Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Packing out meat

Hey, I resemble that remark. I gotta Cabelas Kifaru, no schit!

No, I think you mean a Kifaru Cabelas. It's in the new line of UL hunting packs.

Man, have to agree with that! Revived a decades old memory. Add hummocks and pouring rain, and falling darkness, and you have a fun time. We could simply not stay on our feet between us lurching around and the deer swinging wildly. We finally cut it in half, tied the halves to our less than adequate light day packs, and crawled to camp that way. My poor daypack with its green leather straps was never the same again. Have never again considered a pole until this year getting a big elk head out of some gnarly timber and big sage brush. Wanted to do a European, so needed it whole. Even with it tied high, that was a circus.

First solo pack was in '88. I was younger then and my knee was not ruined so much. 2.5 miles to the truck as the raven flies. Not sure really how far. First load head, backstraps, tenderloins in/on day pack the day I shot the bull. Next day with frame pack, 2 hind quarters first trip, 2 shoulders second trip. Man, that was crazy! This was not a spike, but a largeish 5X5. My partners were laughing at how deeply my boot treads had printed in the trail, once I finally got to it. Had to be reeeeally careful where I sat down for a break lest I tip over backward and get trapped.

Longest - 8 miles to the truck. First 4 miles to camp. Second 4 miles camp to truck. Took a couple days with two of us. We were really humping it because the weather was not very cold. Then we had to go back in and get camp.

Neither of those was in grizzly country, both CO. Now in grizzly country I try for shorter packs that can get a carcass out in a day, or at least meat to a place I can see well from a safe distance.

There are plenty of ways to suffer while packing meat.

When I was 12 my cousin and dad killed 2 cow elk over 2 miles up a canyon there was 2 in of snow and it was -10 it took us about 6 hrs to drag them out whole. we wrapped them in blue tarps and tied a rope to the lower jaw. we then found a small pole and tried the other end to it by pushing on the pole like a single tree the four of us took them out in one trip. when we got home the hide was frozen to the legs making it very hard to skin.

I've dragged out deer many times by rigging a stick like a water ski tow rope. Anything other than a rope in the hand is a big help.

Then there was the elk that got packed out for a 5th of whiskey...

Years ago, Dad and I decided to drive up a road we knew about. As we turned onto the road, a bridge was washed out. There was a big front loader parked there and a hunter who was breaking down his camp. In the back of his pickup he had a nice 6x6...whole. We stopped to look and asked how he got a whole elk in there.
Seems that 2 days before, he'd camped there & hiked 4 or 5 miles up the road where he shot the bull standing in the middle of the road. He dressed it out & hiked back to camp to begin the many trips packing it down the road. Early the next morning, a guy showed up with the loader to start working on the bridge. The hunter gave him a 5th, they got in the loader, and drove up the road to the elk. They rolled it in the bucket, drove back down, across the creek, and dumped it in the pickup.
He said it was the best 5th he'd ever spent.

Every now and then you get lucky like that. A few years ago I went back to VA to hunt my old stomping grounds in a wilderness there. Hiked in 3 miles and met two guys camping by the trail, nice guys, we talked a while. I headed into the woods and had only gone a few hundred yards when a buck jumped up and stopped at 125 yards, broadside. So I shot him, gutted him and propped him up on a log, and started the walk out to drive back to town, borrow a wheelbarrow, and come back to get him. One of the guys I'd talked with on the way in had a buck back at camp and asked if it was me who'd shot. I told him I had the buck down so he asked me where I was going. When I told him my plan, he said "I've got this two-wheeled cart, lets go get your buck, load him up, come back and put mine on and wwe'll wheel 'em both out." Which is what we did:

I packed a elk out once on my back and said never again, It is why I own horses. Even with horses, I bone them out.

This is not my mule, But I thought this guy did such a good job of packing, that I took the photo.


Deer I usually just button hole over the saddle horn and then tie off the horns so they don't poke the horse

Is that pic deceiving or is the whole deer on one side of your horse?

I'll trust my two legs over some hammer head's four..

Elk antlers are always a problem with pack stock. Here's how I rigged them with my llamas using one off the wall to practice. I haven't packed a bull with them yet, but at least I know how to do it now. I used a stick across the saddle to hold them up and facing back. They have to be tied to the cinch rings so they won't slide sideways.
I've packed several bucks but with those, we leave the rack attached to the skull and tie it between the saddle bows with the points up. So far it's worked fine.

Obviously not packed with some good trained animals.

Rock Chuck. I do about the same, but put the cross stick further back and put some padding under it as it rides on the mules hips. Just ahead of the spider on top of the britching. I don't like to use any tied to the cincha rings ,but prefer a lash cincha that is separate. If in a wreck you need to be able to get everything off quick and if the load slips, tied to the cincha rings, the saddle slips too. Just a thought.

Horses and I don't get along..

Heck there are a lot of people I don't get along with. Probably more so than 4 legged critters.

Going on a fly-in / backpack hunt for mountain caribou in BC in September. Should be interesting! Training is going OK so far, but all that gravity in the mountains kinda scares a prairie boy!
Here is how I packed out our 2012 elk... not very difficult at all

That's almost like cheating.

Always go gutless. One of my elk has been a short pack out, and I greatly appreciated it...



The rest never are...

5.5 miles for me. Brother and I each shot bulls. The two of us got the both bulls out in 2 days. On the third day we helped my other brother pack his out 4 1/2 miles up another drainage.

Was nice when we were done, but packing meat is part of the experience and in a weird sort of way, are some of my fondest memories of hunting. Maybe the pressure of a successful hunt is off, and the "success labor" is real satisfying.

On my back is how they come out, Im 48 years young and it keeps me going. I hunt the Salmon national near Gibbonsville Idaho. Not for the faint of heart...Anywhere from 6 miles one way to 1/2 mile, it is all part of the hunt.

Nice!