What’s your hunting rig?

Here's my dad with his last buck, he was in his 90's...



My tractor made getting his buck home, pretty easy!

DM

Bought the 2003 Z71 new, installed hitch mounted recovery winch and used a hand boat trailer winch from a previous hunting rig to handle deer. Changing leases called for adding a predator calling chair for night calling, a heavier boom and electric winch to handle stuff too big to load by hand. Did have to change angle of original boom after this large nilgai cow bent the schedule 80 1 1/2" pipe in next to last picture below.

Served me well as my sole hunting rig for 5 years, until 2 more ranches, 60 miles away were made available to me. These ranches, for various reasons, presented more "opportunity" (which I quickly took advantage of) for testing the 4WD in deep mud. Thank God for the winch; it paid for itself the day of last picture above 3 times!

Picked up this 2002 TJ in 2008. Switching the winch and chair was a snap, both being hitch mounted. The short wheelbase and being 2000# lighter makes for much greater maneuverability and, knock on wood, haven't stuck it yet! Decided to add slime to the tires to resolve frequent flats from mesquite thorns, requiring the low boy to transport between ranches. Added front rack for occasional hogs.


The truck still does the job if the jeep is at one ranch and an opportunity arises at another.

Regards,
hps

My old beater for about a decade
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5.2L w 242 conversion ( allows 2wd ).
32" MTR w 3.5" lift.

Bad back, just a little too much in/ out.
Died at 275K.

Got another, is stock. Might go 2" BB and 31s.

Currently, a Volvo XC70. With 9" of ground clearance it's not much of an off-roader but it drives like a car on longer trips and big turbo / IC / exhaust / injectors / fuel pump / remap has resulted in a pretty decent power-to-weight ratio. Roughly twice that of a stocker. I was never supposed to buy it but I needed just something in a hurry. I sold my lifted MB G500, annual $10k+ maintenance and repair costs were ridiculous, year in, year out.

The current depreciation rate of MB X164 GL-series has been awfully tempting, though. Their spare parts pricing is much more sensible than that of G-class, Off Road Pro -package with air suspension comes with locking center and rear diffs, low ratio transfer 'box and 12"+ of ground clearance to start with, and European market V8 biturbo CDI diesel engine has a reasonably good reputation.

The toughest part is to combine off road capability with on-road comfort on 2000miles+/week hunting trips. Not to mention sufficient range per tank as gas stations are a rare sight up north.

Decisions, decisions. I've also developed a serious itch for a Boss & Co SxS single trigger sidelock shotgun lately, which would more than blow my car/truck/rig budget out of the water for quite some time.

Mine is a BMW R1250GS Adventure.Though it may not have been the best choice today here in Rangeley Maine

gotboostvr said:

It's about time someone with some class showed up in this thread...

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Yeah, I had deer on the trunk of my E30 325is a few times. Four snow tires and it would go anywhere.

My first deer was hauled down from the Catskills to NYC in the back of our family car at the time, a '76 Datsun 280Z 2+2.

Wife and two small kids, our only car. lol

Peakbagger46 said:

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X2???

Positively my favorite hunting pack!

Chuck R. said:

X2???

Positively my favorite hunting pack!

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Indeed, money well spent. Does elk quarters or half a quartered mulie comfortably and super easy to attach loads. My only gripe is the “dry earth” color looks a lot like deer hide. I make sure to attach orange to it during rifle season.