Atv use thoughts and opinions

[kcebcj]

Here in West Central Idaho where I live which is located about 33 miles from a paved road I use a quad mainly to get around and so do my neighbors. Quads are used for everything except hunting. What I mean by that is we use quads to get to and from certain areas and such then hunt on foot. Have I ever hunted just off the quad you bet, but hunting on foot or horseback is more fun and of course your not limited to some trail. What I have learned is that deer get used to hearing and seeing quads and aren't spooked much by them. I do much of the early scouting from a quad and see the same bucks or bulls in the same canyons week after week from a distance of course but they certainly heard me. You drive right up on them and they are gone especially elk they will go to the next county. I'm bordered on the south by the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area on the east by BLM and on the north and west by neighbors. All the tress passers and poachers we catch in here get into this back country using a quad and it's usually stashed somewhere. Does that make the quad a bad thing no, it's of course the person doing the riding.

I don't see the public land here being abused by quad riders mainly I think because it's too steep to drive a quad off the road or skid trail in most areas and there is a lot of pieces of private land that limits where folks can go so there is probably just less traffic then in other areas.

Your always going to have the a$$holes that run off trail cut fences and just act stupid but I think that most of the people around here are civil and law abiding and use their quads legally.

I think there are enough restrictions in place but they are hard to enforce. I don't want to see Fish & Game turned into quad cops they have enough to do but the forest service and BLM employees do have the ability to ticket violators and that's who should be enforcing the rules on public lands anyway.

 

[J E Custom]

Je: your situation is understandable. I'm sure when I'm 70 I won't be able to pack elk on my back anymore. I have yet to be messed up by someone on foot however. Don't take my statements the wrong way there is a time and a place for atv's and you are a good example. People my age however have no excuse. You will see more elk and deer on foot than riding around on logging roads and closed down trails, period.

Thanks . and I didn't take it wrong. I was just stating that I believe that they have there place
if used properly.

And as Waylon Jennings said "I MAY BE OLD BUT I AIN"T USED UP"
I can and have packed elk out buy my self I just cant pack them as far any more.

As you get older you have to change your way of hunting and picking your shot so you can
recover the game .

I don't hunt off of my ATV I just use it to get in the area I want to hunt then I hunt on foot
once I arrive in the area I want.

I normally Hunt Elk across a drainage that is legally accessible to my ATV if i get one down
then all I have to do is drag him down hill to the drainage (Some times this is not an easy
task by myself so I end up quarting and moving him down in 3 or 4 trips.

The last 3 Elk I have Killed I had to pack it out buy my self because my hunting buddies were
4 to 6 miles away and I didn't want to leave all of that meat and take a chance that a bear
or other varmints would ruin it.

And that Honda sure comes in handy when your miles away from camp. So no offense, and
none taken.

If I could just wound them and walk them back to camp and then finish them off there I
would not need the ATV. HaHaHa.

Anyway if everyone was courteous and though about other hunters it would not be an issue.

And in away it's like the debate about long range hunters being unethical compared to
short range hunters. I can tell you there are plenty of short range hunters that take shots
they shouldn't. so again its the person not the method.

J E CUSTOM

 

[esshup]

I used mine last year in Wy., and I did harvest a Mulie while using it, although it wasn't planned that way. We (my buddy and I - it's a Bombardier Traxter 2-up machine) mainly used it to go from the camp to the jump off point at the base of the mountain. That was between 5-7 miles down a gravel road. We'd park the ATV and climb the 2,000 ft to get up before daylight and hunt all day, walking down after hunting time ended. We'd drive back to camp in the dark.

My cousin took me up the mountain on a gravel road the evening of the last day that we'd be hunting Mulies to show me where he shot his moose. Of course we had the guns. On the way down the mountain a 3x3 just stood there looking at us. He stood there long enough for me to unstrap the hard case, get out the rifle, load it and shoot. He was only 43 yds away. There was only about 20 minutes left in my Mulie season, and it was either that or leave without any meat.

Is that the way I prefer to hunt? No. Were we "hunting"? Technically, yes, but the intent was to see some different territory and the opportunity presented itself. If it wasn't the end of my season, the shot wouldn't have been taken.

It sure helped this flatlander get from camp to the mountain. I really wouldn't relish walking 5+ miles each day just to get to the bottom of the mountain.

There were illegal trails going up the mountain, but this boy won't go that route. I'd have horses if I lived in an area where they would be of use, but I can't justify having them for maybe a week a year, then trailering them 1700 miles for a hunt. I'm really not sure how they would fare going from 700' elevation to 7,000' elevation either!

 

[bigngreen]

There are tons of atv's flying around here all season. I have been sitting on a herd of elk just observing them an all of the sudden they look of down in the bottom, stand up and walk into the timber, 15 min later here one of dudes from the camp in the bottom pulls up and starts talking about how tough the elk hunting is. NO KIDDING Sherlock. I drove my truck up to the same spot without any problem and have for years, Elk are really keen on atv sound. I have seen a couple with good exhaust systems work real well for moving around.
I call FWP every time one go by in an illegal way slows the bad apples way down, I go deeper into my hunting areas than most so they acually push elk to me.
I'm working more in a horse direction as the trails are all getting closed and the Feds are trying to make it all wilderness.
Kinda have a love hate relationship with atv's and horses for that matter.