How to haul Elk.

canhunter · Jan 1, 2007

I see a lot of whole MATURE elk in vehicles and hanging in camps with stories of how they were killed sometimes miles back in the hills. This does not apply to spikes or small bodied elk. How are people able to haul these elk out whole? We have had to pack out some bulls from canyons we could not take the horses into. Trying to find a easier way. I have heard all kinds of stories about crazy distances whole elk have been hauled out of the woods. I was only able to haul one out whole with a 4 wheeler off from some private land and it was super easy. I don't care if it was shot next to a road as that is not the question and good if you are able to get one next to a road. We use horses and have tried to drag mature bulls with minimal to no luck on dry ground. With some snow we can drag them fine but not for any great distance. It would flat work the horses way too hard. The best episode I think about is two solid mountain/cow horses could barely drag a bull into the shade of a creek on flat but rough ground. These horses were lathered and flat wore out after less then 150 yds, and it was a see saw slam fest just to get it done. Didn't need to hobble them that day. ha ha The bull weighed hanging at the butcher four days later with bone and meat only at 200k/500lb. Fill me in on what you guys use and how long does it take.

jims · Jan 1, 2007

The closest I have ever come to getting a mature bull out whole was when I helped some guys in Wyo take out a bull on a game hauler cart. It was in a nonmotorized area where there were clearcuts and old clearcut roads without hardly any downed timber. There were 5 of us (1 on each corner) plus another guy that helped guide the way. It was a 280 class 6x that was less than a mile back in. All 5 of us were totally exhausted by the time we got him out!

I never am lucky and end up shooting bulls in hell-holish areas where I end up boning meat and packing them out on my back. Most of the time I am hunting by myself and have a tough enough time getting the bull in a position to bone him out! A helicopter would likely be your best option?

Califelkslayer · Jan 1, 2007

In snow, flat ground or down hill, I have used a sled. My sleds are about 6 feet long and 30" wide. pulled 2 cows and a calf out that way. One of the cows I halved cause the drag was bout 600 yds. My sleds were purchased to haul honker decoys and work fine for firewood, elk, etc. I have heard that there are search and rescue sleds, military, that are 8' long and 36" wide but I couldn't ever find one. My favorite way is to quarter then on the ground, hang them in a tree overnight and load the saddle panniers up the next day. That way i get to ride out too.

huntin100 · Jan 2, 2007

No reason to kill your selves. Quarter the elk, or bone out the elk and put it in packs. Why carry all that bone, rib cage, etc. It takes one hour for two people to do the job. Two hours for one person. Longer for caping. It's not that hard to do.

duckslayer · Jan 2, 2007

I would have to agree with huntin100. If you have horses why try to drag one. I won't drag a spike behind my horses. Quarter and get it on the horses.

arch3614elk · Jan 2, 2007

I learned the hard way on dragging out a mature bull. I was able to get him out using a steep hill and the winch on the ATV one he was cloe to a road. I should have just quartered him out instead of breaking my back getting him out whole.

canhunter · Jan 2, 2007

We don't drag animals per se, but the big bull it was hot and wanted it in the shade as much as possible. Once we started we just finished it. Did not "have" to drag it just did. We have drug them over logs and other stuff to make it easier to quarter, but even then the horse only provides the pull and we still have to lift and help. We have horses for the transportation and to haul the elk in quarters for that very reason. With small bulls we use the saddle paniers and two guys can ride out with the quarters and neck meat. Big bulls the shooter gets to walk and the other gets to ride.

OregonBigGameHunter · Jan 2, 2007

Oregon Bull taken last year hanging whole baby, shot him seconds after starting my walk into the woods, 2 hours later with the help of our 5 other hunting buddies we had him hanging by 9am opening morning.

old_man_of_the_hills · Jan 2, 2007

OregonBigGameHunter,

You were lucky, but it was not miles back in nor was it big-bodied, which was what he was asking about in the post...none the less, way to go!

rumproast · Jan 2, 2007

I approach it this way: the more work I get done at the kill site, the less work I've got at camp or at home. Down to the bag of trimmings, it's coming out in pieces-parts no matter how close to or far from the road. Plenty of time to crack a cold frosty and tell lies after I'm sure I've taken care of the meat.

CAelknuts · Jan 2, 2007

LAST EDITED ON Jan-02-07 AT 11:38PM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Jan-02-07 AT 11:36?PM (MST)

The only times I've ever hauled an elk out whole that was shot way far from a road was, once, on a Montana late Gallatin hunt in January. There was a ton of snow, and the elk died above a packed down main horse trail. We hiked back to the highway and got out the old ski-doo. Drove the ski-doo up to the elk, tied a noose around the neck and held on for dear life behind the driver....Only time I've ever dragged an elk out at 20 mph!

We also shot one on another late Gallatin hunt that we "sledded" out by tying a plastic pad like others have mentioned here, and three of us jumped on and rode the elk like a tobaggin down the hill all the way to the road. Damned near got killed when we crashed a few times, but it was a ton of fun!

Califelkslayer · Jan 2, 2007

Oregon, you're probably glad i'm not your hunting partner. I wouldn't give up opening morning for nothing nor would I expect any of my hunting partners to. When i've killed early on opening day, I have all day to skin, quarter and bag. Worry bout getting it out later. Only exception would be a warm day during archery season and then getting the hide off would be my first concern. Different strokes i guess.

elk_horn · Jan 3, 2007

Why would you want the elk to come out whole??? the best way is to skin and quarter asap to get the meat cooled down to get the best meat!

moseleymiddleton · Jan 3, 2007

we have gotten 5 elk total. two small rgas and a spick and a 320 bull and a 340 bull.most of which died failry close to a road. but my dad and i are elctritains and we have two 600 foot 1/2 inch ropes that we use to pull wire with on traffic signal jobs. with these we have pulled some deer out of some deep canyons and pulled the elk. where we hunt its hard to go somewhere where there anint an old logging two track or road of somekind. that you could reach. but i didn't draw a tag this year so i went to encampment and shot a cow about a mile and a half in and quarterd here up and through a quarter on your shoulder and hike out. takes two trips for two or four fpr one person but it ggets them out also the sleds work good.

moseley middleton

tommyjoe_3 · Jan 3, 2007

Y'all are missing out on half the fun of elk huntin'! I been down at the bottom of a canyon 15 miles from a road knowin' I had to pack my elk to where we can get horses before they pack it out (quartered) the 15 miles to the truck. Y'know what that is - it's fun! I figger if yer gettin' a bull whole body and all back to camp, you ain't huntin' very hard - or yer gettin' mighty lucky right off the road.

BrianID · Jan 4, 2007

This year we took my bull and my brother's bull out whole about a mile from the road. According to the map they were 7/8 of a mile from the road as the crow flies. We used a sled. Between loading them in the sled, dragging them and loading them in the truck it took about 3 hours for three guys to pack 2 whole bull elk. There was only short brush and no downfall to go through. According to the map it was about a 1500 drop in elevation. Needless to say, most of the way down the mountain was fairly steep.

Here is a picture of both elk loaded on the sled shortly after we started dragging.

Two elk on the sled was too hard to stop from taking off down the mountain without us so we took one off and tied it up to the sled. It acted as an anchor. All we had to do was lift it's head and the elk on the sled would pull it down the mountain. All we really had to do was guide them down the mountain.

I may have made it sound like it wasn't too much work to get these elk out. I'm sure if you asked my brothers they would tell you that it was very hard work to get those two bulls out.
It was still a lot of work but not near as much work as it has been other times I've packed elk a mile or more from a road.

I would have skinned/quarted and then put them in the sled but it was getting dark and we wanted to get them off the mountain. I also find it easier to keep the meat cleaner when I skin them after they are hanging than when I skin them on the mountain. It isn't all that hard to drag a whole bull elk if it is down a steep hill without thick brush or deadfall. I've dragged several whole elk down a steep hill and then cut them up before packing them out. Moving a whole elk on flat ground, through brush/deadfall or up hill is a totally different story.

Last year I helped my friend pack a rag horn he killed about 2 miles from motorized access. We boned it out and put it in our packs. There was three of us and there wasn't any uphill or steep down hill except where he shot it. He just dragged/rolled it down the mountain the first 400 yards. I was planning on boning my elk out and putting the meat on my back this fall but I was lucky and they were in a spot that we could drag them out whole without too much effort.

keener · Jan 4, 2007

I saw some guy?s in Montana that had used an old worn out kayak split down the center as a sled. They stuffed the elk in the kayak and used ratchet tie down straps to hold the elk and the kayak together. The split deck of the kayak kind of wrapped around the body of the elk. The deck had holes drilled in it that the tie downs connected to. They said it worked well. I didn't see them using the sled but I did see the entire set up elk and kayak loaded whole in the back of a pick up. It was a small bull. Maybe a dingy would work well for a big bull. (That's a joke) I have used a dead sled to haul quartered elk a couple of times and was impressed at how well they work.

2rocky · Jan 5, 2007

One big down side to having a whole elk is getting it cool. Especially if you leave the hide on. Now if you can get the bull loaded and to a locker whole in a timely manner more power to you. Not everyone hunts the kind of country I like to hunt elk in.

But if you have just a skinning knife, you can break a bull down into manageable pieces, and not even sweat.

This is an example of a situation where a whole elk would have spoiled. The days were up to 70 and the nights were down to the high 20's A whole elk (even skinned out) would not have cooled as quickly as these pieces. (that's an Indian Quarter) The heaviest piece is probably 70 pounds.

UGAhunter · Jan 5, 2007

Wow! In 70 degree weather that must have been one big fly fest!

moonlight · Jan 5, 2007

To each his own I guess, Califelkslayer, but I can't fault Oregon or his huunting buddies for giving up opening day to get one out, whole or not. If I killed a bull, regardless of when it was in the season, my partners would be more than willing to help get it out, just as I would be willing to help them get their's out. Elk hunting is about more than the kill, it is about the experience and the comraderie. If your buddies aren't willing to help you out, find new ones to hunt with. Besides, opening day is usually the porrest hunting day of the year here in oregon. all the weekend warriors are out and about, the elk are scattered, and very wary. most of the elk we have killed have been in the middle of the week after things have settled back down and the elk have had time to get back into their routine. I say congrats to you oregon, you and your hunting buddies sound like the type of guys that I would enjoy hunting with.
"success Is Reason Enough!"

cmiddleton · Jan 5, 2007

LAST EDITED ON Jan-05-07 AT 07:37PM (MST)[p] i have two kids plastic sleds and lots of rope. tie the elk in a fetal position on the two sleds. two men can drag it even on dry pine needles. its still a$$ kicking work and you will end up retieing it several times before you get out. much easier if you split them in two. the biggest tip is to hunt uphill.
our elk this year were only 30 yards from a two track road.
we knew where they crossed every night and had passed them several times during the season but it was dad and my brothers first archery kills so we took them both the last evening they could hunt. getting them to the truck wasn't bad it was getting them in that about killed us.

also its only 8 miles to my house so we had them skinned and at the locker in about 3 hrs from the kill.
what made me happy was both elk went down within site of our ambush spot. it was great to teach my dad how to shoot my new bow and have him succeed even if the bulls were not as big as the ones we chased all morning. my mom wouldn't let him have a head mount in the house anyway. she has bad asthma

ismith · Jan 5, 2007

I boned my bull out this year. No way in hell I was packing anything out of that coulee that would end up in the trash.
ismith

hunterofelk · Jan 7, 2007

No way they got the elk a long ways off the road. They just don't want to tell you their secret spot to sit on the road and shoot an elk as it crosses. Maybe they dragged it a ways if one side of the hide is bare of hair. Or maybe they drove off-road in a restricted area and don't want to get a fine.
Here are some pictures from the Gardiner, Montana late season hunt back in the late 1970's. The first one shows some horsemen dragging a bull with their organic ORV's and the next is my hunting mentor dragging my first elk down a snow packed trail rightly named Little Trail Creek.

2rocky · Jan 9, 2007

>Wow! In 70 degree weather that
>must have been one big
>fly fest!

The Freezing nights knocked the flies out. Like I said it peaked in the low 70's. My point was that the small pices were cooled faster when the sun dropped below the horizon so that when it warmed up in the shade during the day the core of the meat was still cool.

By the way, at no time did the meat itself ever actually freeze solid. The temp of the air dropped to 25 probably only for a few hours during the night. In Fact, when I left Oregon at 6am, I put the pieces in my truck toolbox and they were cool but not frozen. 12 hours later, they were still cool to the touch. My point is that meat will retain its cool temperature when allowed to cool, and in the shade, even without ice or refrigeration. But I would say 3 days at max in the situation I was in.

Legolas · Jan 9, 2007

LAST EDITED ON Jan-10-07 AT 06:10AM (MST)[p]Seems to me that every kill is a different situation. I've found the best thing to do is to just chill - both the meat and my brain. The only hard pack outs I ever had was when I got in a big city hurry and made poor choices without giving myself a chance to think it through first.

Boning out on site is a good option IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. Unfortunately, from the kills I've found, too many hunters haven't got a bloody clue.

But a whole bull from the backcountry? Somebody either broke the law or really abused a pack animal to do it.

Califelkslayer · Jan 10, 2007

Moonlight, I DO NOT have a problem helping out my hunting partners. My goal is to get the animal down, quartered, hung and bagged and get my a$$ back to camp. The picture by 2rocky is what I strive for, 4 quarters and 2 backstraps, bagged & hanging.

This year in Colorado, our group of 8 had 10 animals down by 2:30 PM opening day and they were hung before the person that took them returned to camp. The next day I led my 2 pack animals in about 5 miles, loaded 3 quarters on each side of both animals (one was a calf)and rode back out. I then rode back in and loaded each animal with another 2 quarters to a side and rode back out. My saddle horse carried out the backstraps. I personally packed out 5 elk in one day. This was a 0 dark thirty to 0 dark thirty operation. This also included one of the pack animals going down on the second trip and sliding under a deadfall. I had to unload the entire load to get the horse back up, pack the load uphill in pieces about 30 yards on a snot-slick hill and reload it. One of my partners almost cut his finger off splitting kindling in the dark that morning so I lost the two best horse people in camp to a hospital run. Did basically the same the next day so all of the elk were in camp by Mon night. Much rather pack out elk then sit in an emergency room anyways.

On opening day, I quartered, bagged and hung my son's 6 point, and the cows my dad and I took. But I didn't start helping them until my animal was down and quartered and i wouldn't help anybody with anything until my son filled his tag. Everyone of my partners will tell you I'm the first up to stoke the fire and start the coffee, the last to bed after stoking the fire and zipping up the tent. I also won't allow anybody else to ride out of that gnarly country to camp by themselves so they'll have help and a radio if something bad happens.

Legolas · Jan 10, 2007

>This year in Colorado, our group
>of 8 had 10 animals
>down by 2:30 PM opening
>day and they were hung
>before the person that took
>them returned to camp.

???