Okay guys, what is the best way for a poor man to load a 150 pound deer on atv racks without the help of others?

Thanks.

 

How tough are ya??? heh heh heh, sorry, just had to ask. last elk season I had to tow a 450 es out of an area while carrying his passenger and half his spike carcass both on my machine. With two people it was pretty easy to just set the half-elk on the rack, but one guy would have been pretty difficult. For deer-and by yourself, I will assume you will have a few tie-downs handy??? If not, rope will work fine too. What I would do is grab the rack-(assuming a buck), and pull his head up onto the rack itself as far up as you can, then hook one tine into your rear rack to kind of hold him there while you move to the other side. From the other side, just pull his rack and legs, slide him on up the rack from the side of the machine-if you have too, swing his hips over onto the floorboard in case you get tired, that way he'll be off the ground anyway, and will have a resting place a little higher up so your next pull you can start right from where you left off, not loosing any ground in that he won't fall back too the ground-if that makes any sense.

Basically what I would do is have him laying on his side on your rear rack, with the legs down the fenders towards the floorboards, then tie him up good so he won't fall off. A doe would be the same, only you don't have the nice rack to use for help if need be.

Not sure if that makes any sense, or even helps at all, but it was worth a try. Hope everything works out great for ya, and enjoy the hunt!

Best of Luck, and be sure to get some pictures of that nice critter you've harvested-or will have soon!

Mike

 

Cowboy,

Thanks for the reply. That is how I have done it in the past, as you might say "one end at a time".

Just thought someone out there might have come across a trick or two that makes it even easier.

 

Spring-
You know, I just saw a new "deer carrier" of sorts on the new hunting channel we got. You kind of back your atv up to the deer, roll it over onto the gate type mechanism, then just drive away from it. As you drive, the gate raises, the deer rolls down into it onto the back rack. It looks like it works pretty well from the advertisement on tv, they used it in several different kinds of terrain, and never had a problem not picking up the animal. Problem herein lies with your request for a "poor mans" solution-don't feel bad, I can't justify buying something like that either! Then again, I'm 25, bench press over 500 lbs. and dead lift over 600, so picking up a 150 lbs. deer and tossing it on the back rack is really no big deal for me.

I was just thinking though-I don't know how good you are with metal fabrication, or welding, but I'd be willing to bet that a guy could very easily construct a small "cherry picker" of sorts-you know, like you pull engines with on vehicles. I'm thinking that a guy could design a small platform of sorts to bolt onto the rear rack, then an upright arm with a pivoting top beam, with a pulley. You could rig something up with like a small hand winch or something, then just use some rope to tie the deers legs together, then use the new picker you just made to hoist the deer just like a cherry picker would an engine. With a pivoting top, you could swing it over onto the rack and lower the hand winch line till it sits evenly on the rack. And, as it would be on it's own base, you could easily bolt this contraption to the rear rack for hunting season, then remove it for the rest of the year. What do you think of that idea there-does it sound like it would work???? Come to think of it, I bet a guy could make something like this rather quickly and easily if he knew how to weld pretty well. I doubt it would take anything bigger than 2"x2" square tubing-if even that big. Hummm, I wonder if there's any money to be made in something like that???

Well, sorry to get side tracked there, was just thinking out loud I guess. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-blush.gif[/img] Anyway, sorry I can't help anymore than that, I just don't have any other ideas for doing it easily by yourself, other than the standard "one end at a time" method like you mentioned previously.

Anyway, Best of Luck, let me know what you come up with if you find something that works. New methods are always nice if they make it easier on the body. I know when my back goes out, even lifting a gallon of milk can be painful at times! That, and I've been slowly finding out that even though I'm only 25, I'm slowly realizing I am loosing the ability to do things like I used to do at 17 or 18 even! Getting older pretty much sucks I guess.

Well, Best of Luck, Happy Hunting!

Mike

 

If you have a winch....run winch cable over a limb or to a ****** block down to deer and pull him off the ground. (have another piece of rope to deers antlers and tie him off). Pull atv under deer and lower on racks...tie him down and your off to the races. A dead deer is like trying to handle a 100+ lb. piece of wet noodle....

 

bigdawg,

Thats a good idea, and an even better analogy!

An older discussion on this topic was to just drag it out. Tie off to its head, then pull the deer close to the machine to get its head off the ground. This will allow a tight turning radius, but a pain if you have to back up. In the past I've learned its better to just throw it on, secure the body to the quad, then rope all 4 legs together so they stick straight out.

 

I got close too- needing to do that this evening, seen a few, let em pass, but I have to go back to work on thursday...So any deer I see tommarrow won't be so lucky.


Loading a deer penuts, ignore the messy stuff and pick em up. Now how about these guys claiming to load an entire elk onto their ATV? That's the one that got me. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

ElRancho-
I'll try to get some pics for you-my 'Cat dealer has picts of his '00 500 Auto cat with TWO cow elk-one on each rack, while driving, and he's pulling a honda with one cow up out of a canyon. I don't know if he'll let me take them or not-the owner is pretty tight if you know what I mean, but the mechanic is a great guy-maybe he can swing something for me. Anyway, last season, I was asked to go up into some nasty terrain to help out a guy who had a spike down. When I got there, they had a Honda 450es stuck, with the entire spike on the machine, the driver driving, and one guy attempting to push. I drove in, loaded up half the elk on my machine, picked up his partner, then proceded to drive my 'Cat while towing him on his 450 with the other half of the animal on his machine. Once we got out to the actual road, he was fine, but I did have to tow him through some nasty stuff just to get there. I hauled half the elk for him down to his truck, along with his partner as my passenger. I took pictures of this under the headlights of the truck as it was well after dark, but they came out all grey and blurred, you couldn't see a damn thing in them, so I threw them out.

Granted, I only got to carry half an elk myself while towing the machine with the other half elk, but still, I have seen several guys hauling full elk on smaller atv's than my 'Cat. The country we hunt is pretty rugged, and there is no way to get a truck in there, so we make due with what we have, sometimes while it's not adviseable by the manufacturers recommendations by any means, we do what is necessary to get the animal out in the quickest, most efficient means possible. Often times, that means loading an entire elk onto the atv to extract it from the area, get it back to the truck, or to camp, whichever comes first. As hard to believe as this may sound, it is pretty much standard practice out here by guys with atv's. Some of the higher country we hunt in is 10-15 miles from camp, and making more than one trip after dark is out of the question-by the time we get it loaded up, it's get home for dinner and dry clothes before you freeze to death!

BTW-I drew a cow tag this year (first year ever![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]), and because of the laws here, my partner also gets a cow tag. I am REALLY hoping to bag my first elk this year, even if it is a cow, and will definately take pictures then, if and when I do get one down.

Best of Luck to Everybody, and HAPPY HUNTING!!!!

Mike

 

I've got pics in my signature link of us loading two decent sized whitetail bucks on my Dad's Cat last year. Winch worked like a champ!

An ATV with a winch is almost just as good as another hunting partner. I'm not afraid to go hunting by myself as long as the Cat is along.

 

Try and find a way to back your wheeler up to a small hill. I've loaded deer by backing my rig into the ditch and just dragging the deer onto the rear rack.