Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Carrying rifles on motorbikes?

What do people recommend as the best method for carrying a rifle on a dirtbike?

I recommend not crashing!

I saw a really good handlebar mount for a Thompson on 'Triggers'

For highway travel, I prefer carrying the rifle transversely. It has to be cased because it probably bugs the fellow traveller to be looking down the muzzle as you sit at a stoplight!
Off road or on a brushy trail, I have carried the rifle in a scabbard with the muzzle forward. It is best to carry on the side opposite the muffler if your bik has a high mounted exhaust system. On my KLR or XR, that means the rifle goes on the left. GD

Rifle scabbard attached vertically to the front fork semi like you would with a horse,but not the same..I have used that on multiple motorcycles and tote gotes through the years.

Jayco

Check out Cycle Racks:

http://www.cycleracks.com/

The racks are great and you can attach a Koplin gun boot to them for a rifle. Here's a link with an example:

http://tw200forum.com/forums/99942/ShowPost.aspx

Thank you all for the replies.



I have thought that this may be the most convenient for accessing the rifle in a hurry, but do you find that it interferes with the steering in terms of the extra weight on one side and/or reduced steering lock?

With modern bikes, the long suspension travel makes the front fork a less attractive option IMO. GD

Pete

It does not effect the steering or did for me on the Yamaha 80 or Honda 90 step throughs or my 250 or 360 enduro or many tote gotes..

What does effect the steering is game and how you load ''em up.The motorcycles being by far the worst with the Tote Goat handling an Elk quarter quite well.I found out early not to use the racks and put the game centered on the seat and ride it out or the weight it to far back and it's wheelie city on any bump or incline.

Center of gravity can really mess you up on some of those trails and old logging roads.Any saddle scabbard works well..

Jayco

I've hunted with bikes and rifles for about 15 years now and tried every way imagineable. I've found that carrying them on my back cross-slung is the best way to do it if I want to keep the rifle in one piece.

I tend to take better care of my firearms than myself. I'd be inclined to go with IdDave, especially if fine optics are involved. Even in my rigs, rifles ride cased and across a seat to minimize vibration.

Don't crash.

Wearing a rifle over your shoulder effects and abstracts turning/jolts and the immediate reaction to going down on two wheels..I have done motocross out of Boise years ago when Buel was king...Horses go down and bikes do more often as well as even snow machines....

The bike has less chance of going down if your not inhabited by a back pack or a rifle..The best riders ride on the pegs in rough terrain,atv's as well and few pro's just sit on the seat of a snowmachine.

Jayco

I forgot this one point..Anyone who has had there rifle slinged over there shoulder on a narrow brushy trail,knows what happens when the rifle connects with branches and un-forseen objects.

Mounted on the front forks,no problem there..

I should ask,who here has packed out Deer/Elk and Bear on a motorcycle?

Jayco

Oh wait...

You said rifles

My pard is a master at it. He's packed out two mule deer bucks, boned, in one trip. I've done it too, but am way more cautious about it than he. Best way we've found is to load 'em up in a backpack and ride out wearing it. If done correctly, most of the weight sits on the seat behind you.

We also pack our rifles like iddave.

Yes, I would expect some interesting moments could arise on big bumps.


I used to do it this way on-road and in open country but low branches are a concern.

Would a short-barreled compact rifle carried across the handlebars be viable?

I've packed out about 20 elk, a dozen or so deer, a single bear, and two moose. I know of what I speak.

Amongst a dozen or so pards that hunt the same, every single one of them also wear their rifles on their backs.

If you're wrecking because the rifle is on your back,... you need a LOT more practice on a bike before you take to the field in the fall. I wreck/lay the bike over every year at least once, but it sure as he77 isn't because a rifle is on my back.
It's like tripping while walking on a hunt. It just happens.

The trick is to minimize/eliminate damage to yourself and your equipment when it
happens. I'm rarely out of second gear anyway, so the "wreck" is usually on par with a mountain bike wreck.

A couple of my pards do prefer to pack quarters out strapped to the bike, but MOST of us use a pack frame on our backs and again....all pack rifles on our backs.

Very true! If your wreck a motorcycle because the rifle is throwing you off. Its time to go back to the drawing board. Maybe bikes just are not for you... LOL

My dad and others did it that way also but none of them were experienced riders..I used to do track and moto-cross out of Boise learning to ride the pegs,giving much more stability in rough ground.Nothing on my back hunting to keep out of the branches and if going down,the rifle is more protected in a scabbard.

To each his own..A rifle on a rider offers unforeseen accidents through slow uphill rocky situations through brush and branches and restricts the rider somewhat in immediate moves and changes of weight in one direction or the other..

I always wanted to beat ...Buell out of Boise(where I was born) in Motocross..He was just to good and went semi-pro for a while,I heard.My dad ran through Boise on an old Indian cycle with a 4X4 Buck strapped to the back off of the hill above town....Few stop lights back then but it raised eyebrows.

Jayco

Sounds like it would have been a great photo.