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

For ELK - We have various methods between the different groups I hunt with. One group I hunt with is on a 5000 acre cattle ranch so ATV's are available. We use the RSA butt first method with a tip trailer:

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that way we don't have to lift a full grown elk up to to a tailgate.

When ATV's are not an option we just get more guys to do the butt first method.

For Deer - Toss it up and in.

But the better method is shoot it *(at a legal distance) above the road, in the snow, back up to the cut bank and roll/slide the bad boy in.

edit: I should add that usually the elk and deer are shot at the furthest distance from a drivable/open road which requires skinning, quartering and packing out with old army style pack boards that cut deep into your shoulders.

99 per cent of my elk, and my partners elk come out on our backs and in pieces. Not hard to load in the back of the PU. I cannot remember my last elk that I drove to. I did have a very large three point mulie buck (12), years ago that required help because I was loading him up hill and on ice. It was a struggle for two of us.

A couple 2x8's and a good old fashioned block and tackle is a cheap effective method. Get the locking type of blocks, though, so you can take a rest half way up if necessary.

Actually, that red box is the case for the Warn recovery winch. It truly is a compact easy way to load. Come-a-longs and such are a step better than nothing, but this winch makes no work of a potentially back breaking proposition.

Getting a full sized elk on a 4 wheeler is another job for the Warn winch when it is mounted on the 4 wheeler. You can put a snatch block in a tree, winch the elk up the tree and then let the elk down onto the front of the 4 wheeler, then you drag the other elk behind...





This is another method, even easier...

It is all good, but don't forget the most reliable. A 30 pack.

The game warden around here has a 3/8" flat retangular plate that is welded horizontal to the bottom center of his trucks headache rack. He has a small warn wench to pull critters into his truck bed.

Saw some elk hunters (with a bull elk loaded whole) using a similar set up and a 4X8 sheet of plywood for the ramp. The old man said that it worked really good for loading oryx. My F-150 is set up with a come-along kind of like in the video.

This http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/prod...ch-All%252BProducts%26Ntt%3Dgame%2Bhoist

A 4-wheeler ramp with plywood top works well. Come-a-long or pulleys and ropes.

Hydra Bed is by far easier.

They work real well if you can ever get the owner to actually hunt...

Once a year....grin

Once a year for me too, it just lasts 365 days...

This is how you get'em 3 miles back to the ranch when there's no one around to help load and fresh snow. I'd a drug it with a horse to be all western and schitt, but this was faster.

There is always a trailer for a 8 mile run through the mud...

You have to get creative when you're alone and have to load an elk. I've even used a ratchet strap to pull and elk into a pickup bed.

You guys must hunt in some pretty extreme places to have an elk in one piece waiting at the truck.

I can still get a big bodied deer in my truck, but definitely see the need for these contraptions for older or less able hunters. We are lucky enough to hunt mostly on lands that allow the use of ATVs and alot of folks just drag deer into a trailer with their atv when hunting solo.

The last few times I've hunted in elk country was on private ranches. A portable 12v winch and a set of atv ramps is all a man needs when you can get a truck to them. Other than that it's a hack and stack mission mostly. My bud John and I killed a couple bulls a couple years back in timber. We gutted them and drug them both down the mountain to the first open meadows(luckily not too far on either bull). We were able to get a Polaris Ranger to them then and a couple extra guys to help load in the bed. Back at the truck, we just slid them from the Ranger bed to the truck bed.

My wife bought me this several years ago for Christmas. It works really well on our out of state hunts. We usually clean the deer on this rack and throw the meat in coolers, then head to town for ice.

It also works really well for lifting the deer off the ground and swiveling around into the truck for those of you needing an easier way to load them. It has a pin, so you can swivel or use it in fixed position for cleaning. I haven't used it for lifting other heavy objects, but I'm sure it would work just dandy. Very handy piece of hunting equipment and hard to beat for only $90.



Here's the link:
http://shop.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/guide-gear-deluxe-360-degree-swivel-lift-system.aspx?a=681080

I call AAA!

Speaking for myself...the last one I killed is the one I posted a pic of earlier in the thread...whole and in the truck...That will be the last one I ever kill....had a long string of good luck, and that dude rolled off a mountain and landed at the bottom wit a little urging from my boot...we could get the truck within 100 yds....I went back to the ranch and rallied the troops...7 men, one four wheeler and another pickup...it took three hours to get the bastid in the truck ( intervening creek etc...with steep banks..)
Thats about as easy as an elk gets, and I figgered I'm getting too old for this schitt!!!

Shoot last year I shot and average sized buck and didn't think I was ever going to get the thing loaded into the back of my suv. Awkward sized loads of limp dead weight of 170 lbs + or - is much heavier than it was 20 years ago and I don't recall it being all that easy back then. For two it's easy but for one it can be a booger. Actually that's why I have never been too interested in elk hunting. Too much work if you happen to get one.

Good ideas fellas. I'll pass them onto my dad. Although he just drags them up to the camp via Yamaha Grizzly and tow strap for me to take care of. I can't complain about the guy who taught and took care of me for so many years though.

All I know is that I want to hunt with Shrapnel.

Dragging an elk with a 4 wheeler is great, but you still have to get them in the back of the truck -- a chore for a solo person.

Just pick 'em up and drop 'em in the back of your pickup.


One of these outfits works pretty well for the job. Pick any elk up anywhere you kill it and set it right down in the back of your pickup.

S W E E T Where do I get one?

Most of the places we hunt elk, an ATV is impossible and illegal. I got my ATV in '98 and I've been able to use it precisely 1 time to pack out an elk. All the rest have been the hard way.

Been on those type of hunts. A bill to one of the local guides that has horses or mules in the area sure is nice. I don't think I'd ever attempt an elk hunt solo, but shall it happen, I'd sure go hire some help to pack it out. That's a bitch for us flat lander sea level folks.

My last deer I basically butchered where it fell. Put the meat into trash bags, loaded it in my pack and hoofed it out. The carcass was gone in two days between ravens and yotes. Easy for me though I hunt a 400 acre parcel across the road from my house.

I made one of those. Mine will lift 2k easy as its much heavier built. The 1st one I made was similar to that one and it snapped at the base with an Antelope hanging on it. I redid it with 2" pipe and welded a support piece to the base area. Made it so I can have it at 12' tall or 7' with a removeable section. I hunt mostly alone and I can lift anything I need to....as long as I can get my trcuk to it otherwise its quarter & pack.

I just get in touch with a relative (all farmers). We load the deer into the bucket on the tractor! and then drop it in the bed of the pickup.

To hell with all that dragging crap, we're all too old and lazy for that stuff. We seldom have to drag a deer any further than 100 yards, just to where we can get the tractor to it.

Of course, we're hunting farm ground, and most of it is fairly open country (north/central Missouri).

There are also a couple ATVs, and even a horse-drawn cart, if it's back in the brush. We try to keep the fun in deer huntin', if it's work, we might as well go to work and get paid for it.

The last deer I got on my own was a red hind that went about 150 pounds, I slit the back legs between the bone and the tendon, cut the front legs at the hock and broke the joint then slipped the front legs through the slits on the back legs and carried her like a back pack.
Only had to go about a mile but it was just coming on dark and hard to see in the bush so it took a while.

Now I have teenagers to do all the heavy carrying for me.

My way. Actually, I haven't shot an elk since I got them but they can carry a load a whole lot easier than I can. At the truck, the panniers only weight 40 to 50 lb so I can handle them.

Rope, pulley, and 3/4 inch plywood or a couole of 2×10s.... Tie a rope with the pulley on it between the hooks in the back of the bed of the truck. Use the plywood or 2x10s like a ramp from your tailgate to the ground. Move the elk about a 3rd to halfway up the plywood ramp head first. Run a rope through the pulley, and tie one end of that rope around the elks neck if its a cow, antlers if its a bull...Tie the other end of the rope going through the pulley to a tree or something solid in the ground behind your truck and then drive the truck forward...The rope through the pulley around the elks neck/ antlers wiil drag the elk up the plywood into the back of the truck as you drive forward...

Um .. why? Why wouldn't you just pick it up and set it in the truck bed? Some kind of extreme physical disability? I'm not trying to be a dick here, I'm truly trying to see the need. My dad is 85, pretty well stove up, but he just packs his buck up to the back of the truck, lowers the tail gate, and puts it in the bed, then shuts the tailgate. Why are you complicating things so much?

The only time I've had a problem getting something loaded was .. well, it was an 800 pound hereford bull I shot. I did manage to get it up into the truck bed whole (minus guts of course) but that was kind of a bitch.

-- tangent ... need to share. It's Sept 12, right? there's a frickin buck walking around the yard with his neck out straight, lip curled, sniffing does. Sure seems early for that.

Tom

I have to say that is as good a system as I have seen, cheap and easy.

I am getting older so am inclined to look at these solutions.

I put an ATV winch in mine... done

Have a 2500# ATV winch on my pickup, any critter I can get to I can load By myself, also have a 10,000# winch on the front with 150' of cable, and 150' rope ,our problem is not getting up and down hills, it's finding a way threw the brush to the critter or close enough to get a rope on them to winch them out so we can load them. Rio7

I miss Pete E. He seemed like a good dude, for a limey.

Hope he's doing well.

Been there. Done that.




Details and more pics here:

https://genesis9.angzva.com/?p=3869


The problem is that, unless you're on the flat, the boards go every which way. While we still keep the ramps around, the easiest by far that we've found is something called the L-E-Vator.




More stuff on the L-E Vator here:

https://genesis9.angzva.com/?s=l+e+vator

It's no problem. All you need is a little help.

I carry a block and tackle 4 parts line in my hunting bag I keep in the truck. Most deer I can load but I have killed some big ones I couldn't. I throw a rope over a limb and pull one end of the deer up tailgate high. I grab the other end and can load them.

Only time I ever struggled loading a dead animal. was the first elk I ever shot in Colorado... Being a flatlander, and shooting it way down in a deep canyon from the road, I was wiped out after getting the 3rd quarter of it up out of that canyon to my truck. It was one of those canyons you dang near had to go up on all 4s to make it up...I was winded bad from the elevation, and my arms and back and legs were like spaghetti noodles after the 3rd trip up.... Luckily some big ole farm boys from Texas came by on a side by side and saw me struggling to get up the last part of the canyon to the truck and one of them jumped out and helped...I took a nap in the truck for 2 to 3 hours and went back for the rest of the elk with no issue...Learned a lot of lessons, for one, i'm not sure I ever want to shoot an elk in a deep hole like that again without having some help around to pack it out....Also learned to have an alternative way to load an animal just in case. I didn't have a winch, come along, or block and tackle. Just had a little rope and no ramp of any kind....I was young and stupid...

Any animal I can't lift I cut apart to load. I have to cut them up to butcher anyway, so what reason would I want to load them whole?

If I am saving the skin I will skin them just past the spine and then roll then over to the other side and do it again then I just field quarter them.

Bringing them back in one piece and then cutting them apart to do the butchering is hard, but cutting them up to butcher and then bringing them back is easy.
Elk, moose buffalo and even large deer get cut apart in the field ----and then they are loaded easily.

To lift a whitetail into my pickup bed, I built a small crane out of 2x4's. I use a ratchet strap to lift one half of the deer up, and lift the other half by hand.

Avoiding so much of that red crust and browned, oxidized meat is one reason I prefer to get them out whole, if possible. It's often not realistic to do so though.

I know a guy can grind that crust and brown meat, and I do that when I have that kind of meat to deal with but prefer to have as little of it as I can.

Brute force when you can't take it apart in the field. Or back your truck into a hole so tailgate is at ground level. Get Butt end in first!

Preferred method: Sit on tailgate, lay back, unhook backpack :-)

Never done anything bigger than a deer. But all my life my technique was to get on the back of the truck with my drag rope and stick, and roll the rope as far as I can and then just pull it up with brute force.

Now, I'm getting too damn old for that schit, especially with big deer. A few years ago I bought this doo-hickey. In the time that it takes to set it up, I could just drag the MoFo up by hand. But I'm worried I might F up my back or something and it just ain't worth it. Last year, I bet I killed 4 or 5 deer that were possibly over 150 lbs. (field dressed). This damned thing came in pretty handy. I also used it one time to lift my Honda Generator into the truck to take it to the shop to get it worked on.

This looks like a good option...

When I’m by myself and my winch is burned up I just halter them gif pictures site

And break out the meskin winch!

8000# Warn makes it easy.

Feller buncher can be perty handy..

first buy a mustard yellow Avalanche.
then mount a 2500# superwinch to the plastic valance over the back window.
next get 1 mile of cable .
lastly Ass shoot a bear, go home for the night, come back next am , lasso the bear with the mile long cable.......

i couldn't help my self!
i ahve used a wench and a winch to get moose whole into pickups and onto trailers. the best loading of a moose was when my cousin shot his 30 yards above a logging rd. there were 3 guys present. we backed his pu up to the bank, then slid the bugger down the hillside , over the bank and into his pu bed. actually i held the 3 rifles and cuz and friend did all the work!

Many folks underestimate the utility of a loader tractor. I mean, you never see, "Loader Tractor" on the gear list from any big-game guide's website.

Eight years later and this thread still cracks me up. I never dreamed there are so many guys who don't know how to quarter a critter and throw the quarters in back of the truck...........

a "come along" helps

I burn diesel before sweat if I have a choice.

I have looked for a capstan pulley that mounts in the gooseneck ball but have not found one.
I have loaded using the gooseneck ball in the bed of the truck which works well for the first elk.
Just anchor one end to tree wrap rope around ball and tie to elk, then drive forward.
The halter on elk head might work better than a knot around neck.
Even if I have to pound in a deadman to anchor to, it is faster than quartering.

Not everyone is physically able to do that my friend.

I would think a lot of people would learn the gutless method of quartering an elk out of necessity...I've only killed one elk in a spot I could drive right too and load whole once in my life and that was on my friends ranch in Colorado. Every one I have killed on public land had to come out to the truck the hard way packing them out piece by piece...

That’s the way to fly, big green can handle it.