My point? I'll just keep my bike the way it is, not put on a aftermarket silencer that the dealer wont cover on warranty if it F*cks something up with the backpressure difference.

Am I so wrong to try and keep my machine in its original top running order? Well? Am I? Is my stock pipe so loud that it will shatter windows? No. Do I want to screw up my warranty coverage? No. Do Ilike my freezer full of wild meat? Yes. Do I care what you think? NO.

Will I find the big deer up here in Canada without a hunting guide? Yes. Will I spend 10,000 + on a guide to shoot a 5x5 whitetail (not a 10 pointer) No.

Silent benz/ ATV stealth= over a hundred $ I am sure
My deer/Moose in the freezer= my price of gas to get out into the wilderness.

tasty food until next fall= priceless.

 

Dog gone it! I was gonna ask every one of those questions of you Kodiak but ya took all the words right out of my mouth! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

Most of all, I was concerned as to whether you cared....[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img]

 

Really? you got a sense that I didn't care what other people thought?

 

Not that this matter a bunch to me. But I have noticed the deer stand at the side of the road and look at my diesel P/U as it goes by. And I have nearly hit them on the trails while riding my quads. I don't think the sound of the exhaust bothers them at all. The last deer i shot biggest worry was getting out of the truck the sound of the door shutting will make them run. This one just stood there while we were driving back to our camp. They are so used to hearing motors they don't care. But try walking as close to them and it takes luck and skill, one twig and they bolt. I don't usually hunt from a vehicle and enjoy the long hikes and sitting in the fall sun on a rock or downed tree. But it seems we see most the deer within a couple hundred yards of where we park the trucks and start walking. I think the only thing bothered by the sound of the motors are other hunters. Ever hunt around horse now you want to talk about noise two horse coming up a draw sounds like a whole herd of stampeding elephants you can hear them for miles. They don't scare the game off so I don't understand the point unless it is to placate the other hunter who don't have quads (hint they still hate them unless you happen to come upon them when they are dragging out their game and volunteer to help) or because you just like the quiet. You can all tell me I'm wrong but we used to see alot of game too while riding in a old baja bug that had open headers. So to each their own. I can't hunt the areas here that we hunt using my quad because those who don't have them felt they give a unfair advantage to those who do. I can use it to recover game but can't ride it in, not suposed to even have a loaded gun while on it in those areas during hunting season.

 

You got it Dirt! I've been paying attention to the Deer/ATV issue. Last season I hiked into my hunting spot because I didn't own an ATV then. I was in my spot about an hour and a half before first light. I had to leave pretty early to do so. I was glassing a large valley at first light and I watched a group of Does come up the valley from about 1500 yards out. They were oblivious to my presence. As they slowly worked their way towards me, an ATV was coming up the valley from below. I heard him for a long time before I saw him....so did the deer. They didn't do squat about it either! They just kept browsing as they approached my location and as the guy slowly approached me. He was clueless to my presence in the valley as well. He would stop and glass the hillside for a breif moment and then motor on. I laughed as he never saw the deer till he was literally 25 yards from them and they were just watching him ride by on the trail. He damn near fell of his Ute when he finally noticed them just in front and off to his right! He grabbed his rifle of the rack and scoped them like he was gonna get a shot...I chuckled to myself...."all Does, dude" as he realized what he was looking at. He ended up parking 30 yards from me and shut his Ute off, grabbed his pak and rifle and was planning to hunt the area which I had been glassing for the past 2.5 hours....that is until I spoke up! I said "I think you scared them all away!" and being that I was camo'd out up in the granite boulders, he turned and about sh** himself! He looked for me but couldn't see me till I tipped him off. I was nice to him and he was curtious as he got back on to get out of my zone. He went over the hill and dissapeared and about 5 minutes after he departed, a little spike Buck popped up from right behind where he was! The thing that pissed me off the most was that he was on that thing at prime shooting time! Just after first light when the animals would normally be moving. IMO, he should have parked the thing and watched the world wake up, he'd likely have much better success!


That little episode confirmed a few things for me. One was that Deer really aren't always bothered by an ATV. Two, you miss a lot of the world around you when you ride a Ute. I won't be doing that. Three, why the hell should I hike in to an area on foot when I could ride to an area near by and hike a much shorter distance for a similar result? I went and bought 2 Sportsman! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

TreeDoc and DirtVH - I know exactly what you guys are talking about. Something I also noticed is that the deer that are close to the towns and cities are much less skittish than the deer in the deep woods and far away from the population. One of the reasons that I like for my Ute to be as quiet as possible is that, like one of you said, I love to be quiet in the woods no matter what. I live about 10 miles outside of a fairly big city and I also have a farm way out in the boonies. My closest neighbor at home is about 200 feet but my closest neighbor at the farm is about 1 mile. I have been out in my back yard running a log splitter or other piece of equipment that makes noise and the deer will come to see what's going on. But out at the farm it's a little different story. the deer out there seem to be much more wary and will move away from most noises and commotion. I have been in a tree stand at the farm and seen many times when a deer will spook at the slightest noise. They usually don't run away in a panic but they will get out of there in short order.

I also do a lot of photography in the woods and I'm convinced that since I have my Ute quieter I can get a little bit closer to my favorite spots before I have to shut down and start walking. I have watched coyotes and foxes spook at the sound of a car out on the road that is almost a mile away.

Now those goofy wild turkeys are a different critter all together. Sometimes they are more skittish than ole Mr. Whitetail and then the next time you see them they are crowding together to go see what all the noise is when my son runs the bush-hog. One time we had my nephew, Greg, visiting us at the farm during spring turkey season. I had gone out to hunt at about 5:00AM. At about 7:15 or 7:30 I had 2 toms and several jakes moving in my direction through a small open field next to the woods. I guess Greg was all excited about being out in the country and couldn't sleep because he fired up his dirt bike and I heard him going across our big field about a 1/4 mile away. Every one of those turkeys turned toward the noise (and man that thing is loud) and started running toward it. Greg got to the end of the big field and made a turn to the right to follow a trail that goes around where I was hunting. Those silly turkeys turned to the right and followed the noise off into the woods. A week later I heard a gobbler not too far into the wooded area near one of our barns and he would gobble every time moved a big spool of wire fencing to unwind it. The wire would scrape on the side of the metal spool and make a terrible noise. But that tom sure seemed to like that noise.

Bottom line is that I love to be as silent as possible when I'm in the woods. I'm convinced that it helps me see more game and get closer.

 

Note to self..........

RE: Spring Turkey Season '05 Instructions

1. Remove baffle from ATV exhaust
2. Park next to travel trailer in camp
3. Start ATV motor at first light opening day
4. Sit in trailer drinking morning coffee
5. Shoot largest Tom investigating exhaust noise
6. Repeat once





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Swizzler, I just bought the muffler from Midas you mentioned to do this quieter exhaust modification, but, I don't know where to find the flex pipe or reducer. Do you remember where all that was bought? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Yes. I purchased a 36" piece of stainless steel flex pipe from a junk yard. I think the inside diameter is 1 1/2". It's the kind of flex that is spiral wound just like the larger stuff we see sometimes on automobiles and trucks. I'm pretty sure it was brand new because it was very clean with no deposits inside.

We got the steel reducer that we needed at Pep-Boys or AutoZone. The reducer is needed at the outlet of the stock muffler/spark arrestor to go from 1" diameter to the 1 1/2" flex. I welded the reducer to the stock muffler and the flex. I welded the flex to the new car muffler. I didn't have any leaks on the first try (miracles will never cease) but I had a leak that was kind of hard to fix when I did nime. That flex stuff is kind of difficult to weld. It's tissue paper thin and I could blow holes in it very easily.

If I owned a digital camera I would post some pics. Maybe someday.

If I remember correctly, you can get the flex and the reducer at your local RV or camper store. They use that size stuff on the little gas and diesel generators.

Go ahead and try it. It's not difficult at all.

edit ************************************************** *

I'm sorry, I told you that I welded the car muffler to the flex. I didn't mean to say that. I used a typical muffler clamp there. The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.