How do you haul your game out?

[steve white]

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?

 

[BourbonTrail]

Carry it out, gutted, toss in the bed of the truck. For elk, gutless quarter, carry out in game bags in a pack.

 

[roverandbrew]

I generally carry out lashed to an ALICE pack frame. For transport home I have used a "Body Bag" in the past as they generally do not leak and protect the animal. Heat would be an issue if left in the sun. Its morbid and possibly controversial but serves its purpose. This makes sense in a closed vehicle. In a pick up truck bed I have fabricated the same thing from a black cotton sheet.

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[jbirdwell]

I finally admitted I was getting old and bought me one of the redneck brand receiver hoists. (I went through a couple of the cheap ones that boke on me first). I put in on my Polaris Ranger at the beginning of the season and don't take it off until the season is over. So when I drag the animal to where I can drive to I just have to crank it up, pull a pin and rotate it into the bed of my Ranger. On the plus side I can process the deer right there on the same hoist when I get back to the house.

 

[Firebird]

Depends on where and when it is killed. Generally a pack frame and game bags. I skin it and bag it then at the truck it goes into a cooler with ice.
Some places I can use a two wheeled game cart which is easy if there is a trail

 

[fourfive8]

Cut up and pack out. The heaviest load that is almost too much for most is a wet large brown bear hide. Did it once but that was a few years ago. Couldn't do it now at 73. The other potential deal breaker that comes close to a brown bear hide would be bone-in moose hind quarters.

 

[JimP]

You name it I have done it.

Packed out piece by piece back to the truck, or car. For a animal the size of a elk that can take a lot of very heavy trips. I once packed a elk out up a hill to a road. That road was less than 100 yards away from where I killed him. It took from 7:30 in the morning until 3:30 that afternoon to get all the pieces up the hill.

Deer depend on just where I am hunting. I have brought them out whole by dragging, and packing them on my shoulders. I have also cut them up into 4 pieces to get them out.

I also bring all of the meat out along with the heart and liver of both deer and elk. That means more weight but when I am done about the only thing left at the kill site are the guts and perhaps hide.

I have also been fortunate enough to of brought out a few elk on horses or mules. But for the most part the mule is me. My last elk I packed out on a pack frame for 2 miles to hit a road. At that time I decided that they needed to be closer for me to pull the trigger. My 70 year old body just doesn't like those long pack outs anymore.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

These days I usually drag my deer to the road. If I have someone who can give me a hand, we will pull the deer up onto my Jimmy's roof rack. In a pinch I have made deer into a pack and climbed into the whole animal. Everything needs to be attached to do that. It's a messy bitch of a job. Elk quarters either came out on Dad's WWII packboard or my horses.

Panniers suck! Too floppy. Wrap the quarters in canvas mantas, then barrel sling hind quarters on one horse and basket hitch front quarters on the other horse. Hide side against the horse. In real nasty country I would top pack something (half hide or sleeping bag) and diamond hitch the works.

Dragged this bull elk 1.25 miles down the mountain back in 1980. Very steep. Kept it from stiffening up and gravity did the job working with live weight. I used its antler rack as a lever to pull it over deadfall logs. Shove his nose in the ground and pull back on the rack, an inch at a time. When I first got him going after dressing it, the third point on right side hooked my wool pants and I rode the carcass down the snowy semi-cliff for a good fifty yards. That was thrilling!

I shot the bull in the back of the head on the move. Dropped him over the top of this ridge.

Did I say it was steep? Below is the view looking back downhill to valley where my Jimmy is parked ... last year ... a couple weeks after I turned seventy.

 

[wesheltonj]

Well deer hunting, I have a hoist that slips into the hitch receiver and the deer is lifted into the bed of the truck, drive it back to camp, hang it on a different lift, gut the deer and and then lower back into the bed of the truck. I have about 4 miles of a dusty gravel road to drive out. I dont worry about the dust as the processor washes the deer at their facility.

Guided hunt, that what I pay the guide to take care of.

 

[C.W. Richter]

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?

'had a gen 1 Xterra (same as Gen 2 Pathfinder-it's what Nissan does!) But, it had a rubber mat in the back a la Weather-Tek and I simply hosed it off after throwing deer in the back (no easier than a pickup!) Vividly recall getting a monster in a Nat Park. Rangers came to check it out and congratulate me. Did they help load it? NO. No, they didn't. LOL (Democrat-hacks). One even pulled me/my son over for having the funniest anti-Obama bumper sticker-ever! Pickups prior to and ever since. Sometimes ATV recovery, sometimes front end loader, other times pull the truck right up to the downed game. Sometimes, 'get lucky hunting on a hill in deep snow...just pull it down like a sled. In AK, my son is fond of having to skin/quarter the game in the field and make many trips out via leather express! IF you're beat up and/or old, simply buy a hand winch and haul that deer right up into your vehicle of choice with significant mechanical advantage! You could easily put it on the roof rack via a small rope block & tackle (what many people use to haul up feeders or to skin game.) I have a hand winch for pulling dead tractors onto trailers, but only used it for one big black bear to date. I suspect as the years tick off I may be using it more and more...Habib's method below has also been employed when you have a 2nd set of hands available. Many times others are still hunting far away from your location.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Like this.

 

[C.W. Richter]

Nothing beats the PH system of the winch plus the rollbar idler pulley...with that you can pull any size animal into the back of a vehicle or onto a trailer from a winch mounted on the front bumper. Some rather large dates to/fro the prom are transported via this method by nearby fam farms.

 

[ActionBob]

Skid loader bucket, my Bobcat is on tracks so goes about anywhere you can walk

ATV trailer. Pickup truck bed.

 

[ActionBob]

Like this.
View attachment 561763

That is how we carried my leopard out in Mozambique. I did insist on doing my share, I felt it was a great part of the experience

 

[mdwest]

I’ve got this attached on the back of a Polaris Ranger 570 UTV.

I pull up next to the deer or hog, lift it about 18” off the ground, and then drive my lazy ass to the cleaning station

 

[Hunter-Habib]

That is how we carried my leopard out in Mozambique. I did insist on doing my share, I felt it was a great part of the experience

What caliber did you use, Bob ?

 

[Ridge Runner]

It all depends on the situation and location:

Drag deer to truck
Drag deer to boat
Use deer hauler/cart to transport deer to truck or boat

Using boat I leave deer on the boat till I get home then after deer and waterfowl seasons I wash the boat. The truck bed gets washed after each successful hunt.

Regardless whether in my boat or truck bed I wrap the deer in a tarp to minimize the blood mess.

 

[double rifle newbie]

Cut up and pack out. The heaviest load that is almost too much for most is a wet large brown bear hide. Did it once but that was a few years ago. Couldn't do it now at 73. The other potential deal breaker that comes close to a brown bear hide would be bone-in moose hind

 

[C.W. Richter]

you can usually find some willing "friends" to help w/ a moose as the spoils are so tasty!!! I once lost a trophy black bear to others by taking it at dusk, gutting and leaving it. Rounded up 3 friends by 9 a.m. the next a.m. only to find that others had dragged it out in the snow.... Never again! They heard the shot and really animated death moan from a distance and came in 180 degrees to our position. Through a prominent local taxidermist, we later located it (and the other "hunter" wasn't paying his bill,) so the taxidermist was all prepared to give it to me when the other guy swept in to promptly pay his bill and collect "his trophy" in the 11th hour. It was tagged, but was going to be an uphill battle to prove and i was pretty engrossed with corporate work hours at the time. "It Happens!" -OJ lol 405 lbs (not the biggest but far from the smallest. I do notknow the skull dimensions, but this was mid-fall so as big as it was going to get!)

 

[double rifle newbie]

when I hunt on family property in Minnesota, we gut where they drop, and get the ATV as close as we can to it. nothing but foot traffic where I hunt in alaska. quarter them where they drop and put in game bags, then spray with citric acid which keeps the flies off.