By Mike on Unrecorded Date: Edit

I would like to hear from the hunters that read this board how their hunting experiences have benefited from the use of their AATV's and how their use may have been detrimental. In other words, the Pros and Cons. Speculation is welcome also, even from the non-hunting folks.

By Big Wolf on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Hello Mike,

I live and hunt and fish a lot in the Soutern Michigan area. I primarily hunt on my property over south west of the Michigan International Speedway, around the Lenawee and Jackson County areas, and also a little farther west on another property in Northern Hillsdale County. Both of our places have some substantial size pot hole type swamp areas, and woods, fields, hills, and so on. The one place is located on the Kalamazoo River Basin which runs through several counties. On either side of the river basin it is bordered by all low land black muck swamp and mixed woods and farm counrty and so on. The width of the swamp basin varies from a half a mile wide to many miles wide in areas and runs for ever.

If your passion is hunting for big white tail bucks, this is the type of habitate that you have to hunt in.

When I harvest a big deer way back in the thick and muddy stuff, it is a (SOB) to get back in there and get it out, with out dragging my harvest through the mud and contaminating the meat. I have tried going back in the bad stuff with just about every type of vehicle, tractor, 4x4 pickup truck, 4x4 Yamaha quad, an so on, and have buried every one of them for some times days, until I could eventually get them out.

I finally got wise and bought myself a 6x6 machine to do the job the right way, and I have not stuck this machine yet. I am now able to travel all the way back to where I harvested and field dressed my game, and load it up, and travel right back out with no problem at all.

I have also dicovered that the 6x6 ampbibious machine is much easier to handle and weave my way through the woods and thick stuff, versus my 4x4 Yamaha quad machine. I now stay clean and dry, and I enjoy my hunting even more. I find that as I get a little older, it is tough on my body to drag or pack out even a couple of hundred pounds of animal or meat.

I also plan to do some hunting out west and also plan to do a couple of trips up to Alaska, and I really enjoy hunting Caribou up in Quebec, Canada. To do these type of hunting trips, you must have the right gear and equipment!

If you are a duck hunter, then an 6x6 or 8x8 amphibious machine would be a wonderfull piece of gear to own.

By LAWPRESSMAN on Unrecorded Date: Edit

I HAVE BEEN USING MY MAX FOR HUNTING FOR THE LAST 3 YEARS. THE ONLY THING I SEE THAT HELPS IS THAT THE OLDER I GET, I CANT DRAG A DEER OUT AS FAR. SO I DRIVE THE MAX WITHIN ABOUT 1/4 MILE OF WHERE IM HUNTING AND PARK IT IN A FENCE ROW. I THEN WALK IN TO THE AREA I WANT TO HUNT. BUT IT IS THE BEST FOR HALLING MY TREE STAND IN. I ALSO FIND THAT IF I DRIVE INTO MY STAND OR WALK IN I STILL SEE DEER, I DON'T THINK THE MAX EFECTS THE HUNT ONE WAY OR THE OTHER. I FIND THAT I HUNT MORE WITH THE MAX THAN IF I HAD TO CARRIE ALL MY EQUIPMENT IN ON MY BACK. I ONLY HUNT A MILE FROM MY HOUSE.

By Midwest atv's #1 since 2000 (Hustler) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

I hunt and fish in my Max all the time. I have a permit that allows me to hunt in my Max. I have taken a lot of deer with my bow sitting in my Max. I have come up on turkey to within bow range while driving my Max. I think its great. Heck, I just went pheasant hunting yesterday in the Max. First time doing that and I had a blast.

By Bubba Hunt on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Mike,I use my old Hydro year around for hunting and fishing.Yesterday I was with my pardner in his argo. We went into the frozen back woods ten miles and caught a load of rainbows and landlocked silver salmon.The good thing about the Max, Argo's and Hydro's, or any of the 6-8 wheel track rigs, is they are good for every season.Usually I'll be going somewhere every week.I have found that the noise dosen't seem to bother the moose. I don't hunt out of my machine much. I use it to get my camp into the back country, and hunt in stands etc.This year I put a nice thick aluminum top on it. Now I can sit up there in an easy chair. I have a ground blind that fits on top.I have found that critters don't pay much attention to a rig, if they don't see a lot of movement. The biggest thing is keeping your hunting pardner's mouth shut. Loud talking scares everything.
The older I get, the more allergic I get to packing meat. My hydro allows me to hunt back away from the crowds where the animals aren't so spooked.
Alaska Bubba

By terry harrison (Th3) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

i duck hunt on a national wildlife refuge. marked 4-wheeler trails all over. hunting gets crowded quick. with the aatv i can go places the 4-wheelers cant when the water comes up. crossing flooded places in the trail is what gets me to the hole and leaves others behind. when the water is right, wheelers cant get to me and the boats cant either. the only hunters to get close had a go-devil. i believe he had to work too hard to get there because that was the only time we saw him last year. the aatv is the only way to go. did i mention not getting muddy? keeping the gun cases and decoy bags clean is a big plus!

By Argohunter (Argohunter) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

This post is old but since hunting season is here I thought that I would make a couple of comments about using a 6x6 for hunting.

I use my Max II for hunting. No, not hunting Argos. The Argohunter handle came about because of an old Argo 8x8 that I used to use for hunting.

I fabricated some tube steel that I used for attaching a light weight steel tube game rack to the factory cargo rack. On the back of the game rack, I added a tree stand carrier that carries 2 tree stands.

On the the game rack, I adapted a Kolpin ATV rifle carrier that holds my long arm safely within the width confines of the Max so that it does not get banged into a tree or brush.

The Max cargo rack with some modification will carry my hard plastic bow case or soft case and arrow box butted up against the backside of the roll bar.

I thought that the RI price for a winch mount plate was kind of high and only the old style was available at the time I started modifying my Max for hunting.

I did not see where even a hawse pipe would attach to the winch let alone a roller fairlead. I fabricated a plate that mounts the winch on the front like the new style does, covering the winch drum and motor and I added a roller fairlead. It's backed by 1/4" plate steel.

If the new style winch plate had been available at the time I made mine. I probably would have used that one.

In a recent post on this board, someone talked about Superwinch products. I'm here to say that my Superwinch ATV 2500 had extracted my Max out of several "sticks" that I have found myself in while hunting.

A new addition for this year's season is a 1/4" thick steel angle bumper for the front. I modified the winch mount to incorporate the bumper. It has made the mount stronger, serves as some protection to the body when pushing brush with the front of the machine and doubles as a place to put a tow hook for doubling line pull on the winch with a snatch block.

The picture in my profile is pre bumper so you won't find it there.

It's harder to drag game out of the woods when you get a little older. Having the Max makes it so easy to haul out game from the bag site back to the truck.

It's really nice to be able to drive in and out of the water for waterfoul hunting. A 4x4 ATV can't do it and a punt or duck boat can't be driven to the water. It makes those hard to reach ponds and backwaters easier to get to.

For extra illumination when coming out of the woods or fields at days end, I use a remote controlled spotlight that does 370 degrees around and about 75 degrees up and down. It's easily removed off the machine when it's not needed.

It plugs into a 12 volt power tap, working off a dual battery system that I added.

By Bubba Hunt on Unrecorded Date: Edit

ArgoHunter, I appreciate your shareing the modifications of your machine. My hunting partner has an argo all fixed up with heaters, running lights, wench on both ends, and an A-frame on the back-top that he uses to wench moose quarters into the back.He also has headphones so we can talk quietly while sneaking through the swamps. I suppose that it added a little more weight but it doesn't seem to bother it.He has the wide tracks and it goes over the snow pretty well and through the swamps with no problems.
He also has steering extentions so he can stand up on the seats for looking over the brush.
I don't use my Hydro-Traxx for swamp hunting. I have it camo-ed up and a nice rack on top where I put my ground blind.I sit up there in my easy chair with a hot cup of coffee and peek out the little windows. Critters don't pay any attention as long as they don't see me moving around. Not kool to be shooting off of the top though.
Yeah it is nice to be able to slip in and out of the little lakes without getting the feet wet. I quit packing moose a long time ago.I hunt and fish year around, and the rest of the time I'm trying to figure out how to go again.
I have found that I can cover a lot of bad terrain in a day and not be foot-sore as I used to be.Us old gassers can still get out there, as long as we ride.
Check out my web site. I have a couple of critters on there and the old HT on an ice fishing trip.
Bubba, www.shadowmountainoutdoors.com

By Motown's (Bigwolf) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Yes indeed the hunting season is in full swing once again!

Camping season is coming to a close and I have completed most of the out-of-doors work tasks that I wanted to get done.

During the early part of bow season I generally only hunt on the week ends, and during the evenings. As the end of October approaches and the pre rut starts heating things up, the hunt gets much more serious for me and I will be afield just about every day through the end of November and into December.

I just recently bought a new plastic molded polyethylene atv tow behind trailer for towing behind the Max. It looks like a real nice trailer and it should work well for hauling that extra gear and game in or out of the field. The atv trailer is made by Otter Outdoors and it is the new wilderness series trailers and sleds that they just came out with this fall. It only cost me a few hundred dollars for the complete package. It is a very good value for the price!

I also do plan to pick up a six foot long wilderness series sled for use in the winter time in the snow. A sled will pull much better in the snow versus an atv tow behind trailer. The other advantage to buying and using an atv trailer or sled for hauling hunting gear and game, is you can also use them for general work around the property as needed to haul and tote stuff around. This is very good and inexpensive way to add the extra cargo capacity for the smaller sized machines. It also off loads the added gear and equipment weight off of your machine and puts it in the trailer or sled, so you can keep your machine weight distrubution as low as possible for the real bad terrain conditions.

I know of one fellow that uses one of these very large plastic molded snow sleds year round, to haul gear and supplies to his cabin way back in the bush up in the U.P. of Michigan. He even tows it right through the swamps when traveling to his hunting blinds. He tells me the sleds tow very well in the swamps and stay on top of the mud, water and grass, because the weight of the sled and gear is distributed over a large surface area.

I thought that I would share this information with some of the other serious hunters out there. Some of you guys may already be doing the same or similar things to haul gear and game currently.

This is the web site address for Otter Outdoors for those that are interested, www.otteroutdoors.com

Hey Bubba,

I recieved your e-mail about coming up for a moose hunt. Sorry for not responding yet, I have been in and out the last two weeks camping and bow hunting. Thank You for the invitation, I will give you a phone call to talk more about it, as soon as I have some time available. I found your phone number on your web site.

By Barry Williams (Barryhh3f) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

I installed a rifle rack on the rear of the engine cover/hood of my Bigfoot. That’s for the passenger, and I attached a nylon assault case to the seat back for the drivers rifle. The only problem here was my case as well as all the others I looked at, have the pockets on the right side, that puts them up against the seat back. We found that the space right behind the seat was perfect for fishing rod cases and the rifle case is also completely out of the way.