Carried an old Cabelas fleece w/ leather bottom daypack on a lot of hunts. Bought it for $5 at a garage sale with a blown zipper and had my mother inlaw sew a new one way zipper in it. It's basically a schoolbook bag but built pretty sturdy. I've carried many backstraps, or backstrap singular in the case of moose, out for the first load to get my freighter for the rest of the animal. It will also fit a skint grizzly skull btw.
Last year I found a brand spanking new, tags still attached, unused Badlands Source at our local thrift store for $30. I snatched it right up and threw the water bladder away as soon as I got it home. It has a great suspension system and is very comfortable to carry, even loaded. The problem is that it has so many pockets and compartments compared to my old pack that I can't really carry anything. If it's bigger than a snickers bar there's no place to put it. I had to rethink a lot of my gear and make some changes but I'm still not fully sold. Kinda miss the old, "one giant compartment" of my Cabelas pack.
Another thing I do is, if say I'm going to hike a couple miles to a ridgetop to glass for caribou. I will put the shoulder straps of my daypack over the frame horns of my freighter. That way I have the ability to haul a full load of meat without a light load/ wasted trip. I don't like to haul meat inside the bags that come on frame packs, one more thing I have to clean up when I get home. I just take a 100' roll of nylon clothesline to lash quarters on the pack.
