow and my canoe usually much less distance perhaps 100-400 yd paddle with a 100 -400 yd walk from the water.
I walk out the back door to the woods just one flight shot away.
1000 yds is about a 1/2 mile. I'd just walk ( if possible) to avoid the detection.
With people using ATVs etc today I'd think 1/2 mile wouldn't get you far from other folks.
Remember you picked that stand spot for a reason. Why drive in a screw it all up.
on our farm it varies......sometimes drive the tractor within 50 yards of one stand....had a scrape made right beside my Jeep once in our open pasture......so go figure ????? :dunno:
500 yards on the short ones, over a mile on the long one.
I only hunt private ground so seldom over 1/4 mile anymore.
It depends..... on a lot of things. I generally walk in though, have little fear of walking.
Back in Illinois ( in the 70s), public land shotgun season, I remember one fella parked right under his tree every year, and he generally got shooting. Doubt that would work for bow hunting though.
You have no fear of walking? At the moment, I can barely walk. Moving leaves around this noon, I got a sneezing fit that took me to the ground. A perfect day for my wife to get close to her 14" six pointer again and not shoot. She had it around her for 10 to 12 minutes last night, as close as 5 or 6 yards and she said she never had a chance to get the bow up. She claimed it had made her and kept staring her down from different positions. It is one of those things when one is a semi-still hunter. You can get into things that blind or tree sitter closer to the car does not.
On my property the closest is 230 yards and the farthest is 800. When I ground hunt on public land, it could be any distance.
Not me. Bad knees and when it's cold they ache even more. I hunt private ground and usually park around 100 yards from my stand. I pull off in the brush and kind of hide the bike but it is black and forest green so it doesn't draw much attention. I just make sure I'm walking into the wind to my stand.
Pavan. maybe I should add " at the moment" ( I have little fear of walking). I hurt my knee last night, and although there is no pain when relaxed, if I make a certain move ( almost like hyperextending the leg) i feel it.... wowie !
I use a 4 wheeler for getting within 100 yards of a few of my stands, walk up to a mile to another, and sometimes have my wife drop me off within a couple hundred yards of another.
I was scheduled to have a knee replaced until they diagnose me with A-fib. Today I carried my Summit stand, fanny pack and extra clothes a mile back to the house. I just keep pushing it.
Depends on where I'm hunting. I'm pretty much always on public and certain areas I walk waaaaaaay back in. Others I can shoot an arrow back to the truck.
My SUV stays in the garage and I walk 300 yards to my stand. ;-)
Stand #2 is about 700 yards from my back door.
Idk bout the opening post. Think about something, if the deer rode 4 wheelers would it be easier or harder to hear em coming??
Now if they're constantly used in an area maybe they might not spook but they'd surely notice you and smell it in parked near a tree imo.
I walk to my spots but have used a quad before on real long hikes and walked a bit from there
I should have added that I'm on private farms. All of them are farmed and used for recreation of sorts so the deer there are pretty used to machines - tractors and wheelers.
I kinda think I'm less alarming to the deer by riding through a area than walking through.....just wondered others thoughts
Tim B
I have a small plot of land and a nice tractor. Many times I will be using the brush hog and deer will be feeding 50 yds away lots of times machines don't seem to bother the animals.
Between 50 yards and 5 miles. I hunt public land and am pretty mobile. I cannot use atvs but can canoe in. Sometimes I'll boat a bit. Often I just walk it. I try not to walk more than a couple miles but I will for a really great spot in perfect weather conditions. In the area that I have to bring out the whole body intact to check at the check station, I specialize in finding the places I can make it happen as close to the road as possible. In areas that I can bone out meat in the field and haul out only the food I like to get away from others.
Well then if they are used to it you shouldn't have any problem parking close.
The most I have normally walked in the past is between 1/2 and 1 mile. Now, on my own small tract it is only a few hundred yards.
QuoteOriginally posted by TIM B:
I kinda think I'm less alarming to the deer by riding through a area than walking through.....just wondered others thoughts
Tim B
I agree Tim. I have driven very close to deer on a 4 wheeler and they will usually just step into the trees or cover as you drive by. I have also been sitting in my stands and watch deer as the farmer drives by on his 4-wheeler - they hardly seem to mind. Same thing with turkey. Lots of farmers and ranchers using 4 wheelers on a daily basis for various chores around here. Deer just seem to get used to them.
Depends on which stand I sit. some are only 40 yards some are a mile. I like having the option of close ones for last minute hunts.
I like to slip in as quiet as possible. On my lease I never park closer than 300 yards away. On the public land I sometimes hunt ATV's aren't allowed so it's a hike. Probably close to a mile. Not through the woods, but close to a mile in on an access road then 100 to 150 yards off the access road depending on the spot.
For pre-dawn walk-ins, I top out at 3 trail miles, which takes about 90 min at a good pace. I've gone as far as 8 miles in one morning but won't do that again. Most are 1-2 miles, though.
For off-trail, I stay within a quarter mile of the nearest trail or road. Much more than that and I'm a blundering fool making all sorts of racket & sometimes get myself hurt.
For evenings, I'll stay out so long as I can be at some major landmark near a road or trail before darkness hits. At that point, I feel that I have all the time in the world to get to where I'm going for the night.
I have one or two spots where I will use the quad. I will park 2-300 yards away from my stand. One day I used the quad to bring in a hang-on, then parked the quad 75 yards away and hunted the stand. I should've stayed on the quad, two does walked within feet of it.
I hunt thick rain forest and it varies from 100 yards to 3/4 of a mile. The deciding factor is access. The stand where I killed my 2016 is 3/4 mile walk in, because there is no vehicle access.
I generally hunt on public land and walk in to my stand. Last year's walk was around a mile in following hiking trails from nearest parking.
Last night I kind of messed up. Taking the the almost mile hike in, I decided i was tired and stopped about 150 yards short. I justified the wind direction, that going any further would just make the walk back to the car longer. Justifications are great things. I have not seen the 12 pointer the last few days, it is a monster, but I have heard that anyone got it either. About twenty minutes before sundown a buck was chasing two does around at wooded ditch where I was heading. It was the same boxy heavy racked eight pointer that I let pass at another location a couple of weeks ago, but the big 12 was right down the hill at the time. Last night I would have shot him. Those dang deer ran back and forth and all around that 20 by 50 yard ditch the entire evening and never got close to me, other than a yearling doe that was avoiding the hassle, which laid down in the grass about ten yards from me, on the other side of the cedars that I was using for cover. I got the the end of shooting hours and that buck was still going at it as I was walking away. I know if I would have tried to move in on him either him or for certain one of the does would have messed the stalk up on the open switch grass slope. The hike back to the car was not as bad as i expected, so I was a bit upset with my laziness. However, today the front door is about as long a walk as I got in me. It is that SI joint thing again. Time to call the chiro.