Packing out a Whitetail

[ScreamingPotato]

In Texas we're only allowed to break it to quarters. Last year I packed an 8 points 1.25 miles in one trip. I put all the quarters in the Kuiu pack meat shelf, carried the head in one hand and carried the bag of straps and trimmings in the other. Bow was strapped to the back of the pack. That packout unfortunately gave me a bout of planters fasciitis that I'm still dealing with now. It was pretty heavy. I think next time I'll do two trips. This one I was solo middle of the week and shot it last few minutes of legal light and there was some weather incoming so kind of pushed the issue.

I hunt from 1-1.5 miles in when I go back East to hunt whitetails. If it is cool I completely bone it out on a lightweight tarp and pack it in my meat hauling pack. If warmer, I use the gutless method. Both, just like I do out West here. WAY easier than dragging!
View attachment 531477View attachment 531478

Wow what a brute. I was wondering how a thread on packing deer out went so many pages now I see.

I've packed a couple. The last one was brutal. Private land but lots of deep water crossing, boats and waders required. Dragging would just be dumb from where I'm hunting. Its an absolute fantastic place to hunt because no one has ever wanted to do the work to get in there.

Now that looks like my kind of hunt! Freaking love that!

 

[Millwood21]

I do it here in north Georgia.

 

[Macintosh]

Think Id want to drape it in orange doing that^^. Luckily for me I only shoot very small deer!

 

[MallardSX2]

I also do it in North Georgia.

 

[Boarmaster]

Since its legal to cut up the deer where the OP lives I would cut it up. I would debone it and pack out only what I needed to. I would buy a pack capable of doing that in one or trips if needed. I would have some game bags and a small ground cloth to set the meat on to cool before placing in the bags. I like cutting up deer on the ground so I have enough rope to hang the deer between two trees to skin and cut it up. I would use the gutless method.
I used to drag deer in the national forest in Ohio and I am over that.

 

[BoilerBowHunter]

Does anyone use Tyvek in place of a tarp for butchering in the field? I did some quick research, and it doesn’t look like there’s anything that would worry me as far as setting meat on it. I wasn’t sure if there were any weird chemicals to worry about.

 

[Farmingdale's Finest]

Does anyone use Tyvek in place of a tarp for butchering in the field? I did some quick research, and it doesn’t look like there’s anything that would worry me as far as setting meat on it. I wasn’t sure if there were any weird chemicals to worry about.

It’s fine to butcher on it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[*zap*]

Does anyone use Tyvek in place of a tarp for butchering in the field? I did some quick research, and it doesn’t look like there’s anything that would worry me as far as setting meat on it. I wasn’t sure if there were any weird chemicals to worry about.

It is nice to have a clean place to work and you can wrap all the meat in it to pack out.
I am putting grommets around the perimeter of my 8x8 for this season.

 

[Swamp Fox]

Tyvek ...DeadSled ... Meat pack .... Game cart ... ATV ... Whatever it takes.

"Down South," just get the meat out ASAFP until the skeeters are all dead.

You can chillax in December.

 

[loganwayne]

Ive cut up and carried out quite a few. some were only a few 100 yards from the truck but though some steep thick stuff that wasnt going to be easy to drag one out in, also packed one close to 5 miles out good thing it was almost all down hill. Only place i havent cut one up that we hunt is AL. We called the game warden when 2 of us killed in the same area and were a couple miles back. It helped that we hunt with a couple game wardens from here every year.

 

[jacobmaas32]

Not exactly on a pack, but packing out a whitetail..

That hurts my back just looking at that...

 

[versatileHunter]

Mature doe in NY quartered (4 bone in limbs, backstraps, tenderloins, heart) and packed out in a Mystery Ranch Metcalf pack. Would’ve been a brutal to drag out. Pack was heavy but I dragged one bag over the snow for park of the hike. Deboning would’ve made it lighter but I prefer to wait for rigor mortis to pass before deboning.

​

 

[Corvus Corax]

My buddy met me at the truck like this. He then thought he was just going to hop in the passenger seat with all the blood running down his backside I pulled up the rubber floor mat and put it on my seat for the ride back to camp.

 

[hicountry1]

I'm thinking that you should retain proof of sex too.

 

[Swamp Fox]

I'm thinking that you should retain proof of sex too.

You mean like with a note from your girlfriend?

 

[Honyock]

Consider a plastic sled to pull it out on instead of dragging it out. I can't remember where I got mine but it was cheap and is basically a piece of heavy plastic (blue) with straps on. It rolls up and it has slid a lot of deer out of the timber.

 

[Mtns2hunt]

I have dragged deer, packed them out and even tried to carry out one on a stick the way indians used to or you see in the movies. Did not work out well.

Now I use a game cart if possible can carry deer and gear. If I am far back in the mountains I will NOT shoot a doe. Have private land for that. I will also not carry it out on my back - to messy and a great way to mess up your back and if you are older cardiac stress can kill you.

I will break down the deer and drag it out on a DEER SLEIGH'R Magnum Game Sled or similar type of slippery plastic. This way the load is lighter and you are leaving the guts and other undesirable parts behind and you stay relatively clean.

I learned this method coyote and cat hunting way back in the mountains. You would not believe how heavy a cat or couple coyotes can get when carrying a long way. Of course you could always skin them in the field when you're miles from nowhere it's getting dark, raining or snowing with the wind howling. I much rather drag them to the truck throw them in back and skin at home. Been there done that.

 

[aclawrence]

I’ve packed out a couple where my pack weighed over 80lbs. One was 89lbs and it’s too much weight for me. It was the deer and my gear. I plan to make two trips from now on. I drug out one deer in a jet sled last year and it was across leaves and mostly downhill so it was super easy. Juts depends on the situation.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Macintosh]

Carried or watched carried an entire quartered deer in one trip twice this past weekend. 140-ish lb dressed weight buck and a 90-ish lb doe. All done in 1 trip in a mystery ranch popup 18. None were deboned. Both pack outs were through a mile of ankle to calf-deep swamp and thick brush, followed by another 2 miles or so on a muddy trail. None of the pack-outs were at all grueling. If there was a lot of snow, bigger hills or a 200lb deer I’d debone in a heartbeat before I lugged around a sled all day miles from camp. But for an average deer I just dont see the need for multiple trips if youre reasonably fit. A little hand sanitizer back at camp and both me and my pack were back in action.
I killed a buck at home a week ago that weighed-in at a bit over 150lb without guts, heart or liver. Notna big deer by anyones measure but all there. Only 1/2mile from the road and half of that was in a hayfield, so I dragged it through some nasty spruce blowdown and briars to get to the field—mistake. Packing out or a sled would have been WAY easier. But most of the places any of this matters I’d way rather pack than go all the way to the truck to retrieve a sled. No way a cart would have made it any of these places and back, just a non-starter in that terrain.