Thread: Be Honest - How do people carry out meat and large weight

Originally Posted by NIMROD

Thread: "Be Honest - How do people carry out meat and large weight"

By cradling my rifle in crossed arms and settling into a grinding plod, one step after the other .... there's no easy way.... to be honest.

There's a point- during that grinding plod- who subconsciously sings the saaaaame fucken song in their heads? Something that by the time you get to ya vehicle, has been played 1958 times over?
For some unknown reason the track playing inside my brain is "Escape" the pina colada song by Rupert Holmes, great great song.

I don’t carry much these days. Used to carry whole deer out when younger but that’s a good way to hurt oneself these day's, especially if it’s thick. Once was a pig hunter so carrying a boar out to weigh it was mandatory, otherwise you couldn’t skite about how good it was. Nowadays all I take is the backsteaks, and the whole backend over the shoulders if it’s a good eater. There’s that many deer round these days and we need to shoot more so just take the good stuff, and blow another one over.

No idea on weight of meat since I always forget to weigh it once I'm home. Recently it has been boned out rear legs above the knee joint, backstraps from butt to base of neck, and tenderloins. Plus when I'm having a good hunt, the antlers. If you don't want the whole skull, capping the antlers off the skull with a folding saw really helps drop unwanted weight.

Meat is bagged in pillow cases, usually with a garbage bag to avoid leakage. If it's garbage bagged then it can be cooled faster by submerging in a cold creek or pond to cool it off as fast as possible, or misted with water and hung for some evaporative cooling, though that doesn't work as well.

Recently hunted with some people who use multiple dry bags for their gear, then amalgamate their gear into one dry bag and use the other for meat, which cuts the weight of the pillow cases and garbage bags, and works out lighter in total weight.

Total gear weight for a 5 day hunt (with a second person to split the stove/tent weight) was 18kg including all clothes (including the ones I was wearing), food, rifle, binos, ammo, 3L water, boots etc etc.
When I went out alone for a two day hunt that was either 20 or 22kg with 4L water.
Meat weight was on top of this on the way out, minus the food I'd already eaten.

Originally Posted by whanahuia

My kit for a week weighs about 11kg minus food- which is eaten before trip out. I bone out all meat before cary out, and will carry a reasonable max of 35-40 kg of meat. So all up around 50kg. I weigh about 85kg. Rifle becomes a walking stick.

@whanahuia I'd be interested in knowing your gear list and weights - 11kg sounds a lot nicer than 18-22.

@canross I added this too Ryan Songhurst thread some time back.
https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....28/index5.html

Thanks! That's given me some things to think about with my gear load.

Originally Posted by Trout

I drive to my results,you think smarter when you get older.

Spot on mate.

Originally Posted by canross

Thanks! That's given me some things to think about with my gear load.

For me, I always tend towards too much spare clothing. I usually find I have a couple of garments unworn, even on a 10 day trip. I really try cut down too the essentials now. I had to replace most of my gear due to wear about 7 years ago, and so took the opportunity to buy the best lightweight equipment I could afford. It made a huge difference and one of the biggest was replacing my 4.5kg Macpac pack, with the new lightweight one. 3kg is a big gain.

Not so much now but have carried in decent day pack with carry pack on multi day trips and then doing the pack shuttling on the way out carry one pack a ways drop it go back for the other and repeat makes for long walk outs but strangely satisfying

You know you've had a hard and heavy carry out when you've dropped that deer at the truck and you sort of levitate or feel you can fly.

Almost orgasmic.

Then you pick your pack up out of the truck when you get home and think. How the hel did I carry that.?

Boned out in good quality meat bags. Definitely not plastic bags.

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Originally Posted by RUMPY

First rule is don't measure yourself against Tasman from nz wild adventures on YouTube. Your pack and gear is a nice lightweight kit at that weight. Really depends on how far you have to walk and how many days you are out for. I don't carry anything more than about 35kg total. No use stuffing your back or knee over an animal that is already dead. If you carry as much as you safely can that's all that matters. If it's a day hunt and you can do more than one trip it's easier to get more meat out. Don't stress about what others think.

Agreed, Tasman is insanely good at packing weight.

My pack is about 14kg in Summer at its lightest, 18kg on average, 21kg for a five day, roar trip. That includes rifle. I've packed out with a total weight of 40-50kg, 4-6 hours of hiking a few times, but prefer to keep it lighter than that, with only one de-boned hind of meat. I weigh my pack so I'm confident on those numbers.

Weight you can carry in and out is a very personal thing, and comparison is a bad idea in terms of total weights. What is good to compare though is how people are setting up their gear, how they carry it, etc. I've learnt a lot from observing others. I never ask them their pack weight though. I've also found the pack itself makes a very big difference. I've used Tatonka, Macpac, Osprey's and finally after years have moved to a Stone Glacier, and it makes 50kg feel like 35kg did in the Osprey. It's designed to carry weight and does it well.

Originally Posted by Chur Bay

Then you pick your pack up out of the truck when you get home and think. How the hel did I carry that.?

Or someone else picks it up and gos oof! what the hell??

I think Pig hunting teaches you how to carry weight. It's a strange sport and really only hunting where boning out on the spot just isn't really done. Part of the culture and story behind catching a big boar is the carry too.

Originally Posted by whanahuia

I think Pig hunting teaches you how to carry weight. It's a strange sport and really only hunting where boning out on the spot just isn't really done. Part of the culture and story behind catching a big boar is the carry too.

Yeh but most i know can't carry shit by their mid 30s and have replacement knees by 40. The amount of my mates i grew up with that pig hunt that have had joint issues (hips, knees, ankles etc) is exceptionally high and thats in the central north island no way it would work int he country i hunt down south (above treeline). They all seem to regret it now just for the glory so they can weigh it and compare.

Personally I find it all situational and doing dumb stuff is the way to find out. I usually take backsteaks and a few rump cuts areas dependent if I'm in the tops. If I'm near a riverbed with a flat walk I'll grab signifcantly more. Its descending elevation I avoid. Even pack training I use water in bladders for weight and then dump it at the top to save my knees and joints.

My exception is in the states where full meat recovery is required. Then it becomes a function of how many trips vs how much weight at a time.

Here's an entire mule deer after I offloading the hunting gear to my partner. Was enough to be unpleasant descending a few thousand feet but we had glassed up 2 bears in the catchment and didn't want to lose the meat. Its easy to forget how dense meat is.