Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Least Favorite Part of Deer Hunting

Do you wrap the quarters in cheese cloth, or ???? I've always drug mine out. Do you take in a tarp to lay them out on while cutting them up or??? From the standpoint of a "dragger", seems like a lot of gear to carry, at a time when I'm trying to cut back on how much I carry in my pack.

Breaking camp.

I think everybody's got different techniques and situations. I don't think I'd drag a deer 2 miles either. There's definitely an easier way. But personally, I've never cut up a deer in the woods. I'm sure that I could figure it out if I had to go a couple of miles with it though. The first thing I'd need would be my backpack that I don't always have with me.

Most of my drags are between 50 and 400 yards depending on the stand that I'm in and where it dies. Average is about 150 yards. I'm out of there with only 2 trips to the truck. When I shoot one, I immediately head back to the truck with my weapon. I get rid of some cloths and drive the truck to the end of the field closest to where I'm dragging out. Then I go back with my drag rope and stick, gut it and drag it out. I can be on my way home in less than a half hour after shooting it. It just seems to me that it's worth dragging it out, after it's gutted, because it seems that it's much easier to process it when I can get it home and hang it up. I can use my tractor to strip the skin off and quarter it while it's hanging. If it's cold out and I don't have time, I can hang it in the barn where it's safe from critters. It's just a different routine.

I use pillow cases and a tarp if there is no clean grass , or snow. If you look at my avatar there is a raghorn elk in the "ponied " mule.

Five pillow cases. One for each limb, one for the back straps and belly meat.

I keep two game bags in the pack. They're just big ass, pillow cases with a drawstring.

I cut down the spine, and cut around the knees and skin that side. The hide gets laid fur side down so I can lay meat on that as well as the game bags. After that the quarters come off and get laid down. Then the backstrap. Then the tenderloin. Bone it out on the game bags or the hide from that side. Throw in game bag #1.

Repeat on other side.

If it's a rack I'm keeping I wrap the cape around its head and take it out whole. I don't fully cape it in the field.

All in the pack, and BAM. Walk out!

Or you could use a sled and drag it which would be about like pulling a little red wagon at that point. No effort.

SLOBS!

1. Coming across a broken campsite or kill site and having to police and pack out someone else's trash because they were too lazy.

2. Hungover orange clad zombies pulling off the road to take pot shots at the first deer-shaped thing they see.

3. Putting in the hard work to be successful on western public land and having other "hunters" completely disregard the rules/laws and common courtesy.

For example, you humped in eight miles behind a Foot Traffic Only service gate to get away from the day hunters, weekend warriors and #2. The day before on your way in you come across #1 and make a quick cache to pack out on your way down. An hour or so after sunrise you hear multiple ATVs approach the area you are stalking in. As they near the upper edge of the clear cut that you are working, you hear them hollering to each other over the sound of their engines debating the merits of Creedmoor vs Ultra Magnum. They stop on the landing for a quick check of the cut below. They crack a beer and take a smoke break before they pop off a round at a raven in a tree top overhead. Satisfied there is no real game to be shot at they move on to the next clear cut to repeat the process... of course there is no cell service to give law enforcement a heads up and you are too far down to confront them so the cycle repeats itself.

What do you have to do for the "evidence of sex requirements" in Montana? I've quartered a few whitetails but we don't have that requirement. Thanks...

Least favorite is that our season is only two weeks long. It's silly to compress everyone into a small time frame when every tag in the state is obtained via controlled lottery anyway.

No idea.

Leave a testicle or piece of udder attached to hind quarter.

Head with antlers attached.

Hunters.

Camp clad, loud talking.
Want the world to know,

By God,

That they are hunters.


Big f'not deal.


That's at the local businesses two days before season.

I am to the point that I avoid wearing came unless I am actually hunting.
And don't even like to wear it at the gas station.

ATV's
Trespassing
Poaching
Road hunting

Heck, no wonder non hunters don't like us, hell I hate a bunch of "us".

Thanks for the reply. So you could bone out everything except one quarter with evidence attached?

I do have to agree X2

Having to act as the game warden for my MIL's 7K acres of farm ground.

None of it is open to trespassing of any sort, but at least a few feel that they have a right to hunt anywhere that they want and that the property owners' wishes are set aside when they aren't in sync with the trespasser's. Consequently, I end up tearing down and destroying several deer stands each year. It is a PITA, but if a landowner doesn't protect his own land from trespassers, they will be embolden and take more liberties.

If you ever need assistance, I'd be happy to patrol from within.

Not exactly. You need evidence of sex naturally attached on each rear quarter. So you have to split the scrotum or udder.

My least favorite part of deer hunting is the time between submitting the lottery application and $$ and finding out the results of the draw.

My 2nd least favorite part of deer hunting, bird hunting, or fishing is dealing with people from Wisconsin.

Deer hunting in general...

The QDM zombies and bow hunters whining about firearms hunters and how we shouldnt be allowed to hunt during rut and you have to take "mature deer" and you don't challenge yourself. They accuse you of being a sub-par hunter when I allow my guests to shoot what they want and that I am not managing my herd properly by not applying texas principles on my northern MN farm. Another item is "why dont you have food plots?" on my hunting leased out personal property when they dont realize my efforts are better spent on the cattle farm side of the home place where I hunt...

As far as my personal hunt....

My brother and I each have guests that come to the woods and mine help maintain the property lines and set up stands.... his do not. Its only one afternoon a year of cleaning fence lines and checking deer stands so its not a real hardship.

Otherwise I love the hunt for tha frindship and look forward to it more than christmas

Idaho u only need " evidence of sex" not on every quarter.

But I strongly encourage leaving the meat attached to bone . Because during rigor mortis the muscle will contract. Leaving it attached prevents drastic contraction and " tough" meat.

The pure trophy hunters get to me too. I know people who would chap my ass for letting my nephew shoot a forked horn mule deer last year...

Every opinion under the sun is out there...only bowhunting should be legal, only rifle hunting should be legal, only trophy bucks should be legal, only meat hunting should be legal, only bucks outside of the rut should be shot, only bucks inside of the rut should be shot, mule deer should be off limits....I've heard all these and then some.

I'm with ya. Used to be that a couple mile drag wasn't all that bad, Now days it takes me three times as long and, it's a... well, it's a drag. Beer still tastes better afterward, though. Grin.