LuckyMike
Member
I've never liked ATV's! I own one for use around the home place. Managing the horse corrals, plowing snow and pulling sage brush are typical tasks that I like to use my ATV for. The uncontrolled off road, off trail use of ATV's in areas I've enjoyed walking into for deer and elk hunting for many years, plus the noise they make, have turned me against using ATV's for hunting.
Well, when I started checking around in preparation for my deer hunt in Nevada last fall, Almost everyone I talked to said, "you've got to have an ATV." I'd drawn unit-231 after 13-years of trying. I was planning on spending a lot of time and giving this hunt my best shot, hoping for that elusive monster buck of a lifetime. My unit is huge and even though I was planning on walking into the wilderness areas there, I figured I better take my ATV in case what everyone was telling me was true - That I would need an ATV instead of my four-wheel drive pickup because the access roads were so narrow and rough. OK, I made plans to take it!
The following picture was taken on openning day rifle deer season. After scouting for four days and seeing some interesting bucks, I was hell bent to get to one of my newly discovered spots early dispite the rain mixed with snow coming down and the mud fron previous days moisture. My trusty ATV was strapped tight and secure against the front of the bed of my truck as I had done before whenever I hauled it in my truck. I was making first tracks and I was about halfway in the 13-mile marginal dirt road when, unknown to me, runoff had been coming down the draw I was crossing and had washed out an abrupt ditch about a foot deep across the road. Even though I wasn't going very fast, my truck's front wheels dropped into the ditch with significant force as I stopped. As this happened I heard what I thought was thunder right on top of me. It wasn't! It was upper rack on the front of my ATV hitting my back window. The back end of the ATV had flipped up causing the rack which ordinarily would ride 4-inches from my window to tip forward into the glass.
So this is how I spent openning day in unit-231!
In the end things worked out pretty well. I didn't actually find my "buck of a lifetime." But, I had a great time trying. And yes, I came to realize that an ATV is one of the essentials to take on a hunt like this in Nevada. I found that most people used them appropriatly. By that, I mean they used them to get into their hunting area, parked them and hunted on foot. ATV's were mostly used just like hunters in Montana use their four-wheel drives to get to their hunting areas. Of course there were exceptions where people were useing their ATV's for road and off-road hunting. I am now an advocate of using ATV's for accessing difficult hunting areas and staying on established roads/trails when retreiving game. I'm also a little smarter about how I secure my ATV in the bed of my truck. I not only strap down the back end in addition to the front, I use an old tire as a bumper. Check out the next picture.
I started this thread thinking it will give you guys a chuckle. I hope it's entertained you a little in mid-winter. How about sharing some of your own hunting miss-adventures with your equipment.:hump:
Well, when I started checking around in preparation for my deer hunt in Nevada last fall, Almost everyone I talked to said, "you've got to have an ATV." I'd drawn unit-231 after 13-years of trying. I was planning on spending a lot of time and giving this hunt my best shot, hoping for that elusive monster buck of a lifetime. My unit is huge and even though I was planning on walking into the wilderness areas there, I figured I better take my ATV in case what everyone was telling me was true - That I would need an ATV instead of my four-wheel drive pickup because the access roads were so narrow and rough. OK, I made plans to take it!
The following picture was taken on openning day rifle deer season. After scouting for four days and seeing some interesting bucks, I was hell bent to get to one of my newly discovered spots early dispite the rain mixed with snow coming down and the mud fron previous days moisture. My trusty ATV was strapped tight and secure against the front of the bed of my truck as I had done before whenever I hauled it in my truck. I was making first tracks and I was about halfway in the 13-mile marginal dirt road when, unknown to me, runoff had been coming down the draw I was crossing and had washed out an abrupt ditch about a foot deep across the road. Even though I wasn't going very fast, my truck's front wheels dropped into the ditch with significant force as I stopped. As this happened I heard what I thought was thunder right on top of me. It wasn't! It was upper rack on the front of my ATV hitting my back window. The back end of the ATV had flipped up causing the rack which ordinarily would ride 4-inches from my window to tip forward into the glass.
So this is how I spent openning day in unit-231!
In the end things worked out pretty well. I didn't actually find my "buck of a lifetime." But, I had a great time trying. And yes, I came to realize that an ATV is one of the essentials to take on a hunt like this in Nevada. I found that most people used them appropriatly. By that, I mean they used them to get into their hunting area, parked them and hunted on foot. ATV's were mostly used just like hunters in Montana use their four-wheel drives to get to their hunting areas. Of course there were exceptions where people were useing their ATV's for road and off-road hunting. I am now an advocate of using ATV's for accessing difficult hunting areas and staying on established roads/trails when retreiving game. I'm also a little smarter about how I secure my ATV in the bed of my truck. I not only strap down the back end in addition to the front, I use an old tire as a bumper. Check out the next picture.
I started this thread thinking it will give you guys a chuckle. I hope it's entertained you a little in mid-winter. How about sharing some of your own hunting miss-adventures with your equipment.:hump:
