I’ve had a Kodiak 450 for 20 years now and love it for retrieval. I’ve hauled a lot of deer and pulled a number of moose out with it. Mostly on public land. I don’t use it for hunting but do use it to get further back into bush.
Basically the ground I cover with the quad leaves the truck hunters behind. Then I park the quad and get off any trails and walk which leaves most everyone else behind. When I do have to retrieve game by hand, it sure is nice once I get back to the quad. And sometimes I get lucky and get something near a quad trail where a few lengths of rope and the quad winch turn a cut and pack job into a much easier retrieval.
I also find the biggest advantage when I’m first scouting a new area. I can cover a lot of ground and get to different areas that I want to walk into based on airphotos and then return to those spots when I’m hunting.
The only hunting I do with the quad itself is driving some of the trails over the noon hour looking for grouse. Especially when my kids were younger and they didn’t have the patience to walk or sit all day. Breaking the day up with a mid day quad to get some grouse kept them going for the morning and evening walk/sit.
|