how do you get deer/elk to your truck ?

what do you do if you shoot a deer or elk after hiking 1 or 2 miles away from your truck ?

 

Quarter it and then make a few trips.

 

Drag it. Unless it's open enough to get the 4 wheeler to it.

 

I usually sit in the bed of my truck when hunting so it's always within distance

 

Plan on a long day and/or night of dragging if it's a blacktail or mulie <200lbs.

Anything bigger than that, it's getting quartered and packed out in several trips.


Also depends - is it "1" mile or "2" miles. That extra 5,280 feet means something there.

 

I just sit at my truck and whistle, calling out "Heeere deer deer deer! Come here Deer!" It hasn't worked out yet, but I have patience.

 

you cannot drag an elk. aint gonna happen.

deer, yea. my rookie deer, like an idiot i dragged it for miles. now i would bone i out.

my elk. we boned out and four men carried it out. 125lb packs..it was life crushing weight.

our elk last year, there were only 3 of use. we quartered it and took two trips. maybe 90 lb packs.

 

Used to drag deer,and still do. Since shoulder surgery a few years back, I picked up a deer cart. If I'm a few miles or less in the woods, I'll walk out and grab the cart. I usually drag to the nearest trail or logging road, then on the cart. Works pretty good for my needs.
If there's a lot of snow, I'll use one of those plastic, high sided ice fishing toboggans.

 

This ^ anything more then a mile and I'm boning it out I'm not packing even a cow Elk out over a mile in quarters. Deer i would bone out as well that far back anything more then a few hundred yards and I'm boning it out ad a steep grade into that and it's getting boned out for sure. For the bull Elk we use horses to pack it out or 4wheelers if we can get them to it.

 

I'm in Florida. We don't have elk and big deer here are not very big compared to other parts of the country. Usually not far from the truck but too narrow to do it any other way.

 

I am not experienced at cutting up big game. Plus, I hunt entirely in northwest Montana and if I cut up an animal and make a trip to my truck there is a good chance a large predator will be on the pile when I get back.

 

youtube, gutless boning method. as an ethical hunter you really should bone up on your butchering skills..at least have some working ability to pull and animal apart. when we hiked the first load of elk out, wolves were howling. we were in the pitch dark when we showed up for the second load..it motivated us to motor out, fast.

predators dont bother me. approach smart. i've yet to encounter one..but montana has griz right? i'd glass it before i walked up to my second load in grizzly country.

 

Down here the deer aren't that big. And most places I can either almost get my truck there. Or I'll grab a 4wheeler and go get it

 

My Dad raised me to hunt for food not fun. On a particularly bad day he would joke and say "it ain't hunting unless your miserable".

I don't want to spend extra money on hunting. So my tactic? Depends on the size of the deer and if my backpack is full of squirrels. I usually carry a regular doe. I might make a couple trips for a large doe or buck, but typically I will quarter and pack it.

If I have to make trips, I pepper the crap out of the meat and bags left behind. For some reason it seems to keep the flys away.

An elk? Many trips. I don't usually take an elk for this reason. I am only feeding two plus a few friends. Don't need all that extra.

 

Denali,
Buy this video , it will explain everything. No way to drag elk as everyone has stated.

Once you go "gutless" you never go back. Lol



Az

 

My elk last year we drug probably 30-40ft. Soft pine needle forest floor and 3 guys. That was a combination of the elk running toward the truck after the shot and being able to get my Tacoma pretty close. I backed to a small 4' shelf and drug the Elk the remaining distance. The other guy in camp that got one was able to get his truck within a few feet to load as well. Maybe just lucky.

 

Quad. If I cant get to it on the quad, ill cut a trail.

 

I have a Tacoma. I am gonna drive in thru all the rocks, beaver dams and river passes and load it up

 

even if you drive up to an elk, you are not lifting it into the back.

my secret NM spot borders the hotspot in that state. literally, you stand on the fence line and look it. it is stunning. we saw brown dots everywhere. they were thick. my friend that had no tag, but was helpful enough just to come along for free meat said the dumbest thing. he said, "let climb this fence run over there, shoot one and drag it back over the fence". errr...no.

no effen way. we did the next best thing. we called them hoping they would just walk over onto public land. nope, but one behind us did. i literally flip 180 degrees and dropped a huge bull. all the whooping and hollering..high fiving ended abruptly when my brother said. "holy shit, that thing is huge!"..mine died in a ravine with a tiny spring running water under that thing. we had to butcher it right there in the water. best time of my life.

hiking out, a buddy muttered.."oh, god. i think i've lost the will to live"..he was a muscular SWAT guy. the packs were crushing.

i love elk hunting. with a passion. it is why i bought my truck.

 

Elk; usually quarter it up while leaving the guts in, if its downhill to the truck and snow on the ground I will usually grab a couple friends and drag it to the truck.
Deer; haven't had to quarter one out yet, I'm usually in a decent enough spot where 3 or 4 of us can switch off dragging it back.