Getting that 100lb pack from the ground onto your back

TSAMP

WKR
Joined
Jul 16, 2019
Messages
1,705
I ran into a situation this fall where I couldn't get the pack on. Got it onto my back twice using the normal technique, but both times it had too much momentum for me to remain standing. With no favorable terrain or logs around, I had no choice but to take some load off. I think the issue with this load was that it stuck too far out from my back, moreso than the weight. But it was also a huge load, the head, neck and cape were 30# and the meat yield off this buck was 90#. All meat was bone in, so conservatively in this photo you're looking at 130# with all my gear.
View attachment 807753

An elk hind quarter + backstraps is a denser load that rides tighter to my back. That type of load was no issue putting on solo, though i did have some favorable logs to help me out, i wasn't starting from the ground.
Did you weigh the head cape? Reason I ask relatively average doe i recently killed had a 28lb cape/skull. As i weighed it before/after skinning. I'd expect yours to be much heavier
 
Joined
Jan 26, 2017
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3,186
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PA
i did actually, because I wanted to know if it was actually heavy or if i was just being a b** about it. 30# on the dot with the head, last few vertbrae/meat/esophogaus/tongue, and then the hide to about the middle of the ribs. i did weigh it a few days later after it was frozen, so there may have been some minor weight loss from blood. or my scale is off.
 

mtnbound

WKR
Joined
Nov 8, 2016
Messages
511
Location
N. Idaho
Like the title states, how are you guys getting the super heavy 100lb loads from the ground onto your back? The heaviest I've had was in the 80s and that I could lift onto my knee and swing my arm into it wildly and have it on my back in one motion but it probably wasn't the best way to do it and that was getting to my limits and I am looking for a better and probably safer way of transferring all that weight.

Thanks in advance for your answers.
As others have stated. I sit or lay the pack on the ground and get into both straps. I do connect the hip belt at this point as well, but that is just to control the load as I start to move. Then I roll over onto my hands and knees, lift one of my legs to get a foot planted, brace my hand on the raised knee, push up, and get my other foot planted. Once I'm up and steady, I finish tightening the hip belt. I find if I do not secure the hip belt before I stand, the weight can shift, causing me to lose balance.

It's gonna be case by case, but often, I will take my heaviest load out first if I know the area and have a solid exit route. If I don't know the exact exit route, I often will take a lighter load out first to establish a good exit route; it wastes energy having to find a route and change directions with a 100 lbs load.
 
Joined
Jun 28, 2017
Messages
399
Location
Oklahoma
I set the pack up on the ground.

Loosen the belt.

Sit into the shoulder straps.

Roll to my knees, if necessary.

Stand up. Shrug the traps up. Cinch the belt.

This one wasn't too bad, just as an example.
This is the way we did it in the army. Sit down, get strapped in. Then you either roll over to your belly and use your arms to push up to a kneeling position and then stand up; or your buddies grab your arms and pull you up from your seated rucksack flop. That tripod, ammo, and water gets awful heavy. Especially if you only weigh 155lbs.
 
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