6 Best ATV Sprayer Guns For Field Applications for Small Pastures
Manage small pastures efficiently. Our guide to the 6 best ATV sprayer guns compares key features like nozzle precision, durability, and pressure control.
You’ve just spent an hour wrestling your ATV sprayer hose out of a blackberry bush, only to find the cheap gun that came with your tank is sputtering and dripping more herbicide on your boots than on the weeds. A good sprayer gun isn’t a luxury; it’s the critical link between your tank and the pasture, determining your efficiency, accuracy, and frustration level. Choosing the right one saves you time, money on wasted chemicals, and the headache of fighting your own equipment.
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Choosing the Right Gun for Your ATV Sprayer
The spray gun is the part of your sprayer system you interact with most, yet it’s often an afterthought. It dictates how precisely you can target a single thistle or how quickly you can cover a patch of burdock. The wrong gun turns a quick job into a long, sloppy chore.
Think about the relationship between pressure (PSI) and flow rate (GPM). A gun rated for high pressure can handle a powerful pump, letting you create a fine mist for foliar feeding or a forceful stream to penetrate dense brush. The nozzle itself is just as important. An adjustable nozzle that goes from a wide cone to a pencil stream offers incredible versatility for the mixed bag of jobs on a small farm.
Don’t overlook ergonomics and materials. A gun with a trigger lock can be a lifesaver for your hand when spraying long fencelines. As for construction, brass components resist corrosion from harsh chemicals far better than standard steel, while a quality polymer body can be lightweight and durable. The ideal gun is a balance of these factors, tailored to the specific pump on your ATV and the kind of work you do most often.
TeeJet GunJet AA43L: The Heavy-Duty Standard
When you see a professional spray rig, you often see a TeeJet gun attached. There’s a good reason for that. The GunJet AA43L is built for daily, hard use with its rugged aluminum body and brass and stainless steel internals. This isn’t a flimsy plastic tool; it’s a piece of equipment meant to last for years.
Its performance matches its build. Rated for up to 250 PSI, it can handle nearly any pump you’d mount on an ATV. This pressure capability translates directly to performance in the field, allowing you to generate a long-range, high-impact stream to reach across a ditch or the top of tall brush. It provides consistent patterns without the sputtering you get from lesser guns pushed to their limits.
The tradeoff is weight and cost. It’s heavier in the hand than its polymer counterparts, and it sits at a higher price point. For someone with a small 15-gallon tank and a low-output pump, it might be overkill. But if you rely on your sprayer frequently and are tired of replacing cheaper guns every other season, the TeeJet is a buy-it-once, cry-once investment in reliability.
Fimco Deluxe Pistol Grip: A Versatile Value
This is the gun many of us start with, and for good reason. The Fimco Deluxe Pistol Grip is the quintessential all-rounder, often bundled with new ATV sprayers because it handles a wide variety of tasks competently. It’s the definition of a solid value.
Its greatest strength is the adjustable nozzle. With a simple twist, you can switch from a fine, 15-foot cone for covering a broad patch of weeds to a tight, 30-foot stream for targeting a single invasive sapling from the seat of your ATV. This flexibility is perfect for the unpredictable nature of work on a small pasture, where you might be doing three different types of spraying in a single afternoon.
Of course, it’s built to a price point. The largely polymer construction won’t stand up to being dropped on concrete or left out in the sun season after season. The trigger mechanism can wear over time, but for its low cost, it delivers more than enough performance for most hobby farm applications. It’s the reliable workhorse you can afford to replace if you accidentally run it over.
Hypro 3300 Trigger Gun for High-Pressure Tasks
If your sprayer pump puts out serious pressure, you need a gun that won’t flinch. The Hypro 3300 is a significant step up from standard-issue guns, designed specifically for systems operating at higher pressures, often up to 500 PSI. It gives you the confidence to use your pump’s full potential.
This gun shines when you need force and atomization. Think of cleaning mud-caked implements, blasting nests out of barn eaves, or driving a systemic herbicide deep into the stalk of tough woody plants. Its robust construction ensures it won’t develop leaks at the seams when the pressure is on. The solid, comfortable grip and trigger lock are also practical features that reduce hand fatigue during extended use.
While it can adjust to a cone pattern, its primary strength isn’t delicate work. It’s a tool for jobs that require more punch. Consider it the middle ground between a basic polymer gun and a heavy, industrial-grade metal one. It’s a durable, high-performance option without the top-tier price tag.
Green Garde JD9-C for Maximum Spray Distance
Sometimes, the job is all about reach. You need to spray a fenceline without getting tangled in the wire, treat brush on the other side of a creek, or hit the tops of small trees. For these tasks, the Green Garde JD9-C is the specialized tool you need. It’s less of a spray gun and more of a spray cannon.
The JD9-C is engineered for high-volume, long-distance applications. Paired with a capable pump (ideally 4 GPM or more), it can produce a tight, powerful stream that travels remarkable distances. This is achieved through its high-flow design and specialized nozzle. It’s not for misting; it’s for drenching a specific target from far away.
The downside is its thirst. A gun like this will empty your tank in a hurry, so it’s not practical for general-purpose spot spraying where you’re conserving chemicals. But for those specific distance-related challenges, nothing else in a handgun format really compares. It turns inaccessible areas into reachable targets.
NorthStar Spray Gun: Broadcast and Spot Combo
Efficiency on a small farm is about minimizing wasted motion. The NorthStar combo gun is built on that principle. It cleverly integrates a standard adjustable spot-spraying tip with a small, three-nozzle broadcast boom right on the handle.
Imagine spot-spraying stubborn weeds along a trail. You come to a dense, 10-foot-wide patch. Instead of making dozens of passes with a cone nozzle, you simply flip a lever and walk the patch, letting the mini-boom cover it in a single pass. This is a huge time-saver for dealing with the irregular shapes of weed infestations common in pastures.
You have to be realistic about its capabilities. The broadcast width is only about five to seven feet, so it won’t replace a full-size boom for spraying an entire field. But for patchwork spraying, treating wide ditch banks, or handling patches too big for a spot nozzle but too small for a big boom, this dual-function design is incredibly practical.
Chapin 6-8143 Pistol Grip: Simple & Reliable
In a world of complex features, there’s something to be said for simplicity. The Chapin 6-8143 is a straightforward, no-nonsense pistol grip sprayer. It’s affordable, widely available, and does its one job without any fuss.
This gun is the perfect replacement for a broken stock gun or a reliable backup to keep in your toolbox. It features a standard adjustable nozzle for switching between stream and cone patterns and has a filter in the handle to prevent clogs. There are no extra levers or complicated mechanisms to fail. It just works.
Don’t mistake its simplicity for inadequacy. For the core task of spot-spraying weeds in a pasture, it’s often all you need. If your primary use is hitting individual plants from less than 20 feet away, this gun provides excellent value and dependable performance. It’s a reminder that you don’t always need the most expensive tool, just the right one.
Calibrating and Maintaining Your Sprayer Gun
The most advanced spray gun is only as accurate as the person holding it. An uncalibrated gun is just a glorified squirt gun. You need to know your application rate to ensure you’re applying chemicals effectively, legally, and economically. Calibration isn’t just for big boom sprayers.
Here’s a simple way to do it. With your sprayer running at your normal operating pressure, spray into a five-gallon bucket for exactly one minute. Measure the amount of water you collected to determine your gun’s output in gallons per minute (GPM). Next, mark out a small, known area (like 10 feet by 10 feet), and time how long it takes you to spray it evenly. With these two numbers, you can calculate how much you’re applying per acre.
Maintenance is what ensures your gun works when you have that perfect, windless day to spray. Always triple-rinse the entire sprayer system, including the gun, after use. Periodically check and lubricate O-rings, and disassemble the nozzle to clear out any grit or debris. A few minutes of preventative care saves hours of frustration from a clogged or leaking gun in the middle of a job.
Ultimately, the best ATV sprayer gun isn’t the one with the most features, but the one that best fits your pump’s capacity and the specific jobs you do most. Whether you need the brute force of a high-pressure gun, the long reach of a distance sprayer, or the simple reliability of a basic pistol grip, making a deliberate choice will pay off every time you head out to the field. Think about your most common task, and choose the tool that makes that job easier.
