How do you drag game out?

[ropeNshoot]

I like to quarter them up and pack it out but I use old pillow cases for game bags. They keep the flies and dirt off and I can throw em in the washing machine when I'm done

 

[trhall]

This forum is "Long Range Hunting", implying we're a bunch that are willing to take longer shots on game. I'm my experience, it's rare I shoot game closer to the truck than I am and longer shots means longer distances to drag game out. How do you all drag game out? Any clever devices or tricks to make dragging a deer or similar game out of the field? I just use a rope and lots of leg power but I'm getting older and lazier and might buy/build an easier way to get a deer out. What do you all do?

Here's the coolest device I've ever found outside of a horse. I have packed out 3 6 point bulls and a couple cows on this in the last few years. I carry the panniers in my pack and when we kill one we bone it out. On a big bull a front and hind quarter will fit in each pannier and be right around a 200lb load. I then pack out all the straps, tenderloins, and loose meat (neck, brisket, etc) in my hunting pack which is usually somewhere around 50 - 60 lbs of meat. Return the next morning with the packwheel and take the rest out in one trip! The handle bars and neck separate via a couple wing nuts and allow the 11 lb packwheel to be strapped to a pack for the trip into the meat making it much easier to get it there.
It is so well balanced with all the weight right on the axle that you feel no weight on your hands. On anything other than a pretty good incline it takes Very little effort to push it. On a steep incline you can pull it up behind you if alone or have a buddy connect a pull strap to the axle and pull from above. It balances fantastically on knife edge rocks using the dual disk brakes allowing you to position your body correctly for each move.
Since I don't have horses anymore this thing allows me to hunt much farther now on solo elk hunts than I ever would in the past.

 

[SavageHunter11]

Quarter. Backpack breaks apart to pack out game. May take 2 trips on an elk but as they say, hard works after the animals down. Deer can usually quarter and pack out in one trip.

A lot of you quarter animals and pack them out. In SD I can't say I've ever seen that done but as a solo public land hunter who hikes deep into big public lands to escape the hordes of opening weekend hunters I think it's a skill I need to learn. Any good resources out there to teach?

 

[Wraith Hunter]

This forum is "Long Range Hunting", implying we're a bunch that are willing to take longer shots on game. I'm my experience, it's rare I shoot game closer to the truck than I am and longer shots means longer distances to drag game out. How do you all drag game out? Any clever devices or tricks to make dragging a deer or similar game out of the field? I just use a rope and lots of leg power but I'm getting older and lazier and might buy/build an easier way to get a deer out. What do you all do?

A long time ago a good butcher told me game meat sours from the bone out and the only meats that should be aged is Beef and Pork. He went on to say bone souring starts within an hour or so after an animal is killed, even when the outside temperature is near freezing. So, I remove the hide from harvested game as soon as possible. To this end I bone-out the meat from animals that are distant from my hunting vehicle and haul the meat back via my two, all-terrain-transporters, I was born with. I have found the gamey taste of Deer and Elk does not occur, even during the rut, when I separate the meat from the bone and hide within an hour of harvest.

 

[Poppadoer]

I Hunt pipelines,highline and bottom woods.Take my 4wheeler or ranger.If it's too big to load I call my brother for help.

 

[huntsman22]

He may have been a good meatcutter, but he wasn't a good butcher.....

 

[Majja13]

Get yourself a really good set of synthetic game bags, and a good backpack. Look at something limlke a Kifaru, Mystery Ranch, Exo or Stone Glacier all great packs, not cheap but good quality. Skin and quarter for sure. If it is more then a mile or so or a lot of up hill i would also debone. All of the above packs can amd are expensive, but speaking from experience an ill fitted pack not designed for the task will wreck your back fast. It is like wearing boots 2 sizes to small.

 

[seattleman1969]

I'm looking for better ways, too.

Last year, three of us broke down a cow elk and carried it out 4.5 miles on our backs. The next day it snowed a few inches and we used a sled to drag another cow out 3.5 miles. That was after breaking it in half and dragging it half a mile down the mountain over sheep fences. Neither of these were easy but I'll carry it on my back before I drag that darned sled again! It took two to pull it and one in the back to keep it from running down the hill.

We are thinking about having horses or llamas lined up. We're getting old. LOL

We game bag it in the nice tight weave tough bags, lash it to the sled, and if it's open we just let it run downhill and walk to it... saves the legs for the ever so difficult uphill sections.

If we have to control it downhill I pull with a travois (When I can cut one) or in a sled lashed as above simply holding a pulling yoke behind me. Then I switch it to the front going uphill.

 

[Hirschi1]

Over the years I've dragged, carried, used horses, used atv's, quartered, and boned them out. I've carried mature mule deer bucks boned out including my gear to save extra trips off the mountain. Carried near 100 lbs of elk to save a trip or two. I need to be wiser. I'm going to use Goats. I still love to hike, and I want to save my back. I'm raising and training goat kids now. They will follow without a lead (they don't like to be left behind). They are Social animals. They can navigate through fallen trees and scale Cliff faces. They can just about go anywhere. Cheaper to maintain than horses and mules. Goats can carry 25% of their weight. A mature male Wether can weight 180- 250 lbs. Check them out at packgoats.com

 

[SWcowboy]

I use mules, my aviator pics shows one of them...only one of my mules will haul out a bear...thank god

 

[Jeffrey Van Zandt]

So in non motorized areas of interior Alaska. We use sleds to drag out moose.[/QUO we do horses in non motorized areas dragging a moose out in a slade 20+ miles is a real drag to many good areas to hunt up here

 

[73driver]

Gutless breakdown, skin off and cut off the boney part of legs. Into tight weave game bags and lash to a pack frame. Used to be able to hike out two hours with one mule deer or two trips for elk. Now that I am over 60 like to split the load with my son.

 

[bobcat19]

I let these guys do the heavy lifting

 

[18whlsrolin]

If it's a real haul I would at least quarter and pack it or use a game cart of some type. something interesting like what the DIY Hunter.com makes and sells is a very maneuverable (capable of actually going over truly rough terrain) single large bicycle wheel contraption he calls the e cart. I think he even makes an electric assist model. Anyways you can check him out on his website or YouTube channel THE DIY HUNTER. Good luck