Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Recommend Me a Game Cart

An older elk hunter friend told me that he packs elk out with a game cart today. And as I am wanting to hunt the same genneral vacinity as he does this year (face of a mounntain range with canyons and wooded, huntable mountain sides) I am wanting to buy one, too. Any suggestions?

Just me but, I have found, that a Zed Sled, works much better than a game cart! the hard platic sled will slide over rocks and logs alot better than a game cart, as the wheels will get caught up, on just about everthing. I use my sled for, takeing firewood out to the trail, and recover deer! in the thick forests here in Northern michigan! if your on a trail then the game cart will work fine.

What's a Zed Sled? A quick Google search returns nothing resembling a big game extraction device.

Various sleds work well in the flat lands! Sleds aren't worth taking from home in the mountains, unless you want to go straight down .. Been there done that!

Carts are ok if you have wide trails and it's all down hill. I got tired of messing with them and now I have pack llamas. FAR easier and more versatile. They also make backpacking more fun and easier.

i use game carts when duck and goose hunting and hunting flat areas with wide access trails.
As rock chuck said in steep terrain out west with sage, dead fall etc pretty much unusable when I tried them. I took a look at the above packwheel but how are you going to control and balance a heavy load on a steep side hill with loose rocks or going dup or down a steep mountain. Looks interesting though

Have found plastic sleds more useful in some terrains especially in snow.

If I was going to buy another, it would be the Neet Kart.

My Bad Jet Sled, hard platic, sled ,used for ice fishing, or hunting! mines about 4 foot long and 2 foot wide, I move a fair amount of fire wood with it to get to the trail where the Jeep & trailer are. I still think it works better than a game cart off trail.

Most of the elk in so. Idaho live in country too steep and rocky for a cart with side x side wheels. I've used carts with 1 wheel and with 2 in-line. They take 2 people and you'll work your tail off keeping one upright. The best 'cart' I've used was a garden variety wheelbarrow. I hauled a small boned out bull out 3 miles on a logging road with one. It was almost all downhill, though. Even minor uphill sections were killers. Pushing it empty up to the elk isn't as fun as it sounds, either.
Hint: do NOT use a Kmart special. Use only a good strong wheelbarrow unless you want to pack out both the elk and the wheelbarrow.

These are on sale right now.
http://www.discountramps.com/deer-carrier/p/GAME-CART-HD/

KMS,

As at least one person mentioned, game carts with side-by-side wheels are pretty useless in the mountains, unless there are roads to use them on. Even a good-sized elk trail is too narrow.

The Neet Kart works the best of any I've tried. It has two in-line wheels, comes with wide bicycle-type handles on one end, and another set for the other end is available. The main handles have a bicycle-type brake handle too. With a person each end you can roll a pretty big load, and when going uphill can use the brake to keep the cart in place while catching a breather. My wife and I got a cow elk out of a ravine with ours a couple years ago. We're not young but took our time and it worked fine. On more level ground I can easily handle two field-dressed antelope or a mature buck deer by myself.

They're also used by a number of search and rescue teams, as with a person at each end, an injured human can be wheeled out of the woods. The two in-line wheels allowed them to go over logs and rocks of up to a foot.

Neet Karts aren't cheap, but in my opinion they're worth it. Have gotten plenty use out of ours since I bought it the year I turned 60. www.neetkart.com

That IS a cool cart. Probably should have read the replies.

I bought a game cart for a specific hunt, and learned a lot. It was the bigger of two sizes that Cabela's offered a few years ago, good cart on pavement. We used it for a very short distance on the way in, hid the cart by the trail and backpacked the rest of the way. Actually have done that twice, once 20 years ago on a trail in Idaho for mule deer. We cached the cart within the first half mile of seven.

1. Any cart with spoke wheels MUST have a cover over the spokes unless used on a clear road or wide trail free of sticks, brush etc. that jam into the spokes. Think about poking a stick into the spokes of a bicycle wheel...

2. As said, the trail has to be quite wide and quite level for two wheels side by side.

Alternative: my son and his hunting partner lashed two mountain bikes side by side with poles across the handle bars, seats, etc. then laid on more poles and wheeled out a whole elk laid on the poles in quarters. They had to cut some brush and carry the “cart” and elk quarters across wash outs and creeks but otherwise rolled the bull down three miles of old abandoned logging road.

A one wheel cart/barrow or inline wheels sounds a lot better and a sled might be the ticket on dry grass.

Interesting idea but way overpriced for the amount I'd use it.

One other thought re sleds:

When sliding an animal (and I'd assume a sled) downhill, ideally you need two people. One leads the way, pulling the sled or animal ahead. The other follows behind and on a deer for example, holds a rope tied to the hind leg(s) of the animal to steer it and keep the body from taking off downhill and swinging past the man in front. In steep places the rear man simply controls the slide downhill. Otherwise, as said, the deer will slide or roll downhill and swing around below the front puller, and may take off on its own because the man pulling it can't hold it back. Then it inevitably tumbles and slides into a ravine full of down timber or some such mess of a hole.

This is even more critical if you need to slide/drag a deer across a slope, such as on a contour trail. The front man pulls and the rear man keeps the hind end on the trail and keeps it from sliding off down the steep slope. I have not done it with a sled but have on a number of deer, once down a narrow ridge top trail where it would be disaster for the deer to slip off of the trail, and on a contour slope across a mountain face to get to good ground for going on down. Even going down a routine mountain slope the rear man steers and keeps the buck from sliding into deadfalls etc.

Wow! Is that thing made out of gold? The Neetcart is a bargain compared to the Packwheel unicycle and I think it would work better for the trails I know.

The wheel's too big. The higher the load, the more work it is to keep it upright. It's mainly a wheelbarrow with a 16" wheel. A wheelbarrow with a 12" wheel will be a lot easier to control. The handlebars on the Packwheel are at about the same height as the top of the wheel so you have no leverage to keep it upright. You have to muscle it.

I've got a cheap game cart that I bought on sale from Sportsmans Guide. I used it to pack in my ladder stand a time or two and then left it cabled to a tree for packing out my deer. Honestly, the roll-up sled I have is easier to use.

I use the game cart in my yard these days for stuff too to heavy to lift into my wheelbarrow.

yeah it's pricey... but there are guys that drop that much on backpacks.... and the load hangs down on the sides, not up on top. And the wheel ain't 16", it is 20" to 36". The bigger the wheel, the easier to roll and go over obstacles. and those handle bars don't need to use your back like with a wheelybarrow, and way less 'muscle' needed....