Thread: Hindquarter carry

Just a wee thing I took for granted,untill the other evening when I whipped out knife and had deer into 3 managable lumps to carry..and the two chaps I was with,both older than me and both experienced hunters said they had NEVER seen hindquarters carried like I do...
I was shocked as have done it for 40 years... guess it comes back to the meat hunting era.... what I do is gut animal then poke knife OUT through skin at first rib and slice out to gut cut starting at spine,then do the other side the same and carefully cut around back,again CUTTING OUTWARDS so knife cuts up through hair instead of cutting hair... then twist rear end and separate from rest of carcass ...I then started at breastbone/sternum/brisket and sliced in close to ribs right down to backsteaks seperating front legs and leaving all flap and rib meat in one lump with skin still on outside,did both sides the same..in retrospect should have taken backsteaks out seperately and put in my daybag as they both dropped down like a big tail from the forequarters while being carried.
the hind quarters are easy to carry like this..just give them a shoulder ride like you do for the kids....no bones to dig in to you...hot meaty bit around your ears is aquired taste LOL...the legs poke out front and its easy to carry rifle across front too. either on strap or keep in hands. sit down and drop it off backwards on a wee bit of a bank...catch breath,lift hand quarters back up bank..sit down,pull legs over shoulders,and sort of roll your self back up,dragging HQs up with you,wee bit of a jiggle and they back up on shoulders.
I often bone out front quarters into day bag and bring out back wheels like this...dogs like the leg bones and pelvis...
Im told if you come forward to the 3rd rib you have something like 80% of the better meat and all the steak.

Just watched a Youtube vid where they cut back legs off then hooked one each onto antlers as head attached to back, gave a balanced load

Originally Posted by Happy Jack

Just watched a Youtube vid where they cut back legs off then hooked one each onto antlers as head attached to back, gave a balanced load

bit hard with a hind....LOL.

I do mostly the same but skin most of the way up the back to the front shoulder and use that to wrap the hind quarters kind of,makes nice padding and keeps a lot of the blood off you.

Is there any other way ?

yeah Ive seen photos of that but havent tried it yet....

How does that set up work @Nathan F? Is the skin used as a shoulder strap and hooked onto the legs at the front? What happens to the backstaps in that method?

Originally Posted by Kimber 7mm-08

How does that set up work @Nathan F? Is the skin used as a shoulder strap and hooked onto the legs at the front? What happens to the backstaps in that method?

Yep, take the skin back from the shoulder to the hip bone

Remove the back straps and let them cool. Cut out its butt hole flip it over and remove the gut bag. Through the vertebrae with the knife and twist off the whole rear quarters. Back straps in yer belt or bum bag. Split the skin straight down the middle to the hind quarters. Make a small hole in the end woth your knife. Poke the hocks through and you have a very comfortable back pack for the trip
Back to camp.

I have sometimes skinned the front, and cut through just in front of the pelvis. Wrap skin around hindquarters like The bomb. And bone out the rest of the carcass

Good idea to have blaze material on the hindquarters as well where i hunt it gets pretty busy..

I kind do it a similar way to Nathan, but the opposite.
I don’t bother with the gut or ring piece. Start with deer on its back, remove the legs via hip joint, leaving skin across the back to join both legs to make a comfy pack.
Back steaks off and I’m done.
Nice clean method to both perform and carry.

I use a pikau and huntech meat bag. So I just cut the backsteaks off and legs, and chuck them in the big bag along with my pikau. I'll even bone out the legs if I'm far away

I use the back pack method when needed but turn it inside out saves getting covered in blood and let’s the meat cool a bit better although it is exposed to getting dirty . Much prefer to bone it out on the hill saves carrying extra weight and you get to take a bit of time to enjoy the success of a hunt and soak up the moment

yeah not sure I like that look - possibly accident waiting to happen - I always put my hindquarters and back steaks into a nato blue hunting pack - just to many trigger happy muppets out there for my liking -

Josh James has a good video on YouTube how to do the back pack method
https://youtu.be/WN3ltoYTAMc