Deer sleds?

[rondog]

I'm also thinking that rather than try to climb up hills and such while pulling it.....it might work well to tie an extension rope on it, climb first, then pull it up after. Also a lot of trees to tie a snatch block to.

[Hummer]

Key to dragging a deer any distance is to always go downhill. Even the strongest most fit hunter will have difficulty going upslope beyond a few hundred yards. The plastic sleds will slick the movement especially over snow or smooth grass but dragging a whole animal is a major heave even downhill. I've dragged many deer and pronghorn up to 2 miles myself but wouldn't attempt it uphill. So, I tend to hunt uphill from my camp or truck so I can pack out downhill.

For packing animals from below camp or beyond dragging distance the best option is to cut it up and pack it out, by horse, atv or backpack. A 140-200 lb. deer will bone out to 35-45 lbs. of meat. That's easily doable in two trips, maybe one. I've packed several sectioned elk in three trips, but I wouldn't recommend it, and won't do it again. Like Rondog, I have lumbar issues, probably from dragging and carrying big game. :>) I've packed maybe 250+ deer, pronghorn and elk, including about 80 of my own.

Deer and pronghorn are fairly small animals. The process of butchering into meat for the feezer involves reducing big pieces into small pieces. Go prepared to do that in the field, cleanly and efficiently. You'll reduce the carry weight 75% by skinning and deboning before transport. Hunt light and carry sharp knives and game bags for the first trip out.

Depending upon circumstances, carrying could be much easier than dragging but you'll have to invest the time and effort butchering in the field. All that will pay off in fine meals over the next year.

[meatman]

Pulled a mulie doe out with a dead sled a couple of years ago. When it was on snow, it was great, but on dirt/track some rocks punctured through the bottom and caused a bit of drag. I had a buddy help me drag it out just over a mile. It was a good way to get out of there quickly since we wanted to get back to catch some of the Broncos game. I threw that one away but would probably get another if I was hunting that area again.

[rondog]

This is private property that I'd like to hunt again. I don't think leaving more than a gut pile would be appreciated.

[TRnCO]

a few years ago I drew a special elk tag, which meant I would be hunting alone. I quartered the elk up and hauled the first load/quarter down(key word here is DOWN) on my pack/back that I carried every where while hunting. Once I got the first load back to camp(which was about 1.2 miles), I grabbed my kiddie sled, which was a plastic sled that kids use to sled in the snow, and my shoulder harness with a D-ring in the back that I took back up to the elk and then was able to haul another hind quarter down along with one other bag of meat, and then finished the job with one more load. Mostly downhill to camp and it worked really well EXCEPT over dry grass on the flat. Over rocky terrain and over pine needles it worked really well. The bottom of the sled almost had a few wholes worn all the way through by the time I was done, but dang, for a $10. piece of kiddie sled, it worked a lot better than me carrying all the loads down on my back.
If it were me, I'd plan on quartering the deer right where it drops. Do the gutless method. You can probably carry the whole deer in two easy loads on your back, especially if you take a little extra time and de-bone from shoulders. The only bone I ever carry out is the femur in the hind legs.
Don't worry about leaving a bone pile/gut pile. Coyotes out in that country will have it cleaned up pretty quick to the point that you won't even be able to find where the deer laid. Mother nature is good at clean up. As Clint Eastwood would say, "buzzards and worms gotta eat too", or something like that.

[rondog]

Good point, I'll ask the landowner what he prefers. He may not care at all. He did mention that he'd like to thin 'em out some, I told him I'd be happy to help!

[Irving]

This is the game cart we used this year on a cow elk.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/hunti...F104353380.uts

It balanced very well, and the cart itself was very sturdy. It states a weight capacity of 500lbs. My dressed out cow weighed out at 300lbs exactly in the condition in which we carried it out. The wheels on the cart were terrible and it was a race between enough spokes falling out that the wheels collapsed, or the wheels breaking off completely at the axles. Each time a spoke would work loose, it would wrap itself around the axle and create extra drag, just like having a brake on the whole time. While it DID get the elk the three miles back to the truck, we had to go extremely slow to make it back at all. With wheels that weren't garbage, it would have been much more easy. All that said, if this were a deer, this would be a one man job and you'd be whistling a happy tune the whole time. We had four men getting this elk out and it was a very rough, very long ordeal. Make sure a cart has good wheels, and I highly recommend one. This one is going back to Cabelas for sure.

[Hummer]

This was a good discussion so I thought I'd revive it to see if anyone has had additional experience with particular game carts or sleds. With both pronghorn and deer hunts coming up I've been concerned about how I'm going to get any animals out, especially since I hunt solo. My days of dragging them over the ground are over and I'm not keen about deboning in the field and carrying the weight on my back.

Three years ago with help from six friends we packed a bull moose off of Pawnee Pass with three sleds over 8" of snow. https://www.rei.com/product/162103/p...xpedition-sled The sleds are narrow at 20.5" wide which made it possible to get around rocks and logs along the narrow trail. A wider sled would have been near impossible to use. So, two years ago I used one of the sleds to haul a pronghorn a mile and a half over the NW prairie. It worked okay downhill and over good grass but uphill and over rocky terrain was a slog with too much friction. The sled needed wheels.

Cabela's in GJ has only the cheapest $99 game cart in stock so I did a little web searching and pulled the trigger on a Hawk crawler game cart. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1019987761?pid=506815
It's heavy compared to other carts but has four heavy duty wheels. Wheels seem to be the weak link in many game carts. This model might also be useful for pulling firewood logs from the forest.

[Irving]

After using a game cart two years in a row, I vowed to never use one again and quickly learned how to just quarter the animal.

To be fair to game carts, and those who can't carry stuff out, I think in hind sight, I'd still prefer to quarter, but then just pack the quarters onto the cart. We just threw a whole elk on there, and it was brutal. Part of having a cart is more capacity, so for something large enough where you want to keep the ribs and neck and everything, I'd just make more, easy, trips with the cart/sled.

[Hummer]

I can hardly imagine a whole elk on a single sled. Seems half an elk on a sled could be manageable by two men if the terrain allows.

For elk, I usually hire an outfitter friend to pack the meat but I always have it "quartered" and often in game bags ready to pack on the horses or mules. Since I worked for the outfitter, (actually his grandfather), I'm accustomed to cutting elk into pieces for their preferred packing arrangement in panniers. The quartering is done in seven sections; the four legs, the front and back sections of the spine cut between the 4th and 5th ribs, and the head and neck including any antlers. If the head will be mounted then the hide is caped in the field if time allows. This is also a good way to quarter for backpacking.

But my upcoming pronghorn and deer hunts are solo affairs where I couldn't justifiably afford to hire an outfitter even if one was nearby. Thus the game cart search. I did find one interesting carry system, the motorized ePack Wheel. https://www.packwheel.com/
It's pretty pricey at around $2300 and looking at videos and I wonder how well it could be managed by a 70 yr. old in typical Colorado mountain terrain. I like the idea but not the prospect of getting it back up if it tips over and down a slope.