How do you haul your game out?

[Dewald]

For large animals in difficult places (e.g. kudu), a "sail" is often used. It's a piece of heavy truck tarp about 4'x8' with handles sewn onto the edge of long sides at both ends and in middle. The gutted animal is folded in the sail and carried out with a farmhand/tracker/PH at each handle. If it's a long haul, poles are threaded through handles and animal carried on shoulders of four guys at each corner. Last year my PH, tracker, and two farmhands carried this black wildebeest more than two miles over very broken ground in a sail.
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Yes I have a 3m x 2m tarpaulin with handles as well. 8 people can carry a large animal on that. The handles are stitched through the entire length and width of the tarp to strengthen it. On some properties it is easy to het 8 farm labourers and for two hours carry they each get R100 and a coke. That beats cutting up an animal or damaging your vehicle.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

One of the things I like about Africa is no quads or SxS running all over the place. Well, not yet anyway. I'll sell my guns and take up knitting before I go that route.

 

[HankBuck]

I once hauled a gutted deer inside a Nissan Pathfinder. Would you believe the fleas that abandoned the still cooling deer attacked me with a vengeance and infested the vehicle for a while? Later, I added a hitch haul, but found that if I didn't wrap the deer first in a tarp, it was heavily coated with the road dust boiling up behind the vehicle, making a mess of a different nature. Pickups--sure, IF you can lift the deer that high. Not counting panniers on a horse, how do you all haul out your deer?

For deer I “like” to drag them out myself, always liked the feeeling of “accomplishment” that gave me and reminds me of my First buck (spike in PA) 40 years ago - dragged it almost 1/2 a mile to my car and smiled all the way. Made my Son drag out his first 2 bucks by himself also and he was only 15 with a big 8 pointer....he wanted help but later told me he appreciated me making him do it by himself. I’m older now and still like to put some “effort” into my hunts and a drag of a few 100 yrds then load-by-myself into the pickup bed fulfills my need for “effort”. For bear - that’s tougher because I’ve found dragging them like dragging “Velcro”, then getting even a 150 pounder onto an ATV or into pick up is another wrestling match, almost looks like a fight with a big chimp. For Elk - I’ve always had a Guide and “accept” his help....

 

[CBH Australia]

My first fallow deer I was able to drive up to it but lifting it onto the back of a LandCruiser was the hard part.

In Africa the tracker and Skinner's carried a Kudu down the hill on a pole. Their reward was a part of the guts they kept for themselves.

I've had others that we drove up to and a 2 person lift was easy to get it on a lower traytop.

The last deer I shot I gutted and tried dragging it and 2 of us tried dragging it getting in each other's way and then @Badboymelvin dragged it while I carried out the other stuff to the road. Thanks Russ.
So far the easiest method has been using a tracker and Skinner's keeping jobs going in the hunting industry.

 

[Tbitty]

Depends on location. When I can, I drive my truck or Polaris Sportsman 570 right up to em and load up. When that isn't an option, I've dragged, packed out in quarters/pieces, carried out whole or gutted, and recruited helpers.

 

[Woodcarver]

I try to just load them on my kid....

 

[Rare Breed]

I once hauled a gutted deer inside a Nissan Pathfinder. Would you believe the fleas that abandoned the still cooling deer attacked me with a vengeance and infested the vehicle for a while? Later, I added a hitch haul, but found that if I didn't wrap the deer first in a tarp, it was heavily coated with the road dust boiling up behind the vehicle, making a mess of a different nature. Pickups--sure, IF you can lift the deer that high. Not counting panniers on a horse, how do you all haul out your deer?

I always used my ATV, dragged to my skinning post at my farm, field dressed him then butchered him myself given I do not accept even one piece of deer fat on the meat

 

[Ku-winda]

Usually it’s combination of resources, but invariably starts out with having to hump it at least

part of the way.

 

[Ragman]

I like this thread. Here’s a few more pics:
The wife’s mulie way back in the hills in 2020.

My Dad’s 2019 moose that i described rolling up on the hay bale.

My 2018 moose that my buddy and I pulled into the back of my truck on a sheet of wood with puckboard to help it slide better.

A whitetail from deep in the bush with my little Yamaha.

Same Yamaha with a young Ragman back in 2005!

 

[SaintPanzer]

I try to just load them on my kid....
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Reminds me of a great safety tip I learned in the Marine Corps. "Don't lift with your back. Lift with your PFC."

 

[TheGrayRider]

I usually try to carry my game out whole. 9/6/23. Kalahari Desert, Botswana, Africa. Happy hunting to all, TheGrayRider a/k/a Tom.