Blows my mind alright. I still see it on social media etc and i’m like why the heck are you carrying the animal out whole let alone keeping the head on! Crazy, those days are done. Much more efficient methods these days to make life easier and look after your body
I carry deer out whole if they are fresh and only skin and bone if they have been hung overnight. If a deer is shot right on dark oclock it is pretty quick to gut and get on the pack frame and get out before full darkness. The meat is clean, gets properly hung / cooled and I am home earlier than trying to cut it up by headlamp
As a 17yr old I carried the hindquarters of a highly worked up and fat stag for 4 hrs and arrived at the hut to discover the meat was "green". Silly green me had not let it air or cool in any way on way out and had wrapped all the skin around and between the legs so not to get blood on my back.
It was also a stinking hot day.
First, second and third rule is cool animal/meat before an extended carry.
still waiting to see photos of your 14pt head @GrumpyKiwi
75/15/10 black powder matters
Only time I've ever carried anything whole was hunting on a private station..bugger trying to do that any decent distance into Doc land.. could be dangerous to honest.
Almost always it's quartered up - onto a bush or hung from a tree to air cool (rear leg opened up to the femur to get the heat out / avoid bone taint) then into my pack for a painful/awesome carry out back to the car.
cheers
Shot this nice big hind on Saturday. Decided to carry her out whole, I have three kids under 10 so we use a lot of mince, and I wanted to take all the trim and poor cuts I could for this. Carry was just under 2km as the crow flies, which took me three hours.
I’m not particularly strong or tough, she tried to kill me a few times along the way. Ended up head down boots up in a creek at one point.
Unfortunately she was angling away so the shot ruptured her gut bag, so had to leave the eye fillets and was a bit cautious with what I took around the ribs and skirt. Still, got 17kg of meat off her all up.
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More meplat, more better.
With those gut shot ones a really good wash out with a hose when you get home and hang them to dry overnight and most of that rib and flap meat can be saved- well except for the stuff that is around the exit if there is one and is properly contaminated. If it is clean, freeze it straight away or even better cut it up, brown it and make it into stew so any bacteria are killed - gut contains E. coli.
I am only suggesting a save for the ordinary not too messy ( Rumen) gut shots not the really bad exploded intestines ones
I usually break down the carcass into legs and backsteaks, hanging in a bush or tree to cool as I go, then skin the legs and into the gamebag. Sometimes I bone the legs right out so I’m only carrying meat.
One recent exception was on a farm hunt where the manager mentioned he hated hunters leaving meat in the bush, so I made my nephew carry his fallow hind out whole!
Well...If I can I will carry it out, even those guts like lungs as well blood, but I can `t carry 80kg carcass out of bush for now. I like cooking and actually those guts can make nice meal if you know how. Did anyone here ever taste deer brain?
Always In pursuit of my happiness...No matter the costs.
I love to get them out whole, the shanks slow cooked are bloody nice.
Cut windows out of the rib cage, boil them until tender then maranade in the fridge overnight and cook on bbq, one of the best parts of the animal.
When hunting think safety first
I'm getting smarter, but it was a close call.
My wife shot a nice fat 2yr sika stag yesterday morning just 300m from camp. It was just 6m down in a gut and the way back to camp was across mainly flat tussock, across a flat creek bed then a long rope onto the ute could drag it up to camp.
Geez it would look so good hanging whole in my meat safe.
Now if we gutted it and drag it just up onto the flat I reckon I could carry that. This used to be a doddle for me.
Now wait on, maybe it would be easier if we dragged it across the tussock.
Then the brain started to kick into gear a bit.
On Monday I've got an appointment for a cortisone injection in my lower back.
On Tuesday I have a hip Xray appointment prior to seeing the surgeon who gave me two tin knees.
We relayed it to camp in 8 pieces.
Eye fillet for tea tonight.
now weigh what you dumped.........and there is MAYBE 1kg of trimmings left on ribs etc that go into mince ok....flaps do to. great work on big carry but you can be a little smarter for very similar result...even boning out front half and carrying back wheels intact is a shit ton lighter and easier on body than whole carcass .
beauty of doing it that way is you dont need a huge daybag to fit meat of front end into...back wheels with pelvis stil lin,so cut off in one lump will ride nicely (and keep your ears warm LOL) if carried just like giving the kids a shoulder ride....
75/15/10 black powder matters
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