Upper Tuchodi River

[gathto]

Had an amazing hunt this year on the lakes. Didn't venture up the infeed river to the lakes. Anyone having some good intel about the river would be much appreciated. We are already planning for next years trip. Want to go as far up as possible.

Bagged a nice 10.5 yr. old stone.

http://s1288.beta.photobucket.com/user/gathto/media/image-9.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

http://s1288.beta.photobucket.com/user/gathto/media/image-2.jpg.html?sort=3&o=7

http://s1288.beta.photobucket.com/user/gathto/media/Tuchodi2012091_zpsa87c380c.jpg.html?sort=3&o=10

http://s1288.beta.photobucket.com/user/gathto/media/Tuchodi2012022_zps0b51a21b.jpg.html?sort=3&o=12

[monasheemountainman]

nice ram in some awesome country! good job man, congrats!

[trigger]

cool.
Is that the alaskan jet ranger???
if so what model? size motor? and do you frikken love it or what??

oh and congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[gathto]

This is the Alaskan Jet Ranger 450AR, 14' 9" feet by 6 feet with a with a Yammy 30HP Jet on it. It is a go almost anywhere boat. We get transported in by Kevin at Riverjet and where he cant go we put this together and carry on. Tuff as nails with the what they call Grizzly armour on the bottom. Have had one for ten years now.

We came back to camp on the Muskwa about five years ago to find our first one had been all slashed up and our fuel cans punctured and motor all bashed in with a log, but they couldn't cut the bottom, but thats another story.

[limit time]

This is the Alaskan Jet Ranger 450AR, 14' 9" feet by 6 feet with a with a Yammy 30HP Jet on it. It is a go almost anywhere boat. We get transported in by Kevin at Riverjet and where he cant go we put this together and carry on. Tuff as nails with the what they call Grizzly armour on the bottom. Have had one for ten years now.

We came back to camp on the Muskwa about five years ago to find our first one had been all slashed up and our fuel cans punctured and motor all bashed in with a log, but they couldn't cut the bottom, but thats another story.

Mother f- ckers! Stories like that make me MAD!! You need trail cams set up to catch these *******s, then post them all over town and the web.

on a side note, sweet trip.

[Rock Doctor]

From about 3:00 to about 5:30 is all shot above the second lake (End of June)
The falls, before the 3:00 minute mark is also above the second lake

Turn the volume down, music is a little hard to take.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSS8wNr2Kig

Oh, and NICE RAM

RD

[trigger]

that is a sweet boat. ive been drooling over them for a few years now. Im just trying to build up the courage to buy one.
So what is the diffeance between the 450 and the 430? other than aluminum floor.
because size wise they seem similar. also i see the weight capacity is more in yours.

sorry to hi jack your thread

[BlacktailStalker]

This is the Alaskan Jet Ranger 450AR, 14' 9" feet by 6 feet with a with a Yammy 30HP Jet on it. It is a go almost anywhere boat. We get transported in by Kevin at Riverjet and where he cant go we put this together and carry on. Tuff as nails with the what they call Grizzly armour on the bottom. Have had one for ten years now.

We came back to camp on the Muskwa about five years ago to find our first one had been all slashed up and our fuel cans punctured and motor all bashed in with a log, but they couldn't cut the bottom, but thats another story.

Wow thats brutal :mad:

Haters love to hate !
Sweet ram ! Glad to see you got another boat going.

[gathto]

The 430 is smaller in width as well. We tried air floors before and to me they just don't offer the ridge support, especially in rough water.

Its a big investment ar first, but I have to say we have had some crazy adventures with it. We get into places you wouldn't believe. The pay off is huge, when we get way back in on these smaller rivers no ones there and we generally connect with game. When you think about having it for ten years or so it's not so expensive.

The adventure of getting in to these areas is worth the trip even if we don't get any game.

When we do connect we have sometimes had to drift out due to weight, it's the most peaceful hunt you'll ever have. No motor noise, just the sound of the river and we often see game as well on the way out.

On the bright side I took lots of photos and filed a police report in The Fort, stayed in town two days and felt like Columbo asking everyone questions. Didn't find any leads but my home insurance paid for replacement.

We do set up a trail cam now. Well hidden.

[ElectricDyck]

Congrats's again, quite the adventure!

[RiverOtter]

Wondered when your ram was gonna make the "net"......:-D

Congrats again, and thanks again for the feast, it was second to none.....

[ydouask]

Success is once again the result of good planning... nice ram !

[Sitkaspruce]

here's your ram, very nice!!! Congrats!!! Used to hunt that area back in the early nineties, some beautiful country there!!

Just copy the IMG code and paste it right on the page.

http://i1288.photobucket.com/albums/b485/gathto/image-9.jpg

http://i1288.photobucket.com/albums/b485/gathto/image-2.jpg

http://i1288.photobucket.com/albums/b485/gathto/Tuchodi2012091_zpsa87c380c.jpg

http://i1288.photobucket.com/albums/b485/gathto/Tuchodi2012022_zps0b51a21b.jpg

Cheers

SS

[ianwuzhere]

Beauty ram, nice boat, she looks loaded up pretty good- wonder what id look like with a moose or two ;)
Congrats!

[.300WSMImpact!]

dream trip for me, maybe one day I will get to go

[David Heitsman]

Is it just the angle, or my vision, or did you cut the cape off behind the ears?

[4 point]

Your last picture of the west end delta I stood in ah of many time back in the mid 60 to late 70ies when we hunted in there as the only residence hunters every trip. I'd love to get back into that country if even only in the summer time.

[*bcgold*]

Nice pictures! Two of them brought memories when I was there in 93. The moose walking on water (except I saw a caribou) and the picture of the delta.I have this old photo when we flew out, but things have changed I'm sure. I do remember a few jet boats did go up there. http://i949.photobucket.com/albums/ad339/ronb_2010/WT.jpg

[RiverOtter]

http://i1288.photobucket.com/albums/b485/gathto/Tuchodi2012022_zps0b51a21b.jpg

Pulled a nice double drop tine moose out of the bottom left corner of the bottom meadow. Bugger was even nice enough to stagger almost to the head of the lake, with only 1 shoulder and no lungs......:-D

[gathto]

It's the angle of the shot, I did cut well below the ears. I am a Euro mount fan. Just bone and horn. The cape is getting done separate.

The river valley is one of the most pristine I have seen in a long time. I can't get it out if my head. As I said earlier we already booked for next year. I think I'm spending too much time on Google maps studying the valley.

Most of the boat activity we did see were just guys screaming up to the end if the lake then turn around a go. No one stopped for any length of time at all. I guess they figure if its not walking he shoreline it's not worth stopping.
we walked a lot of shoreline and I lost count of how many old skeletons of elk and moose I found so it must be somewhat productive to road hunt the lake.

[bighorn]

has your boat got the aluminum bottom

[gathto]

It has a five piece aluminum bottom that fit together like tongue and grove, then side bars that run the length of the floor to lock them in place. When I pump up the side tubes and the bottom keel it all locks into position.

[hunter1947]

Nice sheep your party got thanks for sharing ,,congrats to the hunting party..

[Buck]

It has a five piece aluminum bottom that fit together like tongue and grove, then side bars that run the length of the floor to lock them in place. When I pump up the side tubes and the bottom keel it all locks into position.


Nice Ram
When i look at the Alaska jet ranger site they seem to only have an air floor in the Jet Ranger.Can the aluminum floor be added? or are you running one of the other rafts they make?
Cavitation seems to be a bit of a problem with the Jet Ranger can you comment.

[ElectricDyck]

Nice Ram
When i look at the Alaska jet ranger site they seem to only have an air floor in the Jet Ranger.Can the aluminum floor be added? or are you running one of the other rafts they make?
Cavitation seems to be a bit of a problem with the Jet Ranger can you comment.

Gatho's running a ranger 450...I was very close to buying a similar boat and just might yet. Cavitation will always be a problem with inflatables without a rigid bottom, but rigid bottoms don't fit in planes or in the back of a landcruiser :wink: nothings is perfect for everything. From my research most guys drop the motor below the bottom a bit and run cavitation plates. The jet rangers is pretty sweet but seems a little a small for extended trips. Here's a link to a thread on them:
http://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/showthread.php/87730-Alaskan-Jet-Ranger
Lots of good info on all of Gary's boats there as well.

[gathto]

I run the shoe about 1/2 inch below the transom and leave the shaft unlocked. If I do hit something, and I do, it pops up and generally absorbs the impact. I have knocked off the lead edge of the shoe a few times but generally doesn't creat too much of a problem.


I do carry an extra shoe, I have a guy in Kelowna that's excellent with welding aluminum. He has been able to repair anything I have damaged. Yamaha uses a good aluminum alloy that is very dense.

Cavitation happens mostly in sharp cornering when I slide the turns but not bad enough to lose too much speed and get into trouble. I have traveled the Muskwa, Gathto and Tuchodi amongst others with no issue.

[hawk-i]

Now I've gotta make a trip in there with my boat!!!! Thanks for sharing with the pics. How high did you have to go for the sheep?

[gathto]

This sheep was a one of those of being in the right place at the right time. It makes up for those miles of hiking and stalking and sore body and going home without one.

We were glassing the slopes of this one mountain where we saw Elk the day before and sure enough they were there again this day. We watched them moving and feeding down towards a drainage and I thought I might be able to put on a good stalk and cut them off there.

i walked for about an hour and half up towards them but they just seemed to hang where there were. I sat down in some cover to watch for awhile. I was there sitting quiet for about an hour and still no movement. I thought it felt like time for a snack so I go digging into my pack and grab some lunch. While I'm looking into my pack I her a Rick tumble and I look up and see this ram no more than 20 yards on a game trial looking at me.

Holy s..t! I didn't move and it kept looking at me like a dog looks at you tilting its head to the side. I thought I was seeing things. Horn tips over the nose, and easily seen with the naked eye but I still had to grab the binos and look.

No doubt legal. Grab my 300 win mag and pop. It could have dropped there but no, had to full over an 80 foot drop.

Got down to it and started the work. Recovered my Barnes 180 grn in the center of the pelvis. It was perfect. Through heart lungs and no meat damage at all.

i consider this sheep a gift.

[hawk-i]

Great story....that's the thing about hunting, you can go for days and days with nothing and then all of a sudden, just like that, the work begins!

[Buck]

I run the shoe about 1/2 inch below the transom and leave the shaft unlocked. If I do hit something, and I do, it pops up and generally absorbs the impact. I have knocked off the lead edge of the shoe a few times but generally doesn't creat too much of a problem.


I do carry an extra shoe, I have a guy in Kelowna that's excellent with welding aluminum. He has been able to repair anything I have damaged. Yamaha uses a good aluminum alloy that is very dense.

Cavitation happens mostly in sharp cornering when I slide the turns but not bad enough to lose too much speed and get into trouble. I have traveled the Muskwa, Gathto and Tuchodi amongst others with no issue.


Don't mean to hijack but does the model you run have a bumper under the transom like the jet ranger?Just trying to figure out what makes his boats unique

[ElectricDyck]

They come with a useable rowing towers, are made of stronger fabrics then the competitors and have a coating on the bottom for abrasion resistance. Gary deals straight with the manufacturer so you are also able to order a custom boat with even thicker materials to ensure a bullet proof boat. They are pricey though.

[gathto]

If you go to the Alaska series web site there is a picture of the bottom of the boat. It shows the abrasion resistant black bottom material and on the keel, tubes and along the bottom of the transom the grizzly armour material.

As said before the bottom is tuff. I have hit rocks hard and have never even left a mark on the material. What makes it nice too is when we are heavy and drifting out the bottom doesn't get hung up on anything. It's super slick and slides over just about anything.

[moose2]

Great job on the ram, looks like a great way to travel
Mike

[hellojello74]

Whats the main differences between ranger and jet ranger? The rangers seem much bigger but do they have that much bigger draft, could you run them with a jet for added capacity on the jet rangers? Just trying to understand

[WKCotts]

nice ram! pretty cool setup with the boat

[gathto]

The jet ranger has the inflatable floor and no aluminum floor. The 450AR that I have is the Alaskan Ranger Sport set up with a jet. I should not have said jet ranger in my description before , sorry.

If you go the Alaska Series website, all of the specs are there. The 450AR is ideal for sheep hunters as we generally go in very light. With a capacity of 2250lbs however you can bring a lot of gear.

We had about 700lbs of gear including two guys a few years ago and came out with two boned out Elk. We got around 360 lbs meat from both Elk. Had no issue running the boat.

[Buck]

The jet ranger has the inflatable floor and no aluminum floor. The 450AR that I have is the Alaskan Ranger Sport set up with a jet. I should not have said jet ranger in my description before , sorry.

If you go the Alaska Series website, all of the specs are there. The 450AR is ideal for sheep hunters as we generally go in very light. With a capacity of 2250lbs however you can bring a lot of gear.

We had about 700lbs of gear including two guys a few years ago and came out with two boned out Elk. We got around 360 lbs meat from both Elk. Had no issue running the boat.


What power you running with the jet?

[gathto]

Running a Yamaha 40hp but when you put on a jet head it drops down to 30hp.

[HIGHRPM]

Congrats on your hunt !

[albravo2]

Simply awesome. Ram, boat, scenery... all outstanding.

Like most other people that clicked on your photos, I'm dreaming of a visit myself now.

[geoskier]

What kind of mileage do you get? Could you make it (from steamboat area) all the way to the head of the lake and back, with room for game ect...?

[gathto]

At 4500 rpm which lets me run at about 25 KPH I get about 45 kilometers out of 25 litre tank. Steamboats a long way, i think fuel would take up too much space to make the trip.