general hunting question

[southernjeep80]

got a question. iv been hunting a few times but only on private property guded hunts. not the expensive safari style more like the 200 dollar hog hunts. iv never gone solo wild life management / public land hunting.

my question is if you dont have a quad or side by side how do yall make it from where vehicles cant go any farther to your tree stand or blind. im guessing walk. but that brings up and issue say i walk 4-500 yards from the trail to a spot and get set up how do i get the game back to the prep area or the truck even gutting the thing its still going to weigh a ton plus my stand on my back how do yall do it dragging it out seams like that walk would take hours.

 

[rcmodel]

Yep!

You just have to make two or more trips.
Quarter the game to make each part lighter.

Or get some buddies drunk enough to have bad judgement to help you carry the whole hog out.

rc

 

[heeler]

Dragging a deer a quarter of a mile is inviting a heart attack for a lot of guys.
Go to Cabela's or like type of hunting goods store and checked out the wheeled game transports.
Frankly I would skip the stand and find a natural game trail or food source and hang tight in natural cover for the right moment.

 

[T Bran]

My best advice is to find a hunting buddy to go along on your outings. As much for safety as to have a helping hand. Just keep in mind that you will be helping to drag his or her kills out as well. So far I've found that the gals that hunt with us seem to spot and shoot more game than the rest of us.
Good Hunting
Troy

 

[gspn]

I shot my first buck on a muddy corn field on public land. I was maybe 250 yards from my vehicle and it took me over 2 hours to drag it.

I shot my second buck on public land. I was 800 yards from my vehicle through the woods. Again it took me several hours to drag it out.

I would HIGHLY recommend a small carrier of some some with a wheel...I was young and strong then...now I'm middle aged and kind of strong...but i have more money and sense now.

 

[Freedom_fighter_in_IL]

If you think 4-500 yards from your vehicle is a long drag, you certainly do NOT want to go hunting where I do usually. Granted, here in Illinois I'm usually that close, but on 99% of my other hunts out west and up in Canada and Alaska, if I'm within 2 miles of my vehicle, I'm too damn close to civilization! One of the best investments I have ever made was for a 10 dollar plastic drag. Just weighs a few ounces but I have drug out some pretty large white-tails on it and it makes it SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much easier. Elk hunting, I have always quartered them out but I am generally not that far from my pack horses. I'm big and strong, not stupid I'll usually go get the horses then quarter it up and load it.

 

[Sav .250]

Welcome to deer hunting 101.

 

[redneck2]

My friend that I hunt with used a plastic kids sled toboggan thing this year. Looks kinda like a tub. Maybe 5' long with 10" sides and two pull ropes.

l thought it was a little goofy until we used it on his 180# buck. Thing slides right along. He throws his gear in it to take to the woods and then uses it for field transport.

It REALLY helps if you have to go over a fence. We had a doe, maybe 120# field dressed. The sled has rails on the side that make it easy to grab. Lifted her right up and over.

We tried the wheeled card thing. If there are saplings, logs, or mud they are of limited use.

Critters should be made with handles. Would be a lot easier to drag them out.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Yep them plastic kid's toboggans are great, AND they come in Blaze Orange soemtimes.

Now if you don't want to walk back to the vehicle, get the sled, then walk back with it, or you are worried some person might swipe it from your vehicle while you are out hunting..., I have taken with me, and used, a piece of rolled plastic, rather thick, that was sold (again) for kids to use in the snow..., I have also used a piece of canvas, painted on one side with a coat of latex house paint... and with gromets installed to attach drag ropes. Package the animal with the painted side down. Reduces friction, and that's the point eh?

Once you get your animal packeged into something like the above, dragging with a rope over you shoulder is MUCH easier. I even have a wide piece of leather that slips under the rope against my shoulder to reduce the pressure there as well.

Finally, I am not in good shape..., I have and still could play the part of Santa, without padding, so once packaged up..., take your time. You're gonna need the strength and stamina at your vehicle to load up the animal from whatever you're using.

LD

 

[nathan]

Sportsmanguide has the wheelbarrow that is foldable around $80 on their flyers all the time.

 

[MtnCreek]

Good framed backpack. Remove the hams and shoulders w/ the hide on them. Sawing off everything below the joints makes it a little less bulky. Skin a wide strip from the back, remove the backstraps and wrap them in the hide that was removed. I refuse to drag guts.

 

[BigN]

Up here they call that "dragging."

 

[DM~]

As a kid, we always drug our gutted deer out, no matter how far it was.
We hunted as a family, and would help each other get all the deer out.

When i hunted deer in the temporate rainforest, i almost always hunted
alone, and there you can only hunt on foot, many times shooting a deer a
mile or more from camp. SO, i would bone out the deer right where i
shot it, putting all of the meat in my pack, and pack it out to camp.

You don't have to hang them or even gut them. With the deer on it's
side, you just run your knife up the hide from the tail to the head,
right up the back bone. Then skin out the side that's UP, toward the
belly, and bone out all the meat you can get.

Then pull the hide back over where you boned out, and roll the deer to
expose the OTHER side, also skinning it toward the belly, and take the
rest of the meat off the bones.

I use to time myself, and i could do one in under one hour...

These days i use an ATV and it's a blessing, as i'm not getting any
younger!

DM

 

[heeler]

That's pretty neat DM.
I knew a guy some time back that lived in the upper area of Michigan and did something very similiar to his deer as it was tough going where he hunted and this was pretty much pre ATV days.
Since most land in Texas is privately owned I generally can drive right up to my dead deer.

 

[sage5907]

You're smart to ask good questions up front. First, when you park a vehicle you have to park is a relatively safe place or you will get your vehicle broken into and gear stolen. That's why you see some hunters drive old beaten up vehicles to their parking spot. If you have an expensive vehicle you'll be smart to find a secure place to park even if it means travelling further. Secondly, walk to your stand location even if its a mile or more away. Plan your hunt so you don't get caught in a situation where you can't get back after dark. Carry a GPS like the Garmin Etrac so you can get to your stand and back to the truck even in the dark. Finally, use a two wheel cart to transport your game. Mine has a telescoping aluminum frame with two 20 inch wheels. The frame telescopes so it can be hauled easily in a vehicle, and when extended it is long and low to the ground so it can be loaded easily. With the 20 inch wheels the rear is only 10 inches off the ground. When I load a deer on the frame I make sure the big weight is over the axle so it is not on me so all I have to do is throw my weight into the load and it will move. The further I am away from the vehicle the choosier I get about what I shoot. BW

 

[nmlongbow]

A good frame pack or one of the newer freight hauler packs is what I use. I killed my elk with a recurve this year and boned it out in the field then carried everything out in 4 trips. It was only about a mile but all uphill and I was lucky to run into a herd that close to camp on the last day.

I always keep a plastic snow sled in camp but haven't used one yet.

Look into the gutless method on youtube and leave everthing but the good parts in the field.

 

[336A]

Like Big N said up here we call that dragging, that is exactly how our fathers and grandparents did it. As others have said try to find a hunting partner. It safer and is very helpful when you or your partner get a deer. If your worried about extra weight get rid of the tree stand. I have yet to use one as I prefer still hunting or finding a nice well used game trail to set off of. I get a lot wierd looks when I tell folks I don't hunt from a stand but my system has never failed me yet.

It is also important to field dress the animal immediately so as the meat don't start to spoil. It is imperitive to get it cleaned out and let the chest cavity and the rest of the animal to cool. This becomes even more important if one flubs a shot and hits other organs such as the stomach

 

[LoonWulf]

I always used to have an extra large alice pack and frame when we hunted areas i had to walk more then a mile or so. We managed to stuff a little over three deer quartered out (took the meat from the ribs but left the bones) into it on one trip and it still wasnt that hard to walk with. Not sure what regulations are where you hunt tho, quartering may not be allowed etc.

 

[jmr40]

It is not unusual for me to be 3-5 miles from a road with walking being the only option. A normal sized deer isn't too bad if you have a couple of friends. I killed a 260 lb. bear 3 miles from a road a few years back and thought it was going to kill me before I got it back to camp, 10 hours later. And that was with 5 of us working on it.

Since then I don't try to bring anything out whole if I'm very far off the road. I carry a pack with extra gear, a saw, plastic bags and medical gloves. I don't even bother gutting. Just skin, cut off the head,cut the quarters and backstraps leaving proof of sex on one rear quarter. Two people can carry everything in their packs. If by yourself it may take 2 trips to get everything.

 

[Liberty1776]

"couple hours"? I know guys that have taken 2 days to pack out elk and moose. When I was young, I used to just sling my deer over my shoulder and carry 'em out (not safe in any area with other hunters, I know) Now that I'm old and fat I use a rollup plastic toboggan with holes punched in along the sides for bungee cords that strap over the deer and hold it on. works on almost all terrain, but still hard in real wet leaves or mud. But then, dat's hunting...

 

[DM~]

"couple hours"? I know guys that have taken 2 days to pack out elk and moose.

I not only know hunters that have taken two days or more to pack out a moose, i'm one of them! It took two of us two days to pack this one out,



Plus i destroyed a hundred dollar pair of hip boots in the process! lol

DM

 

[brainwake]

Depending on how many days we have left, we just take an empty ice chest and a rope/hang. Then do the skining and quartering right there in the field, then 2 of us carrying the meat out.

A couple of weeks ago, I even made my kids come and help.

 

[CoRoMo]

In the backcountry where I hunt, it takes all day long to get an animal out because we hunt MILES in from the road. Elk obviously take more than just one hunter to get out, but I did drag a mule deer roughly 2 miles a few years ago. That was a pretty terrible task, took me half the day and I was plum beat after it all. This country is a rough, mountainous landscape. Me and Dad have brought whole elk out, sometimes quartered up, but it is a chore either way. I timed it back in 2005; from the time the cow elk hit the grass, to the moment we were loading her into the back of my truck, was 7 hours. She was whole/field dressed, not skinned/quartered. We've gotten a hair quicker since then.

I wish we had horses.

 

[JEB]

huh. atv? side-by-side? sled? never used any of that stuff and never even thought it was needed in any way. how much extra crap do you really want to pack into the field? everyone in our hunting group just sticks a length of rope in their pocket. when you shoot a deer, one end of the rope goes around the deer's neck and the other end goes in your hand, then you walk to your truck. once you get there, you turn around and theres your deer! if your deer dies at the bottom of a steep creek, in a ravine, or in some nearly impassible timber, do we do anything different? nope. just grab a root and growl.

 

[Art Eatman]

Aw, a little patience and eventually Ol' Bucky will show up near the jeep trail.

One of our guys killed a buck about a quarter-mile from anywhere, in some miserably nasty brush. I guess it only dressed out maybe 125 or so. We took a length of 3/4" galvanized pipe, laid it through the body cavity and tied the head to it and tied the legs together. Easy carrying for two guys, without any swaying back and forth.