SLEDsmart! USA Knowledge Base

Hunting pairs up nicely with snowmobiling. It’s usually the best way to get from your truck to the camp or hunting location and it can be awesome to have a machine on-hand if you need to haul a downed animal out of the woods. Why drag a buck out when you could drive it out, right?

Hunters need to remember that just because their primary focus is on hunting and being a hunter, if there’s a machine involved, they are sled operators too and must follow all the applicable rules and regulations for operating a machine in their state of operation.

Follow these rules when hunting with a sled: 

• Never hunt FROM the machine. It’s illegal to shoot a firearm from a sled in most states. There may be an exception to this rule if you are disabled. Check with your state for specific regulations.
• Always wear hunter orange clothing (or ‘blaze’ orange) so that other hunters can see you. You should tie some hunter orange tape to your machine too.
• If you’re picking up a downed animal you should always stick to the trails. When the forest gets too thick, park the machine, go in on foot and drag the downed animal back to where you parked the machine.
• Always ask permission from landowners if you want to go hunting and riding on private property. Ask for permission to do both things. Don’t assume you have permission to ride, just because you have permission to hunt - or vice-versa.
• Always follow any local firearm regulations and make sure your gun is unloaded and in a case when you’re carrying it on your sled.
• Cover up any downed game animals you’re transporting on your machine. It’s respectful to non-hunters.
• Consider your machine’s towing capabilities and weight restrictions before loading a big game animal, like a buck or bear, onto the sled trailer. If your machine can’t handle the weight load and it breaks down, you’ll have a dead animal AND a broken-down sled to get back to the truck.