Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Anyone use a Come-a-Long To Load a Deer????

Thinking of getting one to help me load my deer kills into the back of my pickup truck. Most of my deer weigh between 110-130 lbs.

I am 72, can only use one arm due to polio, which I have a rotator cuff repair on so any info would be appreciated.

Yes, they work well providing you have somewhere to anchor them to..You will also need something to act as a ramp, but loading will then be relatively easy..

Edited to add these these days many folks fit a cheap 12V ATV winch in the bed of their pick-ups..you will still need a ramp, but it works even better than a come-along...

Have a truck? Get a hitch holder and put a 99 buck china freight 12v winch on it. Winch up, rotate onto bed, drive away... Kinda like the wheelchair/hover round loaders but much cheaper I'd bet.

Depending upon your tuck bed setup, just loop some rope through the holes or hooks in your bed and then attach your hoist to it and use a couple sturdy 2x12's to make a ramp for the tailgate and winch it on in!

I carry one with me all the time out West.

Something like this would do the trick, I think.

They make a bunch of lifts that fit in the receiver hitch of your truck or ATV. Lots of our guys use them.

Try a cheap boat winch and a piece of mule tape.

BLRnut, lost most of the use of my left arm due to stroke and hunt off a 4 wheeler. Mule tape or very lightweight chain to drag deer out of woods and then a come-a-long to pull it into my little plastic trailer.

I use the a- Frame for one of my deer feeds with a hand winch to hang my deer. Spread the deers legs to 2 of the feeder legs to keep the deer from spinning around yer ready to start skinning.

Denny.

Yes, I used to use one to load deer into my pickup. I got a lightweight ATV ramp as well which helped a lot to get the deer up to the lowered tailgate. I hooked one end into one of the post holes at the front corner of the bed.

The one pictured costs about $14 but you're probably better off to spend a few more bucks to get a good sturdy one.

I have a setup on my ATV to lift deer on to it. It hooks into the hitch, use a eletric winch if you can much easier.

I always carry mule tape and a couple of small lightweight pulleys in my daypack for rolling over elk, hanging deer, etc. Usually have a come-a-long in the pickup for times when it is needed to load animals and even get the truck unstuck, or prevent the truck from sliding off the side of an icy road. Wouldn't leave home without it.

Unless they are used for hanging to gut and skin, I have no idea why those deer hoists are so popular in the US..

For loading the truck, many obstruct the tail gate area, which is the bit you want free! They look an over engineered solution to a simple problem?

Unless I am missing something, a come-along (or ATV winch) and a ramp look a much better solution for loading?

I am also 72 . Hunt alone as the sons are elsewhere.
the hoise that I built is like the picture, except I made the part that goes into the hitch long enough so the tailgate will flop down.
I used a come a long insted of a boat winch.
Work great to load alot of stuff.

I think it would be cool to drive around with a deer hoisted up on that!

Thanks all. The receiver hitch hoists are too heavy and too difficult to balance I have found out. The come-a-long looks like the winner thus far.

I am looking at one from Zoro Tools, uses a web strap, and goes for $180, made in the USA, steel, nonstamped, no rivits to pop out. EXPENSIVE but quality I think. Anyone heard of it??

I got this hoist the year after I had back surgery. It works fine for loading, unloading or skinning and quartering.

I hunt alone, found that using a game cart to get the critter to the truck also then works nicely as a ramp. Be easy to hook up a pull along to this to pull the deer in (much easier without the topper on the truck).

My solution was to shoot smaller deer like poohbah does....

If you are spending 180 on a come along, let me suggest, since the frame setups are not to your liking...

To go back to china freight, get the 99 buck 12 volt winch for ATVs, and rig it up so its either quick release in the bed or permanent for season in the bed. Simple AL ramp on the tail gate and you are done.

Being you are 72, and knowing that come alongs are extra work, just do it the power assisted way IMHO.

That would be my advice also..

Couple of guys on here have posted pictures of ATV winches set up in the beds of their trucks, and they are quite easy to rig up and don't have to be permanent..

However, If I were going that route, regardless of whether the winch was set up permanently or just jury rigged in the back, I would run decent power cables from the battery in engine compartment to the truck bed so I didn't have to fiddle running leads every time I used the winch..