By: Warren Gray
Copyright © 2023
“There’s something about riding an ATV
that just gets the adrenaline flowing.”
— Joel Lee
In early December 2018, I purchased a 2019 Honda Rancher 420cc 4×4 ATV (All-Terrain Vehicle) in Olive Green, with underside skid plates, a Warn winch, and a quick-detachable, Moose ATV snowplow blade. It’s selectable for either two-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive, and the one-cylinder engine generates 26.6 horsepower. I’d never driven an ATV before, but our asphalt driveway is 250 yards long, and our old, hand-steered snowblower just wasn’t getting the job done anymore in the harsh winters, so I anticipated using my new Rancher primarily as a snowplow, a very necessary task at which it truly excels.
What I never expected was the broad range of versatile uses for this awesome machine! Just 10 days after making the purchase, I shot a big, healthy, 142-pound, eight-point buck in the pine forest behind my home with a muzzleloading rifle, and it bolted into the deep woods, running 60 feet down a steep embankment before expiring. The buck was far too heavy to drag uphill by hand without risking a heart attack, so I improvised, and winched him up the hill in the darkness instead, with a steel cable and nylon rope attached to my Honda Rancher ATV. This would not be the last time that the ATV saved the day (or late evening) during my future hunting adventures.
At first, I wasn’t sure if the Rancher’s 420cc engine would be powerful enough for its intended tasks, but then I read that British Special Air Service (SAS) commandos used Yamaha Grizzly 450 ATVs, with heavy machine guns and sniper rifles, to attack ISIS terrorist targets in northern Syria and Iraq, stating that, “They don’t know where we’re going to strike next, and there’s frankly nothing they can do to stop us…They can’t see or hear us.” If the world-famous SAS can ride into battle on 450cc ATVs, then 420cc suddenly seems quite adequate for my peacetime tasks.
It’s also noteworthy that various ATVs are used in combat by the ultra-secret, British Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR), Delta Force, U.S. Special Forces (Polaris MV800 or MV850), Air Force Special Tactics Squadrons, the CIA’s paramilitary Special Operations Group (SOG), Russian SpetsNaz commandos (Yamaha 700, ATV 600 Leopard, or AM-1 Tulchanka), Ukrainian Special Forces, and various other special forces, paramilitary forces, and police units around the world.
During most of the 2018 and 2019 deer-hunting seasons, when I harvested a total of four bucks and two does, mostly before I acquired my own ATV, a neighbor allowed me to hunt on his property, and we used his Yamaha Grizzly 750 ATV to transport three of my deer from his woods to my SUV. But he has since sold the Yamaha, and no longer owns an ATV, so mine takes over the local hunting duties.
Then, on June 24, 2019, my youngest son, Dan, and I traveled along the Peters Mill Run/Taskers Gap Off-Road Trail atop the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, using his pickup truck and my ATV over six miles of rugged, interesting, and challenging terrain.
Author on Peters Mill Run trail, Virginia, June 24, 2019. Photo credit: Dan Gray
When the ATV was just over two years old, it served me quite well during a 16-inch snowfall on December 16, 2020, easily clearing our long driveway in four quick passes, and staying true to its original, intended purpose.
Author’s driveway, with recent, ATV tracks, December 16, 2020. Photo by author
Since then, I’ve repeatedly cleared our driveway during several snowfalls. It also proved quite useful for hauling fallen logs and tree debris in a small trailer to my fire pit at times, employing the winch to help move snagged trees off of the ATV trail in my woods, and yanking large, snapped branches out of nearby trees. Recently, when the ATV failed to start, and the battery wouldn’t hold a charge for more than a few minutes, I recharged the battery, and then used the Honda’s own electric winch to crank it up onto my trailer in order to take it to the dealership. A new battery solved the problem the very same day.
On October 12, 2021, I took a six-point buck on my property with a crossbow, but he ran nearly a quarter-mile toward the north, into a deep ravine, where a neighbor and I had to locate his body with a tracking dog. We dragged the buck by hand toward the nearest road, and then I had to attach a rope to the back of my ATV, and drag him about 350 yards, uphill all the way, back to my ridgeline property to be field-dressed.
Three months later, on January 8, 2022, I was hunting in a neighbor’s forest, with his written permission, a half-mile from home, using my ATV to travel back and forth every few days. It was a brisk 27 degrees outside, with about six to eight inches of fresh snow on the ground, and just as the daylight was fading away, I shot a nice, eight-point buck with my .30-06 rifle, dropping him straight down on a downhill slope into a 50-foot-deep ravine in the slippery snow.
I telephoned my wife, who drove over in our SUV, and then I had to drag the buck about 400 yards through the forested snow to load him into our vehicle for processing. In the photo below, you can see ATV tracks in the snow behind me, and the red glow of the Honda Rancher’s tail light coming from the left side of the picture. Once again, the sturdy ATV admirably proved its worth in the field!
Author with Remington 700 rifle and eight-point buck, January 8, 2022. Photo credit: Vince Strosnider
Nine months later, I was hunting in exactly the same location, on September 12, 2022, a humid, 75-degree morning, when I took a large, five-point buck with a crossbow. He ran 250 yards deeper into the forest, and died in a sloping thicket near a small creek. It took three people to haul him by hand with a rope around his antlers out of the dense thicket, and uphill just far enough that I could attach the rope to the back of my ATV and drag him the rest of the way uphill to an ATV trail for field-dressing.
When using my ATV for hunting purposes, I always carry my rifle, muzzleloader, or crossbow over my right shoulder, and never attached to the ATV, because even the slightest bumping, jolting, or vibration can knock a scope out of alignment.
Just two and a half months later, on March 22, 2022, my wife and I, our youngest son, and grandson, Oliver (nearing his fourth birthday at the time), traveled to the foot of Flagpole Knob, 4,190 feet tall, near Harrisonburg, Virginia, in the George Washington National Forest, with our son’s Jeep and my Honda ATV.
Together, we ascended the rough-and-rugged, eight-mile-long, Dunkle Hollow Road (unpaved Route 227) from Switzer Lake to the spectacular summit, where we enjoyed a relaxing, family picnic, and met a number of other off-road adventurers. Little Oliver specifically asked to ride all the way up, and back down the mountain with “Granddad,” so the ATV performed yet another valuable service as a family-entertainment, recreational, and exploration vehicle.
Author and grandson ascending Flagpole Knob, Virginia, 4,190 feet, on 2019 Honda Rancher 420cc ATV, March 22, 2022. Photo credit: Dan Gray
Family tailgate picnic atop Flagpole Knob, Virginia, 4,190 feet. Photo credit: Dan Gray
In early December 2022, our next-door neighbor was hunting not far from my own hunting blind in the nearby woods, and he took a healthy, solitary doe for fresh venison. But it was rapidly getting dark outside, and he’d recently had knee-replacement surgery, so once again, my trusty Honda Rancher ATV rode to the rescue, as we connected a nylon rope around the dead deer’s neck and dragged it 120 yards to his parked pickup truck.
So, while I originally thought of my ATV only in terms of plowing snow, I’ve since discovered any number of alternative and very versatile uses for it, from forestry work and hauling supplies, to hunting, fun, and family adventure. It’s like a big, multi-purpose, Swiss Army Knife with wheels, that does everything, goes everywhere, is as strong as an ox, and travels where few other vehicles dare to go.
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Author with new Honda Rancher ATV, December 12, 2018. Photo by author
Warren Gray is a retired, U.S. Air Force intelligence officer with experience in joint special operations and counterterrorism. He served in Europe and the Middle East, earned Air Force and Navy parachutist wings, four college degrees, and was a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Intelligence Operations Specialist Course, and the USAF Combat Targeting School. He is currently a published author, historian, hunter, and ATV enthusiast. You may view his website at: warrengray54.com.