Emergency Stretcher for Elk Meat?

[TheTone]

We came across a couple guys going in to help their dad get a whitetail out of a drainage in WY...They had like a 10ft pole said they were just going to carry it out (mind you Wyoming WTs in this area are like 140lbs for a mature buck). They came walking across this meadow 30minutes later. Looked like the most miserable thing I have ever seen (and I used to do flooring carrying 12-15ft carpet rolls into jobs or folding them in half and carrying them up multiple floors on my back) and they still had like 1.5miles to go to the truck.

Your arms, hands will be shot in no time...plus having to go all the way back to the truck to get it. Do as others have said....get some cheap frame packs and IMO just strap you day pack to it so you can just cut it up and start getting it back to the truck.

I did this once with a friends small fork horn mule deer. We weren’t that far in and it was all on trail. It was pure suck! We would have been way ahead and way more comfortable to quarter it.

 

[Maverick1]

About the only thing that could make this more medieval would be to shackle your ankles together and then use the stretcher. Have at it!

 

[SuspiciousFish]

About the only thing that could make this more medieval would be to shackle your ankles together and then use the stretcher. Have at it!

 

[Jstumbaugh]

On a trip to Maine hunting bear the outfitter used the stretchers for taking bears out. Granted, they weren't carrying them far but it worked. Bears are terrible to drag anywhere.

 

[Maverick1]

On a trip to Maine hunting bear the outfitter used the stretchers for taking bears out. Granted, they weren't carrying them far but it worked. Bears are terrible to drag anywhere.

Dragging a bear is like dragging a sandbag. Awkward.

 

[Buckskinbob]

When I was a teenager I shot an elk with my cousin and he made me a pack by lashing saplings together then cutting strips off the elk hide for straps. I packed out a hind quarter on that thing and he carried the head. Then we went back in with real packs to get the rest out. I think I would prefer the sapling pack over a stretcher.

 

[RockyMnt Hunter]

My dad and I used a one-wheel cart for several years. The first year we used it, it was miserable. We didn't have any brakes and the load was really high and unstable. We made a few modifications, and it helped but I bought a good frame pack and would rather pack out quarters on my back. We've used a roll-up poly sheet as a sled for deer, it works well for deer on clear ground, but I think an elk would be too heavy unless you had snow on the ground.

 

[lak2004]

My uncle and I carried an antelope that we quartered and wrapped in it's house (with head and all the meat) about 3 miles on our shoulders switching off..... Never again. Backpack does wonders, especially a good pack.

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[pilgrim7]

A buddy and I carried out a whitetail on a pole in college, ended up spending over an hour in a Rhodo hell. I swore never again, but a few years later I killed one a few miles from camp with no pack. After dragging a hole in the hide, we did the last mile and a half or so on the meat pole, again. In that moment I would have probably traded my truck for the meat hauling pack I have now. If you like to kill stuff far from the road, bite the bullet and buy a Mystery Ranch, Kifaru, Stone Glacier, Seek Outside, etc and be done with it.