[Robertesq1]

I am thinging of making a semi permanant deer hoist/winch. Any suggestions or tips from the braintrust here??

[Art Eatman]

All we ever did was find a couple of "proper" trees and put a length of 1" galvanized pipe across the space* between a couple of them. I guess about eight or nine feet off the ground...

3/8" nylon rope is good because weather/sun won't rot it. A couple of 16d nails in the tree trunks gives places to tie off.

Everybody's got their own notions about hanging Bucky head up or head down. We did the head-up thing; noose the rope around his horns, lift up and tie off.

:), Art

* About 10 feet, back at the old deer lease camp.

[Kingcreek]

They look better hangin head up. They skin better hangin head down.;)
I've got a chain over a big walnut limb with an old rope hoist about 12 feet up. drive the truck under it, gambrel into the back tendons, and raise it up. round here, even in the back yard, if you don't get em high enough the coyotes will eat the face off before morning. yuck
If I'm going to skin and quarter it right away I flay the hide from the insides of the back legs past the large tendons below the joint and saw the legs off before raising them up. then skin from the tail to the ears, adjusting my working height with the rope as I go. I've just finished deer number 5 here for this archery season and getting tired of being up to my elbows in deer meat.

[Art Eatman]

Hey, Kingcreek, ever skin a deer with a truck? :)

Hang Bambi head up. Skin the neck enough to wrap some skin around a rock. Noose a rope around the lump. Pull the rope with a truck. (Or jeep or tractor or use Momma and the kids. :D) Other than some work around the shoulders, plus cutting the skin loose from the forelegs, it's much like pulling a latex glove off your hand...

Art

[Kingcreek]

Art, heard of it, never tried it.
always have visions of the wrong thing giving out first and me dragging a half nekked deer across the yard thru the dirt.
I might try it someday with the hide secured down and lifting the deer up with the loader.

[TJC]

Butcher I know used to do the same thing but used a small winch on a rack instead of a vehicle. Worked very well. He placed the golf ball as stated in a piece of pelt up around the neck and just turned the winch on. Nice thing about this was he could stand right there as the skin was coming off. If a little glitch was to occur, he would just take a knife and help it along.
Nice clean job when done.