Extraction gear / techniques

[Tennhunter3]

This year I plan on packing out my buck if it's far from SUV.

I bought kuiu game bags.
A new Morakniv Kansbal knife I just like knives.
Have a badlands superday pack.
Few packs cleaning gloves.

Also have a jet sled xl
And jet sled jr.

I put a long Amsteel rope with garden hose over the rope attached to my sleds.

[JakeB]

I have never packed out a deer. I drag deer and pack out elk. I suppose if I ever shot a really big deer I might consider packing it out.

I travel pretty far back in a national forest in NE lower Michigan. I carry some paracord and a pulley. I figure if I ever had to I would just hang it in a tree and come back the next day with help, but that hasn't happened yet. My farthest drag was a couple miles by myself.

Met some guys in CO a long time ago that bragged they never packed an elk, only dragged them out. they had quite the system. Rope, ATVs, trucks, winches, lots of rope. They had a jar full of ivory so they knew how to get them out.

Great topic.

You should give the gutless method a try. Even if your first time you give it a shot, it’s a deer you drug out already and you’re already home. I feel pretty confident after you see how easy it is you’ll never drag another deer over a half mile again.

[BRoth82]

I have never packed out a deer. I drag deer and pack out elk. I suppose if I ever shot a really big deer I might consider packing it out.

I travel pretty far back in a national forest in NE lower Michigan. I carry some paracord and a pulley. I figure if I ever had to I would just hang it in a tree and come back the next day with help, but that hasn't happened yet. My farthest drag was a couple miles by myself.

Met some guys in CO a long time ago that bragged they never packed an elk, only dragged them out. they had quite the system. Rope, ATVs, trucks, winches, lots of rope. They had a jar full of ivory so they knew how to get them out.

Great topic.

You should give the gutless method a try. Even if your first time you give it a shot, it’s a deer you drug out already and you’re already home. I feel pretty confident after you see how easy it is you’ll never drag another deer over a half mile again.

This is so true, once you get the hang of it it's really easy to do any you get way less blood on you. Also if you want to keep the heart or liver you can always open up the cavity after you have all the meat off and in bags.

[Wlog]

Where I live you’re required to take everything out of the woods except entrails so pack out isn’t an option. I use a hawk crawler cart or a sled where the cart won’t work like mud or snow. On hard packed snow I can drag a deer real easy with a sled.

[JakeB]

Where I live you’re required to take everything out of the woods except entrails so pack out isn’t an option. I use a hawk crawler cart or a sled where the cart won’t work like mud or snow. On hard packed snow I can drag a deer real easy with a sled.

With all the CWD regs nowadays what are they wanting you to do with the carcass?

[Wlog]

Where I live you’re required to take everything out of the woods except entrails so pack out isn’t an option. I use a hawk crawler cart or a sled where the cart won’t work like mud or snow. On hard packed snow I can drag a deer real easy with a sled.

With all the CWD regs nowadays what are they wanting you to do with the carcass?

I haven’t really looked into that. It either goes to the butcher and they deal with it or I put it in the woods behind my house.

[BRoth82]

Another thing that throws a wrench into thing is the regulations the states have, here in MN it states you have to keep the head attached to one front shoulder if the deer hasn't been registered. Well you can register them online so you can do that from the field, but the problem is that in the regs it also states you can't leave a carcass on any WMA. Out in Nebraska all they require is that the head be brought out and the legs have the shoulder blade or leg bone in the meat.

[Hawthorne]

The buddy system is the best way if you know someone you can trust. I drag all mine out on a sled. I have done the gutless method one time on a caribou I shot. The guide knew what he was doing I just helped. That was years ago I’d have to watch videos to do it again.Might have to go to that if I hunt the steep hills. Couldn’t imagine dragging one up them in southern Ohio

[mauser06]

For years I always had help and/or was close enough to somewhere I could get a truck so it never really mattered.


2018 I shot a buck 3/4 of a mile from the truck back in a marsh. Never seen a person back there. Someone knew I was on a pickle and 3 people emerged from the woods and were willing to help. It still about kicked out butts.

I moved to my new house that year and I don't have anyone nearby I can call.



After that, I knew I had to do something different... especially how I hunt.

I now carry a flat roll up deer sled, a 4 wheeled cart, and a meat frame in the truck.

2019 I shot a buck about a mile from the truck. I was 30yds off a gravel trail....the cart was the ticket.


I don't carry much. I have a kill pack in the truck. Blades for my Havalon...game bags...550 cord for lashing meat to the frame or hoisting it into a tree if I gotta leave it...extra light, extra batteries, trail marking tape.


Now, if I have a shot, I don't even question how I'm getting out...it'll come out somehow.


I'm thinking about going to a saddle for most my hunts and using the meat frame to carry in my sticks and platform. That way if I do kill one, I can get a start on packing out right then and there.


Gun/flintlock season I usually still hunt or track so I don't bring much of anything aside from my Havalon. Bit of a pain to go back to the truck then back in...but at the same time it's nice to drop my gear, drop layers, grab my extraction method of choice and some water and go back in.

[Dewey]

For years I always had help and/or was close enough to somewhere I could get a truck so it never really mattered.


2018 I shot a buck 3/4 of a mile from the truck back in a marsh. Never seen a person back there. Someone knew I was on a pickle and 3 people emerged from the woods and were willing to help. It still about kicked out butts.

I moved to my new house that year and I don't have anyone nearby I can call.



After that, I knew I had to do something different... especially how I hunt.

I now carry a flat roll up deer sled, a 4 wheeled cart, and a meat frame in the truck.

2019 I shot a buck about a mile from the truck. I was 30yds off a gravel trail....the cart was the ticket.


I don't carry much. I have a kill pack in the truck. Blades for my Havalon...game bags...550 cord for lashing meat to the frame or hoisting it into a tree if I gotta leave it...extra light, extra batteries, trail marking tape.


Now, if I have a shot, I don't even question how I'm getting out...it'll come out somehow.


I'm thinking about going to a saddle for most my hunts and using the meat frame to carry in my sticks and platform. That way if I do kill one, I can get a start on packing out right then and there.


Gun/flintlock season I usually still hunt or track so I don't bring much of anything aside from my Havalon. Bit of a pain to go back to the truck then back in...but at the same time it's nice to drop my gear, drop layers, grab my extraction method of choice and some water and go back in.

You sound like me. Be prepared and have a good plan. I never subscribed to the thought about getting one down and then figure out how to get it out later. If I did that I could get into a real pickle and probably lose a lot of meat in the process. My goto right now is just call Jackson Marsh.....he owes me a couple drags.

[Jackson Marsh]

For years I always had help and/or was close enough to somewhere I could get a truck so it never really mattered.


2018 I shot a buck 3/4 of a mile from the truck back in a marsh. Never seen a person back there. Someone knew I was on a pickle and 3 people emerged from the woods and were willing to help. It still about kicked out butts.

I moved to my new house that year and I don't have anyone nearby I can call.



After that, I knew I had to do something different... especially how I hunt.

I now carry a flat roll up deer sled, a 4 wheeled cart, and a meat frame in the truck.

2019 I shot a buck about a mile from the truck. I was 30yds off a gravel trail....the cart was the ticket.


I don't carry much. I have a kill pack in the truck. Blades for my Havalon...game bags...550 cord for lashing meat to the frame or hoisting it into a tree if I gotta leave it...extra light, extra batteries, trail marking tape.


Now, if I have a shot, I don't even question how I'm getting out...it'll come out somehow.


I'm thinking about going to a saddle for most my hunts and using the meat frame to carry in my sticks and platform. That way if I do kill one, I can get a start on packing out right then and there.


Gun/flintlock season I usually still hunt or track so I don't bring much of anything aside from my Havalon. Bit of a pain to go back to the truck then back in...but at the same time it's nice to drop my gear, drop layers, grab my extraction method of choice and some water and go back in.

You sound like me. Be prepared and have a good plan. I never subscribed to the thought about getting one down and then figure out how to get it out later. If I did that I could get into a real pickle and probably lose a lot of meat in the process. My goto right now is just call Jackson Marsh.....he owes me a couple drags.

I do owe you some drags and if you weren't so darn picky about what you shoot, I would probably have had paid you back by now

I've dragged, carted, sled, and boned/packed out. Always good to have options. If by myself and it's a difficult terrain etc the only real option us to pack it out.