Degree of difficulty of big game retrieval varies greatly dependent upon the terrain we hunt.
Most of my hunting is now limited to relatively flat land so only obstacles to use of vehicles are thick brush and/or mud.
Having a bad back, I mounted a boat winch on a telescoping boom on an old '61 Ford hunting car where it served for many years on several different vehicles........
.....until 2003, when I changed leases and had the opportunity to hunt some larger game which the hand winch would not handle.
First solution was a drawer/ramp setup with a boat trailer winch in the bed of my pickup.
Low profile roller @ back of bed and two recessed wheels @ front of "drawer" enables tray to roll easily to rear, even with several hundred # load. 3/4" plywood ramp rides in the tray until needed and door hinges connect ramp & drawer when it is deployed.
Winch then used to drag the game into the bed once deployed. The drawback to this arrangement is that bed had to be empty to accept some larger game. Since we only have to transport game a few miles of ranch roads, switched to a boom outside of bed using same winch for lifting.
One of the most difficult retrievals (below) during a severe rainstorm. Nilgai expired inside brushline (upper rt corner of picture below left) and had to be snaked out w/main winch but stuck the truck doing so. Cut nilgai loose and hooked winch line to nearby tree, extracted truck and decided we'd better get truck out and worry about the nilgai later. Buried truck twice on way out. Once all the way to the frame @ arrow below . Nearest tree was @ 45* angle, dragging front wheels sideways in the mud on that pull. Finally got truck on gravel an hour later. We rigged a snatch block and w/over 100 yards of rope + all winch line were able to reach the nilgai at edge of brush line and drag it onto gravel
just as rain stopped.
Now using an ATV winch on back of jeep and telescoping boom which handles everything up to nilgai and scimitar. Jeep gets into places truck can't due to size and with slime in jeep tires don't have the flats we did with the truck.
Show us what you're using to handle large game in the field where you hunt.
Regards,
hps