How far can you drag a deer?

[wolfe28]

Good afternoon;

I'm a "late onset hunter" and I'm wondering how far you can drag a deer before the meet gets damaged?

Hunting on public land, I'm going to be walking about a mile in to where I plan to hunt. I don't own a quad-bike or anything like that, so if I'm successful (this is my fourth year trying; no luck so far), the deer will come out of the woods the same way I will, walking (or being dragged, as the case may be). While I'd rather not get a sled, I will if necessary.

Thanks,
D

[jonas302]

1/4 mile bought does me in I never considered bruising the meat never seen any real damage there Just that I am to out of shape to get much farther (;

[Maineboy]

You'll probably wear out before damaging any meat. For the past 20 years, I've used a 6 foot plastic toboggan-like sled to drag deer out of the woods. It slides over everything much easier than deerhide does.

[Janoosh]

+1 Maineboy...I have used a plastic toboggan and like it alot, very easy to transport deer to the car. I have also used the rolled up plastic sheet deer sled, and it works also, but is more work to set up. Snow helps....Lol

[whelenshooter]

This isn't helpful but when I first read the thread title my response was "Not very far". It's work especially if you have hilly terrain.

David

[square butte]

Better Question for better entertainment - "How far have you drug a dear?"

[Lonegun1894]

Furthest I have drug one was about a mile and a half, and then I finally picked it up and carried it the last half mile or so. Neither transport method was a lot of fun. For what it's worth, I have since started quartering it, and carrying half at a time, while hiding the other half and coming back for it as soon as I get the first half back to the truck and in the cooler. I have never had any stolen, but I also hide it well to make sure it is still there when I get back--and know that sooner or later I will slip up and lose half a deer to a thief.

[white eagle]

I dragged a deer one time 1/2 the distance you refer to
the last time I will do anything so foolish
I made a cart to make my long hauls with
vowed to myself while dragging that would be the last time

[Lonegun1894]

I got myself an old large-size ALICE pack w/ frame for this year, hoping to be able to carry all the meat at once and just leave a gut-pile to hunt for coyotes foe next few days. We will see how that works hopefully.

[horsesoldier]

Bone that sucker out on the spot and carry meat bags.Takes about 30 minutes once you get good at it.Its what I have started doing

[Tazman1602]

Better Question for better entertainment - "How far have you drug a dear?"

MILES..................but that was a LONG LONG time ago Square. Heck I was 165lbs of lean mean fighting machine and I thought I was going to have a heart attack back then.

Since then I ALWAYS carry paracord with me to tie a bowline knot to go around my shoulders but if I had to drag a deer these days I have a 29 year old son in law who just LOVES helping father in law.............<grin>

In answer to the question about ruining meat I'm not sure you can. The hair will all come off the hide from dragging it but the skin won't tear and have never had an issue with bruising or ruining any meat.

Art

[GabbyM]

Here’s my advise so It’s worth what you paid for it.

If you want fresh tasting meat. Promptly skinning the animal to start cool down is important. So if you’re a mile back in I’d do it right there. Equipment would be something like this. Backpack frame. Triple tree or other deer hanger. Rope and pulley to toss over a limb. Hope in a can so you can find a limb. Meat saw and knife. Plastic bags. Cell phone to call in help to lump it out. You quarter it bag it and hang what you can’t carry from your hoist. Another thing you can do is bone it out on the spot. The big leg bones. Wash it when you get home in clean drinking water not some filthy river water downstream from a chicken farm.

That’s all dependant upon Indiana state laws on how you have to bring in the deer.

Then if you’re a broken down not young anymore man like me you’ll be making four trips at two miles each so the cell phone for help gets very important.

Faster you get your meat cooled out the better tasting it will be.

[Rattlesnake Charlie]

A wheel barrow works amazingly well if the terrain will allow it.

[waksupi]

Once the blood stops pumping, you will not bruise meat. Impossible. I find I shoot deer much closer to a vehicle than I used to.

[fouronesix]

How far? Not very far with a 300+ lb mule deer. That's what knives and packframes are for. Same applies to any large game.

[osteodoc08]

It all depends on terrain. The longest was about 1 mile. Field dressing it gets the weight down considerably on the average deer size in GA. Luckily I am able to access virtually all places on my deer club by ATV and only have to drag no more that's 1/4 mile at most. I'll walk and get the ATV then get the deer.

[40-82]

Peculiar that I should run across this thread today. I'm in the house today instead of hunting because I'm coughing too much to handle a deer. I learned a long time ago that when the distance from the vehicle is bad that the best way to deal with a deer is to bone it out. The useable meat off a game animal runs less than fifty percent of live weight. A buck large enough to exhaust me dragging a hundred feet uphill easily fits in a waterproof canoeing pack and with our small whitetails in the Virginia mountains may weigh less than fifty pounds.

[BIGRED]

when i am up north and i am in some remote terrain i will back pack them... Cut a slit in all 4 legs around the knee area. tie the front right leg to the rear right leg, same on the left side. use some thick 3/8" inch rope or 1' wide straps. lean it against a tree and sit on the ground and put it on like a back pack right arm through the space between the right legs and left arm through the left side. prop yourself up and get on your feet. (this is the hardest part when u are alone. take your blaze orange and drape it over the deer and get walking. have done this several times and works much better than dragging.

[dk17hmr]

I'm 27, in pretty good shape, and not worried about shooting something more than 2 miles from any road...I have proved that to my hunting partners more then once. The only time I bring something out whole is if I can drive my truck or four wheeler up to it. I'm pretty good with a knife and a pack frame.

The only dragging I do is to get the critter down hill. If it needs to go up hill I start cutting.

[Blammer]

after a mile on a rocky road the fur is gone from the hide, then I turn it over and drag it the next mile.

so... about 2 miles in my book.

[s mac]

It surely depends on terrain, your condition, how large the animal is. You will have to many clothes on.LOL s mac

[boltons75]

I take my stands out into the woods, state land in mi, on my deer cart. After everything is up and locked in place, I find a good large blow down and lock my cart to it. I'm about a mile from my truck also. The cart does wonders, watch sales, you can find them for 50 bucks or so.

[Smoke4320]

Better Question for better entertainment - "How far have you drug a dear?"
once drug my wife 1/2 mile oh wait you meant the other "dear"
sorry I just could not resist :)

[dragon813gt]

I prefer to not drag which is why I hunt primarily on private land where I can pull the truck up to it. When I do hunt public land I carry a small tarp and my treestand harness with me. Wrap the deer up in the tarp and strap it to the harness. It's a tough workout. But using the harness to spread the weight over your body helps a lot. I really hate this method which is why I've been hunting from a stand on the edge of a field the past few years.

[craig61a]

How far - not as far as I could 25 years ago... a plastic tub sled or a 2 wheel cart works much better. These days I just tie it up on the back of my atv...

[ElDorado]

Furthest I have drug one was about a mile and a half, and then I finally picked it up and carried it the last half mile or so. Neither transport method was a lot of fun. For what it's worth, I have since started quartering it, and carrying half at a time, while hiding the other half and coming back for it as soon as I get the first half back to the truck and in the cooler. I have never had any stolen, but I also hide it well to make sure it is still there when I get back--and know that sooner or later I will slip up and lose half a deer to a thief.

I had a friend who quartered a deer about a mile and a half from his truck. He carried the first quarter and his rifle to the truck, then left the rifle there and went back to get the rest, one quarter at a time. It was starting to get dark when he went to get the last one. He got to the place he'd left it and it wasn't there, but he could hear something big dragging something through the manzanita. He never knew what took it, but he just decided he better get out of there with what he had.

[Gibbs44]

I've always been blessed enough to hunt private land, so I've always used a fourwheeler to drag one. I can't say I've ever messed up the meat, and I've dragged them fast and for up to a half mile.

[fouronesix]

Wonder what people did prior to the common (universal) 4 wheel drive and 4 wheeler?

[TXGunNut]

I've noticed as the years go by the shots and drags get shorter. I may be getting old & fat but getting a little smarter makes things easier.

[square butte]

I dragged a couple out of side canyons off the Judith river that made me ask "what the H##! was I thinking shooting a deer way back up in there". Of course that was about 30 years ago.

[Reg]

Lucked out this year. Was hunting CRP about 2 miles from the house and dropped a nice fat WT doe after sitting in the blind for 2 hours. Drug the doe to the blind ( about 75 yards ) and could see the bum knee just wasn't up to expectations so gave the wife a quick call and she helped me drag it to the trail about one quarter mile away. Was actually more of a struggle to get it in the bed of the pickup than anything.
Am looking at one of those two wheeled cart contraptions that Cabella's sells or better yet, need to get a old Tote Gote going I have out back. Normally no driving whatever is allowed on CRP but I don't think the lugged tire on the Gote will leave any real sign of a track.
If you are dumb enough to sit on it, it will go up ( almost !!) a straight wall.

[richhodg66]

I bought a cart from Sportsman's Guide and it will sit folded up in my truck through the season. It works OK, but go to the hardware store and buy spares for all the fasteners on it as they seem to come loose and fall out while you're pulling it through the brush in the dark.

If there's snow on the ground, get a cheap, plastic kids sled and a ratchet strap and a tow rope. Easiest way to get one out, much easier than the cart.

hunt exclusively on public land where it's illegal to bring a truck in. I do this operation several times a year, gets harder every year it seems, especially now that I don't have teenage sons around to help. Plan how you'll do it ahead of time and shooting one close to the truck is good if you can do it. I have passed on shots I probably would have taken had they been close to where I could get a vehicle.

[kenjuudo]

I have an 8' section of an old aluminum extension ladder I keep in the truck. Once you have the deer to the truck, flop it on the ladder, it's a cinch to pick up one end of the ladder and set it on the tailgate, pick up the other end and it slides right in.

Nothing more fun than trying to get a good sized deer up into a truck with frost on the bedliner....

[CastingFool]

I had a buddy die of a heart attack after dragging two deer in one day. He was not yet 50. Nowadays, I don't have to drag deer that far but when I do, I pace myself, and use a 20ft nylon strap and a harness. Spreads the weight across your shoulders, leaves your hands free. Here in Michigan, we normally don't have to worry about the meat going bad that quickly during our hunting season.

[Blammer]

get an old bicycle, remove the seat, build a contraption in the seat where you can carry stuff.

make sure the handles have the brakes on them, easier for control when going down hill.

You can carry a LOT of stuff on a bicycle while pushing the bike.

[TXGunNut]

I shot a 300# boar in the Caprock Canyons and it fell off a small 20' cliff. I gutted the nasty thing at the bottom of that crevice and winched it up the cliff with a hand winch/come along. Took four of us to carry it nearly a mile and over a hundred feet up vertically to the truck. Not gonna happen again!

[nekshot]

As a young man and hunting deep on public lands we usually had a 7 hour drag. I always tried to get my buck by 8 am so I could catch the other guys that were dragging deer. If we did not come in for the evening meal a couple of guys would always come back looking to help. I could never do that again but the memories are precious to me. All hair would be off the rumps and ribs. And many a time I vowed never to do this again, but its addictive come the next fall.

[oldfart1956]

I take my stands out into the woods, state land in mi, on my deer cart. After everything is up and locked in place, I find a good large blow down and lock my cart to it. I'm about a mile from my truck also. The cart does wonders, watch sales, you can find them for 50 bucks or so. This. I hunted State Game Lands 65 in Pa. here for many years. To avoid the crowds I hiked back in 3 miles. After dragging 1 out you'll buy a deer cart. I hauled my clothes in...(walked nearly nekkid)...kept dry that way...then used it to haul everything out. Also helped out more than 1 hunter that thought they'd just snatch one right out of the woods and pull it back. :) Audie....now hunting closer to home....the Oldfart.

[Chihuahua Floyd]

longest drag I remember was about 1/2 mile. Wrong side of the creek, uphill, briars. Gary and I wonders why I shot that thing there. Had another deer pass within about 30 feet of us and never saw it in the thick stuff about half way up the hill.
We where younger then. Now I drag with 4 wheeler or wait, my dad has a tractor with a front end loader. Yea, no dragging.
CF

[taco650]

Drug one deer one time a long time ago (fall 1980). It was a fat black tail buck. Drug it about 100-200 yards along a rail road track I was hunting. It didn't damage any meat and the only reason I stopped was the nylon boot lace I had tied onto the horns was killing my hand! I switched between hands several times but finally gave up, walked the last 1/4 mile to the house and got my dad to help me. My dad was mad that I couldn't get the deer home by myself-until he saw how big it was. He was a quiet man but his "Oh my" when he saw it spoke volumes.

Sorry for digressing. My suggestion is to cut the deer in half two ribs up from the stomach, tie the legs together at the knees by slitting the hide enough to get the feet through then slide it over the shoulder and start walking. The head might hit you in the butt but at least you can manage terrain better and have one hand to hold a rifle.

BTW, that buck gutted with the head, lower legs and hide off weighed in at 121 lbs and it was only a fork horn. Also had the best tasting liver I've ever had!

[Larry Gibson]

............. I'm wondering how far you can drag a deer .............?

How far depends on whether you drag it by the horns/ears or by the hind legs............:roll:

Larry Gibson

[psmokey]

I let the kids take care of that part.

[shaune1022]

I've drug speed goats over a mile across stubble field. No meat damage but one side of the hide was hairless by the time I got to the truck.

[Oreo]

I've drug speed goats over a mile across stubble field. No meat damage but one side of the hide was hairless by the time I got to the truck.
My eyes played tricks on me. I read you've drug speed BOATS over a mile across stubble field. I'm sitting here thinking what an odd thing that is to do and wondering how it's relevant.

[AlaskanGuy]

Me and a buddy once drug a fat bull caribou about 6 miles.... We were following a heard waiting for a shot at one of the tender bulls that just kept getting farther and farther away... Diddnt realize how far it was till after we got the bull down and finished dressing him out.... It was about 10 years ago when i was in good shape, but even with 2 of us dragging, seemed to go on forever in the frozen, uneven tundra of the Arctic. I thought my hips and knees were forever damaged... I had a hard time walking when it was done... Joints were hurting from all the holes in the tundra that we stepped in cuz you couldn't see them under the 1 inch of snow that hid them...

Here is the caribou. Dressed out about 360 or so.
87402

Alaskan

[gandydancer]

Been there done that. to old now. bad back. knees are shot. I go in the woods & see where they are moving around and bedding down, check for feed plots.check for the best racks for a few days. and then I go in no more then 2 miles. I must mention here I have a large bag of home made oatmeal cookies laced with catnip and Valium. I then leave a trail of cookies back to my truck. with my tail gate down & more cookies in bed of truck & rear window open 6.5x55 carbine in hand and--well you get the picture. IS THIS WRONG? PS while waiting I have cookies and coffee and if there are no shows?? Who cares.:lol: lol

[Oreo]

And in other news: Gandydancer was just found dead lying in the bed of his truck next to a deer. Both apparently fatally overdosed on valium cookies.

[gandydancer]

Dang!! What a nightmare..

[JakeBlanton]

I find I shoot deer much closer to a vehicle than I used to.

I know the feeling -- I've been trying to get 'em to just climb in the back of my truck prior to me shooting 'em.

Seriously though, I've actually passed up on shots of large bucks because:
1. I really didn't need a trophy on the wall.
2. I was so far back in the woods that I would have probably had a heart attack getting him out.
3. Even dressed out, he was heavier than I wanted to carry or drag.

Mainly reason #2 though..... :)

[JakeBlanton]

Wonder what people did prior to the common (universal) 4 wheel drive and 4 wheeler?

We were younger back then. :)

And if you mean even further back than that, well, there were horses and pack animals -- 4 hoof drive.

[WilliamDahl]

Far enough to have a heart attack and not a foot further.

[Reg]

I have an 8' section of an old aluminum extension ladder I keep in the truck. Once you have the deer to the truck, flop it on the ladder, it's a cinch to pick up one end of the ladder and set it on the tailgate, pick up the other end and it slides right in.

Nothing more fun than trying to get a good sized deer up into a truck with frost on the bedliner....


Great idea. exactly what I was talking about. I think I have a perfect candidate for this stored out behind the calf shed.
Need to play with this a bit but not only can the deer be loaded but it also might serve as a loading ramp to put the gote in the back of the PU as well.

[OnHoPr]

Not as far as I use to.

[wolfe28]

Good Morning!

Thanks for all the insights, as well as the laughs. While I'd like to shoot something close to the vehicle (you can't really call a Rav4 a truck), I think that everyone else that is hunting on public land is trying to do the same thing. So, hiking a mile in, on a trail that is on the top of a ridge, and then drops about 300 feet in the last 1/4 mile is probably my best bet to have some place to myself.

The other thing is that I've wanted to go hunting since I was 12, but since neither my father or either of my grandfathers hunted, I never got the chance (I went fishing with one of my grandfathers, and I still think about those times every time I pick up a rod, but I digress). Now that I actually can go, all the family that did hunt is gone or 2 states away, and I can't make the trip due to work. So, I'm on my own.

Sunrise on opening day is 0730, so I'm planning on having the vehicle parked by about 0530 and then heading out to "my spot". From what you all have said, I think a sled might be the best option. I can throw all the gear I'm not wearing in it, and then just drag it there. Besides, since I don't have a stand, the sled would be a dry place to sit.

Thanks again,
D

[JMtoolman]

If you are more than a 1/2 mile, by all means skin that critter out, bone it and pack it our in a packsack. One quarter of the effort that dragging it. You can learn to skin an animal on the ground and it is easy. Sometimes I don't even gut a deer or elk, just skin the top half, bone it out on the half skin, then roll it over and do the other side. If you want the heart or liver, then just open the cavity and remove what you want. Heck of a lot easier than gutting them first! Good hunting always, the toolman.

[Blammer]

wrapping the rope around a stick and then pulling the stick is a far bit easier than just hanging on to rope.

[taco650]

The only "fly in the ointment" is the nicer bucks are usually further from the road. If you're a meat hunter only, then you'll probably be able to stay closer to the vehicle. Do your pre-season scouting to know where the deer are and prepare accordingly.

[MarkP]

My Dad and I shot 2 bucks on public ground in the sand hills of Nebraska; we dragged them by the antlers about 1 mile to our vehicle. It was a significant amount of work; fur was completely worn off of rear hind quarters, and no meat damage. Mainly dragging through prairie grass and would occasionally snag on a yucca plant, which would about rip your arm off.

The whole way I was thinking of a new invention for hauling deer out.

[starmac]

Alaska guy I have had friends try to get me to go bou hunting on the haul road (rifle) which would be a five mile haul at the very minimum. If I ever get week enough to walk 5 miles across that tundra, I will take a camera instead of a gun to make sure I don't have to haul one out, And since I can take all the pictures I want from the road, I don't see myself walking across the corridor. lol I like caribou, but not that much, maybe when I was younger. lol

I have a friend that takes a few dogs (small dog team) to drag them out.

[TCLouis]

I'm guessing the wear-and-tear on the hunter will be the greatest damage to meat.

A little snow will protect both a little more.

[Fishman]

Deer cart. Best $50 you'll ever spend. I hauled a doe almost 2 miles last year and it was no big deal. Even hauled two deer on it once about 3/4 of a mile. It takes about 1/4 the effort of dragging with a shoulder harness, and I don't even want to think about dragging a doe by the legs for 2 miles.

[DougGuy]

I carry an air tire hand truck, one with the stair rails on the back above the tires. Ratchet straps hold the deer on and it makes it a lot easier.

[Suo Gan]

If you are going more than a mile in. Carry a backpack. Put your lunch, water, ammo, survival kit, flares for those times you have a compound fracture...and can't walk no more. Carry a small tarp for boning. Wrap the meat in the tarp. Small hatchet. Bone out the meat leave the ribs and backbone out there in the woods. I don't even bring back the antlers anymore.

[MT Gianni]

25 years ago I drug a buck 3 miles and wore the hide off of his rump. He ate fine. Ten years ago I drug a whole 6x5 Elk downhill 1.5 miles until I hit a gully and had to go for the rig.

[Brett Ross]

Not near as far as I could 30 years ago.

[1Shirt]

I no longer try to drag by myself. Last two deer were loaded into the back of the truck at no more than a 20 foot drag. Old Pa dutch saying, "Ve got to soon old and too late smart"
1Shirt!

[RoyEllis]

I no longer try to drag by myself.

Wait til you have spinal fusion surgery, it makes a capstan winch & 1000ft of rope invaluable! Can't drive out in the winter wheat fields ya know. Any more, I do good to drag my own fat **** back out of my hunting spots, much less drag a dead deer.

[Jal5]

That plastic snow sled works fine over snow or dirt!

[winelover]

Deer cart, plastic snow sled and a wife that hunts and helps!
Priceless!!

88286


88288


88291



Winelover

[Shuz]

In my younger days, I used to drag them a lot further than I do now! A neat technique I used was to tie the fore legs up into the rack of a buck and then a nylon double looped sling around the neck and the loose loop went over my shoulder and gave me something to hang onto when the dragging began. Much easier to drag when the fore legs aren't slopping and flopping around.

As I've grown older, I've noticed the deer appear to be browsing closer to my rig!

[legend]

I learned a long time ago to hunt up....drag down....works well in the black hills of wyoming....

[wolfe28]

That plastic snow sled works fine over snow or dirt!

Good Morning;

This is what I opted for. $10 sled, $5 of 5/8" rope, and a HD bucket with lid. I pack the extra cloths in the bucket, snap the seat/lid on, lash it to the sled, and then carry the whole thing like a backpack.

Now all I need is to shoot a deer.

Thanks again,
D

[HollowPoint]

The last deer I harvested was done during an Arizona archery season. It was a smallish whitetail. After field dressing it couldn't have weighed more than 100 pounds of so.

It was a little over a mile back to my vehicle. That one mile had only a few shallow ups and downs in the terrain but even still, that one-hundred pound buck felt more like it weighed a ton after the first one-hundred yards.

The excitement of the hunt and the excitement of the kill wore off pretty quickly cause, on this hunt, I had to do all the hauling, dragging and straining by myself. Only after I finally got back to the truck did that excitement come back.

At or around the half-mile mark I started cutting off body parts just to lighten the load. It was a mistake to have cut the legs off up to the elbows. If it weren't for the drag-rope I carried in my backpack, I'm not sure what I would have done. I really didn't want to cut it in half and make that trip twice.

When I finally did make it back to the truck, there was no fur left on the entire right side of that deer carcass.

I was hunting on top of a mountain called Sugar Loaf Mountain just east of Mesa, Arizona. I seen several deer that day. The one I got just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was the last weekend of December and that year's archery deer season.

Interesting side note; In Arizona, the current year's archery deer season ends at the end of December. In Arizona, that same archery deer season extends into January of the following year but, you have to get a new hunting license and a new archery deer tag.

I did just that and the following weekend I was back out at the same spot trying to get another one of those small whitetails I'd seen. I never saw another deer when I went back but, I did get trapped by gun-fire on top of that same mountain while I was trying to get back to my truck.

On the top of this particular mountain is a mesa that extends nearly its entire top; (hence the name Sugar-Loaf mountain) it's flat with only slight terrain variation. On the way back to the truck this second time out, I got to the edge of the mesa just above my truck and found a couple of guys target shooting into the side of the mountain. The volcanic boulders that make up the side of this mountain were causing their ricochets whiz dangerously close to my body so I had to hit the dirt till they stopped firing.

I had visions of me being dragged off that mountain.

HollowPoint

[10x]

It is much easier to drag a dead deer than push it.
In field dressing any big game, 1) get the guts out 2) get it cooling, 3) get the blood out.
Any dragging that does not break bones and the blood is out of the meat is not going to do much damage at all.

[Thundarstick]

As far as I need to, and not one step further than I have to!

[waksupi]

I was lucky this time, maybe 300 yards, all down hill.

[kbstenberg]

This year for me the distance wasn't too bad (quarter mile). it was constantly having to get the deer over dead falls. Kevin

[smkummer]

This brings back memories of my first mule deer buck shot in N.Dak. It was down in a butte valley in western N.D.. My hunting buddy and I were both Juniors in high school and in wrestling did all we could to drag that over 200 lbs. field dressed buck 1/4 of a mile to the trunk of a early 60's Ford Falcon. We didn't even bring rope. My feet and back hurt from that memory but we learned.

[Blammer]

stuff them in a tractor tire then roll it down the hill... :)

[Murphy]

In or out of season? Day or night? Too many variables...I need more specifics.

Murphy

P.S.: Don't be hatin', this was long ago.

[300savage]

i once helped a friend take a desert bighorn ram that we simply could not pack out of the spot we were in when we got to him in the condition of exhaustion we were in. so we cut his head and horns off and and dropped the body off a several hundred foot cliff while we did our best to save the horns and not die in the process.
that was when i first learned you cant bruise dead meat.
you can ruin it through heat or contamination, or you can do like we did and break about every bone in its body, but it will not bruise or hurt the meat.
that ram was some of the best meat i ever ate

[boltons75]

89361

This is the only way to pull them out, 3/4 mile walk, this pulled 4 out this year.

[GabbyM]

My daughters husband shot a 5x6 elk Sunday morning around 9:30. It was a couple hours after dark before they finished packing it out. She said it was the hardest hike she'd ever made. She weighs about 120 and packed out a 40 pound load.

[smkummer]

Bolton 75 consider yourself a lucky man to have a lady friend like that! I can maybe get my wife to the range about once in every 5 years.

[John in WI]

I helped an old timer carry one out over a mile. I thought this was really clever--he had an old WWII era canvas stretcher to carry it on. There were three of us, rotating out the load as we got tired.

I was always amazed at how after you squeeze the trigger, the game seems to know what direction your vehicle is and they go the other way.

[Maineboy]

i once helped a friend take a desert bighorn ram that we simply could not pack out of the spot we were in when we got to him in the condition of exhaustion we were in. so we cut his head and horns off and and dropped the body off a several hundred foot cliff while we did our best to save the horns and not die in the process.
that was when i first learned you cant bruise dead meat.
you can ruin it through heat or contamination, or you can do like we did and break about every bone in its body, but it will not bruise or hurt the meat.
that ram was some of the best meat i ever ate

I guess you "tenderized" that ram.

[mikeym1a]

How far can you drag a deer? Depend. Pretty far if you're going downslope. Not so far uphill. But that's just me.............:-)

[Corbi]

I have dragged deer at least a mile. Maybe a mile and a half. The hair was rubbed off of one side but the meat was fine.

I bought a 2-wheeled cart I use on flat ground. It is more fun than dragging.

Corbi

[white eagle]

boltons75 I have the same deer rig you have minus the helper of course
works like a charm
that is one big doe you got there btw>

[Archey]

I too hunt public land where motor vehicles are not allowed. I have dragged three deer out of "my spot" that is about a mile and a half from the parking lot. I carry a rolled up deer sled in my pack. It is the thin plastic kind about 16" wide. This helps reduce the friction a lot. I made a drag rope with a 1/2" X 12" PVC pipe as the handle. Picture a six foot long rope with a water ski handle on one end. Loop around the deers neck and two front legs at the lower joint so that the hooves are next to its ears. I use both hand behind me on the PVC handle and pull. If it a big buck or I gotta go up hill, I stop often and let the hart rate come down. Before I start dragging, I strip down to the minimum layers of clothing that I can stand plus my blaze orange gear. Everything that gets stripped gets bundled up in the heavy winter coat and stashed in the woods for latter retrieval. This works well for me but it is still one heck of a work out.

[boltons75]

boltons75 I have the same deer rig you have minus the helper of course
works like a charm
that is one big doe you got there btw>

Actually that helper, that was her first deer in the picture. It was a 3 1/2 year old doe. And she took took it all the way out.

That cart has carried three deer out at once.