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

Have a 2500# ATV winch on my pickup, any critter I can get to I can load By myself, also have a 10,000# winch on the front with 150' of cable, and 150' rope ,our problem is not getting up and down hills, it's finding a way threw the brush to the critter or close enough to get a rope on them to winch them out so we can load them. Rio7

I miss Pete E. He seemed like a good dude, for a limey.

Hope he's doing well.

Been there. Done that.




Details and more pics here:

https://genesis9.angzva.com/?p=3869


The problem is that, unless you're on the flat, the boards go every which way. While we still keep the ramps around, the easiest by far that we've found is something called the L-E-Vator.




More stuff on the L-E Vator here:

https://genesis9.angzva.com/?s=l+e+vator

It's no problem. All you need is a little help.

I carry a block and tackle 4 parts line in my hunting bag I keep in the truck. Most deer I can load but I have killed some big ones I couldn't. I throw a rope over a limb and pull one end of the deer up tailgate high. I grab the other end and can load them.

Only time I ever struggled loading a dead animal. was the first elk I ever shot in Colorado... Being a flatlander, and shooting it way down in a deep canyon from the road, I was wiped out after getting the 3rd quarter of it up out of that canyon to my truck. It was one of those canyons you dang near had to go up on all 4s to make it up...I was winded bad from the elevation, and my arms and back and legs were like spaghetti noodles after the 3rd trip up.... Luckily some big ole farm boys from Texas came by on a side by side and saw me struggling to get up the last part of the canyon to the truck and one of them jumped out and helped...I took a nap in the truck for 2 to 3 hours and went back for the rest of the elk with no issue...Learned a lot of lessons, for one, i'm not sure I ever want to shoot an elk in a deep hole like that again without having some help around to pack it out....Also learned to have an alternative way to load an animal just in case. I didn't have a winch, come along, or block and tackle. Just had a little rope and no ramp of any kind....I was young and stupid...

Any animal I can't lift I cut apart to load. I have to cut them up to butcher anyway, so what reason would I want to load them whole?

If I am saving the skin I will skin them just past the spine and then roll then over to the other side and do it again then I just field quarter them.

Bringing them back in one piece and then cutting them apart to do the butchering is hard, but cutting them up to butcher and then bringing them back is easy.
Elk, moose buffalo and even large deer get cut apart in the field ----and then they are loaded easily.

To lift a whitetail into my pickup bed, I built a small crane out of 2x4's. I use a ratchet strap to lift one half of the deer up, and lift the other half by hand.

Avoiding so much of that red crust and browned, oxidized meat is one reason I prefer to get them out whole, if possible. It's often not realistic to do so though.

I know a guy can grind that crust and brown meat, and I do that when I have that kind of meat to deal with but prefer to have as little of it as I can.

Brute force when you can't take it apart in the field. Or back your truck into a hole so tailgate is at ground level. Get Butt end in first!

Preferred method: Sit on tailgate, lay back, unhook backpack :-)

Never done anything bigger than a deer. But all my life my technique was to get on the back of the truck with my drag rope and stick, and roll the rope as far as I can and then just pull it up with brute force.

Now, I'm getting too damn old for that schit, especially with big deer. A few years ago I bought this doo-hickey. In the time that it takes to set it up, I could just drag the MoFo up by hand. But I'm worried I might F up my back or something and it just ain't worth it. Last year, I bet I killed 4 or 5 deer that were possibly over 150 lbs. (field dressed). This damned thing came in pretty handy. I also used it one time to lift my Honda Generator into the truck to take it to the shop to get it worked on.

This looks like a good option...

When I’m by myself and my winch is burned up I just halter them gif pictures site

And break out the meskin winch!

8000# Warn makes it easy.

Feller buncher can be perty handy..

first buy a mustard yellow Avalanche.
then mount a 2500# superwinch to the plastic valance over the back window.
next get 1 mile of cable .
lastly Ass shoot a bear, go home for the night, come back next am , lasso the bear with the mile long cable.......

i couldn't help my self!
i ahve used a wench and a winch to get moose whole into pickups and onto trailers. the best loading of a moose was when my cousin shot his 30 yards above a logging rd. there were 3 guys present. we backed his pu up to the bank, then slid the bugger down the hillside , over the bank and into his pu bed. actually i held the 3 rifles and cuz and friend did all the work!

Many folks underestimate the utility of a loader tractor. I mean, you never see, "Loader Tractor" on the gear list from any big-game guide's website.

Eight years later and this thread still cracks me up. I never dreamed there are so many guys who don't know how to quarter a critter and throw the quarters in back of the truck...........

a "come along" helps

I burn diesel before sweat if I have a choice.