ATV Florida Forum

 I WAS WONDERING IF THE HUNTERS ARE STILL HUNTING ON THE MARKED TRAILS THIS YEAR. ESPECIALLY WANDERING GRASS LOOP. I HAVE STAYED AWAY WAITING FOR HUNTING SEASON TO END.

I was there on saturday  at lake delancey and rode the trails around there, i saw alot of hunters but no problems they just stared at me as I rode by. Also the trails were packed with people , When i went in october I was the only person there.

i went out there this past weekend and seen a couple of them only one of them got all mad and started yelling and stuff

where were you riding?

O and i forgot to mention , this is off topic but I actually saw some groomed trails, I was suprised  the usual whoops on certain trails were gone , alot of flat trails now.

When my family was at Big Scrub last weekend, we came across a hunter.  I asked him where his group was hunting and if he knew how we could by-pass his area (most of the hunters out there know the trails better than the rangers).  He asked me to turn around and make a right and it would take us to a hard-packed trail that would take us out of his area.  When I hit the hard-packed trail, another hunter was sitting there in his pick-up.  He threw his hands up into the air, screamed at us then started his engine and tried to spray us with dirt as he took off.  I felt bad for him but at the same time, there is a million acres out there and he should have expected to run into ATVs that close to the campground.  Furthermore, I've hunted nearly my whole life and the fact of the matter is that those deer hear and see ATVs all year round.  An ATV might momentarily scare off a deer, but if there is food there, that deer will come right back after the ATV is gone.  As proof of my point, we saw numerous deer this weekend, including a large buck.  Even the buck stood there and watched us until we stopped to look at him and then he only walked away.  So, the hunters just need to get over themselves when an ATVer happens to stumble into 'his' area.  That doesn't mean we should be inconsiderate but some of them need to chill out.

they need to hunt like real men and get rid of the dogs. its called hunting not killing!

I've never hunted using dogs.  As far as I'm concerned, it's hardly sport when you walk up to an animal that's been chased to exhaustion and then just pump a bullet into it.  I would also expect the meat to be less than desirable since it would be loaded with the toxic by-products of fatigue.

ur preaching to the choir. i agree with you but some people just dont understand it .

I stayed out of ONF during hunting season in the past but now that they have limited ATV riding to less than about 20% of the 450,000 acres I am going to ride the numbered trails.  If there are hunters there then too bad.  They can go East of 19 and hunt unmolested.

I was there two weeks ago. The trails were in decent shape. There were several hunters on the south end befor the trail turns back. No one gave us dirty looks or anything. We just went around them.