The walk in

[struttingfool]

Would like your opinion on this. You have a 600 yard walk to the stand, park the 4 wheeler, walk thru woods, base of a hill, mostly flat and a well defined semi clean 4 wheeler trail that is used very little during the year. Few rubs and scraps. Its not a heavily populated deer location but it leads to the thickest part of my property and as the season gets later that is where they go. Here is my question. Do you walk slowly down the trail, do you walk fast down the trail or just take the 4 wheeler to the stand? I am not lazy but I always bump deer on my WALK in. Doesn't matter if its in the afternoon, morning, mid day or an hour before daylight or if I walk fast or stalk my way in. I am sure that the wind is bad some times but the wind would be right when I get in the stand. I don't have another access point to this location. I have owned this piece for 4 years now and I hate bumping deer to the neighbor (brown its down) Suggestions????? Or do I just not hunt it???? Just a side note, I am not the most stealthy guy and I couldn't sneak up on a dead guy. If a twig is to be found on a turf field, I will find it and it will be the loudest snap ever!!!

Strut

 

[catscratch]

Sounds like maybe you are walking through good deer hunting to get to your spot. I tend to hunt the edges of deer travel patterns. It's tempting for me to hunt the deep/core area's where all the sign is, but I've found that I have better hunting by skirting the edges of their area's. The less I bump deer the better my hunting is in the long run.

Not sure what your habitat is like. It might be impossible to do it the way I do it. There are guys on here that hunt big forests who have to deal with moving through deer to get to their stands, maybe they will chime in.

 

[OkieKubota]

You are describing my place...it is a long upside down/backward L shape 90 with 1 square 10 acre tract making it not a perfect rectangle. My west side has to major deep hollows that begin on the land that would be a nightmare to try to try to navigate in the dark and my west neighbor who owns 30 acres home is at the very back of their property. It is right next to my fence and between their dogs and MANY kids outside playing every evening and around 8 am on in the morning (basketball on hard ground, screaming and banging a pipe on an a barrel seem to be the favorites) a west side entry is futile. My east side is a meandering flint creek bottom with 9 finger ridges that drop into that bottom and the entire length of the fence other than 3 creek crossings is walking along a flint side hill up or down and between the flint grinding together and all the leaves it makes you sound like a wounded Buffalo coming through the woods...the only time I have had success with that approach is wet ground with a lot of wind...if it’s calm and dry forget it....
That leaves the only approach...from our home on the southern portion a middle of the property assault right up the middle with a trail that goes around our largest food plot near our southern side. I only hunt with a northerly type wind but can get away with east or west but anything that has south involved in a the description is a no go. I have done 2 things that will get me to 1/3 of the way back with no disturbance....hinge cut both sides of a trail that circles around the south plot on the south and west side so I am concealed on that walk and I use my landscape rake on my tractor to get rid of all leaves and sticks on that walk...after the 1/3rd mark I have a section that is probably the narrowest flat part of our property I have to walk through and it is about 100 yards wide and on the west side is the head of the deepest hollow and on the east side it drops into the creek bottom. I need to walk about 100 yards through this section to get past it This area has the largest concentration of deer in the early morning time because it is fairly near the food plot and lots of deer hang out just north of the plot either leaving it or some coming to it I have found that my best bet for hunting that area or beyond is just to simply await being able to see before slipping through there because a dark assault will get you lots of snorting and running and blowing...it doesn’t help when you check your camera later and it is your target deer doing all of this. If you can somehow manage to get past that area I can usually get to some of my favorite stands only jumping at least 1 more deer...without exception it’s always at least 1 more...usually as I am attaching my gear to my haul cord or just putting my foot on the first tree step or ladder rung...windy, wet days are my friend.

Evening hunts are easy on my place for entry but exit from the actual stand is almost impossible without spooking deer because I have a knack morning or evening of putting myself in the exact place a deer wants to be when it is too dark to see or hunt...

1. Concealed entry routes (hinge cuts).
2. Raked trails
3. Visual access in the AM or make sure it is windy and wet when attempting in the dark.

 

[BoneCrusher20]

buy yourself e-bike ...best of both worlds..quiet, no scent trail, fast to stand, most times deer see me they get same reaction as ATV and watch me drive on by. Before one i never attempted to get deep into cover as like you mentioned you are guaranteed to bump deer or make ton of racket getting there that all that will be left when get to stand will be the squirrels.

I'm gambling man and believe the edges work over time if you have lot of time on hands to hunt but certain times of year you need to take risk and be deep into that cover if good hunting days are limited.

 

[j-bird]

So I have raked/cleared walking trails to stands before as well. It's a PITA, and makes a lot of noise. I have considered many different means of doing it...rake, leaf blower, lawn mower with bagger, even burning. So far I have stuck with a rake or leaf blower. I also either pick a "bad" hunting day to do this...really warm, or really windy and do it at mid day....or I have even done it in the dark to ensure that if I was pushing deer it wasn't to hunters.

I nearly silent entry/exit is a great tool, but obviously can also only be a partial solution as well....especially if the deer are in the woods watching you.

 

[Drycreek]

How I’ve handled it is to clear a lane all the way around my places. I used a golf cart almost exclusively on the place I sold and no matter which way the wind was blowing I could minimize my time upwind of the deer, and since my place was all woods, deer could be anywhere. The amount of scent you disperse is greater when walking than driving.

I have the same at my home place. I can drive all around the outside of my place according to where I want to, or need to hunt. An electric golf cart is a wonderful thing !

 

[Mennoniteman]

There's lots of good ideas here, raking leaves off of trails is an especially good one. This is a topic very interesting to me, especially since I have actually been doing an ongoing experiment on hunting blind access methods and spooking deer, and the results are very different than I anticipated. We have a very good hunting spot on the edge of a field in the middle of the woods that has been in use by us for quite a few years, and there's almost always deer there when we arrive, almost any time of day or night, so I have been observing and keeping records for three years on effects of hunting access in observed deer quantities.
For the first two years we had been walking in most of the time, almost always spooking some deer as we did so. This year we have been dropping the hunter off and then picking him or her up with a fairly quiet gas powered golf cart with headlights almost all the time, almost always spooking some deer as we did so, generally the hunter is pinned down in the evening and the cart chases the deer away.
Before the season the crops and the deer usage in the field were very identical from year to year, but chasing the deer away with the golf cart after the hunting season started this year has definitely led to a much more pronounced tapering off of deer sightings during shooting hours, especially bucks. The evidence has been so overpowering that we actually just now quit the practice, because we felt we were ruining one of our best hunting spots.
In a different situation, my son and I were hunting at another place and I shot a mature buck in a food plot, which I proceeded to drag away from the plot before picking it up. Deer activity was finished for that evening, but then proceeded as normal on our cameras. A week later my son shot a mature buck in that same field, and drove into the middle of the plot and spent a half hour loading it. We didn't have a deer on camera in that field for the next three days after that episode. On the fourth day limited deer activity started again on camera.
There's this deer hunting idea, (that I'm beginning to think is a myth) sometimes passed down for generations, that says scaring deer with mechanical machinery doesn't spook them as much as a human walking on two feet. I will agree that slower or quieter equipment like tractors or fat tire bikes does not scare the deer as much as louder faster (think dirt bike with no muffler) vehicles, and deer act different in different areas, at different ages, and at different times of the season. But I have totally changed my mind about driving in to access a stand. I have become of the persuasion that walking in on two legs is the best possible choice for stand access for hunters.

 

[massey]

If you can do Oakies method, do it. If you can drive a diesel tractor to your stand, do it. Otherwise do what I do. Walk slowly, don’t worry about noise, and when you do make noise, use a turkey call. Works great for me because I can’t realistically rake trails and I’m in the mountains so too dangerous on my tractor. (Don’t know why a diesel tractor works but I can drive 20 yards from them in a wide open field and they don’t even seem concerned.).


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[Drycreek]

There's lots of good ideas here, raking leaves off of trails is an especially good one. This is a topic very interesting to me, especially since I have actually been doing an ongoing experiment on hunting blind access methods and spooking deer, and the results are very different than I anticipated. We have a very good hunting spot on the edge of a field in the middle of the woods that has been in use by us for quite a few years, and there's almost always deer there when we arrive, almost any time of day or night, so I have been observing and keeping records for three years on effects of hunting access in observed deer quantities.
For the first two years we had been walking in most of the time, almost always spooking some deer as we did so. This year we have been dropping the hunter off and then picking him or her up with a fairly quiet gas powered golf cart with headlights almost all the time, almost always spooking some deer as we did so, generally the hunter is pinned down in the evening and the cart chases the deer away.
Before the season the crops and the deer usage in the field were very identical from year to year, but chasing the deer away with the golf cart after the hunting season started this year has definitely led to a much more pronounced tapering off of deer sightings during shooting hours, especially bucks. The evidence has been so overpowering that we actually just now quit the practice, because we felt we were ruining one of our best hunting spots.
In a different situation, my son and I were hunting at another place and I shot a mature buck in a food plot, which I proceeded to drag away from the plot before picking it up. Deer activity was finished for that evening, but then proceeded as normal on our cameras. A week later my son shot a mature buck in that same field, and drove into the middle of the plot and spent a half hour loading it. We didn't have a deer on camera in that field for the next three days after that episode. On the fourth day limited deer activity started again on camera.
There's this deer hunting idea, (that I'm beginning to think is a myth) sometimes passed down for generations, that says scaring deer with mechanical machinery doesn't spook them as much as a human walking on two feet. I will agree that slower or quieter equipment like tractors or fat tire bikes does not scare the deer as much as louder faster (think dirt bike with no muffler) vehicles, and deer act different in different areas, at different ages, and at different times of the season. But I have totally changed my mind about driving in to access a stand. I have become of the persuasion that walking in on two legs is the best possible choice for stand access for hunters.

In some situations you’re probably right MM, but in others, I’m not so sure. I had one spot on my old place that was impossible to access on foot and be quiet at the same time. I had a rifle stand hidden in some maples with a screen of brush on either side. When I first started hunting it I parked about 300 yards away and walked in. I had to walk down a hill and cross the concrete crossing in a creek then make a hard right for about 20/25 yards to get behind the stand and then into it. I spooked deer and hogs before daylight several times. After I started using the cart I would drive down the hill, cross the creek, and pop into my parking spot behind the brush and get into my stand. I spooked no more deer doing this than I did walking in. I even had deer and sometimes hogs out in front of me minutes after getting in the stand. That was my hardest stand to access and the only one that I drove completely up to, but it worked. I’ve had hogs and deer both come from behind and I know they could see the cart parked there. It was camo, but had a tan top. The headlights were always parked into the brush where they couldn’t be seen and I seldom had to use them to get to the stand. My other stands all had better entrances. One in particular was so good I’ve entered the stand with deer 40 yards away and didn’t get busted. I had a trail hacked out from the N in thick brush and only hunted it on a S, SE or SW wind. That “road” all around my place let me use the wind to my advantage.

 

[dogghr]

I do all the above. I stay w perimeter access untill heat of rut then best rut stands are n my interior and I have to go up the gut. I love stalking to a stand and have shot almost as many going mid morning on those stalks as from the stand.
With that said.. last few years due to circumstances I’ve had to ride my noisy farm atv to within 75 yds of my stands. Deer activity has actually been better. I’ve even had to wait while deer left from under stand feeding on acorns. So I’ve somewhat changed my attitude. On the Land I have 12 stands on a 100 ac so I seldom hunt one twice in a row. Last years 8 was shot in the middle of a field as I stalked to a stand mid morning.
Dougherty in one his books said drive property perimeter once a wk year round not stopping if deer are seen. Gets them accustomed to u and equipment and works for me.
And to an above post.. years ago one of the more acclaimed hunters had the saying deer can’t count I.e. 2 hunters walk to stand and 1 walks back out. Of course this was before we all had tractors , atvs, electric vehicles , etc, and became lazy asses. I’ve proved that 2 Hunter theory true many a time hunting public land.


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[Deadeye]

Well where I grew up we all had dirt bikes, then atv's, and there were tractors while we were farming and pickup trucks at any given day drove around the property.

It was nothing to be driving down a road on the property and see Deer just standing there looking at you drive by. Many guys drove to near their stands and walked in. One evening in the middle of the week during the 2-week Buck Season, after work I drove my old truck up and parked it near a spot where the woods made a point out into a 20+ acre field. Now remember that we had hunted Monday and Tuesday and had Human Drives on Tuesday and then again on Saturday. This was the week following that.

I decided to just climb up in the bed and sit there to wait for dark. Before the evening was over I had seen around 20+ Doe and no Bucks. At Dark I climbed back out of bed, got in the cab and drove home. Those Deer didn't care, stayed there watching me and went back to feeding.

Last time I hunted with my Brother in one of his Box Stands he drove is small SXS right to the steps of the stand. I had to take a leak at one point and went out to do so, when I saw a Deer walking towards me. I scoped it and it was a Doe. She walked right down the trail we drove on, walked right past his SXS and laid down about 20 yards away from it. She stayed there for several hours.


Now to my Property I hunt today. We are only there a handful of times a year. I don't think I have ever seen a Deer while on the ATV, save one time. I walk to all my stands.


What is the difference? One property they saw Humans on ATVs and Trucks all the time and didn't associate them with DANGER. In fact they were very comfortable around them. One Property they rarely see an ATV or Truck and hide when they hear one.

All depends on your land and how often atvs and/or equipment gets used on them.

I could tell you stories from while driving the Log Skidder and having Deer eating out of the tops of a freshly dropped tree while Dad was still trimming limbs off of it, but that's for another day.