Describe your horse pack outfit?

[rooster740]

Here is another one since I am too dumb to upload more then one photo. This is dad's dead cow elk I packed on riding saddles.

 

[rooster740]

This is what happens when you kill too small of a bull and don't want to top pack horns on a pack saddle because a few miles of thick trees are ahead. Most of all I had only one horse not packing meat already! I had to go back the next day, for meat so I might as well bring three horses and go back for two halves and no horns. This bull stepped out to a clearing just after a guy I was hunting with screwed up on a big bull, and he shot his first bull elk at age 60 something at 150 yards..... But he shot the wrong elk and got a dinker rag horn! I really misjudged this bull and as I squeezed the trigger he stepped forward. Oh oh! He should have flopped over on the trail. Instead I followed him for a mile in dog hair timber. This shot was over 400 yards but not long range material. I only posted it for the half assed gypsie packing picture.

 

[rooster740]

Quarters in bags on draft cross horses is the only way to travel in timber. I left my sweaty sweat shirt with a stick through the sleeves hanging a few feet off the ground like a half assed scare crow by the dead elk halves. No bs, when I returned it was jerked down and one of my elk halves was covered in debris! Lion tracks! Gotta love hunting alone!

 

[huntnm2001]

Deckers are like anything else, you can get them to fit a mule or a horse. Your load rides lower on a decker which is good for those high loads. We don't shoe our mules.

 

[tony m]

Maybe we are related..me to ..lone dumb hunter. Must of been thousands of elk packed gypsy style, done it myself.On a saddle horse , sometimes leave hide on between the 1/4 's a hole thru and over the dally horn, this is better done by 2 dummies though .With packsaddles we try to keep the loads higher, if possible.A guy can box hitch on a riding saddle too.I have shod mules a little, it is a different foot than a horse...definetly able to hit a target better.It is all fun and makes a memory .Cheers.

 

[Methow Packer]

• I'm so use to decker saddles I can't imagine anything else. Most of my pack trips are on 15-20 miles of rocky trails sometimes round tripping the same day maybe 30-40 miles but, generally over night unless I stay up there and wrangle. Shoes are a must if you want your stock to last the season. I pack meat out in panniers mostly just back to base camp. I use manties if the trip back down is long and dusty etc. A tight wrapped 80+ lb package works well. Easier to bring up canvas manties and ropes than sets of unused panniers unless you fill them going in. Mostly mule deer and the occasional black bear here in the Pasayten Wilderness in NE Wash.

 

[tony m]

I don' t know the landscape...sounds good though.Rocky? Brushy? I have very little experience with deckers, they are generally center fire rigged, aren't they?

 

[dmj]

3 quarter horses. 2 of them 16 hands, one is pack horse other my riding horse. one 14.3 hands, my wifes riding horse. Sawbuck pack saddle and 2 stock saddles, we always take along a pair of saddle panniers. Then if needed wife stays in camp and I use her horse for second pack animal. We can get everything on our one pack horse including tent and wood stove for 5 to 7 days. Weight for pack horse is appox. 170 lbs. And of coarse this is considering that horses will be able to graze. Horses are use to white 1/2 inch electrical tape type fencing. So we just pack along some of this and string it around an area for them to graze and they seem to respect it. Of coarse we bring them in for the night. With 3 animals it some times makes for an extra trip when you have game to pack, or I walk and pack my horse, depending on the situation. But considering cost of feed I feel lucky to have 3. Being in our middle to late 60s Our horses are one of most important part of our hunting gear. They keep us active year around and allow us to hunt in places we would no longer be able to access let alone pack game out of.

 

[tony m]

Great your still going in your middle /late sixties, Myself a youngster at 56.Sounds like you use a battery operated fencer..did I get that right? We don't pack much hay either, usually just bell um and turn em out, sometimes hobbled.It also means a really early start to the day though.Sounds to like you have a good arrangement with your wife, great to share this.With a tall saddle horse, you gotta pull your hat down pretty tight .I have seen ww1 army saddles used for packing too.Don't some use mclennan/army saddle too...I have heard of it used for this

 

[royinidaho]

I'm new to this packing thing + usually hunt alone.

Finished my saddle this afternoon. Did all work myself. Had much guidance from saddle maker/guide.

I chose the design and went for nifty looks plus super functionality.

I'll simply use saddle panniers to pack in and out and ride from the spike camp.

Ya'll talkin' about age. Heck! I'm headed for 72 and figger I'd best get'r done while I can.

Here's my ride and rig.

Eatcher heart out bronc riders.

 

[tony m]

Roy ,you win!Nice job-Did all the work yourself? I believe you are a Gentleman and a scholar.How did Pokey like going to town?

 

[royinidaho]

Roy ,you win!Nice job-Did all the work yourself? I believe you are a Gentleman and a scholar.How did Pokey like going to town?

After 15 years of just hangin' the pasture/corral and makin' mules every so often it was a very slow trek once we got to town. All the action around the stock yards, sale day, then crossing the rail road crossing which was a bust. I gave in and he simple strolled across the rails. Duh! Changing asphalt shades warranted a close inspection every time, long asphalt cracks with little weeds in 'em took some doing. Handicap painted parking spaces deserved a lot of space.

However, on the way back… no problems.

I'm thinkin' crossing water is going to take a little work. by the way puddles no matter how small were to be avoided.


I gotta do something about those brass ox bows. They're cool alright but seem to be made for little feet. I gotta good deal on 'em so what the heck. I'm gonna do my own thing with some replacements. Don't want to have to change 'em with the seasons.

 

[tony m]

Don't change a thing...it's a parade outfit.Me thinks you need a matching rifle scabbard though. Cheers.

 

[royinidaho]

For parades those ox bows will be fine. They are simply too small for my packer boots w/a 5E width. I made up a pair yesterday that will do the saddle justice. Bent the iron and readied for covering. Will do the cover Monday when I get access to the sewing machine.

Scabbard is in the design stages. I have some particular requirement. I want to be able to pack either the 12# 28" bbl + 2" brake 270 AM or the 19# 30" + 4" brake 375 AM without the shorter/lighter rifle rattling around.

Maybe I otta get me one of them there 1873 Winchester's

Here's a pic of Jethro's visiter this morning.