• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

How do you get your deer out. What kind of terrain?

Jeremy_D

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2020
Messages
359
Location
Wisconsin
I'm in the hills and the swamps. I already own a jet sled. I'm trying to decided if I should also get a cart or just start packing them out. The Hawk crawler sleds look pretty nice but I'm still. Anybody have any experience with those?
I like the idea of packing it out but being by myself (probably) it'd be multiple trips and in Wisconsin we have to bring everything out but the guts.
 
I get my younger hunting buddies to drag..LoL jet sled works great ...never had much luck with carts..to many obstacles
 
It depends, as a buddy of mine always used to say . . . "Are you braggin' or are you draggin'?" :)

Wait, since I hunt on my own a lot now its become more like "Braggin' and Draggin' " if I'm successful. I typically drag to nearest convenient path then cart them out from there. Direction is entirely dependent on the closest access, not necessarily toward where the truck is. I figure I can always walk back to the truck after I get them close to an access road. I've got an inexpensive, aka POC (edited for redsquirrel), cart but it works ok to get them to where I can load them into the truck.
 
Last edited:
I’ve personally had experiences with all three ways: dragging deer, carting them out, and bagging them out.

The Hawk cart is amazing, the big wheels really make a difference and it pulls so much better than the average cart. Used it last year on public land in Kentucky and was amazed with it. With that being said, last year was also my first time bagging deer and hauling them out. Have to say that is definitely the way to go as well. It’s really just which way you think you would prefer. If you have to bring everything out but the guts, then I would go with the Hawk cart. You will not regret it!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Hills/mountains

I'll drag a deer downhill all day.

I'll drag about 400-800 yards uphill/flat depending on steepness.

Beyond that I'll pack out.

Never messed with a sled but I can see how they make sense for swamps.

We use a cart at camp. They work pretty well as long as you don't have too much brush or blowdowns to deal with. Hauling one around in my truck every hunt just in case I might get lucky is a level of preparedness I don't think I could ever achieve.
 
???
c870b5d0a2775c96b034b9b6c9ab782c.jpg


Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
 
I guess packing is the in thing to do now and it for sure has a time/place. But I will say one of my greatest joys as a kid was when my old man or grandpap would return home with a buck in the back of the truck. I believe I owe a lot of my hunting passion to that buildup of excitement until I was old enough to be allowed by the state to go. Something about wanting that fueled a fire I think gets lost today. My kids are getting to that age and I'll drag a deer a long azz way if it sparks the same thing in them. A bloody pack and a severed head doesn't have the same effect.
 
Last edited:
I'm blessed to hunt fairly close to roads so I drag mine cussing and sweating to the road and go get the truck. Weeeel that's partly true. I make my hunting partner drag the heaviest bit.
 
I'm in the hills and the swamps. I already own a jet sled. I'm trying to decided if I should also get a cart or just start packing them out. The Hawk crawler sleds look pretty nice but I'm still. Anybody have any experience with those?
I like the idea of packing it out but being by myself (probably) it'd be multiple trips and in Wisconsin we have to bring everything out but the guts.

I got a jet sled last year after dragging one out on a small pink snow sled. Yea, that’s right fellas, it was pink. That drag sucked!

On a side note, there was a reg change proposed in WI last year right before season started that got squashed because of strong hunter feedback that if I remember correctly would have required quartering deer in the field and leaving the carcass behind as a CWD control measure. I haven’t heard anything about that proposal since. Maybe that is hope for those in WI that want to pack out without having to remove the entire carcass.
 
Hunt the hillside behind my house, it's usually a short downhill drag but sometimes they run across the hillside in the wrong direction of course so I walk to the house and get the quad and trailer. When hunting places I drive to I have a homemade deer cart I throw in whatever vehicle I'm using. Once I find the deer I walk back to my vehicle, drop off my bow and non essentials, grab the cart and off I go.
 
Hunt the hillside behind my house, it's usually a short downhill drag but sometimes they run across the hillside in the wrong direction of course so I walk to the house and get the quad and trailer. When hunting places I drive to I have a homemade deer cart I throw in whatever vehicle I'm using. Once I find the deer I walk back to my vehicle, drop off my bow and non essentials, grab the cart and off I go.
Tell me more about your homemade cart...
 
I was gifted a gorilla cart last year and have been using it for duck decoy hauling mostly. But my original purpose was for hauling pigs and deer out of public land. The area I hunt your not suppose to even gut an animal on the refuge. But what I hunt is a lot of boggy flat ground pow meadow infested stuff. I find that a good wagon with a wide set of tires even though heavy mostly works good for me in boggy condition.
 
Carting is OK when ground is fairly level. I made the mistake once of strapping a deer onto a cart that involved a steep uphill climb to a trail that was level. Terrible mistake. Every move up that steep incline involved me holding that heavy cart against gravity. Sucked.

Also if the cart is cheap (like anything you get off amazon) pick up some extra parts (washers, cotter keys) and duct tape them to the cart.
 
I have been using a 6’ plastic toboggan for the past several years and it works great for me. Most of the places I hunt are fairly flat so up and down hill are not an issue. No problem on bare ground and slides very easy on snow covered ground. I paid less than $20 for it over 5 years ago.
 
Tell me more about your homemade cart...

The design is similar to the Herters game cart that Cabelas sells. Made mine from 3/4" aluminum pipe conduit and a few pieces of 1" aluminum angle iron for some rigidity. Bent the pieces in a hydraulic pipe bender, welded it all up and slapped on a couple of 16" solid rubber tires. Tires work great in the hardwood hills I hunt but think they would be a liability in wet lowland areas.
 
Back
Top