How many of you use 4 wheelers hunting?

Would be quite a struggle hunting without one.....nearly 3/4 mile to haul gear in and game out.

 

eastbank- Were you driving it with the deer in the position shown? If so your center of gravity is way off and the wheeler can flip backward. I know this from painful experience. Fractured my back in 2 places loading a wheeler like that.

 

No I hunt unit 14B. Never heard of any 4 wheeler restrictions there.

 

If using one is an option great. But for many of us we have to put up with the struggle. I've packed in on foot 6-7 miles, never been lucky enough to bring one out from that far back. I did have to get a 260 lb bear out from 2 miles in a few years ago. I was hunting in a designated wilderness area where no vehicles are allowed.

 

i only use the 4x4 to get into the area i hunt and also keep supplies in case of an emergency. i drag any deer i get to a logging trail and then go get the 4x4 to get the deer out and the trails are not to steep,so no problem. here,s pa. a red neck four wheeler eastbank.

 

Depends. On our duck lease I used to use it a lot. It was very handy for hauling all the decoys and gear to and from the blinds in a swamp.

Deer hunting I rarely use one...usually only to drag one out. If I use it going to the stand I stop well short of where I'll be hunting and stalk the rest of the way there. Most of the time though I have less than a half mile walk to where I'm hunting...so I have it pretty easy.

 

Missouri only allows atvs on graveled roads and not in the state public forests. Thing is the graveled roads are good enough for trucks where we hunt, so the atv is pointless. We used them all the time when we had private property to hunt.

 

If I owned one I would!!

 

Like most here, I go get it when a deer's down and use it to retrieve them. The most helpful thing about them, in my opinion, is between seasons when it's time to make trails, fix or build stands, and stuff like that. One trip on an ATV is much less time consuming than multiple on foot to get all the tools and materials in place.
Also, they're fun, and this year while riding just for fun I went places I'd never been and found deer sign I'd never have seen otherwise. Last day of the season I took a big doe in the spot I discovered while joy riding, so there's that added benefit.

 

We use 4 wheelers to drag deer out in areas I can't take a truck. Depending on where I'm hunting I'll drive the truck to the deer or even go get a tractor with a loader to put the deer in the truck.

Do to health reasons I can no longer drag a deer an distance so you do what you gotta do.

Not too worried about spooking deer. Where I hunt 4 wheelers, trucks, tractors spook deer less than someone walking around leaving scent. They are used to seeing and hearing them since they are used for normal farming practices anyway.

 

At home where I'm hunting farm ground I will usually drive the tractor and use the loader to haul a deer back in.
On public land here you are only allowed to use motorized vehicles on designated roads and trails. It makes me nervous leaving the truck locked up on the side of a forest road sometimes, not sure how I'd feel about leaving an ATV unattended. Most folks I know that own an atv, have also had an atv stolen at some point.

So far I hunt deer at home and save public ground trips for squirrels so that I'm not fighting the crowds. We don't have the elevations here that you guys fight out west but in southern ohio some of the public land has elevations that change 300 feet every 300 feet. You can walk a mile and you will have climbed 2000 feet, but ended up right where you started. If I take to hunting deer seriously in those areas I will probably have to make some friends, or buy a pack frame.

 

Most of the time here in CO, the elks camps filled with ATVs are NOT filled with dead elk.

A small percentage of people use them properly, but most of the people I see on them are overweight slob hunters who would have a coronary if they actually had to hike anywhere while hunting or actually shot something.

Too me, they primarily serve to drive game animals further into the wilderness.

 

And right into my trap .455_Hunter! DOW stopped by and checked my elk in camp this year. Congratulated me because he said everyone he was checking were saying they weren't finding anything anywhere. Hell, I thought it was somewhat crowded with people, except they were within 1/2 mile of the roads/trails.

Hunting partner and I both were in elk daily and got our tags filled. Mine was in a location one couldn't even use a game cart, yet alone anything else to access it. Had to come out on my back. Took me 2 days.

Andy

 

We use both pickup and 4wheelers hunting. My family owns/operates a ranch of roughly 10k acres, all of which is contiguous aside from 2 occasions where crossing a road is necessary. We don't "hunt" from them, but certainly use them to get from Point A to [point B....picking people up after "drives" etc.

 

I use a 750 Kawasaki Brute Force 4x4 to haul deer out and to bring gear in/out.

 

Every year I laugh at guys that haul their 4 wheelers 200 miles, and then drive the 4 wheeler 150 to 200 yds to where they are going to shoot doves. That being said, as much rain as we have had in Texas this year, a lot of deer lease roads were probably impassable in trucks, thus making the 4 wheelers an indispensable tool hauling feed in, and deer out.

 

I hike in, but if i shoot a deer, you better believe I'll use my Polaris Sportsman 500 to haul it the mile or so back to my truck. I hunt on my own land (about 50 acres), so the ATV is all but a necessity for maintaining trails/stands during the offseason.