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A tip of the camo hunting cap to Cordy Rost of Nampa, Idaho. He has turned his RANGER into the type of vehicle we call “The Ultimate Hunter,” and he has put it to good use on an elk hunting trip. here’s his story, in his own words.
My name is Cordy Rost. I live in Nampa, Idaho, and am the General Manager of a distribution software company based out of Southern California.
I am a native to Idaho and work from my home. I purchased the RANGER because I have two boys, Ronin (3) and Cole (6) and the three of us fit perfectly in the front. This was an opportunity for me to involve my little ones in the outdoor activities and still be safe about it.
I also have a 40-acre piece of property that has farm land all around it. We are able to cruise around our property and also the surrounding farms checking things out. It is not a major outing but the boys think it is great and it is time that I can spend with them.
Since I have my property, I hope to be able to utilize in the future some of the add-ons for maintaining property and dirt roads. I just got it so I have not looked at any of that as of yet.
HIS DEALER: GRIZZLY SPORTS
I purchased the RANGER from Grizzly Sports in Caldwell, Idaho. I have only had my 2006 Ranger for a couple of months and this was my first elk hunting season with it, but it performed beautifully.
I have a 2006 XP with the Pure Polaris Korad windshield, doors, top and rear – basically the entire enclosure. It works like a champ. I was lucky enough to be hunting an early controlled rifle hunt for bull elk in Unit 45 of Idaho. What an experience. I could not have asked for better.
During this time the mornings were super cold, but the afternoons would get pretty heated, and there was a ton of dust, not to mention the flying insects that were out in full force.
THE CAB WORKS WELL
The RANGER enclosure was a live saver for keeping the dust and the bugs out. We would stop periodically and I would get out and I did not have any bugs on my teeth and I did not have raccoon eyes from the dust. I had a heater put in (just in case I could talk my wife into coming, she did not so I don’t if I was lucky or not) for the cold out in the mornings and late at night. I did not even need the heater, the enclosure worked superbly. I could not have been any more comfortable.
We kept the dust off the windshield pretty well, but in the early evening I could pop up the windshield in just a second and we could drive along with easy viewing against the sunset. It was great.
I have a dual gun scabbards that are the easy Lock and Go style. They worked like a charm for keeping out the dust and ensuring that my Tikka 300 win mag with a 50 mm scope had no issues.
THE GO-ANYWHERE RANGER
I did not have to use my winch on the front end or the back end. I was not in any heavy mud, but it looks like it is going to be pretty tough to get the RANGER stuck.
My family is very pro-ATV and they all have 4-wheelers. They looked at me pretty skeptically when I started scouting with them on the weekends prior to the hunt with the RANGER. They said I would not be able to go where they could go, such as rock hopping and steep hills.
They were commenting that I was driving a revved-up golf cart and giving me some pretty good ribs over it. Although, when we left the first day they were pretty happy that I could carry the “beverage” coolers in the rear of the RANGER.
After a couple of weeks of scouting and me going everywhere they went – including steep loose rock hills and bouncing over all the rock terrain that they were willing to cover – they started to concede that the RANGER was going to be a valuable tool. As the weeks went along, each of them tried to call first dibs on who would be my passengers in the RANGER (unfortunately, my boys could not always come).
The night before the hunt opened we had our elk scouted out and I was so anxious that I talked my partner and another group of two in our party to sleep on the mountain so no one would get to our spot before us. The RANGER once again was a life saver as it loaded our tent and all our necessities and carried them up to our spot on the mountain.
THE SUCCESSFUL HUNT
We got up early that morning, split up in twos, and waited for the elk to come up out of the prairie. We soon spotted our bull. My cousin Jake was soon after starting the bugling bull calls and cow calls. It took about 45 minutes and the elk came out of a grove of Aspens. I was able to take the shot. One shot at 125 yards and it was over. We were lucky. It was a nice 6 by 6, so we were real happy. He even had come to rest in the shade of the Aspen trees so that we could quarter him up in the shade.
The RANGER did its part again. It was able to get within about 50 yards of the downed elk. As you can see, I am not a big person, so getting as close to the animal was a life saver. We loaded the elk, put the head, cape, and horns in the back and headed back to base camp.
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