My love/Hate relationship with the SxS

[svivian]

I use to hate them before they became more recreational. I swore that elk and deer knew it was hunting season hearing them run up and down dirt roads all day. Guys would chase bugles racing down trail heads like they were going to kill the big one.

Now a days they have become so popular and used year round that I think the Elk and Deer have become accustomed to them and I don't get bothered as much. Some people are going to be a**holes and idiots regardless of what mode of transportation or time of year...

 

[Wyobohunter]

If SxS's are a problem for your September hunt....you're probably doing it wrong.

I don’t think you read the first post. As soon as I get well away from the roads they aren’t. That was the “love” part.
I have a business idea. I think I’ll start building custom SxS seats. They could be 1/2 Velcro (the hook half). I’d sell the loop side of the Velcro sewn to the seat of custom super Camo hunting pants. Finally, I’d install toilets in the custom seat. You’d never even need to stand up to pee! Any takers?

 

[mlgc20]

I hate them with the fire of a thousand suns. I don't think they should be banned or anything like that. But, I just hate them. I'm sure there are plenty of law abiding SxS owners who follow the rules and use them as tools for their hunt. But, my experience is that many guys in SxS would rather drive up and down the roads, past the "No Motorized Vehicles" sign, in their heated cabs, jamming their Bluetooth speakers to Eric Church than ever get more than 10 yards away from a road. I would bet a lot of them never even get their Crocs dusty from setting foot outside the cab of their SxS.

 

[Nickofthewoods]

I hate them with the fire of a thousand suns.

 

[PredatorSlayer]

You definitely can, but requires a much larger trailer and tow vehicle.
And its just much easier to carry cans and or have a tank w pump.
I'm not towing a truck with my Tundra.

You have to remove the driveline on a Toyota to flat tow it because the transfer case does not oil unless the input shift is spinning so get a jeep if flat towing.

All I'm saying is I've had diesels, Toyota's and a Tundra and towing a side by behind a half ton on a small trailer is beyond the easiest and less stressful.
Room for gear, gas and some room left for meat if need be.
A small Toyota as a primary rig just didn't cut it for me but apparently I pack to much crap.

If you want a Toyota I have one I've considered posting but im not sure there is another psychopath willing to spend that kinda cash.
I have 20k in this Yota and it just sits in the barn.
View attachment 361480

I have a 2020 Cummins - so towing a jeep wrangler or a polaris ranger on a trailer doesnt make much if a difference…

 

[PredatorSlayer]

A winch will drag a Jeep at about 1/10000 mph and you'll need the winch often to go where SXS's go. Winches are for getting out, not getting in. Except for pavement and rockcrawling a SXS will own a Jeep.

I'd pay good money to see someone take a Jeep at 20 mph where SXS's go at 40 mph! Ad in mud, snow and bowling ball sized rocks and the Jeep quickly proves that it's to heavy, to slow and the power to weight ratio is terrible. But it has a heater!

Jeeps are designed for pavement and occasional 4x4 use. SXS's are designed to make off road their bitch.

IDK man, I have spent a lot of time in both Jeeps and SxS’s hunting. Jeeps are made to go offroad. If speed is your thing, I agree, a SxS is what you want. Jeeps can go anywhere, even if it is at a slower pace, and they are way more quiet.

 

[WeiserBucks]

IDK man, I have spent a lot of time in both Jeeps and SxS’s hunting. Jeeps are made to go offroad. If speed is your thing, I agree, a SxS is what you want. Jeeps can go anywhere, even if it is at a slower pace, and they are way more quiet.

I've never hunted out of a Jeep or SXS. I use whatever transportation I need to get to the point where I take off on foot. I don't care how quiet a Jeep is, how many animals have you stalked with a Jeep?

On the access roads or trails I use vehicles on, you could be shooting a machine gun the whole way in and the animals I'm hunting would never hear it.

One area I hunt sorta near home takes me 20 minutes to access in my SXS riding from my house. The same trip in a regular highway legal 4x4 takes an hour and 20 minutes because the road is terrible. If I'm just day hunting, that equals 2 additional hours of sleep every night and not beating the piss out of my pickup. SXS is simply a better choice for covering miles as quick as possible, a Jeep is a way better choice for road hunting at 3 mph, at 4+ mph the road hunters risk spilling their beer because the rig rides so rough.

 

[PredatorSlayer]

I've never hunted out of a Jeep or SXS. I use whatever transportation I need to get to the point where I take off on foot. I don't care how quiet a Jeep is, how many animals have you stalked with a Jeep?

On the access roads or trails I use vehicles on, you could be shooting a machine gun the whole way in and the animals I'm hunting would never hear it.

One area I hunt sorta near home takes me 20 minutes to access in my SXS riding from my house. The same trip in a regular highway legal 4x4 takes an hour and 20 minutes because the road is terrible. If I'm just day hunting, that equals 2 additional hours of sleep every night and not beating the piss out of my pickup. SXS is simply a better choice for covering miles as quick as possible, a Jeep is a way better choice for road hunting at 3 mph, at 4+ mph the road hunters risk spilling their beer because the rig rides so rough.

Man - I don’t hunt from the vehicle, but use it to get where I am going. My buddy had a wrangler with aftermarket suspension that was awesome. We might not have been going 40 like the other SxS’s, but we easily doing 25-30. You obviously haven’t used one. Another factor for me is that I am 6’5 - all these SxS’s are made for small people.

 

[WeiserBucks]

I've been in enough Jeeps to know that I never want to be in one again, they're simply not for me. I'm not 6'5 so I can't comment on the issues facing really tall guys.

 

[eoperator]

I have always wondered why more areas/roads are not closed (biologist recommended) at appropriate times to help alleviate motorized road issues.

 

[204guy]

I love mine. Drive it everywhere. It's awesome.


It's just another tool in the access kit. Works great for some things not so much for others and just like everything as hard as some might try to make it, it's not black and white.

 

[Wyobohunter]

I have always wondered why more areas/roads are not closed (biologist recommended) at appropriate times to help alleviate motorized road issues.

Where I’ve hunted the last couple of years has several roads that close October 1st. These close specifically to protect habitat. This keeps the noisy transportation out during rifle season but not archery. This year I’m going to go in deeper during archery, back where the machines can’t go. Basically I’ll employ the same strategy for each season. How far in I park the truck will be the only difference.

 

[SaltySailor]

6 wheeler SxS do pretty dang well up here, get you across the swamps deep into the back country. I don't have one but have wished for one a few times watching my buddy cross water too deep and fast for a four wheeler i was riding to traverse. I don't think I would have one simply for running logging roads like you boys have in the lower 48.

 

[Wyobohunter]

I had a friend who had 6 wheelers when I lived up there. They did work much better in the swampy stuff. Just backpacking in isn’t an option in most of that state.

 

[blackdawg]

Nothing like hearing the hum of sxs’s across the valley before daybreak drowning out the bugles of bull elk !


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[Pocoloco]

Sold our sxs when we got our jeep. Much more comfortable and quieter with HEAT. We drive from base camp 1 hour down nasty jeep trail to trailhead, then hike 3-4 miles up into canyon that has no trails, I have never seen a single person in our canyon, I have seen thousands of elk there.

For those willing to hike off the beaten path, I think they help us, pushes the elk to those remote canyons.

 

[Super tag]

Some of us are older and that’s the only way we can get around anymore, hiking in isn’t an option anymore, I seem to find plenty of game where I hunt even though I do access the area with a SXS. They are a great way for older people to still enjoy the outdoors and get into the backwoods. If you know that they’re around and it’s going to bother you then maybe it’s time to find an new area that is closed off to motor vehicles altogether, there’s plenty of those areas around. I’m sure they alert the game, but I also know that deer and elk are used to them and know how to work around them these days. I don’t see all the deer and elk running off as soon as a machine shows up, they smarter than that, I sat and watched a deer hunter on an atv within 50 yards of a very large buck this year, the buck just held solid, didn’t move, as soon as the atv left the buck went back to his business. To some it’s as enjoyable to hunt with a SXS as it is for others to hunt without, everyone has their own idea of what they want out of a hunt and what they enjoy, that’s what makes hunting such a great sport.