Elk Hunting & ATV"s

D

DonL

New member
We had a cow elk tags for the second year in a row in Arizona this year. We filled our tags both years but that is not the point of this post. ATV's!!! When we hunt we usally drive on a Forest Service Road (fs) to the area we want to hunt, put on back packs with our gear (knives, saws, snacks, tarps, GPS, water, radio,rifles, etc) take off and hunt the area. If we fill a tag one of us hikes back to the truck and drives as close to the animal as posible (legal in AZ) while the others field dress and skin it. What bothers me is that last year and this year, on opening day, while we were about 1-1/2 miles off the road, here comes two ATVs off road, rifles at the ready, thinking they are really going to see something. You can hear these things 45 minutes before you can see them. Off course they scared the herd we were trying to get up on but they drive up and say,"have you seen anything". I have a hard time believing these people think that they are actually hunting. The only place I see using an ATV while hunting is like we use a truck. Driving to an area on a road, retriving a downed animal and driving out of the area ON A ROAD. I saw one guy riding an ATV with a cooler on the back, with a rifle in his one hand and a beer in the other. He says,"I haven't seen a thing all day". I think that ATVs have a place but not while hunting. Sorry, but this really p....s me off!! Don
 
i'm with you on this they are for retriving game only.
atv's and road hunters ruin alot of good hunters chances that they worked for and deserve. i was messed up several times this year by them.
 
I HATE atv riding "hunters". I like to think of big game hunting as who sees who first. I can't understand idiots that ride around all day long and think they're actually going to fill their tag. Oh, I know their problem, LAZY!!! Get off your butt and wear out your boots. I've had my rant, I feel better now!!
 
HEHE.... Where do I start? I think they all need to be banned for hunting seasons period. But that is because every year my hunt is ruined by some ahole who thinks and ATV can and should go everywhere. I have seen ATV user cut a fence to drive down a closed road. Seen them trespass on private proprty, One guy shot at a group of bucks from his machine. They ran over the hill. He jumped back on his machine and chased em acroos country. Caught up with em 2 ridges later starting shooting into the group that was facing away from him. they ran and off he went again. He did this for about 5 canyons and a little over 3 miles. I had my deer hunt in WY ruined by ATV drivers this year in WY simply cause they drove everywhere. Every ridge, every canyon every place an atv could possible go they drover there. I paid $300 to hunt a decent unti in WY and all I saw were ATV users braking laws. During the rifle season I hunted 6 days. I saw 9 violations from ATVers. They were driving into wilderness areas, shooting from the ATV, tearing up the private lands that was a walk-in-access property. In a unit where I was seeing 200-300 deer a day in archery season they chased the animal down to 50 a day.

I would love to see all atv use banned during hunting season, with the exception for handicapped/disabled hunters. AS far as packing out meat, do not shoot the animal if you can not pack it out. Use a horse, find a young kid etc. If you do not like the work involved, maybe you should not be hunting. Also if you are too lazy to walk, go south and sit in a tree stand, but quit messing up the land and others hunts.
 
At one spot I hunt I actually like the ATV's. It is all private land. It helps my deer hunting tremendously. I am always in the stand 45min to 1 hour before day light. My neighbors wait until 10 min after day break and ride their ATV's back to their shacks and park right next to the shack. As they drive back I tend to get many a deer wandering back past my stand.
 
I'm headed out to northern AZ in 9 days for my son's rifle bull hunt. I've not hunted elk season there since I was 18, so am not sure what to expect. I think I've got a neat little tucked away place, with a ton of elk, and am dreading the appearance of ATV's come opening morning. I saw a few of them out there last week during the deer season, and this is not an area known for deer.

At least in the units I hunt, I see no logical use for them. They can't go anywhere legally a regular vehicle can't go, so what's the use, other than freezing your butt off while road hunting?

I wouldn't care so much if they were just using them road hunting (only legal if you're disabled, BTW), but when they start off cross country, it ruins countless stalks and really disrupts a lot of hunts and animals. NOT cool. I got an email last week about a group of ATV'ers chasing elk cross country all over the place during the cow elk hunt in the unit I'm hunting in. Shooting randomly at chased and panicked elk. Yeah, that's hunting. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif
 
As an ATV hunter all I can say is-sadly you are right but don’t use that as a blanket statement to cover all ATV riders because that isn’t the case. I agree though it happens way too often.

My ATV serves three purposes:

1. Get me where I’d rather not take my F-350.
2. Get me to where I need to get off to start hunting.
3. Get me out.

My friends and I never leave the fire roads or logging spurs to go cross country-it isn’t legal and it gives us a bad name. When you see others doing it try to get they’re sticker number-it’s just like a license plate on a car and will lead the law right to the owner.

Those morons are only making it worse for the law abiding, just like criminals that use guns to commit crimes.
 
Quote:

My friends and I never leave the fire roads or logging spurs to go cross country-it isn’t legal and it gives us a bad name. When you see others doing it try to get they’re sticker number-it’s just like a license plate on a car and will lead the law right to the owner.

Those morons are only making it worse for the law abiding, just like criminals that use guns to commit crimes.



If everybody used them that way there would be no problem. I do see some guys who follow the rules to the letter and never take them where they don't belong. OTOH, in the areas I hunt I can also get to all those same places with my buick!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif I often wonder when I see those guys on the way to a trail head before dawn freezing there butts off why they don't just use their car?? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

I know a few highly agitated anti ATV types who will decommision an ATV permanently if they encounter one parked out of bounds. I always thought they were over the edge, but each year they seem more and more rational!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
I leave mine home now!

Ive seen stuff that I havent time to type about /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/angry-smiley-055.gif and decided I would rather drag my deer. Of coarse Im not hunting out west and do not travel all that far to my stands. They have there use when needed but Ive seen gross abuse to the privelage.

Dave
 
Coconino National Forest has been closing areas due to the damage caused by ATV offroad use. Seems that people just don't get it. Some great information is at the forests website http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/coconino/index.shtml

I just don't understand the appeal of "hunting" off one of the darn things but we see it constantly up here. I would rather walk in the woods.
 
Quote:
I leave mine home now!



Ditto
Unfortunatly atvs have made deer and elk accessible to alot of people that will not put out the extra effort. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/angry-smiley-055.gif They do have handicap permits and I think that is great, I'm not talking about those. It's darn frustrating time and time again to have them in closed areas!!!!!!!
 
I have hunted & shot off mine for years. I just sold it and am not sure how soon or if we will replace it. This is sure hot topic everywhere. They need to get a handle on this with some stiff penalties. To many lazy hunters, I wish they would get out walking to push the animals around.
 

I am with you DonL...Where I elk hunt I have the same thing...Forunately the forest service has posted signs saying it is illegal to drive any ATV off road in the National forest...They put these signs up last year and really enforce the law...I am loving it because like you I had to pack out an elk this year in rough terrain with a pack. Sounds easy but these things are heavy and I'm sure you know all too well.

Anyway, ATV's are not a solution for being fat! If you want to hunt like a real hunter you should get out there off your fat a** and work like the rest of us SPORTSMEN!
 
Ha, this is an interesting thread. Gotta tell a story. The wife and I were hunting elk not far from here. Its an area that I hunt alot, Forest Service trail going in. Well, one morning we were easing up the trail and hear some ATV's coming /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif. I tell the misses to follow me and step off the trail about 10 yards. We are standing wide open and when they get alongside, I start waving my arms and loudly saying, "I'm a bull elk!" several times /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif There were two of these guys and they had no clue we were there /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif. I turned to the wife and said, "Now there's some real hunters!" I later thought I wished they had seen us and asked if we had seen anything. I would have said, "Yep, just watched a couple guys ride past a bull elk". I wonder how the mountain men managed without those things /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif?
 
Greg this is very common, but it gets better. A few years ago my wife and I got set before light below the road in a draw. At first light a herd of elk 30-40 came up the draw and my wife dropped one. As we prepared to dress it, wearing yellow rain gear with a blue tarp the herd moved off about 200 yds and mulled around. We heard 4 wheelers coming on the road above us, so we waved our arms at them. They just kept moving without even seeing us or the elk. On the way out with the meat we saw them. They were disgusted, it was the last day of season.
 
Well. I guess I'm not the only one that is disgusted with ATVs in hunting areas. That's good to see. One thing that confuses me is that not all National Forests have the same laws about ATVs. I thought that the Dept of Agriculture made the laws for all the national forests. Here in the Prescott National Forest in Arizona we have signs, "No off road travel. But when I talked to an Arizona Dept of Game and Fish deptuty in the Coconino National Forest he said that there was no Off Road Vehicle law in that national forest. That seems to be one the problems. Every National Forest has their own laws. DonL
 
Perhaps there should be an open season on these lawbreaking slobs to make up for all the game they spook that we real hunters don't get a chance at. That would be a challenging target taking one of those idiots down at 30 mph.
 


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