Free: Contests & Raffles.
I used the term pack board, generically. Any pack designed for large, heavy loads, either internally framed or externally. The bike trailer idea is a good one, if I hunted gated logging roads, that would be the way I would go. Should be a lot on Youtube for ideas. I want to commend you and your partner, not to many new hunters venture that far from there vehicle. Most are intimidated, either by the unknown, large predators or being in the dark, the woods can be scary if your unfamiliar with some of the noises the woods make in the dark or the task of getting your game back to your vehicle. Not an easy task, as you have learned. In doing so you left much of the crowds behind and had a enjoyable, memorable and successful hunt. You have learned things that some take years to learn, you now have a better idea as to what to bring and what was just extra unneeded weight best left at home or in the vehicle. I'm a huge proponent of the idea, "It's better to have it and not need it, than to need it an not have it", but this philosophy gets thrown out, when doing pack in hunts. Weight, space and need become the determining factor. Again congrats, now you have a year to fine tune, retool, equip, scout and get ready for next year!
I use a large internal frame backpack. You can ditch the pack and game bags with your bike. You can pack out a whole deboned deer in one trip. If you are after elk or packing in a camp the bike cart is a good idea. After you gut, skin, debone and put quarters in game bags you can take the first quarter to your vehicle then pick up your trailer and haul out the last three quarters in one trip. One in the pack and the other half in the trailer. Be careful going down steep hills with a heavy load like that. You will need brakes on the trailer or just walk it down and up steep hills or it will get scary fast. Congratulations on your deer. Another thing to think about is if you can't get the meat to a cooler quickly and it is above 55 degrees outside you can always put your deboned meat into a large cooler and ice it down. Drain the water a blood out of the cooler once or twice a day. You can do that for about a week and it will actually make that backtail deer taste much better.
Quote from: Hilltop123 on October 25, 2016, 07:41:13 AMI used the term pack board, generically. Any pack designed for large, heavy loads, either internally framed or externally. The bike trailer idea is a good one, if I hunted gated logging roads, that would be the way I would go. Should be a lot on Youtube for ideas. I want to commend you and your partner, not to many new hunters venture that far from there vehicle. Most are intimidated, either by the unknown, large predators or being in the dark, the woods can be scary if your unfamiliar with some of the noises the woods make in the dark or the task of getting your game back to your vehicle. Not an easy task, as you have learned. In doing so you left much of the crowds behind and had a enjoyable, memorable and successful hunt. You have learned things that some take years to learn, you now have a better idea as to what to bring and what was just extra unneeded weight best left at home or in the vehicle. I'm a huge proponent of the idea, "It's better to have it and not need it, than to need it an not have it", but this philosophy gets thrown out, when doing pack in hunts. Weight, space and need become the determining factor. Again congrats, now you have a year to fine tune, retool, equip, scout and get ready for next year! Thanks a ton! Not just you, but everyone on this thread. A ton of very helpful information here.It was a very surreal experience in hindsight. Definitely walking through pitch-black woods at night with only one headlamp was a bit creepy, and the weight of the animal was surprising, but it was an experience to cherish!We hope to hunt for elk, but are probably even less equipped in knowing what we're doing! But we have been joking that even if it's 4x harder to hunt elk, and it took us 30 minutes to get our black tail, math would tell us we would have one in just 2 hours.
Where are you located? I don't have time to read all the replys to see if anyone asked, but if your close to graham I will run over and help you out after work, do not take that deer to a butcher, do it all yourself, there is nothing difficult about it and you really can't mess up