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

A few guys I know have Pick-ups of one sort or another and one of the subjects of debate is how to easily load a larger deer carcass when stalking alone.

I came across this system on the Net and it looks ideal for folks who don't want to permanently mount a winch in the back.





My only reservation is whether the box of a typcial modern Jap pick-up is strong enough to act as an anochor point?

Pete...good to see you posting again..

I learned a couple tricks in Africa for loading game into a pickup ( wish I had taken pics...)
The first is to have a couple people( on larger game like elk) basically stand the critter on its head ( neck will be folded under of course) butt in the air...back the PU up to where the tailgate touches the critter then tip the heavy backside in...easier than loading head first cause of the weight differential.
Second is a pulley attached to the middle of the roll bar. A cable is run up and over this from the winch on the bumper. Hook the beast up and winch him in!

Good to be back my friend! Its a long holiday week end over here, but given the miserable weather, things are kind of slow!

Anyway, back to the topic..I've also seen some great ideas/ways of loading game while in RSA, but they either relied on specialist modified huntinging trucks with winches ect, or lots of man power and tricks like you mention..

The system in the video looks a good idea for the single handed stalker who does not want to modify their pick-up, but as i say I have reservations about the box of modern picks being strong enough. That said, the force is being applied to the corners of the box, which should be the strongest place?

Regards,

Peter

Should be fine for our whitetail deer sized critters...I think the box is strong enough...
I know from hunting alone loading up a big deer by yourself can be a real chore...
( actually with a doe the size of the one in the vid, we would just grab a couple legs and toss her in, alone or not )

The easiest method I've ever seen....My dad and I were on a back country road when we came to a washed out bridge. There was a parked front loader there that had been working on the bridge. There was also a pickup parked there with a whole, very large elk in the back. We got talking to the guy in the pickup. The day before, he'd waded the creek at the bridge, hiked close to 5 miles up the road behind it, and shot the elk in the middle of the road. Then he realized he couldn't get his pickup beyond the bridge. He hiked back to the bridge and found that the loader driver had showed up for work. He gave the driver a bottle of good whiskey he had with him, then they drove the loader up the road. They just picked up the elk in the bucket, drove back to the bridge, crossed the creek, and dumped the whole elk in the pickup. Nice!!

Sure good to see you back posting Pete.

A neat rig I saw was a boat winch mounted to a piece of 3/4 in plywood. The plywood was cut to slip down between the pickup bed and cab. Another piece of plywood to make a ramp from ground to tailgate and just crank away.

The smaller carcasses are easy enough, but I once had an "interesting" time trying to get a 170lb red deer staggie into the back of my small Suzuki Jimny!

It was not just the weight, but the fact a carcass is not rigid. Plus the confined cargo space did not help!

When I unloaded at the larder, the game dealers face was an absolute picture! lol!

Sounds like a good idea as it would spread the load over a larger area..

Quite a few of the guys in my hunting club are getting on in years, and loading a largish carcass is not just "difficult", but is also not so good from a health perspective..

The older I get, the more I see the need for mechanized help. I decided to quit straining and make the job easier with a Warn recovery winch and some hardware.

I put a plumbing/electrical wall support across the front of the box and then attached eye bolts to that. The support also strengthens the front of the box for pulling large animals.

The Warn Winch comes with provisions to attach the winch with links to the eye bolts and then you run the cables from the winch directly to the battery and then winch the critter into the back, using the 4 wheeler ramp you never leave at home.

It looks like this in the back of my truck...



But when you take someone else's truck you have to improvise...

shrap, Is that yer quartering sawzall in the red milwaukee box?

I don't get it. Are you coping with a disability? Really really old? Or what? Otherwise, why don't you just pick the deer up and set it in the truck?

Easy enough with a smaller deer carcass such as roe, and not so bad with medium sized deer such as Fallow for the most part, but once you start shooting big Fallow bucks, Sika stags or Red deer, things become a little more difficult, especially if you are shooting them in any numbers.

The pic below is a decent sized Red stag taken off a bit of ground I used to stalk although not taken be me i should add.



If you can hurl one of those into the back of a pick-up, I have nothng but admiration for you!

Regards,

Peter

And the American version is just a tad heavier...you aint gonna load it alone....



Pushing 60 and I can still toss your average whitetail in the back of the truck...but not one of these bad boys...

Sorry, I didn't notice where you're from. Perhaps mislead by the picture in the first post, when you said big deer, I was thinking big mule deer or big white tailed deer. 300 pounds on the hoof is a bruiser, take out 50 pounds for guts, so maybe 250 pounds maximum lift, more likely 200 or under. Most adult men, especially outdoorsmen, can do that unless there's some kind of physical disability or extreme age involved.

One option might be a barrel hoist. Another is what they call a "Tommy lift" .. hydraulic tailgate lift.

Thinkin' out loud here ... we mounted a base plate in the front of one of our pickup trucks, then wired a removable 4000 pound electric winch to it. We had an A-frame (arch) over the back of the bed. This was to lift logs so we could drag whole logs in as firewood rather than split and load individual blocks, but you could omit the a-frame, use a 2-3 2x12s 8 feet long as a ramp, and employ a small electric winch the same way.

Tom

I typically take the quarters out of my pack, put them in a cooler, then use the convenient handles to lift said cooler into truck bed. For elk, put the cooler in first.....

PS - I loaded a 1200 pound (dressed out) hereford bull into a pickup truck alone one time.

We're comparatively weak, no thick hide, stubby teeth, nails instead of claws, minimal natural defenses: what sets us apart is our brains. Gotta evaluate the situation, assess our resources, figure out what "levers" are available and how we might employ them to multiply our lesser strength. We're not whipped 'til we're both outmuscled and outsmarted.

You sound like a bad ass!

Huh?

I was trying to understand the purpose. Some guys might build a device just to test their fabrication skills and ingenuity, but so far as physical necessity, for an "american" deer, that doesn't make sense.

We straightened it out.

That'll work.

I haven't done it that way too many times because back ta home, we've got "facilities" akin to a professional butcher. Its faster, easier, and cleaner overall for us to load 'em in the truck whole, haul ass back to the house, hang the critter, skin it in a hanging position, rinse it down with dilute vinegar or bleach, and run it straight into cold storage without ever bagging or quartering it than it is to skin and quarter 'em on the ground, bag, etc for the drive home, then clean 'em up before they go in cold storage.

Not too many people have that slick a setup. Hunting out of area where it's more than a few minute drive, what you're suggesting makes sense.

Whether I hunt near "home" or not depends on family politics of the moment, unfortunately, so sometimes I get to use the cool toys, other times I have to do it the hard way.

Tom

How about something like this? I have thought about getting something like this for loading elk.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_74569_74569