I remember well my introduction to what I refer to as ‘electric hunting buggies’. The correct name would be EZ Go electric golf carts converted for use in the field other than the smooth riding surfaces of a golf course. Well over a decade ago, I began visiting with Ken Blackstock who owned Plano Golf Carts in Plano for many years.
Ken and his brother Robert left Ken’s current headquarters in Nevada, Texas loaded with one of their very rugged converted golf carts on a trailer and pulled it out to my place to put it through its paces. I remember telling my newfound friends that if the buggy preformed as well as it looked, I had great plans for it!
With big tires, a bed that converts to an extra seat, high performance 10 hp electric engine, front storage bin and a heavy-duty adjustable controller, the buggy setting in my yard was everything I had envisioned. But how would it perform. I weighed a couple hundred pounds, and I was the lightest of our little ‘test group’. With about 500 pounds of lead batteries for power close to 700 pounds of ‘testers’ onboard, we headed about a mile from my home to some rough country that I hunted at the time.
Ken allowed me to drive and on the asphalt road, I could feel the torque generated by the oversized engine. Once we entered the property, a series of old gravel pits that had been dug back in the sixties, the versatility of a machine that was once used for transporting golfers around on a manicured golf course became evident. Even with a load of over a thousand pounds of batteries and ‘testers’, the buggy easily negotiated the slopes created by an excavator many years prior when the area was mined for sand and gravel.
During that fall and winter, my ‘hunting buggy’ transported me to and from my close to home hunting area on many trips and helped me haul everything from corn for feeders to the Snap Lock Hunting Blinds that I hunted from. It was also a lifesaver (and back saver) when it was time to transport wild hogs and deer out of some pretty rough country. I learned my buggy was perfect for negotiating dry terrain, but it definitely was not designed to be used for ‘mudding’. I learned to steer clear of muddy areas but carried a winch onboard which I occasionally had to use when I got a little too brave and attempted to plough through deep mud.
About this time, a buddy and I began outfitting archery elk and bear hunts in the mountains of northern Colorado. We had to negotiate a pretty steep road for about a mile in route to the higher elevations where we often encountered game. My partner had hunted with me on my buggy here in Texas and was quite impressed. He soon purchased his own buggy from Ken and we began towing our quiet electric hunting machines all the way near the Wyoming border each fall.
They performed flawlessly for the seven years we used them up there and allowed us to approach our hunting areas quietly. Once, when Ken and Robert came up to hunt with us, we loaded a bear that Robert had arrowed on the buggy and four of us rode our hunting cart a good mile through a rough winding mountain trail back to camp. That had to be the ultimate acid test for the converted golf cart!
Fast forward to last week. Ken and Robert again pulled a hunting buggy out to my place for a test run. As they pulled trailer with buggy strapped down into my yard, I was getting a bit of déjà vu. Lots had transpired since that test run many years ago, including some huge advances in golf cart technology. As often the case, I had prepared a barbeque dinner for us and a great friend that lives down the road offered his ranch as a test ground for the new ‘buggy’ setting on the trailer. After setting up ‘camp’ in the shade of a huge pecan tree, we began putting Ken’s new conversion buggy through its paces. With one lightweight lithium battery as power, the weight of the 500 pounds of lead batteries was eliminated, no longer was the oversized electric engine necessary.
“We’ve set these buggies up for use on a basic Texas deer lease.” Says Ken. It is designed for transportation on the deer lease, transporting hunters and game to and from camp as well as other deer lease tasks such as hauling corn for feeders, etc. The lithium battery is a huge improvement over the old-style lead batteries. They charge in half the time of lead acid batteries and are basically trouble free. No longer is it necessary to continually be checking water levels in the old-style batteries or cleaning posts. By making adjustments to the controller to facilitate hill climbing, the units are more than adequate for the terrain encountered on most Texas leases.”
We began our test with a basic deer lease chore, filling a corn feeder. With corn in the bed of the buggy and two guys totaling about 450 pounds we headed out to the first feeder which was suspended from a large limb on a pecan. We backed the buggy up under the feeder, stood in the bed on the back and easily filled the feeder.
It was then time to put the buggy to the real test of climbing what I considered a pretty steep hill, actually two of them. A slough traverses the perimeter of my buddy’s ranch. From the top of the bank down to the water is at least 40 feet and the slope is an estimated 30 degrees. With our group of ‘testers’ watching closely, Ken drove the buggy down one of the slopes, crossed about 10 inches of running water and up the other bank at about half throttle. I later hopped on with him and the buggy easily negotiated the slope with the two of us onboard.
Back at camp to enjoy a tasty smoked pork, pinto bean and potato salad lunch with a buggy still had several miles of battery life left. I was completely sold on the versatility and power of the converted golf cart. At less than half the cost of a factory model with a three-year warranty on the lithium battery and 3 month warranty on the buggy, this might just be the best deal available on a very serviceable machine tailor made for the deer lease.
To learn more, visit www.iridegolfcarts.com. Watch our TV show “A Sportsmans Life” on YouTube and Carbon TV this week to see Ken’s buggy in action.
