Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting A 'just in case' pays off

I'm 74 with a bad shoulder. My partner is 77 with bad hips. Yesterday we did a 1 day deer hunt and as we were loading up his Dodge Ram, I had an afterthought. I tossed in 1 section of an ATV ramp. I said it was a just-in-case because if we got one, there was no way that us 2 old farts were going to get anything bigger than a fawn up on his high tailgate. I can hardly get up on it myself.
Well, last night I got a good sized buck. Not huge, but big enough to make us grunt dragging him off the hill. Before it was over, I swore that I'd NEVER go out without that ramp again. it saved our butts getting him loaded.

Well quit dickin around and show us that buck!!

Good point RC. Just a piece of plywood or even a couple of 2x4's cut to fit would help. I'm reminded of my trying to load an 8 point onto the back of dad's Plymouth sedan back in my youth and the back end would fall down when I got the front end up and vice-versa. A rope through the back windows helped. Even my deer cart is pretty useless once I get one to the truck, so that has morphed into a stiff sled and often a utility trailer with a lower deck.

Hardly a wall hanger. Just a good eating sized deer. 100 yd easy heart shot, 30-06 with a reloaded 165gr. AB.

Get you one of these and you can skin him out when you get home.



But seriously, I keep these in the truck during deer season.




And I keep this small ramp in the SxS.




Work smarter, not harder!

Well done, Rock Chuck!

Very nice, and good planning .

RC! Good looking buck if you ask me!

I've found if I can get the head to stay up on the tailgate I can get the buck, most of the time. About 7-8 years ago I shot a 200# buck when I was hunting alone. The road had steep ditches but flat on the bottom. I kept the deer up on the hill of the ditch and backed the truck up to it. That worked pretty well.

Good job rockchuck, I use a 2 wheel deer cart. Move the truck to get the top of the tailgate lower. If it's dry road ditch works. Sometimes just a plank and a. rope and pulley can work wonders....mb

Good job RC!

Much respect for refusing to slow down too much and getting out! Hope I'm in half that good of shape at your age.

If we hadn't had the ramp, we'd have probably skinned and quartered him by flashlight. We backed up to the hill but the tailgate was still waist high.
There's no limit to the ways to load a deer. The last 2 years I've used the same ramps to load whole elk. The difference there was that I have a Razor with a winch so I could winch them up the ramps. My ramps have expanded aluminum grating. If you want to save the hide, you really need some plywood over them as the grating will peel all the hair off.

different subject - in the photo you might have noticed that I use a Safari sling. I love that thing. It's much easier than a shoulder sling, especially when wearing a pack. You don't have to take it off to shoot. The sling lets you just bring up the rifle to shooting position with lots of extra room to adjust for tree limbs, rests, etc.
It's only fault is muzzle control. When you're hunting with someone, you need to be extra careful of where it's pointing.

Nice! Horn soup is highly overrated.
Not all of the wisdom we old facts have picked up is wasted.
Congrats
Bfly

Being a member of the old pharts hunt club, we use ramps in all the pickups, gators, side by sides, etc... BUT, we also have a 2500 lb winch on each vehicle to provide the muscle to get them in the bed. Then the meat pole has winches, walk in cooler, etc.... Could we do it without if we had to. Probably but why risk pulling a muscle, throwing your back out, etc.. when you do not have to. Should add the club takes around 80 deer per year so are loading one quite often.

Do tailgates still come off? On my old pickup I'd use that as a ramp in a pinch if needed. Of course it wasn't jacked up sky high.

Congrats on the deer and managing the effort. Great you still can and do go!

Grab yourself a chain hoist and your grandkids can load it solo for you!

I can still get around pretty good if I don't have to carry much of a load. it was pretty steep where I got this one. Notice in the photo that I'm on my left knee and my right leg is pretty much extended. Luckily the truck was all downhill.

Now, our cow elk season opens in about 3 weeks. It'll be flatter than this place. The last 2 years I got cows and both times I was able to drive my RZR right to them.

Well done and nice buck.

Good use of your ramp.
That sling does look pretty handy.

One of my hunting buddies carried a couple of 2"x8" wooden planks in his pickup, but he also mounted a large, stout pulley to the forward wall of the pickup bed. He'd put a dead deer, elk, etc. on the planks, tie the rope to the animal and pull the rope through the pulley until the animal was up in the bed. No problem and off he'd go to either camp or home.

Nice buck, Rock Chuck. As you said, "Good eats."

L.W.