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Joined: Jun 2020
Posts: 85
Campfire Greenhorn
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Campfire Greenhorn
Joined: Jun 2020
Posts: 85 |
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. 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
Retarded,Rich,Famous
Hunting,Target Shooting,Women
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Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 1,484
Campfire Regular
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OP
Campfire Regular
Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 1,484 |
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.
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Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 805
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 805 |
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..
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Joined: Jan 2018
Posts: 23,506
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2018
Posts: 23,506 |
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.
😎
Curiosity Killed the Cat & The Prairie Dog
“Molon Labe”
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Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 5,860
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 5,860 |
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....
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Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 24,128
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 24,128 |
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.
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 4,317
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 4,317 |
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. Good God man.
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Joined: May 2020
Posts: 2,639
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: May 2020
Posts: 2,639 |
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!
Last edited by troublesome82; 06/28/20.
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Joined: Jun 2020
Posts: 781
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jun 2020
Posts: 781 |
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
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Joined: Jun 2020
Posts: 781
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jun 2020
Posts: 781 |
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.
Last edited by elkmen1; 07/04/20.
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Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 1,531
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 1,531 |
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! 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.
Last edited by Filaman; 07/04/20.
What goes up must come down, what goes around comes around, there's no free lunch. Trump's comin' back, get over it!
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 10,910
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 10,910 |
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
Last edited by memtb; 07/04/20.
You should not use a rifle that will kill an animal when everything goes right; you should use one that will do the job when everything goes wrong." -Bob Hagel
“I’d like to be a good rifleman…..but, I prefer to be a good hunter”! memtb 2024
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Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 31,412
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 31,412 |
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.
"I can't be canceled, because, I don't give a fuuck!"
--- Kid Rock 2022
Holocaust Deniers, the ultimate perverted dipchits: Bristoe, TheRealHawkeye, stophel, Ghostinthemachine, anyone else?
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Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 7,739
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 7,739 |
Sounds like you all need a frying pan and portable dehydrate equipment.
Last edited by Angus1895; 07/04/20.
"Shoot low sheriff, I think he's riding a shetland!" B. Wills
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 21,167
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 21,167 |
I’d like to see a scale on each pack!! Haha
Ping pong balls for the win.
Once you've wrestled everything else in life is easy. Dan Gable
I keep my circle small, I’d rather have 4 quarters than 100 pennies.
Ain’t easy havin pals.
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 17,042
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 17,042 |
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.
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Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 140
Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 140 |
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.
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Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 31,412
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 31,412 |
Recall something about the coureur des sacs had 200lb bundles and ate 6lbs of jerky a day. Probably lived to about 35 lol.
"I can't be canceled, because, I don't give a fuuck!"
--- Kid Rock 2022
Holocaust Deniers, the ultimate perverted dipchits: Bristoe, TheRealHawkeye, stophel, Ghostinthemachine, anyone else?
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69,290
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 69,290 |
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.
“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
― George Orwell
It's not over when you lose. It's over when you quit.
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,711
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,711 |
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#. 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. Good God man.
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