Epic pack out thread...

Status
Not open for further replies.
H&Hhunter

H&Hhunter

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 28, 2003
Messages
13,344
Mountain goat, Colorado.

I shot this nanny goat at about at an elevation of about 13,100 feet. I shot the goat late in the afternoon and as goats often do it took a tumble down the mountain several thousand feet into a nasty, rocky draw. I was able to drag her down to some relatively flat ground over the course of several back breaking hours. I got some pictures and skinned and quartered her. I realized that she wasn’t coming off the mountain that night and being above tree line I had nowhere to hang the meat so I laid down my rain tarp at the base of a boulder and built a heavy rock shelter to protect her from predators.

I was unable to climb the 1,000 or so feet back up to my camp that night due to a blizzard and extremely icy and dangerous rock conditions on the mountain (A long story in itself). I was able to get a hold of a mountain climbing buddy of mine and the wife. Mrs. H&H came up with my buddy the next day. She packed in two horses and was able to get my camp out. My climbing buddy met me at the kill site and we packed out the goat on our backs. The pack out was tough in steep, high rocky country but the gratification felt at finally getting a goat after all these years made it a great experience. Having a strong network of capable friends and family is a wonderful thing too!

[/URL
]
 
Last edited:
People have a false impression of hunting in Africa. You can have a very easy hunt in Africa or you can have a real deal wild country hunt in Africa. A hunt in the Kilombero swamps is in the real deal category. The Kilombero is unspoiled and raw. The hunting is done via boats as they are the only possible modern means of transportation in the region which is made up of masses of grass lands and papyrus swamps. We shot this old bull late on the last afternoon of the hunt. Myself and three other guys carried all of the meat out in three, four mile round trips. As the sun set the hyenas and lions started to close in on the kill we left one guy at the site to keep them away until we’d recovered all of the meat, hide and skull. There is just something special about carrying fresh meat on your back at night in Africa while listening to hyenas and lions chuffing and calling at close proximity.

Cape buffalo, Tanzania.

[/URL
]
 
Caribou ,Alaska.

I shot this bull about 10 miles from camp up in the arctic of Alaska. I left half of him out over night and laid the meat on a light weight tarp then made a pee fence at each corner. When I returned in the morning the carcass was unmolested. I don’t know if pee fences really work all the time, but in this case it seemed to have.



[/URL
]
 
Shiras moose, Colorado.

6 round trips of about 2 miles each I shot this bull about 30 minutes before sunset. I got the last load to the truck at about 02:00 and was back in camp by 04:30. Another righteously rugged and happy pack out! It took me 17 years to draw this coveted tag!



[/URL
]
 
Elephant Zimbabwe.

This was not really a tough pack out. But the whole process of cleaning and quartering an elephant is really interesting. I of course jumped in to help. The hide on an elephant is super thick and super tough. Just making the cuts in the hide is extremely hard work. After getting the meat off of the top half we hooked the carcass up to a winch on a truck to flip her over to be able to work on the other side. After the meat was processed we called in a tractor with a flat bed trailer from a nearby village and loaded the tons of meat on to it. The meat is taken to the village and then equally dispersed among all of the villages in the community area.



[/URL
]
 
Da Bears & Lions…



Some of the longest pack outs I’ve ever had were with bears and lions. While not extremely heavy, when you hunt with hounds you tend to cover some serious ground. There have been several multi day pack out when bear hunting especially. The other thing is that you’ve got to have a really special horse to pack out a predator on its back. Horses do not like the smell of bears or lions as a rule!



 
Thanks H! I enjoy reading your adventures. Makes my hardest whitetail recovery seem too easy. (I arrowed it on the edge of an old gravel pit I had to cut saplings with my GB hatchet and wedge sections of them like ladder rungs to get to it and drag it out.
 
You should write a book.

The hunting books I've read usually deal with the event leading up to the kill. But I would love to read about what happens after the kill, including the pack out, cooking, taxidermy, etc.
 
readyeddy said:
You should write a book.

The hunting books I've read usually deal with the event leading up to the kill. But I would love to read about what happens after the kill, including the pack out, cooking, taxidermy, etc.
Click to expand...

Thanks..

A book would be fun.
 
H&Hhunter said:
Mountain goat, Colorado.

I shot this nanny goat at about at an elevation of about 13,100 feet. I shot the goat late in the afternoon and as goats often do it took a tumble down the mountain several thousand feet into a nasty, rocky draw. I was able to drag her down to some relatively flat ground over the course of several back breaking hours. I got some pictures and skinned and quartered her. I realized that she wasn’t coming off the mountain that night and being above tree line I had nowhere to hang the meat so I laid down my rain tarp at the base of a boulder and built a heavy rock shelter to protect her from predators.

I was unable to climb the 1,000 or so feet back up to my camp that night due to a blizzard and extremely icy and dangerous rock conditions on the mountain (A long story in itself). I was able to get a hold of a mountain climbing buddy of mine and the wife. Mrs. H&H came up with my buddy the next day. She packed in two horses and was able to get my camp out. My climbing buddy met me at the kill site and we packed out the goat on our backs. The pack out was tough in steep, high rocky country but the gratification felt at finally getting a goat after all these years made it a great experience. Having a strong network of capable friends and family is a wonderful thing too!

[/URL
]
Click to expand...

So did falling several thousand feet tenderize your goat? :)
 
I had an interesting recovery on my biggest trophy buck.

I was hunting a specific buck that year. I was able to shoot him with my muzzleloader, but he managed to get into the flooded river that disects our hunting property. After a few days of searching the riverbanks for the buck, I finally spotted an antler in a logjam downstream from where I saw him disappear below the surface.

I was able to get a rope on him and pull him off the logjam, with the help of a tractor and my friends.
1486173372386-1418432385.jpg 14861734488791545865301.jpg
 
Labor of love! Getting back to the truck with last load of animal is a special feeling in itself. Great stuff H&H.


My one and only mtn goat experience:

When I was a kid we were cruising around the island of Kauai on a snorkeling trip, close to shore, and we heard a gunshot. We look up and there is a white goat tumbling down the cliffs! Up from the level the goat started it's tumble were two hunters. Bet they had an epic packout, I remember thinking that was nasty country and that goat tumbled a ways. 5 minutes later we were in the middle of a bad rainstorm too, cancelled our snorkeling cruise. They earned that one.
 
Part of the challenge of mtn goat hunting is shooting one in a recoverable area. I have a buddy who shot a big billy up in the Canadian Rockies. The goat rolled then took a dive off of a several hundred foot cliff. It busted both horns off and pulverized the cape and skull and meat,
 
Great pics H& H. Makes me envy you. After foolishly overloading the back of my 4 wheeler with a broke down 15 foot raft used on a float moose hunt, and the wheelie /flipover that resulted from it(folding me like a taco) no more pack outs for me. Unless its a woodcock.
 
Last edited:
jim in Anchorage said:
Great pics H& H. Makes me envy you. After foolishly overloading the back of my 4 wheeler with a broke down 15 foot raft used on a float moose hunt, and the wheelie /flipover that resulted from it(folding me like a taco) no more pack outs for me. Unless its a woodcock.
Click to expand...

Alaskan taco meat made with only the most organic, wholesome, ingredients.
 
H&H, I'm not sure what you do for a living....but I want in lol. Sadly enough, I highly doubt I'll ever be able to have the financial freedom to hunt the way that you do. So thank you for allowing all of us to hunt vicariously through you via pictures and stories!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

H&Hhunter
  • Locked
"Solo" Goat hunt in the high Rockies!
2 3
Replies
51
Views
2K
NickEllis
NickEllis
H&Hhunter
  • Locked
Scouting for Mt. Goats above tree line..
Replies
24
Views
2K
H&Hhunter
H&Hhunter
H&Hhunter
  • Locked
Epic pack outs?
Replies
22
Views
1K
Armored farmer
Armored farmer
H&Hhunter
  • Locked
Most challeging hunts in North America.
2 3
Replies
74
Views
3K
Art Eatman
A
A
  • Locked
More on Cougars
Replies
16
Views
1K
gamestalker
G
Back
Top