Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Anyone Use a Sled?

I'm going to be building one for packing into some places for ice fishing. Thanks for the info Evan.

Our scout troop hikes into Montana off of the Lookout pass every year for snow caving, we use pulks to get our gear in.

I will get one down and post some pics of it later today.

Dan,

I have some pretty cool sleds/trace systems. I'll either post the info or PM you.

The sled is about 5 feet long, I got it from Black Sheep, a local sporting goods store. The sled material is thicker than the el cheapo sleds you get from wally world.

I got the SCH 80 1" pipe from Lowes, it's a 10' piece cut in half to make each half of the trace.

The belt is mil surplus from the Army Navy store.

The carabiners shown are from REI but the 150lb rated ones from Lowes or Home Depot work just as well and are much much cheaper.

The rope through the trace came with the sled.

Sled $25.00
Belt $10.00
Pipe $10.00
Carabiners $.50 each

I don't remember the prices exactly but they are close.

I used paracord to tie the traces together and made loops of paracord for trying loads down to the sled itself, you can either use bungee cords or paracord for lashing.

I hope you post, Ed.

I'm sure I'm not the only one that would like to see that info.

yup...

+ another

I seen a similar type of sled that might work for sale at the local Cosco. I don't remember the make or cost but it caught my eye as I thought about all the bear bait through the snow over the years!

I had never thought about dragging a sled in terrain without snow....

Only times I've ever drug something on sled other than firewood was the bird feeding(target shooting) missions 2 Winters ago.
Very easy terrain and when the snow got hard later on the sled pulled even better.




Congrats again Dwayne on that great buck!

Awesome deer.

Sam;
This is a quick thanks to you and the others who commented on the grand old whitetail that I was blessed to be able to take.

In a lifetime of chasing deer - pretty hard most falls might I add - - I've managed to kill only three in that age class.

Two were whitetails and the other was a mulie and the interesting thing to me was that while the body condition was similar in all three - very little body fat evident and very worn teeth - this one still grew a very good rack but the other buck's racks were definitely on the downhill side.

Anyway I do feel incredibly blessed to have been able to get an opportunity to see a grand old buck like that, much less take him home.

Hopefully this finds you and yours doing well Sam. I note that beef prices aren't too bad at present, at least up here, but feed and fuel costs have likely eaten into any profits the strong beef prices might have yielded.....such is farming and ranching it seems.

Thanks again and all the best to you and your family this Christmas Season.

Dwayne

That is what I use. Its better behind a four wheeler or snowmobile. They are pretty wide and don't go through the thick stuff as well as a real pulk does.

Saw one of these in Dick's Sporting Goods today and it was very stable in construction. I am no way affilated with Dick's.
http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/product/index.jsp?productId=10823585

That appears to be the same thing the local Big R has for calving season, except camo.

That would be a good thing, I forsee needing to sneak up on the lakes I'm planning to ice fish this January.

Never pulled a sled, just curious as to how much y'all can tow comfortly on level ground?...I'm sure it depends on the snowpack but just looking as a rule of thumb?

Very interesting thread and love the photo's especially Dwaynes..
I know a couple of guys over here who use them for recovering game (usually sans the snow) and providing the ground is not too rough/rocky they seem to worth while and a step up from using a plastic tarp..

The other benefits are that it keeps the carcass clean and the hide in good condition.

Something like that also makes a good "carcass carrier" for the back of a vehicle, especially for SUV's ect. Makes cleaning up after a hunt so much easier...

Pretty standard around here to use a calf sled for hauling game. I have also wrapped a plastic tarp around half a moose and drug it out the the swamp that way a few times. Works well if there are not too many rocks or tree roots.

I found this site, and they have some cool gear... snowsled

elkhunter_241 didn't mention it specifically in his post, but he shows the key to getting a sled to track and pull correctly in his photos. Note the poles are crossed and tied together in the center:



I use almost the exact same setup, but don't have the carabiners at the sled. I found having the poles tight against the sled gives me more control, especially on side hills. Makes the sled less likely to tip.

The other thing I do is have an extra length of rope, about 3 feet, that you can tie to the side ropes and run under the sled about 2/3 of the way to the back. I use it on downhills to add a little friction to keep the sled from running me over. You can use a longer length and run it back and forth under the sled multiple times to get more friction.