Making a hunt easier

LawrenceN

LawrenceN

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Toronto (West end)
I'm feeling the years and every year there's a new payback for the sins of my misspent youth. That said, I still enjoy my whitetail hunt and I'm still pretty good with a long gun. My problem was hauling out the game after it's been dropped and dressed. Last year, from the time I shot it and we actually had it hanging took my buddy and I 4 hrs. I've known about deer carts for a while but I finally pursued it this year. One of the best decisions I ever made! It wasn't overly expensive and it reduced the amount of labour by half or more. If you don't have an ATV and you're hunting in rough terrain, I can't stress too strongly the wisdom of looking into a deer cart. If you consider buying one, let me give my fellow hunters a "heads-up". Assembling it as per the instructions, it would not have worked very well. If you're over 5'-9", when you grip the handle and try to use it, the tail end would catch on rocks or deadfalls or whatever. I reversed the handle and that made all the difference. If you're older, like me, and looking for ways to make your hunt easier, take a page out of my book and spend the money. BTW, with a 500 lb. rated capacity, it's also handy for moving wood or uses you may find for it. Just thought I'd share.
 
I have also used mine tied to the back of my quad as a make shift trailer set up, if you go slow they are great. I bought mine about five years ago and would never go hunting without it.
 
Where and how I normally hunt, a sled works really well for me, but in the early part of the season I have often thought about buying or building a game cart, I would imagine they work super when there is no snow.
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I'll probably buy one for next year if I keep hunting with the same guys. I'm avoiding moose with them it would probably take over ten hours to get one to the truck with the distance they walk.
 
Be cautious of which cart you buy though. My buddy bought a cabelas one with the plastic five spoke rims and we blew the center right out of the rim gently pushing the cart over a small log (maybe 5 inch diameter log) with only about 200 pounds on it.
I have the sasquatch brand, which was made locally by someone that had a small business. It has the wire spoked rims and the thing is awsome.
 
I bought one of those about 20 years ago for hauling decoys into fields we had to walk our gear in. It served it's purpose. I thought about it when I was dragging out my buck last week as it's been sitting unused in a buddies barn at least 15 years now. It would work here in times when there is little snow but once the snow starts piling up and getting hard packed wind blown it would be useless. On top of that the terrain I hunt, farmland with small bush lots or fencelines I can just drag my deer a few yards into the field, gut it then head out to get my truck and drive into the field to pick it up but if I was living in areas where I couldn't get easy vehicle access I'd go get it out of my buddies barn. Also it is good in open mature stands but useless in heavy thick bush with lots of tag alders etc. That I know from firsthand experience and why my buddy doesn't use it either after I gave it to him years ago.
 
I've thought about a cart off and on for years but the only things I shoot when there isn't snow are elk, moose and bear. All of those things are hunted in terrain that a cart would be useless in probably 75% of the time. Hard to justify hauling the thing around in the off chance I actually down something in an accessible spot.

You're lucky you hunt in an area where it's useful because I'm sure it makes a big difference.
 
No experience here, but just looking at your pic and reading the concerns about snow - I bet you could swap out those tires for Fat bike snow tires pretty easy, and really extend your usage.
Just a thought.
 
I have one of those and found that it needed a bunch of tinkering to make it usable for me. 6'2" is not exceptionally tall, but it's more than enough to make the way-too-short handles on these things force the whole thing to tip too far backward. Poorly balanced, just a PITA. I had to add extensions to the handles to make them work properly.

Where I lived in Ontario, most deer were shot on dry snow-free ground; hunting with fresh snow was relatively uncommon and in farm country especially the two-wheeled cart was a joy on hard dry ground. Now, in Manitoba, I expect to have snow, sometimes in significant quantities. I just use an ice-fishing sled to drag 'em out, and much prefer it to screwing around with one of these contraptions.
 
elKrusto said:
Be cautious of which cart you buy though. My buddy bought a cabelas one with the plastic five spoke rims and we blew the center right out of the rim gently pushing the cart over a small log (maybe 5 inch diameter log) with only about 200 pounds on it.
I have the sasquatch brand, which was made locally by someone that had a small business. It has the wire spoked rims and the thing is awsome.
Click to expand...

We have one of those from Ken in Keremeos also. It carried half a cow moose at a time out of a rough slash no problem. We have also used it for decoys.
 
Know your limitations and stay within it.
We don't get stronger or have more stamina as we age.
We get smarter, and have to adapt and work smarter instead of harder.
Let the younger generation do the hard work, just as they taught us even though we may not have realized why they were doing what they were doing at the time.They taught us to work and enjoy the rewards of our labour, while they were working smarter and didn't work as hard, and still got their game out of the bush, via are younger, stronger bodies. Now it is our turn!
Use the tools available when necessary to lighten the workload, as someone else has already been there and done that, and are sharing their learned experiences with us. But don't cheap out, as you will quickly learn the less expensive option does not last as long and will cost you more in the long run. Buy once, buy right. It will save you time and energy, as well as money.
 
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