Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Recovery of a whole elk?

Especially in cold weather. A friend and some buddies once loaded a whole 6-point bull in the back of a Suburban, and got back to town late and dead-tired, so left it there. That night the temperature dropped well below zero. They couldn't budge the elk the next morning!

Tie the elk to a tree or very solid stake and just drive away.

Bullet holes in trucks happen. Just keep the bullets away from things that leak and you'll be fine.

Yeah, I used that trick one time at the dump with a dead horse.

I majored in Animal Sci. in college. We had a meats lab that was a miniature packing house. One of the profs saw an article from another college where they killed and skinned a sheep, then propped it up in the freezer and let it freeze solid. Then they sliced it up with a bandsaw so the students could see how the muscles, bones, and organs lay in the animal. He decided to try it, too, but he used a small steer instead of a sheep. Once that steer was frozen, there was no possible way to handle it or get it on the bandsaw. He ended up having to thaw it out to move it.

Older brother and I worked graveyard at Jack in the box when I was in high school and he just starting JC... he killed an antelope with dad, brought it back skinned whole and propped it upright in the walkin freezer for night shift...

scared the poor morning girl to hysterical screaming when we forgot to warn her on shift change...

Kent

Years ago I knew a guy who was an asst mgr at a pizza place. He always used the store cooler for big game. It's a good thing the health inspector never found out or he'd have closed them down.

I got mine out whole. Took five hours, four guys, three vehicles, and one very understanding and helpful landowner. What a great guy.

I killed mine about 10 yards inside the Forest Service boundary fence. Unlucky elk.

Winching into a tree with the atv winch helps to make it easier. Once you have the elk winched into the tree, you drive under it and let it back down onto the 4 wheeler, then you tie it on and drag the other elk...

Best $20 on lumber I ever spent:




Got this one about 3/4 mile from the road. Lucked out, it was the only day the ground was frozen hard...otherwise it was muddy as hell and sloppy, and I'd of had to of packed her out. Backed up to her, hooked a come a long and strap around her and the front of the truck bed, and winched her right up. Took all of 5 mins and never broke a sweat.

Also have winched one up into a tree, and lowered it back down into the bed.

Wish they were all as easy as these two were.

I have packed far more elk out on my back than I have ever seen whole. Given the large number I have been involved with a few are always up hill, close to the road, on a skid road or decommissioned road, but 90+%, are either "way" down or "way" up, with no "way" (pun intended), to move them other in lots of pieces. We have used chain saw winches, ropes, pulleys, cables, gear driven winches, ATV's, but I will say however that in my lifetime I have spent far more time hunting them , than packing them out !!! I also hunt a lot by myself and most other options don't work with one person.

My favorite way to recover them...








I got twice lucky, but I've had pack-outs lasting three days more than once, also.

Not too many years ago, 2 hunters in OR dropped down in a real hell hole where 1 shot a big bull. As they were dressing it out, one of them dropped dead of a heart attack. It took the rescue team 3 days to get his body out. If it was that nasty, I have no idea how they planned to pack out the elk. To be fair, though, I doubt that the rescue team quartered him.

We used to load our animals into the trailer by hand. A few yearsago, one of our group came up with this. Big improvement.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...BAD-534-0000008944893283_zpsdcbddb08.mp4[/img]

Paging Greenhorn.

My funny whole elk story. I was hunting a ridge near home that usually only had my foot prints. I'm walking up it one morning and notice the meager trail has been greatly expanded and recently used. I'm thinking hunters on horses came through. After first light I notice elk hair on logs on the ground. I'm watching a good saddle a few hours later when a group of 6 hunters show up. Surprised, I asked if they were driving elk (Who hunts in a group of 6?) No, they were elk hunting - they shot a 5 point here opening day, it took them 12 hours to drag it out whole (3 miles!). I'm looking at 6 hunters, with backpacks, and bust out laughing so hard I have to bend over with my hands on my knees. Between giggles, I ask why they didn't quarter it and take it out in a little over an hour. No response. I decided to leave before it turned into a fist fight. I laughed all the way back to my truck.

Why would you return to an area it took you 12 hours for one trip to get the animal out?

We've done it both ways....


I'm kinda partial to the latter.....

Ditto, I have boned and packed and I have ignored the un Constitutional land managers and backed a truck up where half a dozen of us did the old heave ho.

Ran into a "former Navy Seal" one year who was with four guys when they killed an elk and in 3 days they couldn't figure out how to get it to a pack string - the whole situation was actually even worse than the part i just told you.

Anyway some people can manage to get things done and some can't even imagine it being possible.

I'd drop a dime on your dumb ass..