Hunting Public Lands...The Deer Drag....Old Coot Style

[uncle buck]

I have done my share of dragging out deer for miles and miles..  Near wore all the hair off one side of 2 or 3 the buck's.


There have been times after getting a deer I would hide items that I thought were no longer going to be needed under logs and brush...Things like your thermos, Knapp sack etc..Never would leave my rifle...But I have placed things like that under logs so I did not have to carry them out..
I would get the deer to the vehicle then come back for the gear I hid..

Then I started taking a big plastic bag...I put the stuff in the garbage bag.  Shooting stick,  Knapp sack (without food) I'd sit down a drink my coffee and eat most of my food...rain gear etc..  However I would take that bag..Seal it up and place it inside the cavity of the deer...So When I dragged out the deer the extra now needed gear rides inside the deer...Just something to think about if your all alone out there and you score and have all kinds of things to bring out with you too..I'd never stick my rifle inside the deer that's for sure...

I have used deer sleds and they work OK..Nothing more then a piece of hard plastic to tie the deer to and slide it out on a toboggan type piece of plastic.. Use these when the drag was 3  to 4 miles from the mountain to the vehicle..It helped....Maybe a bit......


I do have a BASSPRO deer buggy...I have yet to use it...Kind of a pain..I was taking it in one first day morning.. I got no more then 30 yards and turned around and put it back in the vehicle.. Sounded like 900 charriots running down the trail. I would have scared away every deer for miles if I would have continued..Heard stories of people hiding old wheel barrows in the woods and using them if they get a deer.




Hunting public lands could be tough if you score and your alone... You can't use vehicles to get to where you bagged your deer...


Now when I hunt public lands..PGL.  I will look for game lands that have a road that run through it.. I will walk along and look at both sides of the road and spot the areas that the deer are crossing from one side to the other.. Small hills on the side of the road with muddy deer hooves tell you they are crossing there..I will post in the woods somewhere just off that deer trail...I have harvested deer that way and the drag was minimal since it was near the road..

[muttbuster]

I can relate to your story UB, when I was a young guy I never worried about a deer drag. As the years went by, I began to alter my strategy. Now, I pretty much want the deer to stand beside my truck to be shot. My last deer weighed 2,342 pounds when I got it out of the woods. Funny how they get bigger each year.

[uncle buck]

Also if you don't score on a deer you can always say..."At least I did not have to drag the deer out of the woods!"  Kind of like when you don't catch fish..You say..."At least I don't have to clean any fish."  Ah nice just to take the gun for a walk too...

[muttbuster]

When I don't catch any fish I just tell everyone I threw them back because they were too big for the frying pan.

[Critterslayer51]

i've known peopel to take the cart up before the season starts and lock it to a tree in the public woods...at the same time i've seen it done with a bicycle if you have a trail that is easy to ride in on...i'm sure you know about stoney valley over here in dauphin co, and the game lands that are there as well...I think its 211? but anyways, they have an old railroad bed that goes back into the game lands for like 24 miles...many of hiking trails split off here and most people will ride a bike back the trail, park, lock, and then hike the rest of the way up the trails...when they bag a deer, theyw ould tie it down to the handlebars and then tie the rear end down on the seat/crossbar....It also seems to work better if you have a front basket and the two side baskets in the back...but then they just walk the deer out with it on top of the bike...

[foxpro51]

The only thing i will drag out of the woods now is a squirrel.

[muttbuster]

What would we do without the invention of the wheel? I guess we would have to just push the deer out of the woods.