Homemade hunting gadgets

yorgi

yorgi

CGN frequent flyer
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Location
Toronto, Ontario
Who makes them? Care to share?

I spend most of the off-season planning, stealing or modifying other people's designs and constructing my own treestands, feeders, gambrels or hangers.

During last years' moose hunt, I had the chance to see a fellow's ingenious solution to hanging a moose. He constructed a sturdy homemade "L" bracket made of aluminum. When he needs to hang a moose, he finds a strong (8"-10") diameter tree and attaches the bracket to it using one heavy-duty racheting strap. His particular strap was purchased at Princess Auto and is rated at something like 3,000 lbs, the thing has a 3" wide extra thick webbing!

He then uses a 2,000 lb. automotive, drum-type hoist attached to a homemade gambrel and winches the beast up. He uses two hooks on the horizontal part of the hanger. He hangs the hoist on the one furthest from the tree and when he gets the carcass to the required height he hangs the gambrel to the hook closest to the tree.

I was fascinated by this simple and effective design. Upon returning home a welder FOAF ( friend of a friend...) was "volunteered" to make two identical one's for our group, I've attached the picture of them below. He made a smaller and a larger one, depending on which design performs better in the field, we'll have him make one more.

hangers.jpg
 
Damn I need to learn how to weld...

The newest idea I want to steal is what the CO's have on their trucks here:

They have an aluminum headache rack on the front of the box. At the top of the rack in the middle, they have a 2500lb winch mounted. When they need to remove a road kill or seize a moose or something, they lay their quad ramps tight together on the gate, and hook the winch to the animal.

Likety split, one moose in the box, no backbreaking work required.

You could then back up to your contraption or a chain hoist in the garage or whatever, and hoist 'im up for skinning and so on.

Must do this before fall...
 
Make a do/all type hoist for the back of your pick up like the ones heavy tire mechanics have, two pipes nested with cross holes to allow inner to be raised 8 or 10 feet above truck bed. 2 &1/2 ft. arm at top with pulley at end hand winch mounted to bottom pipe. Bottom pipe site in or around a flange mounted to bed of truck upper mount is a ring slightly larger in dia. that is held in place using the rear stake hole. Back up to your moose put hoist in place lift gut cover sswing it aboard lower head for camp and fry up the organs taters and onion
 
Forget new fittings; one of my hunting partners has a crane arm that slips into the square trailer hitch recepticle. The L-leg is deep enough to clear the tailgate when it is open. About 1/2 way up there is an old cable boat winch and a 45 degree angle arm with a pulley at the tip. He uses gambrels that look like 3/8" rod coat hangers. Hook on, and crank the beastie up off the ground.

Gut it, skin it, cut off the legs, bag it then swing it into the truck bed. With two guys working with a purpose, the deer is done in less than 30 minutes.
 
One of my favourite homemade helpers is a tow harness modelled off one I saw in a hunting magazine. Take a 20' length of 2" nylon webbing, fold it in the middle. Sew it flat to make an eye for the tow rope. Then fold back the loose ends to make shoulder loops. After a bit of experimenting, I found a "bight" of at least 6'. I put a Fastex buckle on a short chest strap to keep the loops squarely on your chest.

I like to tie the deer's front legs behind its ears and wrap the rope snuggly around its neck. Then lean forward and start trudging.
 
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maple_leaf_eh said:
One of my favourite homemade helpers is a tow harness modelled off one I saw in a hunting magazine. Take a 20' length of 2" nylon webbing, fold it in the middle. Sew it flat to make an eye for the tow rope. Then fold back the loose ends to make shoulder loops. After a bit of experimenting, I found a "bight" of at least 6'. I put a Fastex buckle on a short chest strap to keep the loops squarely on your chest.

I like to tie the deer's front legs behind its ears and wrap the rope snuggly around its neck. Then lean forward and start trudging.
Click to expand...
i actully use something like that i hook the deer to my treestand harness LOL
 
Silverado said:
Damn I need to learn how to weld...

The newest idea I want to steal is what the CO's have on their trucks here:

They have an aluminum headache rack on the front of the box. At the top of the rack in the middle, they have a 2500lb winch mounted. When they need to remove a road kill or seize a moose or something, they lay their quad ramps tight together on the gate, and hook the winch to the animal.

Likety split, one moose in the box, no backbreaking work required.

You could then back up to your contraption or a chain hoist in the garage or whatever, and hoist 'im up for skinning and so on.

Must do this before fall...
Click to expand...


Poachers have been using that idea around here for ages.:mad:
 
bronco_mudder said:
Poachers have been using that idea around here for ages.:mad:
Click to expand...
Well the CO's had to learn it from somewhere....:D ;)

We loaded a Big Bull whole into the pickup with just two guys once without a sweat.
Winched him where he dropped up to the road.....then winched him up a small hill, backed up to the hill with the tailgate and rolled him in..
Shot,Gutted and loaded in 30 minutes..gotta love the Easy ones, especially Moose:)
 
I've made shooting sticks out of a hockey stick. You just take a hockey stick drill holes at about 1 inch intervals for adjustment then cut it in half lengthwise and put the bolt through the hole to select height (use wingnut for quick field adjustment) and tie a string across the bottom to keep it from collapsing in use.
I'm also building a 17 foot ladder stand at school in welding class.
 
Yorgi what kind of tree stands do you make. I have been thinking of building a climber for this season and have not been able to find much in the way of free info on the web
 
Loading Deer Into Truck

I recently discovered a very fast and easy way to load a deer into the back of the truck. All i carry around for the hunting season is a ladder and 2 bungee cords. Once the deer is on the ground back up to it with the truck. Lay the ladder down beside the deer. Roll it onto the ladder and strap it down. Now lift the front of the ladder onto the tailgate. Pick up the back of the ladder and slide it in. It makes it very easy and fast to load a deer even before it's been gutted.
 
I was just thinking about my (stolen) winch idea...

I guess one could forgo the cost of the winch and just use a stout come-a-long.
 
Dead stock removal trucks have had the winch mounted above the rear of the cab for loading animal carcasses since the early 70's at least ( I wasn't around before that). I would think a "stout come-a-long" would do a great job, although slower than an electric winch. I have a 4 ton model that I have used for dragging non-running vehicles onto my car trailer. I got it from Princess Auto for around $100.
 
For you fellows wanting to make your own climbing treestands here is the pictures of the one I made for myself. It is rock solid and very easy and quick to put onto a tree.

The only downside to this stand is that you would not want to pack it very far. I load it onto my quad and drive to the area where I want to set-up.

Treestand.JPG
 
Hornhunter said:
The only downside to this stand is that you would not want to pack it very far. I load it onto my quad and drive to the area where I want to set-up.
Click to expand...

If you don't like carrying it, then keep setting it on utility poles in the suburbs. Some cities are being overrun with game animals. A black bear made the front page of the Ottawa Citizen last week.
 
Well it's not a hunting gadget but it is the latest gadget to roll out of the shop.

I call it my Outboard Caddy. It is great to store your outboard motor on indoors for the winter or just a great mobile stand to work on and store your spare outboard motor on and still be able to roll it out of the way when the need arises.


OutboardCaddy5.jpg

OutboardCaddy1.jpg
OutboardCaddy.jpg
 
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