Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting How much weight do you pack out?

I say that we pack out between 60-100lbs when successful shooting an elk in a no vehicle area which is almost every elk I’ve killed - but I’ve never actually weighed my frame packs when we arrived back at camp - has anybody & what was the weight “coming out heavy”?

None. I'm too old for that backpacking nonsense so I got smart about it.

The back legs go on one mule.

The front legs, back straps, rib meat etc on the other. ( we call it belly meat, two even pillow cases)

We try to use a scale . Cans of beverages weigh about a pound to even em up. Or rocks.

Bone if full quarters if the distance is not over a mile. Start boning things out if it's further.

I’ve carried them boned out, bone in the quarters & just bone in the front quarters to reduce load weights And occasionally in panniers but my guesstimate is exactly that. Everyone is as tired as me and doesn’t think to put them on a scale????

I've weighed them. They are usually in the upper 80's for hind quarters, that's pack, meat, everything on my back excluding the rifle.

I've never put them on a scale but i'm pretty sure the weight varies with time. As in, when I put the pack on my back, it feels like about 60#. When I'm halfway to the truck, it goes 80-90#, and by the time I get to the truck, I reckon it's about 150.

Seriously though, never weighed one but I don't think I've ever gone over about 75. Never had a need to.

One hind quarter or two front quarters, or a load of assorted neck, rib, loin pieces. Bone in unless enough time has passed for rigor to end and meat to return to relaxed condition.

Thanks - that was what I was thinking, last year I carried 2 hind quarters from a good sized cow but mostly dragged & slid one of them. I whined about how heavy my pack was one year picked up my cousin’s and it weighed just about the same with no whining included.

Same here. If God wanted you to carry things on your back, He would not have invented Sawbucks or Deckers.

I don’t hunt elk in places that require nasty packouts. I get it quartered up, get some air circulating around it. Then I’ll carry a front quarter out with all my gear. Come back for the rest with a pack made for hauling meat.

I'v packed out 100 pounds in a pack frame. One time when I was hunting with one of my friends, who is older, and another buddy of ours, I ended up packing out the whole elk. My buddy quartered the cow up and helped put the meat in my pack frame. It was all up hill to the truck, but that was only about a 1/4 mile away. My buddy and I were helping the old timer get his last elk.

Two of us packed a spike out 1 trip, when we got to the cabin I weighed the packs, mine was 87 and the other 81, only time I've weighed one.

Usually I guesstimate I put 60 per trip, last bull I packed out took 5 trips and 2 days.

Kent

Maybe 20 years ago, my partner and I packed out a medium sized bull 4 miles in 1 trip with a standard, garden variety wheelbarrow. Granted, it was on a logging road and 95% downhill. The short uphill sections got old very fast, though. A couple years later, I tried it myself with a spike. I discovered that you don't want a cheap K-Mart type wheelbarrow for that. It collapsed and is still up there, hidden in a brushy draw.

depends on the mood of my horses and pack mules

now days use a dual wheeled cart i purchased from Cabelas, my youth days are now long gone ,my son is a big help too ,i no longer elk hunt without my son with.

It is usually 4 trips for boned out meat and head/antlers..

Several years ago a much younger friend and I brought out my 5x5 in one trip...4.5 miles Our packs were even except for the fact I had head/antlers along with gun and gear..... At 53 I know I'll never do that again.

I have probably packed 80, but weighing the risk of injury in rough terrain I generally go with the more trips option.

I have packed two (2) spike elk quarters out on a “freighter” frame......but, that was quite a few years ago. Now, one quarter from an average 6 point bull is a pretty darn good load! My wife has packed out several quarters, when we were younger. The majority of our packing jobs were less than 2 miles, most were probably around 1 mile! memtb

I almost drowned when I was 16 and was packing about 120 lb moose quarter on a frame in the dark and fell off of a beaver dam into water that was about 8 ft deep and muddy. I didn't want to lose the meat so I made it but it was a cool S O B evening and I had to strip and build a bonfire in order not to go into shock.

I have done some short heavy packs with moose( big ones) where packs were more than 300lbs but my last goat hunt was tough(three years ago). I packed the whole boned goat and gear from 1 mile above the upper Barnard Airstrip to the Chitina River Strip. This might not seem that rugged to you elk hunters but Gary the pilot weighed the pack at 204lbs when we got to McCarthy. That was 24 miles of pure glacial warzone(crevasses, morraine and mud-hell). It took me two twenty hour days to get to the bottom. I ate that goat all the way down the mountain. The experience was tough enough that I was hallucinating at the end of the pack.

add almost 20 to that that is why God created kids/grandkids and great grandkids plus horses and mules if you have them instead of the human ones

Some of you guys have made incredible pack outs. Mine have mostly been under 3 miles and under 100lbs. Much nicer the few times I’ve used horses. I’m hoping to get help from son & grandson this year.

My 15 year old grandson is really looking forward to this year and is in better shape training in pack & boots hiking in the dark than he has been as a little boy. He missed last season playing freshman football at 6’3 250lbs he’s an offensive line coach’s dream & since he could walk has been getting ready to help “Papa get the elk out of the canyon”. Hoping he needs to get mine & his out this year.

I have packed out quite a few elk btw mine and friends. Usually 4 trips/backpack full loads unless camp is coming out also head and cape if it comes out is called the anchor. Take turns when it comes out if more than one. For cold weather, full camp, rifle and food... pack might weigh in 60's so packing 80 is not bad at all 90 feels like 100 and 100-110 is years gone by for me and was pretty bad even when i was younger n stronger Depending on terrain and distance 80-95 lbs will be max for all but the toughest and strongest. I have weighed some and Only weighed the ones I figured were over 100 and most were in the 90's..

Elk....Depends, each load is different weight.

Start with hams and it’s pushing 80lbs or more each load

Shoulders 40-60Lb each.

Meat bag, head, 75-85lbs

Figure a 500lb field dressed animal, you’re packing out 350-380lbs on your back.

😎

Packed two out of Canyon Diablo in Arizona one time. Was about 80 degrees and maybe a mile with the last part being straight up the canyon wall, Hind quarters were around a hundred a piece on my partners elk. He cut and I packed so it got really old really fast. When we headed down to quarter his elk another bull got up right in front of us and I killed it adding around five hundred pounds and four more trips to the four we already had to make....

Boned completely if a long pack otherwise skinned then quartered out. I limit myself to about 50 to 60 lbs packing. Rest and do multiple trips. My days of 100 plus lbs packing are over. Have done moose hind quarters and that sucked to say the least. Usually have a t least one partner to help. Been looking at mules.

Good God man.

I spent 25 years in the high country and only had to haul an animal out on my back a handful of times. I was fortunate to either be working for outfitters with horses or had access to a myriad of horses . I never once worried about how I was going to get an animal to the truck or the freezer. It was a good feeling! Thinking of having to carry one out on my back these days makes me pee myself! Dragging a deer a half mile is hard enough on the old body!

I have probably participated in packing out well over 70 head of elk. In my younger days it was three trips, now as I am older its 4. I hate boning them in the field, but do cut the legs and do not bring the rib meat. Damaged meat says in the woods, and the horns usually come out with me after dressing and hanging

Packing them out is not really that bad, if you are in decent shape and are able to take your time. Good equipment also helps.

Amen Dude, you got that right. I've never been elk hunting. The biggest thing I've killed has been a rather large hog. But just dragging it 500 yards to the truck about wiped me out. You guys that are in the shape to carry out 700-1000 pounds of meat and head my hat's off to you.

Cutting the animal into “bite-size pieces” and making several trips, is much easier than dragging an animal to the truck/camp. Dragging is great if......it’s downhill, in snow, with the animal in a sled! You pretty much, point it downhill and get out of the way! Quite a few elk and a whole moose have been taken to the vehicle that way! memtb

A few years ago, three trips about 150 yards downhill for a big cow was enough I'd go for 4, 5, 6 or maybe even 7 next time! Might just eat it on site.

Sounds like you all need a frying pan and portable dehydrate equipment.

I’d like to see a scale on each pack!! Haha

How to get your elk out of a canyon...

Knife, fork, salt, pepper and a months supply of toilet paper... eat'm and chit'm right there.

I bone out everything in the field. Not going to carry a bone to the camp or truck. Heaviest I ever packed was a whole mule deer in one trip. I knew it was heavy. Barley got it into my pack and had stuff strapped to the outside. It was really cold out and I had extra clothes that day. When I hit camp I left everything in my pack except the meat. Pulled out and headed home. When I got home I weighed the pack and meat 99lbs. I went 3 miles and crossed 3 fences and a drainage. But for the most part it was pretty flat. Thats a load for me and do not think I would attempt it again.

Recall something about the coureur des sacs had 200lb bundles and ate 6lbs of jerky a day. Probably lived to about 35 lol.

I've wondered about how many of them threw their backs out and starved to death because they weren't able to move.

That AO is some tough sledding. I might know something about a 3.5 day dall packout around there...MRI indicates some rough cartilage on the head of my right femur on account of that one. First two days were half loads, last 1.5 were one-trip.

Three trips for a mature bull elk, boned, including camp. Don't know what they weighed...heavy, for sure, but nothing like that dall pack, and nothing remotely close to a moose pack. And my dall pack was nothing like Thomas' goat pack.

Six trips for a bone-in moose: hinds, sandwich of front quarter and rib cage, then two more for neck/straps/horns/liver. The loose meat packs can get really heavy >150#. Bone-in hind on a halibut scale goes over 115#.

Maybe it was 2) 100lb bales. Regardless, a heck of a way to see the country, all without ass wipe or deet!

Ain't that the truth. I need to get kaboku's workout routine. Not that I could do it, but I figure just reading about it will whip my ass into shape!!

My dad and I were bringing a big cow out down canyon on an old skid road one November morning. He was in his late 60s, me late 40's. It was colder than hell with some snow on the ground and ice everywhere. On his frame he had a front shoulder and the and neck meat and dragging the second front shoulder inside of two heavy duty garbage bags. I had one ham on my frame and the two backstraps and other ham in another heavy duty garbage bags. It worked out great until we crossed a small side creek not more than 6 feet across, where I lost my footing and landed on my back, with the frame and meat in the water. I was turtle like upside down with no way to turn over, or get to my feet. He shucked his load , got me out of my frame and after a bit we headed back down the hill. Not my worst pack by far, but memorable.

My partner and I once packed a medium sized bull 4 miles on a logging road with a common, garden variety wheelbarrow. It actually worked very well, mainly because it was mostly downhill. If it had been uphill, a backpack would have been much preferable.

You guys have packed out way more stuff on your back than I have, but even a big deer in pieces taxed my back muscles. After that I took apart an old wheel chair that I had and mounted the little front wheel under my pack frame. RC's mention of a wheelbarrow reminded me that now when I get tired of carrying pieces over frozen ground, I can just pull them like a wagon or wheel them them like a wheelbarrow.

Remember the hsllucinations?

I've started weighing everything at the house now, since all meat gets hung in the room at the back of the shop and there is a gantry crane with a winch or a tractor and a scale so its pretty easy.

I will say that it always pretty funny when guys come up to hunt and start talking about how much weight they thought they had in a pack and then the scale comes out....Most guys are 50 pounds heavy on the estimation on average.

Last years bull elk was 98lbs bone in hinds and the tenderloins were 5lbs. Front quarters were 82 lbs apiece. Cow a few days earlier was 62 on the fronts with the rib roll attached (but no rib bones), tenderloins were 4lbs, and 60 lbs on the hinds.

Young bull moose (3 year old probably) was 42lbs on the fronts, 60 lbs on the rears (bone in), and 58 lbs of assorted goodies (rib roll, neck, heart, tenders, backstraps). Mused to my hunting pard that there was at least $60k worth of horses/atv's/and trailers at the house 45 minutes away, but no there we were packing moose quarters in backpacks like heathens.... His response was "sure, but they are $1000 backpacks, so its way lighter than carrying them in an Eberlestock." That was done in 5 trips -head and bag of goodies, rib cage sides and a front each, and then a hind each, but it was only about 1 kilometer each way.
That reminds me that I still haven't finished drafting that complaint letter to Stone Glacier's marketing department about how those moose quarters didn't feel like bags of down...….

The other one from later that day (4 year old maybe, but still not a big one) was 56 lbs (hide on) and then 50 lbs (hide off) for the front each (just the quarters, didn't weigh the bag of goodies as it was the second moose of the day and 25 hours since the alarm had gone off....), and 200 on the nose for both rears attached at the pelvis.

A few years ago I packed out a monster of a cow elk on the last day of the season 3km each way with a big grind to get up to the trail of a few hundred meters but then level for the most part in a MR Longbow. First trip was tenders/backstraps/front quarter and gear, second trip was neck/hind, and final was a front and a hind... That last one was 138 lbs on the scale, but that MR frame is pretty heavy. I would have weighed the rest but I didn't have the gantry crane at that point, and truth be told I was absolutely f*cking whipped by the time I got home and it was all I could do to get them all hung up.