Loading Bullwinkle Solo

This evening a nice 8 point chased a doe through my shooting lane and yin short order was taking the permanant dirt nap. The excitement subsided when I began loading this 200 lb. bambi in the back of the truck, with a 6 inch lift no less. For the first time it dawned on me I'm no longer 19. My sons are both grown and moved away and I've lost my lifting helpers. Crap, I got old and didn't realize it until tonight!@#%

I thought I would be smart and use a tractor jack as a come a long, but after 30 minutes I gave up and tried muscling up one more time. After recovering from the near heart attack and catching my breath I gave that up and went aand found a piece of plywood on the recomendation of a hunting buddy after a last dotch call. An hour and a half after field dressing he was loaded.

Question is for other fat old hunters or smarter young hunters, how do you load your big deer when alone and off the beaten path?

I shoot light weight yearlings....... sorry, thats a tough thing to realize huh LOL. Get that deer hoist that goes in the trucks hitch receiver. Links below. At least your not complaining your getting too old to hunt. Congrats on the buck!

deer lift truck hoist

Same problem last Thursday. I tied one end of a lariat rope to a tree,ran it lengthwise down my truck,attached to the buck, and proceeded to back the truck up until the deer was up off the ground enough for me to muscle the rest of him into the truck.I feel your pain.

BTW I'm skinny but pot-bellied old hunter.

Get a winch off an old boat trailer. Weld or bolt it up on a pole. Get a larger diameter pipe and weld a hitch on it you can slide into your receiver. Put the smaller pole into the larger pole, that way after winching it up, you can swing it into the bed of the truck. Ive got this contraption on the back of my farm jeep. Took about an hour to put together.

Or you can use the old rope over a limb trick, but theres not always a suitable limb around.

I built a winch lift that fits in the hitch receiver on the truck. When I'm at the lease by myself I keep it in the bed of the truck just in case. Just back up to the critter, hook it to the winch cable and crank it up, swing it into the bed and let it back down.
They sell them pre fabed if you don't have the tools to build one.

Years ago my son asked " Me where the best place to shoot a deer " ? I said " close to the truck as possible "!

Park the truck in a low spot and pull him over the tailgate into the bed by his horns. Used to do it this way into the back of a Polaris Ranger. I gutted them first though. Largest I have ever loaded by myself this way was a 192 lb field dressed buck into the back of a Ranger over the side since I had a tailgate feeder on the back.

Buckrage, the heck of of it is I have a winch on my front bumper. I went to put on a carrier rack in the front bumper and had the wrong pin in the truck. Stupid I know but it's not the first time I outsmarted myself.

Nogales. Excellent idea. Hunters are the best red neck engineers out there.

amen to that.

Stxranch, I'd have to find a pretty good gully to get my truck low enough. Good idea.

The receiver lifts seem like a good idea but the lariat idea is great in a pinch.

Glad to see others are way ahead of me here.

I have also taken a rope and tied the horns to the inside of the bed of the truck as high as I could get them and as far inside the bed as I could. Then grab the hind legs and swing or pull the buck into the truck.

Maybe we got old before you did.

stx, I tried exactly that after failing at the tractor jack. Sad to say I didn't have enough strength to hoist his head above the tailgate. It's a little disheartening to realize I'm going down hill. On the bright side, I got a another wall hanger and my boys will never know I didn't toss it in the back of the truck with one arm tied behind my back.

looking at the rig you built I'd say you certainly got smart before I did

Where is pics of this hoss?

I Like that!!!

I bought a $15 pulley and gambrel from Academy. I keep it in the the Rhino. I drag the deer under an oak tree, stand up in the bed of the Rhino, loop a rope over a limb to hand the pulley from and hoist the deer in the air. The pulley has a self locking feature so no need to tie the rope around anything after the deer is in the air. Back the Rhino under the deer and lower it into the bed.
This works great for this old man.

I understand the problem but cannot identify with 200 pound deer loading. About 3 years ago I got a 165 pound buck and also found that I'm not the man I used to be. Heck, maybe I never was.

Thankfully my tractor has a front end loader.

I have same problem. If i kill a deer i drag him to a tree with the 4 wheeler and raise em up and then drive truck under and lower him down. Of course if i bhunted in west tx i might have a problem! Sucks getting old!

Have had the same problem in years past, and last weekend was the last straw. Tried to load up a 130lbs hog and had forgotten how heavy they are on the front end!

Anyway, a friend of mine had told me about a device that he uses, so I ordered one from Amazon:

GAME KADDY

I just tie a short piece of rope to the horn and drag deer to tailgate. Laydown if you have too or just squat and grab rope or deer horns, you can just stand up and drag him up in the truck with you. Too darn hard to load one from the ground anymore.
I guess it depends on the size of your gut though, if you're able to bend over or even get back up once laying down. Haha

I do kinda like Ranchman. Tie the head up as far as I can then get in the bed of the truck and pull him in. I don't usually have much trouble with whitetail ,but some of the axis get pretty heavy.

Fire up the tractor and scoop him up with the front end loader...

what he said...

Or, another option is a hitch haul. They are quite a bit lower than a truck bed

Correction: I dropped bambi off at the processor this morning and turns out he was 170 pounds rubbing even more salt in the wound.

Unfortunately, no front-end loader where we hunt. Next time I will make sure I've got a pin for the bumper carrier. With my warn winch it should be easy work.

Love the simple ideas of how to load w/ only a rope when in a pinch.

Or you could just make you one of these. All aluminum and it stores on the roof of the Mule when not in use if you like or leave it in the back.

It's even easier if you carry two ropes. Tie both ropes to the deer and throw them both over a tree limb. Pull deer up with your truck with one rope. Tie the second rope off to keep the deer hanging. Release the first rope from your truck and drive your truck right under the deer. Your grandma can load a deer with this technique.

Dang I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem.

Prop your newly purchased plywood sheet against the truck bed and let the winch do the work.

Get a big ratchet strap or a couple of them for under $50. I find all kinds of uses for them and they help bigtime when doing just what you are talking about solo.

Here's my $0.02:

Don't put a lift on your truck...

There are some great suggestions here...except for Bowtech. I need the "coolfactor" to make me look like a real deer hunter.

My new method. Cheap,easy,and Grandma can do it. Now to get me another rope....

I am surprised nobody mentioned that they use a come-along. No need for a tree with one of these.

What was I thinking buying a $15 pulley and gambrel to load my deer in the bed when I could have gone out an bought a tractor with a frontend loader or bought a welder and manufactured a deer carry rack for my Rhino.

You guys crack me up.

You guys with trees crack me up. Try hunting in west Texas where there aren't any big trees.....

Quarter him out on site!!

Ha..west TX boys need to come up to the high plains we use hydraulic hay bale lift on a flat bed.. The one with the dual arms that come out the side

Bought one of these, worth it's weight in gold.

http://www.deerfeeder.com/gamehoist.htm

I got my pics uploaded to flikr but I can't remember how to make it work. You'll just have to take my word for it...it is a nice buck