I just saw a video of the Leg Cuff Deer Drag. It looks like a simple solution to the age-old problem of dragging deer, except it is $20 for a little piece of plastic and two feet of rope. Has anyone tried one? Does it make the dragging chore any easier? (Obviously not as easy as a four-wheeler, but anything is better than grabbing a leg and pulling!) Should be about a third of the price they charge for the thing.

Where does the cuff attach to your leg? Seems inefficient, but then I can't really picture it.

Steve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAFXvuDWZQc

Another gimmick, just grab some horn and start walkin

It's not in the same sentence as the cough silencer or butt-out tool but it's in the same paragraph.

Whaddya do if two people are doing the dragging? I smell a retrofit coming.

Baler twine and a stick I pick up in the woods does just as well.

Dale

i like my chest/waist/shoulder harness drag for extended, uphill drags. you can use your weight and really get rolling. i tie the hooves up around the head like that though and it really helps guide the deer.

I took a 5'X7' "plastic" tarp a couple years ago to put the deer on. It reduced the effort by about 50%. I thought that was what this guy was going to talk about.

A good tarp works wonders. On snow, the pull is barely noticeable.

Since we're talking about dragging deer, I'll tell the story of the strangest drag I've ever witnessed. It was in the early '90s, and Pennsylvania was issuing "bonus" antlerless tags to reduce the deer population. I decided I'd hunt a county where I've never been, so I ordered put in for a tag and got one.

The hunt was fairly eventful, but I'll save that part of the story for another time other than to say the temperatures that day were -26°F. Yes, that's 26 degrees below zero.

I shot a doe around noon, took my time field dressing it, ate my lunch and proceeded to drag her out. I had to go along the ridge, down the hill, and up over another hill, then down to my car. While going up that hill I saw a guy a ways ahead dragging a deer. From the length of it, appeared to be a very large deer. Naturally, I was gaining on him.

Soon I could see he didn't have one deer. He had two. When I caught up I could see he had a mother and a six month old. He had a rope around the big one's neck, and the two deer were tied together by their back legs, so the second deer was being dragged backwards, against the direction of the hair.

As I went by, I told him, "Maybe you ought to put the little one inside the big one. That way you'd only have to drag one deer."

He muttered something about being almost to the top of the hill, so he'd keep going.

The point of the story is that there's a use for that cuff thing. Use it to fasten the legs of multiple deer together. But it should probably come with instructions to drag the deer WITH the grain of the hair, rather than against.

Steve.

He must have really wanted a workout.

I just have my servant's drag them.

I like the shoulder harness drag. I can usually pick on up for about 8$. Couple nylon straps over the shoulders and a line off the center of your back to the deer. Off you go!
Best thing I have found for those long drags, you can get low and lean right into it.

Hunting in Wyo once and found a deer strapped to a backpack in the bottom of a very steep canyon. It was from the day before since it was just now first light. Scratched my head and kept hunting. That afternoon after I got back to my rig I ran into 2 West Virginia guys and they said yes, that was their buck. They couldn't pack it up the canyon so they went and hired 2 cowboys from the bar in town for God knows how much money to do the chore. I talked with them for a while (trying to keep a smirk off my face) and then the 2 cowboys come out of the canyon with the deer. The one cowboy could have been the guys dad. We laughed our azzez off driving back to camp but it was an easy drag for them!!

http://www.amazon.com/Glenns-Deer-Handle-LLC-DH01/dp/B000UPGNZ6

If you don't have a Glenn's deer handle and you drag a lot of deer, your behind the curve

If I find the deer on the wrong side of the mountain anymore, that deer continues to live a charmed life.

All my favorite mountains have grown a lot the last few years.

My Father-In-Law used to buy ridicules stuff like that all the time. I have been tying up the legs to the head before that guy on the video was even old enough to hunt. I remember when my Father-In-Law went the tarp route. It was shredded in about 200 yards. I have seen little red wagons, wheel barrows, taboggens, sleds, bicycles, and even the old "Swinging on a pole between two guys" carry. We used to lay two old branches across the railroad tracks and put the deer on top. You can really zip along. A few years back someone bought me a deer cart. Worthless in the woods, but if you can get to a logging road, what a relief they are.

For dragging, that's the place to start. Or just tie off around the neck and jaw and let the legs fold back...

Some folks like very short drag ropes with a T handle so you sort of lift the front of the carcass as you drag while others prefer a long rope..

I have a cart, but found that one of those toboggan things is actually easier to use. It's also good for packing a heavy ladder stand back in the woods. I just roll it up and leave it tied upright to a tree near my stand.

A couple inches of snow is easier yet.

If I have to drag something more than 50 yards it's getting cut up and put in a pack

That, or he was from Pennsylvania.




Travis

Yes.




Travis

Tried the tarp - gets snagged on everything and makes it harder.

Got a deer cart - it's like a wheel barrow and is worthless in the woods and can't keep it upright. Won't go over downed trees.

Got this thing called a Deer-Sleigh-R - It's a hard piece of slippery plastic with a rope on the front and you lace it up around the deer. Works great, but it takes about a half an hour to get the deer on it and tied up. I don't use it unless I'm mounting the head or it's a mile or more. In most cases, I can just drag it out in the amount of time it takes to wrap it up on the thing.

The best thing is a 4' rope on a stick as a T handle. Snow cover is the best. If you get going down a steep hill, you can just hop on and ride it down the hill like a sled.

......and the ears make great handles too.

The best drag handle is the foreleg of the deer being dragged. Cut it off at the knee and tie both ends of it to a line around the deer's neck. It is padded, just right size, comfortable in the hand and is always there when needed, no need to carry a "drag handle." Grip it in the middle between the tie lines coming off of each end.



An improvement not shown in the photo is to allow just enough slack to loop a half hitch of both tie lines over the deer's nose. It is an easier streamlined drag with nothing flopping if you drag from the deer's nose. As Pete E said, short drag lines allow you to lift, which is needed if you drag over down logs or rough ground.

I don't drag unless it is clean ground downhill to a road or location that has some advantage over cutting it up or boning it out on the spot.

It sounds like there are a lot better ideas than the Leg Cuffs...unless, of course, there is a felony warrant out out on the deer.

Down here we just turn them into a pack. Cut the front leg as in the first photo, make a cut in the back leg and thread the front one through as in the second photo, do the same with the other side and put it on your back. No string or anything else required (just a bit of sweat) :-)

All that's needed is about 3 ft of strong paracord or something similar. Tie the front legs at the ankles cut a slit thru the lower jaw exiting under the tongue. Thread the free end of the cord thru the slit exiting the mouth. Tie off to a smooth stick you find in the woods forming a T handle and pull. The feet will pull up under the chin and if you tie the handle to the right length the head and feetwill be lifted slightly off the ground and the drag is easy.

Mike,

Do your deer get many ticks on them? If you tried the pack method over here, you'd be alive with ticks before you'd gone a 100 yeards, especially in summer!


Regards,

Peter

That used to be illegal here in Arkansas. I think now it is legal. I hunt my own place here and just drive my ATV up to the deer. If open enough I put it on a small trailer, if not I drag it to the trailer with the ATV. I have done the same with a horse, before I got an ATV. miles

I have never figured out how these guys in magazine pictures etc carry a dead deer on their back or shoulders without ending up with ruined clothes and looking like an ax murderer. Usually the deer I kill have a pretty big issue with blood loss.

Hi Peter,

Never found a tick on a deer, and never heard of ticks on deer down here in NZ.

Pigs on the other hand can be lousy with them, but in my experience that's the exception rather than the rule.

Yes you can get a bit messy, but it's really only on your bum and down the back of your legs. Washes off easy.

Some guys leave the a-hole in when carrying them to catch the blood in the body cavity. I take it out because it's just what I've always done, and I don't see the point of carrying an extra pint of blood around.

That thing is dumber than schit. Add it to the butt-out tool, cough silencer, and sling sticks.

Take a bite from the CENTER of a piece of rope (just rope, no handle, no clamp or other stupid schit) and loop it around the head, antlers, front legs/head, whatever.

Tie each end off to the belt/bag cinch on your pack and start walking. All the pressure is on your hips, not torquing your back, neck and shoulders.

Think 4X4....

Last year I tried a few different things.

I used one of the flat foam with slick plastic shell "sleds" kids use. That worked great, It had webbing handles a couple feet from the front and a couple feet from the rear. I lashed the deer to the sled using them and started walking. I have to say that in snow dragging that deer several miles would have been a piece of cake.

The shell toboggan about three inches deep was not so good.

The lawn tractor wearing chains with a 10 cubic foot trailer worked good.

I carry 20 feet of mule tape in my hunting coat. It weighs nothing, it never rots and it's ungodly strong. Normally if I have to drag one I just lash the feet to the head, make a short handle out of a stick(s), throw a clove hitch around the stick(s) and go. There's a lot to be said for that trailer behind an ATV though.

IF you are dragging a deer downhill or sidehill, it is a huge help to have one man drag in front and a second man to hold a rope tied to the deer's hind legs. The back end man keeps the critter's hind end from swinging downhill and brakes to keep the deer from rocketing down (at the wrong place) on slick grass or snow.

This is a good catalog of workable ideas that posters have used in their terrain and circumstances. Will admit that I got to laughing thinking about steep terrain, cliffs, blowdown timber and brush, and of dragging much larger deer than whitetails. If we hunt a variety of terrain it is good to know a variety of options, not just of dragging methods but non-dragging.

It has puzzled me a few times to find myself hunting with someone who has only one way to do something. One fellow insisted on dragging a large mule deer buck out whole, 250 yards up a slope so steep that to turn the buck loose while resting meant that it would tumble all the way to the bottom where we started. Exhausting, close-minded, and though I helped drag to preserve the friendship, I have not hunted with him again!

Great idea about putting the rope around the nose. I never thought about it, but makes perfect sense. That's why I read this forum.

I also like the leg handle also. Sometimes it seems like I can't find the right stick.

Used to drag deer for miles in the past, now that I am in my mid 60's not so much anymore. Find a jet sled extremely helpful getting a deer through and out of the woods and an Adirondack buggy (wheeled deer carrier) just as helpful upon reaching a trail or logging road. As an added bonus the jet sled fits perfectly on/in the buggy. Hunting fields or having the help of a friend also make things much easier. Have had some problems trying to hoist a 150 lb.+ buck with legs and head flopping around up and into the bed of the pickup without assistance. Don't want them to be dragging me out of the woods....

I have my sôn-in-law drag it or the guy trying to date my Granddaughter.

This is the best way to get a deer home. Shoot him in the back of the head with a Woodsman when you get to the barn.

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If it gets any bigger than deer I prefer this type of pulling device. As can be seen, it helps assist in field dressing as well.

I use a small drag made of orange strap. It takes up very little space when folded up, it fits in my front pocket. Anything bigger and I find I don't carry it. I pull their front legs up to their neck, wrap the strap around both and off I go.

What amazes me is that people actually drag deer out.

That's what I bought an ATV for.

Sometimes it makes more sense than taking the time to quarter and pack in two trips. This buck was 1 mile from the road, all downhill drag. If we had taken the time to quarter it, we would have had to come out in the dark, through lots of manzanita thickets and poison oak. Instead, we each took a horn and took off. No poison oak and we cleaned it when we hit a two track we could get the truck to. I'm for whatever makes sense at the time. Dandy blacktail.

Buck grab an antler ,doe I cut the back leg where it will be hung from and drag from there

Yep......

Even simpler here since we hunt moose. We don't even go to the "other side of the mountain"

I have done it before. Even carried one on a pole once.

Then I found out that if you take the hide, and maybe even the bones off/out, if legal, they compact pretty well and its just a walk out. I did it in E TX public land a few times. Not much to it and sure easier than dragging.

Did drag a gutted caribou off a hill once, while 2 grizz watched us. Hoped the guts were enough for them, and drug it was was probably half a mile or more down, quite a long drive, one in back one in front to help control the caribou. Got flat and quartered and hung em high in springy spruce trees.
Was all there the next morning luckily.

An old hunter showed me a trick to make dragging easier.
take your knife,and grab the deer by the nose.
cut a hole through the nostrils and pass the drag rope through it.
you can now drag it by the nose or tie the legs up too.
I have yet to see one tear out,and have done it quite a few times.

Seems to me like you cold cut some pieces of pvc pipe and make your own for around $5-$10.They do not look like they would be that hard to make.

I think it would break as soon as you had to give it a good pull over a log. I use a strap and rig it around the neck and tighten it around my waist until I have to lift it up a little bit to pull it. Makes it easier. The deer before that fell 40 yes from a logging trail with 3" of snow on the ground it was easy cause illegal ATV's went down the trail and packed the snow so it was almost ice. easy 3/4 mi. drag. Ussually though, I shoot my deer 100 yes from a river and let the canoe do the rest.

You cant show us Savage 99 porn without some details please....

I picked up this deer drag in '08 and she hasn't let me down yet. Lots of game has hitched a ride.

Can't use those where I hunt. I gutless debone and quarter for the backpack hike out. I quit that dragging stuff, don't gut them either and don't miss it one bit.

That was an Oregon hunt for my buddy John, Last day of the season. I spotted him bedded at 900 yards and John put the stalk on him to 50 yards or so. He got him with a 300 Savage in a 99R. A young deer, but a 5x7 blacktail.

That is real hunting and done with a "red wool" cool rifle (not tacti-cool). Its a trophy in my mind.

I did some substantial deer dragging in my ignorant youth. If one is getting out there, a good pack frame is the only way to go. A couple hundred yards to the rig, then OK.

Believe me, drags and carts will only go straight up or straight down in this environment. There is only one way to side hill with a load in this country. If one is going down, even a dead deer or elk can often take care of that task on its own. One can have his deer fall into the river from 1/2 mile away.

+1. Beat me too it. Works great.

A loop around the nose helps lift the head and keeps the nose from hanging up on stuff. It probably works better with mulies than whitetails because of the antler shape but a nose dragging in the dirt is like a plow. I haven't tried tying the legs like that. I can't see the advantage.

Lots of folks do tie the legs off forward, usually if they are dragging/lifting with a short rope..It seems to work better for hinds/does or anterless stags/bucks.

I have also seen people tear a hole in the bottom a feed bag and thread the drag rope through such that the bag ends up covering the head and the neck of the carcass..

Lots of ways of doing it, but at the end of the day you're still dragging!

Dragging's a drag. I mostly gave it up years ago. If it's all downhill, though, sometimes dragging is easier than hiking back for the llamas.

I saw earlier someone mentioning dragging with the back legs. I have found pulling against the hair is like pulling across Velcro.

Basically I am becoming more inclined to agree with a statement that Mule Deer made in a thread awhile back. Somthing to the effect that he is beginning to enjoy bitrd hunting more and more as pheasents are easier to pack out. Ain't it the truth.

Deer bone out and fit nicely in a pack.

good ole length of rope and or mule tape and do basically the same thing

tie legs to head or antlers away you go!

Not all that different from what I use. An ice fishing Otter Sled. Even on dry ground it's 3x easier than dragging the deer with nothing. If there is snow you don't even know it's back there. Tarp or sled keeps the deer much cleaner too.

Until recently MN and WI required the deer to be brought to a registration station, whole. So there was no 1/4'ing them up. Now we can tho. Much easier!

And sometimes, even with a sled or tarp, it still sucks.

Now your talking!

I use a pirogue.