Necessary items in your truck

[Pony Soldier]

This saturday a friend of mine asked me to help fetch a big cow he shot. I discovered he lacked a few items in his truck for the job.
Try these and you can add to too them.

1. Small electric chainsaw or an arbor saw
2. 10 ft of medium chain with a couple links or clevises to attach it to the loops on eith side of the box
3. A come along/ coffin hoist to winch the elk into the back of the pickup.
4. 20 ft of 1/2 inch hemp rope or equivalent climbing rope. Preferably with a loop in one end
5. A trailer hitch or a unit that can go into a trailer with assembly so you can attach a chain or a rope to it.
6. A couple of medium clevises for attachment to the back of pickup.
7. 15 - 20 ft of medium chain with hooks on at least on end. This is on the basis of things happen.

An elk can be a difficult thing to load without some basic tools.

 

[ahlgringo]

Still haven’t figured out how to drive up to any elk I have ever killed. But when I do- will remember your post-


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[Idaho_Potato]

Still haven’t figured out how to drive up to any elk I have ever killed. But when I do- will remember your post-


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I thought I was accidently reading the ATV PSA thread

But in all seriousness, my tip is having a spare key somewhere on the outside of the truck or in the bed. I have lost keys or locked myself out in the outdoors more times than I care to admit.

 

[Pony Soldier]

The dumbest one I experienced was in 1969 when a friend killed a nice 349 bull and we had none of the above. The fraternity brothers hooked a rope in a fork in a tree. One of the boys had a new jeepster and he drove under the bull until it was on the luggage rack. They diconnected the rope and a second later the roof collapsed making a bowl for the bull to lay in.

It was 70 miles into Missoula. A long scary trip at 35 mph. They hung it up on the house fire escape with brute manpower and it pulled it out of the wall.

Experiences like that stick with you.

 

[Where's Bruce?]

And here I was just quartering the bull and carrying it to the cooler in the bed. How stupid. I could have been cutting trees down with my chainsaw to make a trail to the damn thing and hoisting it out with the winch and recovery kit. Eh...maybe not.

 

[Pony Soldier]

Growing up in western Montana, no one had fancy pickups. We had a 1948 dodge 1/2 ton. To get anywhere we filled the back half of the box with rocks. When we would kill an elk we would drag it to the road, unload the rocks, put some planks to bridge the rocks and the pickup and drag the elk in and go home. I can show you piles of rock near every place I killed an elk through the 60s. I didn't get horses till the 80s.

Rocks and chains allowed us to go places in the snow.

 

[5MilesBack]

Doesn't anybody use a knife anymore? Quarter and load by hand.

 

[bsnedeker]

Growing up in western Montana, no one had fancy pickups. We had a 1948 dodge 1/2 ton. To get anywhere we filled the back half of the box with rocks. When we would kill an elk we would drag it to the road, unload the rocks, put some planks to bridge the rocks and the pickup and drag the elk in and go home. I can show you piles of rock near every place I killed an elk through the 60s. I didn't get horses till the 80s.

Rocks and chains allowed us to go places in the snow.

Lolz....my dad tells me stories like this all the time so I'm guessing you are in the same age range? He doesn't even remotely understand how I get elk out of the mountains when I'm 2 miles from the road...he thinks that is the dumbest thing ever!

 

[GSPHUNTER]

A large tarp to quarter Elk, deer on after your gut it. Unless you do gutless methods. I don't like getting everything that was once on the ground, on the meat. No body mention, one case of beer. all that work makes a body thirsty.

 

[doc holiday13]

i keep some 12 ft. 1K# rated ratchet straps, 15ft 3/8" chain. hammer, jumper cables, random ammo, knife.

A friend asked me to help butcher a goat on sunday and I forgot to bring my pistol. My friend has a 22lr rifle but didn't have any ammo. After 4 minutes of rummaging around I found 1/2 box of 22lr..

I guess I need to replaced that ammo now lol

 

[Jethro]

I may have trouble fitting all that in my kill kit diddy bag.

 

[hunterjmj]

Always quartered and pack an elk out.
I do always keep a shovel, chains, tow strap, tools, traction boards, spare key, etc with me though.

 

[grfox92]

I can't think of a single situation where I would be loading an elk whole into the back of a truck.

Last weekend we packed a cow out 6 miles one way for a total of 24 miles with all the round trips.

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[mtnwrunner]

Still haven’t figured out how to drive up to any elk I have ever killed. But when I do- will remember your post-


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Yeah, no kidding.
But I do keep a very necessary item in the truck.
When I finally do get there with my elk, the most important item is a very very cold beer. Irreplaceable.

Randy

 

[WCB]

Why not at least cut it in half...then just load it? Sounds like a lot of screwing around for nothing. With that said some chains...tow strap, winch or similar is good to have in the truck but no way besides all the other stuff you need in your truck am I now packing a "whole carcass loading kit".

 

[Pony Soldier]

Many of you appear to be way east of me to the land of sagebrush. In much of this country we have 100 years of wagon and skid roads and main roads in the creek bottoms.

Many elk are skidded downhill to the road by hand, horse or whatever. Then you have to load them. The recommended items facilitate that. The cow and the bull opening day were shot 1-2 miles from the road. The cow died 30 ft from the road. The bull was dragged to the road. All came out whole. Unless you are huge and even then, tools get you through the last step.

 

[11boo]

We shot a couple cows about a mile beyond a locked gate on a SWA. Quartered one, and I walked back to the truck to get the plastic sled and start hauling meat. CPW guy was there waiting. Checked my tag, and wanted to go check our kills.
He unlocks the gate and says follow me out in your truck. Fine with me.
Pulls some tissue for a DNA sample off each animal, helps us load them both.
Didn’t even have time to quarter the big one, just gutted. Didn’t even have time to crack a beer.

I can’t imagine loading a whole elk like that again, we did use his ATV ramps but it was all brute force.

 

[hunterjmj]

We shot a couple cows about a mile beyond a locked gate on a SWA. Quartered one, and I walked back to the truck to get the plastic sled and start hauling meat. CPW guy was there waiting. Checked my tag, and wanted to go check our kills.
He unlocks the gate and says follow me out in your truck. Fine with me.
Pulls some tissue for a DNA sample off each animal, helps us load them both.
Didn’t even have time to quarter the big one, just gutted. Didn’t even have time to crack a beer.

View attachment 467348View attachment 467350

Awesome

 

[Idaho_Potato]

A large tarp to quarter Elk, deer on after your gut it. Unless you do gutless methods. I don't like getting everything that was once on the ground, on the meat. No body mention, one case of beer. all that work makes a body thirsty.

I keep a lawn size black trash bag in the bottom of my pack for that reason. Split it down the sides and it makes a decently large tarp to lay quarters and meat on before you get it into game bags. Then usually lay the full game bags on top of sage brush or on limbs to start cooling.

 

[Poser]

Shovel, snatch cord, tow rope, hydraulic Jack, traction boards, shackles, damper, bridle, jump starter battery, air compressor, tire plug kit, tire deflator.