I own one and these things are great.

Not bad. Bigger than average 17” wide 11 point. Head and all, I made it.

I was messing. you posted right after I posted It's my preferred way to do it when I can't drive. Think 18 was all the rain, I had to pack out 4 WT’s and one pronghorn. Not sure i can do a big WT whole though, pretty impressive pack out

Same

Ol Thumper, that is very generous of you, but I found out my buddy bought one years ago too that he never uses I am going to try.

I am concerned about the terrain being a little rough for it, but I’ll try it out. If not I might try and pack it out if I get lucky enough to shoot one.

I’ve done the cart, and also the sled. If the terrain is fairly flat, cart works well. If there are laydowns or rocky terrain, the sled is better. This is the one I current use:

https://www.amazon.com/DEER-SLEIGHR-Magnum-Game-Sled/dp/B001CJI7XA

Have hauled a bunch out of the mountains in Oklahoma with this sled.

If you're in good enough shape you can use paracord to tie all four legs together at the ankles, then hoist up and put them over your shoulder like a carry strap, grab the head/horns so the head doesn't flop around and carry it out. I highly recommend dressing it out first to get rid of the extra weight.

I have used this method to carry out many deer in the past. But since acquiring the 8N ford tractor (the original ATV) retrieving game has become much easier.

carry your cooler and com-a-long in and do the work on the spot.

https://www.calcuttaoutdoors.com/pr...sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic

I have drug way too many deer, way to far over the last 55+ years ... the older I get, I have my set ups closer to access with a vehicle these days, either truck or SxS.

one year I was hunting private land in northern NM that adjoined NF ... I kept hearing some weird noise and went to investigate. There was a guy with an old Army jeep with a huge winch on front with about 1/2 mile of cable that he was winching an elk up the backside of a very steep drop off. He would winch a bit, then have to walk down to untangle elk from a tree/brush, but he eventually got it up to the top where he could quarter it.

Actually that same year, I took a big 3x6 MD that I drug about 2 miles downhill with a foot of snow, which made for relatively easy dragging, but the last 200 yards was uphill to a logging road, I had to get my BIL and his BIL to get it that last 200 yards to the road to load it.

For this same reason, I call it quits earlier in the evening than I did as a younger man when I would stay until the last bit of daylight was gone. I just stopped hating them enough to spend time looking for one in the dark, much less dragging it some distance to reach the ATV.

How far is your walk in, one way?

The two wheel carts work well if your terrain isnt too hilly and rough. We used one to get game in and out and even used one to fill feeders with back in the day, our old land owner allowed no driving off the paved road when wet. Put 350 lbs of corn on that buggy and filled feeders one at a time.

Depending on the soil type a wheel barrow may work, for us in sand its worse than dragging one. I have packed a few out whole... but that was 10 years ago... and I didnt like the ticks that came with just slinging one over your shoulders.

If you get a game cart-don't get the cheapest one you find. You'll regret it. Scheel's has one worth looking into. Research them before making your decision
.
I did a public land hunt many years ago when I was 19 and I couldn't afford a game cart. We weren't allowed to drive our vehicles in for game retrieval. I pushed my dad's wheelbarrow in the dark back to the slough I wanted to hunt and ditched it. I shot 3 hogs in the first hour of light and used the wheelbarrow to haul them out.

You can always pack them out too! Good thing is our texas WT arent too heavy!

+1 for a sled

I've used carts and sleds both, and the sled generally just works better with terrain and weather.

My experience with carts were that they were great when you had flat, open, and dry terrain. If you don't have that, it can suck or make things worse.

25 years ago or so i bought a deer drag system, can't remember who from, that had shoulder straps like a back pack with a d-ring up high, center of shoulders.
Used it a few times and worked good. Trick was to make the rope from the d-ring to deer short enough that when you stand up it lifts part of the deer up.
Last deer i used it on was a couple years ago dragging one for my dad that was about 250 yards on the neighbors property. They told us to shoot anything
we wanted on their side of the fence, just don't put up stands on them. There was a pipeline going in that cut off access to go through a gate to get to it.

At 61, those days are over for me, if i can't drive my 4 wheeler up to them i don't shoot them. Built a small trailer, outside of tires is same width as 4 wheeler, about
40" long with solid mount axle and 12" tires. Hand crank winch mounted on front of it. Trailer floor is about 12" off the ground.

i have both and the cart is more trouble than its worth. i've used the sled for everything from hauling duck decoys and blinds to deer feeders and corn

Many years ago I had a welder make me a deer carrier using 1" tubing then he added one of those hard rubber tires.
I bet our carrier is over 20 years old but having that one wheel is the way to go and that hard rubber tire
allows us to go over cactus, mesquites and other things with no trouble at all. We put the deer on the carrier and strap
it down with a bungee cord and off we go. Maybe this gives others some ideas.

Neat design, I would also recomend solid or foam filled tires. Depending on the soil type that single little wheel might be great or terrible though. At our old hill country lease it would be great. Our south texas place is loose sand, dragging that would seriously suck in the sand.

Which I just did. What do I have to look forward to?