The News Outside

I’ve been thinkin about getting a mud motor for my hunting boat (18 ft x-wide/x-deep). Just curious if anybody has a similar setup and how they like it for hunting around here.

My buddies and I purchased a long shaft beavertail with a 27 horse kohler on it about 7 years ago and it has been very reliable, but we use it for a smaller boat.  If your looking with a long shaft, go with the 35 horse beavertail.  If your looking for speed, opt for the hyper drive short shafts.

Thanks alot! I’ve been trying to get as much info on them as I can since they aren’t any too cheap.  I’m not real into the idea of buying a boat motor only to find out it won’t run worth a crap on my boat. I’ve read online that you lose performance if you put one on just a regular jon boat instead of a fancy custom “mud boat”. It’s just too bad they don’t let you slap a motor on your boat real quick for a test drive!

Yea you might not get quite as good performance as the boats made specifically for a mud motor but you can still get around in some real shallow water. Check out some pods that go on the back of the boat. They can help performance too.

I’ve seen some videos on youtube of what some of those guys do with those mud boats and it’s pretty wild. Jumpin levees, blasting through the timber, hauling through literally no water…pretty crazy but probably alot of fun. If I can get out to a shallow blind without worrying about getting stuck or clogging my cooling water intake I’d be a pretty pumped.

I have the Mud Buddy “black death 5500”.  the no reverse sucks.  and be careful jumping levees and bouncing around the timber.  broke the shaft of mine on a stump and was not covered by gaurantee.  real costly.  i have a lowe 1860 and it runs ok.  just dont expect big things from it.  it will not fly anywhere but you always get there.  just my experience.

Been a while since I posted this topic. I figured I’d follow up to hopefully help out any other members of the site that might be curious about the same thing.

Since I wrote this I bought a 2013 Pro Drive X36 with a Gen 3 upgraded lower unit. I ran it once season on my 1860 husky john and it did good but not great. Before last season I had the heads decked, ported and polished and it made a signficant difference. I’m able to run about 25 mph empty and can plane out 3 guys and gear running in the 20’s all day. For me that’s about as good as you can ask for.