What is your preferred method for packing out a large animal? I have never been in a position where I had to. Just curious and would like to learn.

Read the state game laws. Then do what you have to do to get the animal out. If in Texas I use this when needed:
http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/search_catalog_command.cmd?fromProductSearch=true&item1=IK-420295

Like you I have never done it, but Ive taken apart a lot of animals.

I would gut and quarter if it was cold enough hang what I couldn't take and come back. A friend shot an elk last year a decent 5x6. He said they gutted it and 3 of them drug it down the mountain whole. Luckily it was all down hill.

It would be a learning experience for me and im sure I would enjoy a cold beer when done.

I have used one of those cart buggies several times and they work great. Ive had 2 deer and a hog on one before.

You must hunt with txshntr...midget deer?

Quarter and put in my Eberlestock.

For elk, one quarter per game bag, plus one more for all the rest like neck, backstrap, etc. Deer will fit in a couple of bags.

If you know how, you don't even have to gut them.

Hopefully next year, we can put that to the test.

I certainly intend to.

Only animal I've had to pack out was an elk in Wyoming years ago. Guide carried a rope and pulleys and field dressed and hung in a tree. It was a horseback hunt and we were 10 miles or so from camp. Next morning he and I rode back and carried a pack horse with us and quartered and brought my elk to camp. It took most of a day to get it out. Funny part is it was a ten day hunt and I killed my elk the first day of hunting. I killed the rest of a week helping the camp cook and packing other hunters game out.

Note to self....never kill the first day on a hunt with KG68

They were hill country lowfence deer, a buck around 125-130 live weight and a doe around 80-90 lbs live weight and the hog about the same. Our property owner didn't allow us to drive in the pasture after it rained so we used it to haul corn and fill feeders with when it was wet... good workout, it held 400 lbs of corn a time or two.

Bone'm out..

How do you handle it when you are finished boning it out?

That sounds like something you guys should discuss offline or via PMs.

Glad you caputred that before the edit was done! Classic!

Just drag it to the nearest road and try and get a truck in

Failing that, you can

A. Cut it up and haul it out quarter by quarter on a pack frame

B. roll it onto a tarp and make the drag. Dragging a deer along way sucks. I've done it and would prefer not to do it when I can help it

I prefer the pack frame method and carry it out piece by piece

Dang it, I should have known better than that.

To stx.
I bought one about a month ago. How well do you think that thing will work getting a deer out from a deep bottom (a mini canyon). I figure it has to be a lot easier than dragging. Also, if you are by yourself, is there a trick to getting your deer on that thing.

NEVER pass up something on the first day that you would kill on the last day.

Closest I have come to "packing" anything out is when I shoot a big hog and it's too far to drag to my truck or a road. I just quarter and skin on the ground and place the meat in 2 gallon ziplocks, place in pack and head home to the ice chest or cooler.

I actually prefer this way now as I don't have to dump the carcass back in the field.

The wheeled carts have their uses, but in some parts of the country, they are more trouble than they are worth. If you have the manpower nothing beats being able to quarter an animal and pack it out.

Depends on the size of the deer and how steep. I would gut the deer in the bottom to make one lighter trip out and worse case cut it in half at the back of the rib cage and make two trips. I keep a rope and call use it to help pull the cart out if needed. I pull the deer up on the cart with the head/antlers up toward the handle.

I've killed two mulies in CO where we boned out the meat and put it in game bags. One guy could do all the meat, cape, and head, but your pack would likely be over 100lbs. For most folks it takes two trips.

I've been backpacking with a 95 lb pack getting ready for an upcoming CO trip in case conditions are good for a one-way trip.

Elk on the other hand...that's a daunting task for only one guy without some vehicles.

Out of the 6 properties I hunt I can get to within 150 yards of anywhere with this:



Combined with a 500 foot spool of 1/2 inch nylon rope the dragging and lifting are easy: