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

For backcountry camping?

It's been a while but I used to take a plastic kids sled and load it with enough gear and food for a long weekend...

Does anyone today make a sled designed for backcountry travel?

I've experimented with sleds, to use behind me skiing. They are usually called "pulks" when used that way. Here is a link to build your own.

http://www.snowshoemag.com/2012/01/10/building-a-pulk-sled/

Just google "ski pulk" and you'll get tons of results. The key is having a stiff connection between your hips and the sled, so when going downhill it doesn't slide up on you and the momentum actually pushes you faster. It keeps a solid connection at all times.

My homemade pulks are usually a bear to ski with. I've always thought about getting an old pair of xcountry skis to attach to the bottom of any old sled to help it slide and use my removeable backpack hip belt for an attachment. Plus, if you set the right ski width on the pulk, it would track in your own ski (or snowshoe) tracks making it slide even better.

I've used them quite a bit during the winter and they can be nice but it depends on the terrain and the amount of gear. If you've got lots of gear and relatively wide trails they work fine. But if your talking narrow trails, lots sidehilling, tight terrain, bush whacking, etc. they can be more trouble than they are worth. Throw in some slick, crusty snow and they can pull you around as much as you pull them. But your mileage may vary.

I love mine for winter camping and for hauling an elk out in snow. They aren't cheap, but make life easier in most instances. Switchbacks are also a pain in the butt, mine does pretty well sidehilling if you have it loaded bottom heavy.

http://www.kifaru.net/sleds.html

I used a cheapo 10 dollar sled to get all four quarters and pelt out of a cow elk in one go, with about 30 inches of fresh snow. I used the HOKS as skis. It was close to two miles and 1500 feet of downhill. It was bone in, probably 250'lbs or close to it. It was not fancy, but very effective with very few problems.

johnw;
Thanks for the interesting topic and for those who've responded thus far.

We've been using cheap ($15-$20 Cdn) 5'6" molded plastic toboggans for game extraction for a number of years now - when they were much younger our girls dubbed it "the dead sled."

If memory serves we're on either number 5 or 6 now, as they don't last forever when used on rocks.

In this photo taken by my good wife, you can sort of make out the sled being pulled by me and loaded with a pretty good sized mulie buck that our youngest had shot that morning.



One of the modifications we've found that makes these toboggans a bit more user friendly is that I lash two of them together to make them a bit stiffer.

Here is a bit better photo of a whitetail lashed into it which shows how the pull rope has been laced into the combined sleds to provide loops for the lash rope, hold the two sandwiched toboggans together and provide a good enough purchase on the sleds to not pull out in an inopportune moment.


As has been noted by a couple of contributors above me, if the terrain involves a lot of side hill work then life can get plenty sporty in short order.

For less than ideal terrain I'll attach a tail rope on the sled and walk behind while steering with the front rope and holding it back with the tail rope. This method has proven fairly successful for us, but again when one has a couple of moose hindquarters lashed in the fun can indeed multiply quickly.

I'd never considered having a solid connection to me as is pictured in the links. While I can see it being of some use in fairly level terrain, I can't begin to conceive how it wouldn't lead to grief on side hill or off trail use.

Anyway hopefully that was some use to someone out there this blustery morning. Thanks again for the informative reading and good luck on your upcoming hunts.

Regards,
Dwayne

That is a hell of a good buck!!

Another sled that works very well is the poly calf sleds that ranchers us for hauling newborn calves back to the shed. They are deeper then a kids sled and are heavier duty to with stand more use.

I've hauled out two moose and an elk in this one - that's a boned cow elk minus one hind. The hide's on top. The model is the "Beast."

I added the PVC stays and run them to a hip belt, or a day pack. The stays are OK for a light load but as soon as I headed down a slight decline with a game-loaded sled the stays collapsed the sled came past me. I removed then, ran a rope at the rear of the sled, and I "rode" it down the hill, attempting to steer from the rear.

This site: http://www.skipulk.com/ has a very informative pdf book on building pulks ranging from simple (like mine) to much more complex.

You can always buy a fancy sled from Kifaru.

That buck is an absolute BRUISER!

Sans snow, a bicycle makes more sense. Ask the Vietcong.

My son dubbed ours the "dead sled" years ago... About the time he got big enough to pull it, I think...

Some good ideas on here, and i like the calf sleds, too...

The one I've been using for a long time has the word "expedition" molded into it, but it is little more than a heavy duty kids plastic sled... Probably 60x22"...

I have seen some seemingly very heavy duty plastic sleds over the years. Many of them were cracked, and I wonder if they weren't too rigid and lacked flexibility in the cold???

2 sleds nested and lashed together is a cool idea...

Snow? We don' need no steenking snow!

My girl kid's blackie.

I had not considered dragging on bare ground but it seems to be worthwhile for someone to do it twice.
-for a full discussion on pulling in winter get the Snow Walker's Companion by Conover $25, 244 pages including building toboganns from thick plastic sheeting, stoves, tents etc.
-as some of the above sites mention you need fins to keep it tracking straight on side hills or have one rope at each end with 2 people preferably controlling the sled if available

It beats the hell out of carrying a bear on a pole.

a bit rare to have snow during the firearms deer season here...
read about using a plastic sled for deer many years ago, and have been doing it since... snow or no...

good bear and deer pics...

Anybody have any other interesting sites or bullshit to share with the group about pulks and their use. Any other homebrew setups would be cool. Or turnkeys that aren't 500 bucks?

I need a new hobby this winter, plus I figure if I spend a lot of time living in a tent in the dead of winter, it'll suck less when it's 30 in November.

Here you go Dan:
http://www.hillpeoplegear.com/FreeResources/PulkInstructions/tabid/806/Default.aspx

Another option is Game Glide. They make a tarp like setup designed to make dragging easy. It could use better rope and connections, but it does ease the effort of dragging. It's a one use thing, throw it away when done. They are pretty cheap though and light enough to pack in with you (without the harness I think they are maybe 6 ounces).

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.

kcnboise,

How do you connect the poles to the sled?

I have been pondering different ideas to make that connection tighter as I do not like the slop in it.

How about a short length ( say a few inches) of some sort of "rubber" hose or pipe? Blue alkathene water pipe might work but might be too rigid especially in the cold..

If your going to take a pulk through rough terrain you must have a "no slop" connection. Everything can be found here: http://www.skipulk.com/products-and-components/components-and-accessories

I heated up the ends of the pvc with a heat gun and flattened them, just leaving enough room for the tow rope to go through. The flats are horizontal at the sled and vertical at the belt. I swapped out the tow rope for a longer piece so that the pvc uncrossed is the same length as the sled, and the tow rope goes through both pieces of pvc. At the ends that attach to the belt I tied overhand knots that stick out from the pvc just enough to get a chain connector quick link on them. The quick links hook onto the belt on the outsides of my hips, not in the back of the belt. There's just enough slop that when the poles are untied and uncrossed that they'll flip back and lay inside the sled.

Anybody still pulking in the winter?

Every winter for me

And yesterday too!

Where you taking all that snow?

Seems like they'd be ideal for winter camping and getting game out.
I'll build one when I get moved back to Idaho.
Guy could drag a small canvas tent/woodstove,chainsaw,plenty food,propane heater, etc. in and then backpack hunt out from a basecamp.

I've seen a couple builds online with sleds like yours. > LIKE...

Yeah they work pretty well. Mine is a Paris Expedition sled, very reasonably priced (but sturdy) with some rope and a couple of crossed pvc tubes. There are definitely fancier ones out there, but this one has served me well for about a decade.

Made one (previously posted).

Found downhill skis, removed bindings, attached curved to fit the tops of the skis 2x6s sunk bolts protruding that fit platform and attached found bed slats ends of which are reinforced angle aluminum.

Glide wax.

Medium large screw eyes in rear of platform allow ski tip to assist in level or ascent. Large screw eyes in front allow attachment of waist harness and slings.

Transports two winter packs and rifles.

Easily disassembles to even fit into a car.

Can be controlled on any well cut snow trail descent with nylon slings walking behind.

Looked up KevinT old comment 'Game Glide' and found this TSC Deer Drag ,guy could make a cheap one with it.


https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/p...Vl76sWZ9ifPEb8pkUOPInfknBcaAirPEALw_wcB#

Orscheln shows they have 8 in stock, going to buy one,, 5 minutes down the road.

https://www.orschelnfarmhome.com/deer-drag-100052924.html

Bought one, I'll look it over for a bit then get some hardware.

Terrain sled is thin material, stones, sharp objects trashed it post-haste. Might be ok in a city park. I use various sizes of the Jet Sled that are heavy duty.

Used a sled a few weeks ago to pack out 3 bull elk quarters about 3 miles downhill on trail to the road. Shappell ice fishing sled (the heavy-duty one). Just drilled holes where needed to add paracord pull cord and side cords for taller/bulkier loads. Worked great in 15” of snow!

If you’ve done it, I think you will agree with me that it is the wrong choice every time!

>ski pole tip<

Roundoak,

You must travel really fast or really heavy.
Nice pictures, the wolf > hat-tip and a www pat on the back ! ! !

Once was enough too much.

Just noticed this old thread. Was kinda tickled that I saw my name on the top page of the backpacking threads.

I barely get out to hunt anymore and the thought of pulling a sled somewhere to sleep in the snow makes me ache all over.

And we've barely got any snow yet this fall, but the youngest kid was at the house the other day and had some of his stuff out, including his sled.

Most years he takes off the week before Christmas and spends a few days winter camping. Last year he took a rural postal carrier job and had no free time at all from Thanksgiving through new years.