Moose Retrieval

Gatehouse said:
What type of blade do you use? Dedicated bone saw blades have fairly fine teeth but I could imagine if you are going through bine AND tissue at the same time you might want a coarser/wood type blade. I've used a chainsaw for stuff a few times but mostly just a knife and maybe a hatchet. Never a recip. But I've seen it done. (Actually all my recips are plug in so that wouldn't be convenient to pack a genny too) :)
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Use the hacksaw type fine blade.
I know it goes against logic but think meat saw.
Meat saws have the very fine teeth not at all like a rip saw.
I had a bit of a learning curve just cutting legs off the first time I used a corded ricip saw.
Got nowhere fast with an aggressive blade.
Go fine tooth and zip zap it’s through. Bone dust vs bone chips.
 
RatFink said:
That is something I have been considering... are frame backpacks the right choice to go with? Is it feasible to carry a quarter of a cow moose per one person, bone in?
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Thats going t depend on how tough you are. Whole quarters will make you question that; believe me. Boned out is better;’at least you
can work with the back weight. Poles are for cave-men and their near relatives.

Something that doesn’t get enough considerstion is an ice fishing sleigh. In the right circumstances it can make the job easy. A chainsaw can help with that.
 
^ I bone out and use my 8 ft ice fishing toboggan when possible. Chainsaw is only used for cutting trail.

Best to shoot them by water and load directly into canoe, pack raft or jet boat though.

Having a small army on hand you can summon with the promise of moose meat is a good strategy too :dancingbanana:
 
I have a 2-kid plastic toboggan like you get from crappy tire and bone things out as I'm generally solo and I've rigged it with 'laces' so I can really cinch things down which will be boned out or bone in quarters etc. in game bags, also upgrade the pull handle to a one piece heavier rope that goes down through across and back up through the front lip of toboggan for more strength and individual handle on each end so you could take a hand from a buddy. I find the calf carts too heavy. I can do a whole deer with bone in quarters and boneless the rest and get it out much easier than trying to drag a whole gutted deer out by it's antler. Take a half hour to prep it and then nice easy drag out. Would be many more trips and likely completely boned out on bigger critters depending on how far the drag is. Also always have the eberlestock mainframe to pack things out if I don't have the toboggan or it's just the wrong terrain for a drag out.

Knife and a pack is your best friend, let the knife do the work so you don't have to.
 
woodchopper said:
well if you have reasonable quad access get a sheet of 1/8" puck board and make a big 'crazy carpet' out of it with some holes along the edges to tie it up and skid out the moose whole... well after you gut it. :)

if there is snow on the ground you can drag the moose with the quad without the puck board.
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This was my experience on a moose hunt.
 
I've been a part of or witnessed quite a few different retrievals at this point and it has never been the same twice. A few were relatively easy (loaded onto trailer/truck from the middle of a logging road or edge of a field, loaded into a boat), some were more complicated (had to cut a long ATV trail, packed out with horses), but the slickest one I've seen was loading a moose into the back of an argo using a lewis chainsaw winch. The method is largely going to depend on where/how you're hunting and how much help you have as others have said.
 
Last year my son and his buddy but down a young bull standing in the water. They floated it across the river with paddle power with their canoe. They were about 500 yards from the come-along in the truck. They got the beast up on shore to gut it with the come-along and by that time it was starting to stiffen. My son had stopped to buy a Dewalt reciprocating saw at CTC on the way up so he was hung ho to quarter this critter. He was about to cut the spine and the saw gave a dozen strokes and quit. Defective saw BNIB.
So much for the easy way. He did bring my good old fashioned butcher saw with him though that after a lot of sweat did the job. We allways used this saw and it worked well if you had at least thre guys. Two to stand the half on the rib cages and one to saw trading places as arms got tired. The moose spine is pretty big so you can get off center and back on line fairly easy. With only two guys you have to use lots of cord and nearby trees and shrubs to hold it up. They got it done but it took most of the day to get it in the trucks and then hung overnight.
So if you take that new sawzall make sure it works before you need it.

Bill
 
billbmcleod said:
Last year my son and his buddy but down a young bull standing in the water. They floated it across the river with paddle power with their canoe. They were about 500 yards from the come-along in the truck. They got the beast up on shore to gut it with the come-along and by that time it was starting to stiffen. My son had stopped to buy a Dewalt reciprocating saw at CTC on the way up so he was hung ho to quarter this critter. He was about to cut the spine and the saw gave a dozen strokes and quit. Defective saw BNIB.
So much for the easy way. He did bring my good old fashioned butcher saw with him though that after a lot of sweat did the job. We allways used this saw and it worked well if you had at least thre guys. Two to stand the half on the rib cages and one to saw trading places as arms got tired. The moose spine is pretty big so you can get off center and back on line fairly easy. With only two guys you have to use lots of cord and nearby trees and shrubs to hold it up. They got it done but it took most of the day to get it in the trucks and then hung overnight.
So if you take that new sawzall make sure it works before you need it.

Bill
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Sorry to hear about the saw crapping out but that’s actually why I mentioned Milwaukee M18
Load it up with a number 5 or 6 fully charged and Bob’s yer uncle.
Even packing a spare blade might not be a bad idea.
 
DOUGLAS D said:
Sorry to hear about the saw crapping out but that’s actually why I mentioned Milwaukee M18
Load it up with a number 5 or 6 fully charged and Bob’s yer uncle.
Even packing a spare blade might not be a bad idea.
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exactly what I use with a 12 amp
 
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