clicking noise in the rear

i was doing some hard mudding the other day
and pretty much beating the crap out of my rhino witch is what i do
that's why i bought a rhino they can take it lol
i heard a clicking noise in the rear buy the axel
i assumed it was a cv shaft getting bad and the other guys i was rideing with said the same thing
so i did what i felt was the right thing to do and beat on it more to see if it would break
lol than it went away so far i have put about 100 miles on it and no noise
any ideas as to what it was or could the shaft still be getting bad?
i hammered on at yesterday and no noise anymore

sometimes mud gets up in the rear brake and makes a horrendous noise. wash it off real good and check your driveline

Did the same thing couple weeks ago riding in mud first time. The noise i had was more of a thumping but only in turns. Found a torn boot. When i took the axles off the bearings dident look too good.

I'm going down to pick up a axle from James Saturday.  Outer cv gave out on mine.  825 miles with tons of wide open spinning tires in 2wd climbing steep hills with the rears getting up in the air and coming back down.  Not a good idea.   It started as a little light click when turning.  Hard to hear over the exhaust and engine noise.  I shook the axle to check for play, and it was tight.  Tried to get it to do it again, and it was quiet.  Tried again and heard it.  Then couldn't get it to do it for the next 10 minutes no matter what I did.  So I took it down the dirt road and done a few good burnouts, and some hard wot cornering through rough turns, got home and I could shake the axle around in the outer cv.

Grab the axle and give it a really hard shake.  If you feel the least bit of play in it, it is ready to take a dump on you, and it may be soon.  CVs usually make a rapid click click click click in a turn.  I could only hear mine at very slow speeds and when the bad joint was on the inside of the turn.

axels r tight it sounded like 1 click per tire rotation
hard to say might have had something stuck in the breaks but I would guess a cv
is starting to get bad
when you are playing in a swamp with muddy water coming over the hood
small twigs and other swap stuff can get everywere

If it's a cv, it will get worse after the next ride or two.  Hopefully it is just something like a stick wedged in there somewhere.  You will soon find out.

If it could have been a pop then check your rear differential mount bolts. If they get loose they pop but the bad thing that can happen is it will wear the mount holes and bolts. Get you a aftermarket diff bracket.