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How are you getting deer in your truck when solo?

SHF Hunter said:
I carry a piece of an old wooden ladder. You tie the deer to the ladder, lift one end onto the tailgate, and then lift the other end and slide into the bed. The longer the ladder, the easier it is to lift.
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This! It works great for all sorts of heavy stuff
 
I keep in good physical shape and shoot small deer.... TBH. usually if I shoot something big I'd call a friend or 2 just to share the experience with. My heaviest deer and bear I was fortunate enough to have help.
 
I’m not in the Midwest so not really a problem. A big buck in the area I whitetail hunt is ~200 pounds live weight.

If I was solo and shot one big enough to be an issue I’d probably just bone it out where it lays. I do this at times anyway. All the really big animals I hunt (elk etc.) are boned out and packed out.

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I ran into a problem a few years back trying to wrestle a heavy buck into the bed of my pickup. After an all day sit I shot him at last light then made the 3/4 mile hike back to the truck to drop off my gear and retrieve my 2 wheeled cart. Add the walk back to get him and the tiresome haul out and I was spent. I damn near killed myself struggling every which way to get his fat azz up into the bed but I couldn't. Completely exhausted and totally drained of energy I called my family to bail me out. Luckily I was only 20 minutes from home. I realized at that moment that I'm not as young or strong as I used to be so I have to be smarter, especially if I'm hunting far away places. Lesson learned the hard way.
Nowadays I pack my deer out unless it has spots.
 
I have a cargo carrier that connects to the trailer hitch on my truck, and all my deer go on there and get tied down with bungees. It's easily a foot lower than the bed of my truck.

David

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I shot a big one last fall in velvet and I couldn’t muscle him into my truck no matter how hard I tried and I’m not a small guy. I finally lashed him with his head off the ground and got him down to the neighbors for some help. I saw a guy on YouTube somewhere had a hoist system that features a one way ascender device like a rope man 1 to take up slack as you slowly lift and pull the deer up. I rigged up the heavy duty metal cam jam to do the job but haven’t tested on a deer yet
 
I agree packing them out is easier. Ive done it a few times where I absolutely could not fathom doing a cart or sled. However, our 3 giant breed dogs eat all the bones and non desirable meat of these deer so it's pretty important that I get the entire carcass out of there. I have a roof rack on my tacoma and I just thread a come along up above the last bar and attach to deer. Slowly ratchet up until the center of mass is above my tail gate and then push him on in. Once I get home I have another come along rigged up on a big tree branch. just drive the truck under the tree, attach the other come along and ratchet him up to skinning height.
 
If there's a hill around drop the gate and back up to it. Slide the deer in.

On flats, I'm still able to pull the buck up enough to rest it's shoulder on the edge of the bed, back up, and haul it in with a second move. That's how the Benoits do it, and it works pretty well over trying to haul it in on one move.

I used to put them on top of a sedan, that was a pain in the ass.
 
Stand in the bed.Reach down to get the deer's head near the tailgate and just pull it in with a rope.My son's been pulling deer in by himself since he was 9 years old.
 
Put deer near tree
Back up to deer
Tie rope to tree
Loop rope thru eye in truck bed (near cab)
Tie rope to deer’s head above tailgate
Drive off til deer slams into front of bed
Untie rope
Shut tailgate
Go home
 
Use your rappel setup to either hoist the deer up (if you have a 10' branch around), you could even use the truck to do the lifting lol; then back under and lower the deer.

The method that I currently use (if not deboned and packed out) is to attach one of my ropes to my Back Rack (and the mid-point or other end to the deer) and use either a CT RollNLock or prussic setup as a capture/mechanical advantage system
 
i might get a pulley and splice a largish amsteel loop through the attachment loop of the pulley

this loop can be girth hitched on the deer anywhere (like the neck) so your deer has a pulley on it now

then have another pulley mounted to the back of the bed near cab

tie rope to back of bed, route through pulley attached to deer, route through pulley attached to bed....you now have 3 X mechanical advantage....like our venerable trucker's hitch....and can guide deer and pull rope at the same time
 
Spartan said:
Starting to do more remote/solo hunting and realized last year that I need a better solution than the old pull-and-pray method for getting heavy deer up into my truck bed. With this method, from the ground, I just tie the antlers off near the tailgate so it's head/rack is held above the tailgate, and then I climb up into the truck bed and start pulling, using the tail gate as a fulcrum point. Not great...

I'm kicking around a few ideas such as a hitch hoist or sled and ramp. I've used the hitch-mount hoists in the past, but I'm not a big fan of them. Curious to hear some good ideas from the members here.

So what are you all doing?
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I have a jet sled which lives in my truck bed to organize gear. When I get a deer I use it to drag the deer out. Bring it to the truck and use a foldable ATV ramp to just pull it in.
 
Pack them all out, bone out or quarter where they lay. Unless I am right beside a road I can drive to. I have a hoist that slides into the hitch of my truck.
 
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