Have a little controversy in our club and wanted to hear your opinions -
Does 4 wheeler activity spook the birds ?
800 acres, main road runs along the highest ridge on the property. food plots right off the main road. Very very little 4 wheeler activity in the off season. 4 wheelers would mainly be used to get to spots in the morning and then coming out few hours later and back in and out later in the day. No running and gunning on 4 wheels. The main road being the main ridge gets alot of turkey travel. They use the food plots quite a bit.
What do you think? Will the birds go off their normal pattern of using the roads and food plots with 4 or 5 guys using 4 wheelers ?

I would say yes;any time a bird is spooked it it " SPOOKED" .if the 4 wheelers are going and coming every day like they would durning gobbler season I would not do it.

we have 4 wheelers in our club durning the off season,the only thing the directors call the off season from the last day of deer season till B/P season starts.

last year on two different occasions my wife and I were messed up by 4 wheelers.

keep them out of the woods.

i would imagine that the turkeys would learn to agoid them if possible, but when i hunt on my uncles farm, they don' t really mind as long as you keep your distance, and when he is on his tractor or in his combine, they don' t care at all.. I guess it depends on the terrain and the situation. In farming country, they get used to the farm equipment being out in the fields and don' t mind as long as they keep their distance, usually about 100 yds from what i have seen.. they are pretty comfortable with the farm equipment..

also, they ARE more weary about 4-wheelers.. they don' t mind the bigger machinery or a pick-up, but the minute you step out, they usually go the other way..

4-wheelers won' t run the turkeys out of their area, but they will make em change their patterns. you can, use 4-wheelers to your advantage. a couple years ago my uncle would ride his 4-wheeler to the same spot ever mornin, get off and get in one of the few blinds we have on our lease. after about 5 days of this, and him comin home empty handed, I told my son that we' d get in my pickup and drive to the oposite side of this same area the next mornin, and walk in to where the turkeys were roostin. we did, and my son came home with a 23 lb gobbler with 1 1/8" spurs and 9 1/2" beard.

Well ladies & gentlemen I have to fully disagree....last year, while hunting private property the distance I had to go to get to my setup was too far for this arthritic body to walk, hence the atv...I drove it to within 50 yards of my setup....walked in, set up, called & had a bird within 15 minutes ...not flukey luck as I did the same thing the following Saturday morning...just me personal experience........Brampton Mike[8D]

I' ve always thought that the best camouflage in the world is stealth. If you can get the job done without the 4-by then that' s the best way. If it' s the only way you can get the job done, then be like Mike and use it.

I think most of us have been messed up at one point or another by 4 wheelers " off-roading" as I was last fall deer hunting. I' ll bet Brampton Mike didn' t go gunning into his spot and used the vehicle as quietly as possible. I believe that if you can use them in that manner, they can be a great hunting tool, so long as noone else is effected.

where i hunt ther is no road traffic or farm equippment so i gurss the turkeys r not used to unusall noises such as 4 wheelers in the spring when people ride 4 wheelers where i hunt the turkeys will not gobble i no this 4 a fact i found it out the hard way i have to walk more than a mile to get to were the turkeys are but it is worth it not to scare them u can try a bicycle this works good they dont make much noise

I hunt public land that has alot of ATV traffic. The turkeys seem to adapt to it, one thing to remember is atv`s aren`t usually in the woods early in the morning. I wouldn`t want them running through the areas I planned on hunting early in the morning.

The land I hunt on is open to everything but wheeled vehicles. Two NIT-WITs that are perfectly able to walk in, ride past the " no wheeled vehicle signs" and drive in.
No wonder the machines get a bad rap. It really makes my blood boil.
If you are phisicaly able you need to leave the thing at home. If you need to ride in, be responsible. There are too many irresponsible NIT-WITs driving these things everywhere. They are going to ruin it for every-one.