Todd Gibson’s UTV, outfitted with a rooftop gun platform, could be the envy of Wyoming prairie dog shooters and coyote hunters.
But it was his utter frustration with beavers ruining crops and duck hunting on his northeast Arkansas farm that drove him to tap into his creative prowess and build the thing in the first place.
As it turned out, he already had the beaver problem “basically solved” by the time he finished refitting his 2025 Honda Pioneer UTV as an anti-predator/pest battle buggy.
Now, he uses it mostly to hunt coyotes.
Hence, the wryly humorous flags on the sides of his vehicle bear the image of the famous Looney Tunes character Wile E. Coyote and the caption "Stand back, I’m a professional.”
“Honestly, I put the Wile E. Coyote flags on the back because I am mainly using the rig for coyotes, and it just struck me as funny,” he told Cowboy State Daily.
Farming, Law, and Building
Gibson grew up on a rice farm in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain region of northeast Arkansas. His family still owns the farm.
He left to attend law school in 1994 and returned in 1999 to open the Gibson Law Firm.
He juggled practicing law and farming until 2017, when he sold farmland so he could devote his time to farming. But an injury ended that pursuit the same year.
In 2021, he cofounded the Hamilton Agriculture Farm Management Company. And he’s also continued to pursue his lifelong love of building things.
The UTV gun platform was his latest project. He started it in mid-September, shortly after he purchased the Honda Pioneer. The work was finished around Oct. 10.
Those Darn Beavers
Left unchecked, the local beaver population can ruin two of northeast Arkansas’ greatest things: rice farming and duck hunting, Gibson said.
“The problem with beavers is they won’t allow you to drain water where you want to drain it, and they don’t allow you to hold water when you’re trying to hold it,” he said.
“With rice crops, weed control is established through flooding the fields,” he said.
Typically, farmers flood their fields from the first week in June until the second week of August.
However, beavers frequently try to plug holes and hamper the draining process, putting the rice crops at risk of being overwatered.
On the flip side, it’s common practice to flood low-lying areas during the off-season to attract huge flocks of waterfowl for hunting.
But beavers will come along and rip holes in the barriers, draining those areas, Gibson said.
“They get you coming and going,” he said.
Stalking beavers with a rifle morphed into a “passion for night hunting,” Gibson said.
He uses night vision rifle scopes. In 2023, the Wyoming Legislature passed a bill allowing predator hunters here to use night-vision scopes on public land.
The topography in northeast Arkansas is “flat. As in, pancake flat,” Gibson said.
So, he figured the best way to hunt beavers and predators at night would be from an elevated platform, allowing him a clear view over fields, brush, and the like.
And what could be better than an elevated platform that was also mobile?
Hence, the idea of mounting a gun platform on his UTV was born.
‘I’m A Miser'
Whenever he starts a building project, the last thing Gibson wants to do is needlessly throw money away on it.
“I’m a miser,” he said.
He got the Honda Pioneer, with only 160 miles on it, for the reasonable price of $16,200.
Then he started looking on Amazon for various parts he’d need for his gun platform.
That would include two comfortable chairs, outfitted with rifle mounts and capable of swiveling 360 degrees.
He ended up spending about $900 on parts.
Then, “I just grabbed a measuring tape and started welding” until everything came together, he said.
Top-Heavy
Some folks viewing photos of his creation online have questioned how stable it would be with two shooters on it.
“I’ve yet to hunt with two people up there. Maybe with two people it will be a little unstable,” he said.
“With one guy up there, just me by myself, it’s as stable as a bench rest,” he added.
Gibson said the platform gives him the field of view he needs to make shots at ranges from about 75 to 400 yards.
Regarding how well his rig might work in Wyoming, Gibson noted that its top-heaviness might cause problems.
“Where I am, to gain 5 feet in elevation, you might have to go 8 miles,” he said. “If I was in an area that had a lot of variation in topography, rollover might be a concern,” he said.
‘Tearing Around The Prairie’
Willie Dvorak guides prairie dog hunts out West and was impressed by a photo of Gibson’s creation.
“If you like driving around and shooting, I can’t imagine anything more fun than that,” he told Cowboy State Daily.
For serious prairie dog hunts, “no matter what Mother Nature throws at you,” Dvorak said the battle buggy might not be the most practical choice on rugged Western landscapes.
“But for tearing around on the prairie, how could you get any better?” he added.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
