I got a large doe this year and used my TV winch to load her. I carry a rope, a pulley, and a winch line extention to get deer out. I tied my canteen to the rope and got it over a large limb, ran the winch line through the pulley, hoisted the pulley up and tied off the rope. I hooked the winch line to the deer and hoisted her, swung her on the ATV, and strapped her down. No hurt back and no hernia.

Next, try it with a 1,000 pound moose. Eat your wheatties, first. Nothing like an ATV, a Warn winch and a good length of line. I loaded a 800 pound cow in one piece into the back of my trailer (pickup box trlr) by myself once just with the bike and the winch. No trees around for help. The winch paid for itself that day. 400 yards across a scarified clear cut, then into the trailer. Wife and kids watched the whole process.

There's no end to the variations depending on the situation. Another way, especially if a strong tree isn't available, is to rig a pulley in the front of the trailer/truck bed and slide the deceased up a ramp. A piece of plywood over your ATV ramps can serve nicely.

Cabela's used to sell a device which was a cross between a come-along and a capstan winch..never saw one in the flesh, but on paper at least, it looked like an excellent idea for all sorts of game retrieval situations...

I've got a Warn in the back of my truck with pulleys up front to tow them into the bed

Use what you got

A well set up winch sure makes life easy, but as Rock Chuck already mentioned, ramps are a must also..

It sounds like the winch in the video below was a little under powered!

Yep, I made a ramp out of a extra piece of tree stand ladder by wiring a piece of plywood to it

Any pics of your set up Spotshooter?

Always interested in how people set of their vehicles for this sort of thing..I have always used SUV type vehicles (where were/ are my every day drives also), so setting up an internal loading winch is a bit less straight forward..

In my old Isuzu Trooper, I managed to to fix ad DIY clamp-on "bracket" around the internal roll bar hidden under the roof lining..Once I put the liner back in place, all that showed was a slight bump and a gromit/hole I could screw a lifting eye into as required..

I did have an idea to mount a small ATV winch onto a removable plate that could clip into two seat belt receivers between the front seats, but in the end just stuck with a come-along and a section of ramp...

I have AMSteel synthetic winch line on my ATV winch. For me it's all gain and no loss. The synthetic winch line isn't stiff, doesn't kink, won't gouge or cut you, and won't recoil (whip) if it breaks like steel cable. IIRC I paid $50 US + shipping for mine.

I could have used any of your setups yesterday to load the wife's 500 lb Christmas tree.

Better to cut it up in one foot sections and glue it back together on site.

I am ignorant of how things are done in Africa, but wouldn't it have been helpful to gut it first.

From my very limited experience, where possible, the gutting tends to get done back at camp or at a processing facility..

There are a number of reasons for this, but one is that the locals tend use far more of the offal that we normally throw away, including things like the stomach for tripes and also the intestines ect, along with usual things like the liver and heart ect..

Here is a picture of my winch rig for the back of my truck, I just throw it in and attach it to my D rings in the bed of my truck. I use the warn rear power lead on my back bumper to power it I also have a large portable winch on a plate for vehicles.

Here is a shot of the pulleys so you can see how easy they are to clamp on and go. I forgot to throw the old section of ladder rack I put a board on for a ramp, but to tell you the truth, anymore I just lower the tailgate and lift up on the critters head / cable so it doesn't wear a groove in the bed of the truck

how about using a winch to skin it? thats going to be my next trick. i've used the truck to pull the hide off before but in the process almost ripped the last one in half. i think the winch will give me control.

With deer sized game with my ATV (Polaris 6x6) I lay a steel pipe on the gun rack, run the front mounted winch cable backwards over the top of the pipe and down the length of the dump/tilt bed, then to the game. winch in from the rear and shut the tail gate. Works really great.

I've got a hoist I use in the workshop for skinning

YES i HAVE BEEN NEEDING ONE OF THESE for years but just could not come up with how to make for the weigth being pulled up the ramp tailgate. I would appreciate pictures or recomendations on how you built your game hauler.

TKS able

Thanks. We will save the liver and heart at times. but nothing else.

People in this country used to use a lot more of the organs than we do now. Tripe was common and the intestines were used for sausage casings. Kidneys were always eaten, too.

I tried kidney from a turkey once. Not again. We used pig intestines for sausage casing, but we got them from a butcher shop. If I wasn't the only one eating it I would save every liver and heart though.

Not sure which part you need help with, but if its getting anchoring points, some folks, such as use the tie down points fixed in the bed floor.

Put a a length of chain between the two tie down points and then fix your winch to the center of it.

If you are looking for something more permanent, you will need build some sort of frame and anchor that to the truck and then bolt the winch to it as below:
(Pic is from another site and shows a set up which belongs to a British stalker who posts as PointBlank)

Re fitting an electric winch, if its rated for 12v 100A (max pull) which is 1200watts, would it be safe to use cable and sockets designed for domestic use rated at 240V x 12A which is 3120Watts?

At our elk camp, we started out with a 2,000-lb winch on the headache rack of our "meat wagon" (a twenty-year old GMC 4WD pickup with an 8-foot bed). At first, we carried a 4x8 sheet of 3/4-inch plywood that laid in the floor of the bed until it was needed. The ply wood was ungainly and we had to strap it down heading back down the mountain. So about 10 years ago, we had some aluminum plate welded on a three-piece folding ATV ramp. This worked a lot better and the folded ramp nestles nicely in the back with a gutted elk.

Then, three years ago, I shot a 6x6 with a largish rack, but an absolutely huge body. We got the thing about half way into the bed and the winch started smoking and quit working. We now have a 5,000-lb winch on the headache rack and it has been up to the task so far.

We also have a 2,000-lb winch on the roll cage of one of the Polaris Rangers. Last fall, another buddy and his son-in-law managed to get his medium-sized 4x5 into the bed of the Ranger with that winch. A deer would be no problem at all.

Mudhen,

I did a google on 2000lb ATV winches and I was surprised just how many cheap Chinese winches there are out there now in the $80 to $120 price range and I be the quality varies significantly.

Also, as Rockchuck alluded to in another post, it seems company's arrive at the poundage pulling ratings differently. One I was looking at for instance advertised a 2000lb pull but in the small print, that was using a double line pull, so really it was only a 1000lb pull at best.

If I understand the theory correctly, another factor is due to gearing effects. The full power of a winch is only available when all the line is paid out..the more turns of line left on the drum or as the cable winds back on, the less pulling power it has available. That could have been a factor when your 2000lb winch burned out...

Regards,

Peter

Pete,

Thanks for your comments. Actually, the 2,000-lb winch that burned up was a Warne. We have the same winch on the Polaris. The one that went belly up had probably just been used too hard over its twelve years of life.

When we started down the mountain dragging the elk and the loading ramp, we came to a water bar. My buddy stopped with the end of the ramp on top of the water bar, leaving the elk almost level with the bed. The little winch gave one last gasp and managed to get the entire elk into the bed of the pickup.

I took the winch apart back at the camp, and it looked like it might have been salvageable with some new parts. However, we just went ahead and invested in a new 5,000-lb winch.

Warn is THE name for winches for ATV's and such. They cost a tad more, but they are worth it IMHO. And you can double your pulling power with a snatch block.

Hi Mudhen,

I was not alluding that you were using a cheap winch, but rather just wondering out load what sort of quality an $80-$100 Made-in-China made 2000lb winch is likely to be..

A friend looks like he might be taking on a lease with some of the larger species of British deer on it, and this is one of the things he is considering for the cargo area of his Crewcab..

Additionally, in the next 12 months I am hoping to get a different 4x4, and again, I would like to add a loading winch..

Regards,

Peter

The best winch I have ever owned is a lewis chainsaw winch,kinda the do it all plus some winch.

Similar to this one with extra's and a Sthil head.




jayco

As a warning and a lesson in physics: if you put a chain across the front of the truck bed and hook the winch to the middle, leave lots of slack in the chain. The physics of force dictate that using a tight chain will exert far more force on the sides of the truck than will a loose chain. It will form a triangle with the corners being the 2 chain attachment points and the winch attachment point. The wider the angle where the winch attaches, the more force that's applied to the outside points, maybe even enough to bend something on the truck or break the tie-downs in a heavy pull. Leave the chain loose enough to allow a narrow angle where the winch attaches and you'll put far less force on the sides of the truck.

You can use this same principle to multiply the power of your winch to get something unstuck. Run a chain or cable from the stuck truck to something solid like a tree and get it as tight as possible. Hook the winch cable in the middle of the stretched cable at 90 degrees and pull straight sideways. The force applied to the stuck truck will be far more than what the winch can do in a straight pull. It won't move far before the force is reduced by the changing angle of the tight cable, but it might be enough. For a longer hard pull, you might have to retighten the cable a few times.
WARNING: stand way clear of the stretched cable because it's going to have several times more force on it than usual. It could break and tear you apart.

I am ignorant of how things are done in Africa, but wouldn't it have been helpful to gut it first. [/quote]


The eat a lot of the guts. I've eatten with the blacks in their camps several times and it's not bad. Hey, food is food.

In the Northern Transvaal/Limpopo, at least where I've hunted a bunch, the hooves were used for muti ... local pagan stuff.

And they make the eland dick into a whip-thingie. Impressive whang.

God Bless,

Steve

Frend Dave,

Well, no [bleep], it's gotta be four feet long.

Our blacks got one hell of a kick chasing Karen with it. She got a kick out of it.

By the way, you've not read the whole Grandpa Hank series. Makes me proud, makes me cry. Maybe it might arrive in your PM box one day.

God Bless You and Belinda,

Steve

Friend Steve, I look forward to more Grandpa Hank stories. When he spit on the closed car window and said "schit .... you didn't hear that Stevie", I bet you almost pee'd in your pants!