Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Loading big game into a pickup truck?

Speaking for myself...the last one I killed is the one I posted a pic of earlier in the thread...whole and in the truck...That will be the last one I ever kill....had a long string of good luck, and that dude rolled off a mountain and landed at the bottom wit a little urging from my boot...we could get the truck within 100 yds....I went back to the ranch and rallied the troops...7 men, one four wheeler and another pickup...it took three hours to get the bastid in the truck ( intervening creek etc...with steep banks..)
Thats about as easy as an elk gets, and I figgered I'm getting too old for this schitt!!!

Shoot last year I shot and average sized buck and didn't think I was ever going to get the thing loaded into the back of my suv. Awkward sized loads of limp dead weight of 170 lbs + or - is much heavier than it was 20 years ago and I don't recall it being all that easy back then. For two it's easy but for one it can be a booger. Actually that's why I have never been too interested in elk hunting. Too much work if you happen to get one.

Good ideas fellas. I'll pass them onto my dad. Although he just drags them up to the camp via Yamaha Grizzly and tow strap for me to take care of. I can't complain about the guy who taught and took care of me for so many years though.

All I know is that I want to hunt with Shrapnel.

Dragging an elk with a 4 wheeler is great, but you still have to get them in the back of the truck -- a chore for a solo person.

Just pick 'em up and drop 'em in the back of your pickup.


One of these outfits works pretty well for the job. Pick any elk up anywhere you kill it and set it right down in the back of your pickup.

S W E E T Where do I get one?

Most of the places we hunt elk, an ATV is impossible and illegal. I got my ATV in '98 and I've been able to use it precisely 1 time to pack out an elk. All the rest have been the hard way.

Been on those type of hunts. A bill to one of the local guides that has horses or mules in the area sure is nice. I don't think I'd ever attempt an elk hunt solo, but shall it happen, I'd sure go hire some help to pack it out. That's a bitch for us flat lander sea level folks.

My last deer I basically butchered where it fell. Put the meat into trash bags, loaded it in my pack and hoofed it out. The carcass was gone in two days between ravens and yotes. Easy for me though I hunt a 400 acre parcel across the road from my house.

I made one of those. Mine will lift 2k easy as its much heavier built. The 1st one I made was similar to that one and it snapped at the base with an Antelope hanging on it. I redid it with 2" pipe and welded a support piece to the base area. Made it so I can have it at 12' tall or 7' with a removeable section. I hunt mostly alone and I can lift anything I need to....as long as I can get my trcuk to it otherwise its quarter & pack.

I just get in touch with a relative (all farmers). We load the deer into the bucket on the tractor! and then drop it in the bed of the pickup.

To hell with all that dragging crap, we're all too old and lazy for that stuff. We seldom have to drag a deer any further than 100 yards, just to where we can get the tractor to it.

Of course, we're hunting farm ground, and most of it is fairly open country (north/central Missouri).

There are also a couple ATVs, and even a horse-drawn cart, if it's back in the brush. We try to keep the fun in deer huntin', if it's work, we might as well go to work and get paid for it.

The last deer I got on my own was a red hind that went about 150 pounds, I slit the back legs between the bone and the tendon, cut the front legs at the hock and broke the joint then slipped the front legs through the slits on the back legs and carried her like a back pack.
Only had to go about a mile but it was just coming on dark and hard to see in the bush so it took a while.

Now I have teenagers to do all the heavy carrying for me.

My way. Actually, I haven't shot an elk since I got them but they can carry a load a whole lot easier than I can. At the truck, the panniers only weight 40 to 50 lb so I can handle them.

Rope, pulley, and 3/4 inch plywood or a couole of 2×10s.... Tie a rope with the pulley on it between the hooks in the back of the bed of the truck. Use the plywood or 2x10s like a ramp from your tailgate to the ground. Move the elk about a 3rd to halfway up the plywood ramp head first. Run a rope through the pulley, and tie one end of that rope around the elks neck if its a cow, antlers if its a bull...Tie the other end of the rope going through the pulley to a tree or something solid in the ground behind your truck and then drive the truck forward...The rope through the pulley around the elks neck/ antlers wiil drag the elk up the plywood into the back of the truck as you drive forward...

Um .. why? Why wouldn't you just pick it up and set it in the truck bed? Some kind of extreme physical disability? I'm not trying to be a dick here, I'm truly trying to see the need. My dad is 85, pretty well stove up, but he just packs his buck up to the back of the truck, lowers the tail gate, and puts it in the bed, then shuts the tailgate. Why are you complicating things so much?

The only time I've had a problem getting something loaded was .. well, it was an 800 pound hereford bull I shot. I did manage to get it up into the truck bed whole (minus guts of course) but that was kind of a bitch.

-- tangent ... need to share. It's Sept 12, right? there's a frickin buck walking around the yard with his neck out straight, lip curled, sniffing does. Sure seems early for that.

Tom

I have to say that is as good a system as I have seen, cheap and easy.

I am getting older so am inclined to look at these solutions.

I put an ATV winch in mine... done