By William "Wild Bill" Powell | As hunters, we are always looking to gain an advantage in the woods by selectively choosing our weapons to hunt with, protective clothing, repellants, baits, trail cameras to monitor animal patterns, GPS or phone apps for scouting new hunting lands, etc.…. the list is endless. Another choice we make is how do we get around, haul materials in to build stands or transport game back to camp? Not all lands are cleared enough for truck travel so an ATV or UTV is a must-have for the various chores we encounter maintaining a hunting lease. During the offseason, the loud sounds of a buggy in the woods never really bothered me and for deer season, I did a lot of walk and stalk, then fired up to recover my harvested animal.
Over the years machines got quieter and companies made generic silencer kits that worked great, but sound still echoed in the trees, and when it was parked in the woods letting off gas fumes, a shifting wind could bust a hunt really quick. The first electric UTV’s were basically beefed up golf carts that had no business around muddy river bottom land like I hunt now so that was never an option for me. As a night hunter chasing wild boar or “rooters” as I call ‘em, making the jump to electric was inevitable.
In 2017, after test driving a Polaris Ranger EV, it all changed for me when I bought one and spent a month modifying it to accommodate the type of terrain hunted and added a personal lift up front to carry rooters out, since 99% of the time I’m night hunting solo. This machine went everywhere I needed it to and was awesome to hunt in stealth mode with zero sound, just the sticks snapping under my tires in the piney woods or rocks in the hill country and allowed me to take multiple shots in one night; rooters down!!
The Ranger was the best on the market at the time with lots of available accessories from third party suppliers, but after a couple of years I wanted to see who else was stepping up their electric game. Polaris had the same vehicle for 2020. After test driving and looking at all the other brands available, I sold my Ranger and bought a made in the USA Intimidator. This company did not scale down the body to make an electric UTV like Polaris, instead, they kept the same beefed-up body and found a company to build an electric motor to push it and it’s a real game changer.
Spring is always my favorite time of year to hunt early am for fattened up young rooters and wild dewberries to fill our freezer. After making my first Spring hunt this year deep in the woods with the Intimidator, I was absolutely blown away with the performance knowing this was 100% electric but 100% badass! With an electric UTV slipping in on a sounder of rooters, bailing out with my rifle to walk behind them through the woods while taking my time to pick out my target, taking the shot, hiking back to my electric buggy to fetch the carcass with is exactly what “the silent hunt” is all about, yeeeee haaaw!!
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