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Electric cart vs Gas powered cart?

Klong

Gold $$ Contributor
Does anyone here have experience using electric golf cart to approach hunting areas? I interested in the ability to approach animals such as pigs and deer with the least amount of disturbance. i currently us a Polaris to reach hunting areas and I am wondering if electric would work better.
 
Don't know what new ones are like, but worked at a golf club for many years as a kid. The electric cart will be much quieter, but the ones back then didn't develop enough torque to climb steep hills. Battery technology and DC motors have improved tremendously since the '80s, perhaps the carts are awesome now too.
Besides, you could put your sticks on the back as camouflage. Pull out your driver or three wood and start hitting shag balls off into the yonder. ;)
Never once were deer or pheasants bothered by golfers on the course, it seemed.

Edit to add, they're only quiet on grass. Still pretty crunchy on gravel, and if they don't have good clearance, useless in rough terrain.
 
We have both of them at our hunting property. Once you load yourself, your stuff and have some miles on that electric cart, it will still be pretty noisy with the rattling and such.
Our deer are so used to the side-by-sides and tractors that as long as you don't turn them off, they don't spook.
 
We have gone to only electric carts on my lease in Ga.. With just a little care you can be essentially silent. I have one member who is no longer able to walk far, so in a few places I let him hunt from the cart, he's sees his share of deer and bags what he wants. Gas powered carts of any type are just too noisy, on a cold clear morning I could hear everyone of them as they moved out. Now we don't have serious hills to climb but our little 36volts but lifted carts do fine on modest hills. One of my member combo's probably hit 500lbs together but they go and come fine. My next cart will be a 48volt however, more speed and torque.
 
Does anyone here have experience using electric golf cart to approach hunting areas? I interested in the ability to approach animals such as pigs and deer with the least amount of disturbance. i currently us a Polaris to reach hunting areas and I am wondering if electric would work better.
Do you need to consider wheel diameter and ground clearance? Rough terrain?
 
I would need to consider ground clearance when compared to a regular golf cart. Tire kits are available for most.
 
Modified golf card (bigger wheels) is way more quiet and frequently sneak up and startle game. Gas powered will give you more range, but everything hears you coming. If the wildlife is used to vehicle and machinery traffic then they won't care. But if they are not used to gas/diesel engines then they will scatter before they ever see you.

Unless you are doing rugged country or far distances (beyond battery capacity of golf cart) then I would go Golf Cart.
 
I have a big tire minibike that I’m thinking about converting to electric power and using it to get to my stand. I can always go get the 4 wheeler if I need to retrieve an animal.
 
For a few years, I and brother hunted a Dr's property over in Ga. He had a tremendous property and he only used electric golf carts.

With the electric golf cart, riding right up on deer was the norm.

Deer on deer clubs learn the sound of a gas powered 4 wheeler, especially those old does and big bucks, yearlings are another story.

For an experience of a life time, get yourself an electric 4 wheeler.
 
How big is your property? How hilly is it? I have 160 acres and multiple electric carts. One is lifted and has a low speed high torque motor with a high amp controller. Doesn’t go fast but will creep with a sprayer on the back without over heating. I can pull a small bass boat out of my pond with it. The others are regular carts and can cover it easily. I much prefer them over gas in my size property. If you have a large tract of steep grades go with the gas. As has already been said, you can get much closer to game without spooking.
 
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Alot of guys are using electric bicycles as well, also an fyi, you see guys with upgrades done to a golf cart, lifts, bigger tires ect but if you are buying new tracker makes some models like this targeted for exactly what you are doing, might want to give them a look.
 
Does anyone here have experience using electric golf cart to approach hunting areas? I interested in the ability to approach animals such as pigs and deer with the least amount of disturbance. i currently us a Polaris to reach hunting areas and I am wondering if electric would work better.
How about an electric 2 wheel trail bike.
 
When I started hunting elk and mule deer in the Rockies (80's) we mostly used horses but soon enough came the quad runners and the overlap was only about two years and then the horses didn't go out again.

Our group was anything from teenagers to seniors in their 90's. Many of them could not hike due to health and we took disabled as well. Laws have changed over the years, but some are allowed to "road hunt". We played with Jeeps and side-by-side rigs for the disabled road hunters all the time.

I was young then and was always up the mountain on foot and in position in the dark if I had my say, so I got to listen to everyone else showing up.

I never liked the noise of the quads or Jeeps, and it changed the rhythm of things not having the horses, but there was no argument that the quads were pretty good at extracting animals from bad spots and they didn't need as much tending as a horse.

A few decades more and the electric side-by-side rigs started showing their value in the mountains too, but it took time for the suspensions and traction to improve to the point where they could go very deep.

I will confess that if I were being selfish we would go back to the horses, but most folks can't or won't ride so there is no going back. The machines don't get emotional or mad at you, but I swear some machines are the anti-christ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gods_Must_Be_Crazy) in cold weather.

If you still hunt on foot and infiltrate the animals where you can observe them undetected, you will see just how far out any machine is when they react. Depending on a lead cow, that can be very far away. Bulls and bucks are an anathema and it probably depends on the hunting pressure and the rut in terms of how they respond to noise.

Also, the tire noise depends on the different ground condition and that makes a huge difference. The wind, terrain, and vegetation condition, and even the humidity make a huge difference in how far the sound travels on the same trails on different days. We have watched them react long before we can hear the machines coming.

They are game animals and live on their senses. If noise matters at all, then electric or ICE is probably not the difference. The trade is probably statistical in terms of times when electric versus ICE would have made any difference since tires make noise either way.

Don't get me wrong, I still hate noise and I am saying electric is quieter.

Their reactions seem random since there are times when they are aware but still hold tight. It is fascinating to watch. I cannot explain why there are times when they spook with machines miles away, and other times they hold or are even caught surprised.

I can't prove it one way or the other, but quieter is still better while I will admit vehicle noise at times plays no role at all.

Elk and mule deer migrate, they are not at all like White Tail in the way they hold ground when they decide to run. I have not had as much experience watching White Tail deer respond to the differences in noise between electric versus ICE, but the trades between quieter versus louder are probably going to depend on how wild your ground is. If they hear machines all the time, it probably counts for less but I am just guessing.

In places where they know there should be no noise, the issues are any noise at all, but I am guessing when they are used to hearing machines, I would run with what is reliable and try not to go overboard with noise cause they hear much better than we do anyway.

Motor noise is one factor of many in the trade offs. The electric vehicles have not done as well with us in two ways, traction on grades, and cold weather range/power. I think with time they will learn to deal with both issues the same way they learned with ICE versions. The suspension evolution can be accomplished very quickly. I'm not sure how long before they can improve the cold performance issues.

For my own money, quieter is always better, but not at the cost of reliability, traction, power, and range in the field on cold days. Electric has pros and cons but I can see where the trades are very dependent on your local conditions and climate. If your power, torque, and range ratings sink so low in the cold to the point where the vehicle isn't usable, then the trade off gets easy.

Here is one post where for sure.... YMMV
 
I'd say figure out what conditions and terrain you'll need to use them in. Electrics do not compete with gas powered machines in rugged off road terrain or muddy bad scenarios. There's a reason Lee and Tiffany dropped Bad Boy Buddy's and now use Polaris SxS's. I watched them get stuck in mudholes in their Bad Boy buggy and wasn't long before they were sponsoring Polaris. It's not a coincidence.
 
if you have gravel roads the deer will learn to leave when they hear it popping under the electric's tires---turkeys never learned that here. im sure hawgs are smart enough too learn it though...
 
I will confess that if I were being selfish we would go back to the horses, but most folks can't or won't ride so there is no going back. The machines don't get emotional or mad at you, but I swear some machines are the anti-christ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gods_Must_Be_Crazy) in cold weather.
I agree! Polaris makes snow mobiles? right?---Ive had 3 polaris buggies and if it gets below freezing ALL of them were very hard to start!!!!! go figure...I wonder how in creation they get one to start where it is really cold???...
 
I've gone over this for myself, Motorcycle vs Electric Bike.

How far are you traveling in it?
I'm a coyote hunter and usually put around 100 miles a day on my machine. With a MC I get up in the morning and head out hunting and hunt all day. With a EB I have to haul it out to where I'm going to hunt.

Access to power.
With a MC I can carry enough extra fuel to make it to a gas station, with a EB I need to get to a power pole and charger. With the MC I can take it on extended camping trips in remote areas and and the only consideration is to take a jerry can of fuel, With an EB I need to haul a generator along and run it a long time to charge up a battery.

Noise, either coyotes have never heard a vehicle or they are quite used to ranchers, tourist, border patrol, UPS, USPS and a whole variety of vehicles but strange sounds and increases in activity will put them on alert.
You here about some really big bucks disappear during deer season, just the increased activity will put them into nocturnal mode or move to temporary isolated areas.

We went on a coyote hunt we arrived to a cold front coming in 8" of wet snow and the temp dropped to near zero and stayed there, for three days we postholed through heavy crust and never called in a single coyote. The next three days we retraced our hunting route carefully walking in on our old tracks being very careful to not crunch any snow. We Killed six on those stands.

Even shanksmare will spook animals if you aren't careful..

Ever think about having someone drive the crew out and drop people off. Works well for coyotes.
 

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