Oh baby.......I have a bunch. Shot a buck in an area with a gorge.........where I was wasn't as bad but still in pretty deep. Instead of going the LONG way around to get back to the truck my brother and I decide to go up the steep face of the hill and out to a corn field up top. Half way up we realize just how steep it is and we end up literally just picking him up and side stepping about a foot at a time......about an hour into this mistake we lose him and he rolls at least 1/2 way back down the hill......our eyes meet and we burst into laughter to keep from crying or going insane.......we went and got him and made it up that damn slope eventually......a little salt in the wounds was I lost my release along the way My brother shot a doe so far back on a dry fall day......with the only way out a dirt/stone road. Took us 3 hours to get her out and it was about 65-70 degrees. That was one tough LONG drag, when we got to the truck she had no hair left on her back and one side.......skin bald and road rash. All this because the farmer won't allow any vehicles in there for any reason Shot a buck on a farm by myself and had to be to work in 2 hours from when I found him.......long drag so I start to hussle. I have to go through a cow pasture to get out and usually it's OK......this time they didn't like the dead deer.......not one bit. They start freaking out and one with a calf in particular goes mental......I end up face planting in a cow pasture (notice I said pasture....not pie).....and dragging my deer under the barb wire fence to avoid a stomping....trouble now is there are more cows on the other side of the fence I ended up zig zagging under that fence about 6 times on my way out to the gate. This year I head out for a hunt expecting my brother to drive.......his wife took his truck so he can't......my truck is in getting brakes done so I grab the wife's SUV and off we go (hadn't seen crap all year, why should this day be any different?) well at 5:00 pm I shoot a buck and he falls in sight.......problem is "in sight" is at the back of the property and about 1/3 of a mile back from the road......my brother finds me and we laugh at the mess we are in knowing full well there is no place on earth we would rather be........2 bows, 1 summit climber, a backpack, 145lbs of dead weight......all 1/3 mile away from the road in the dark. Doesn't get much better then that We got out about 8:30 and I call my dad to bring his truck over......he is on his way to a wake for a friend who died :huh: Just keeps gettin' better. We line the SUV with our hunting clothes and jam him in there like a sardine.........I drive all the way home with the tarsals of a rutting buck about 6 inches from my head hanging over the seat. When I took it to get detailed I just looked at the guy and said "Don't ask" He probably thought I was a serial killer
It starts raining on the back ridge at about 2:30 but, it's a light rain so I am good. I am expecting the action to start around 3:00 anyway, primetime. Sure enough, right at 3:00 I see a buck about 50yds to my north. Browsing a bit and then, luck!, he starts heading my way. Funny though, he's moving faster than a walk but not a trot, heading to where I expected the does to show up. I'm thinking he sees one and is going to check her out. Now he's passing me at 15yds to my east but won't stop and too fast for a shot. Into the the thick stuff he goes. I grunt a couple of times to see if I can get him back but no luck as I watch for him for a few minutes. Dang! So, I scan back around from east to west. As I get to my west, yowza!, nice buck (bigger!) at about 12 yds! Doesn't even know I'm there. He too, is staring intently at where the other buck disappeared. Now I know why the other one was in a bit of a hurry. Draw, shoot, he takes off back north. I slowly pack everything up, removing stand and sticks as I go down. Get on the ground, check the arrow, sweet!, look for blood, unsweet!, and decide to go about 30yds to where he disappeared from sight and look for blood. Get about 20 yds and see his big, white belly, sweet!. Get him dressed out and think to myself, maybe I can drag him while still carrying all of my gear. I have about 650 yds down this ridge side, up the other ridge and then down that sloping far side of that ridge to the fields, which are about 1100yds from my truck. I get about 100yds and decide, this aint gonna work. I'll puke ten times before I get to the fields in this rain and I have 3 holes in my pants from the antlers. This is a pain in my ass LOL. Oh, yeah, it has started raining a little harder and we are losing the little bit of light fast. I mark the deer on my GPS and speed march to the truck and my cart. Get to the truck, drop everything off except my pack, grab the cart and head back. It's raining kinda hard but I don't mind one bit, it's about mid 50's and, with all of the physical exertion, I am warm, even though I'm soaked. Pull the cart through the tall weeds/grass in the fields and start entering the woods. What the!?!? My wheel fell off! It's dark so I am searching for the washer and cotter pin that hold the wheel on. Found the washer! 10 minutes, no cotter pin. Darn! Command decision. Go get the deer and drag him with my pull rope back to the broken down cart and then figure something else out. I get back to the deer. Now it is dark and raining steadily. I have a 40ft pull rope so I fold it into a 10ft section, tir off the deer, tie a big not in my end, put it over my shoulder and start dragging. we get down the west side of the far ridge and I get him through the creek. we have to go along the east side of the next ridge a little to find something a little less steep. Get to the "little less steep" part and start going up. I have to stop 4 times going up this ridge with my lungs on fire. The steam is a big cloud above me. So we, me and the deer, top out on this ridge and start heading for the fields. Now the going is mostly level with some down slopes and a slight incline here and there. I start making good time now and only have to stop every 75yds or so with my lungs afire. I finally get back to the fields and the broke ass cart. Now, I don't want to leave the cart but I don't want to drag the deer to the truck and then come back and carry the cart to the truck. Think! My hand settles on leg. On the truck keys. On the key ring!! I get the keys off of the key ring, straighten it out somewhat and force it through the hole for the cotter pin. The cart works! Too sweet! Load the deer up and make the 1100yd trek to the truck in the steady rain. Get to the truck, stow the deer and cart and head home to skin him and cut him up. That's my story and I'm sticking to it LOL.
One memorable one was this year hunting with twildasin, Matt and Ben in lower PA. We were dragging out Tim's doe when his strap broke. I then tied it around the does neck and we couldn't move her, the straps snapped again. I then realized I tied her fast to a root sticking out of the ground. We LOAO for a while.
I got one... Some of you have seen the big buck I shot (272lbs dressed) in another recent thread. It was October 7th 2006 and I was hunting alone, as usual. And I finally got a crack at the deer I had been after for a couple years. I have never chosen a setup with regard to how easily I could get the deer out, cross that bridge when I get to it theory, right? Well where I hunt there are a bunch of steep ravines and ditches. And this particular setup is 20 yards above one of the steepest ditches on the property. So when I shot him he only went 20 yards, into that ditch. I knew he was big but I had no idea, in fact after waiting a while I changed clothes and went back to get my deer. When I first laid eyes on him there on the ground, I sat down saying out loud, "I just shot a monster". There was nothing left to do but get to work. It was dark by now so it took me a while to get him dressed out and start dragging, sine my ATV was getting maintenance done The good news I kept telling myself was that I only had to drag him about a hundred yards down the ditch and if I was careful I could get the truck to him. So off I went. Well I started out optimistic enough, at 8:00pm, and when it got to be about midnight I had lost that feeling. See the ditch was full of debris and as I got closer to the end, multi-flora rose, ouch. Add to that this deer was like dragging a horse. It was more like pulling one foot, rest, pull a foot, rest, pull a foot, rest..... But after1:00am I had made it to a place I could get the truck to him, so I went and got the truck. I should have felt good, but how the heck was I going to get him into the truck. Well after resting a while, I decided for once tonight I was going to work smart, I backed the truck so that the rear tires went into another ditch causing the tailgate to come close to the ground of the other side if the small ditch, and I pulled him into the truck. By now it was close to 2:00am and I was REALLY tired, so after getting cleaned up I napped a while. In the morning I took him back out of the truck, for pictures. When I got to the butcher, they were closed, but they have a cold storage to put deer in. There was no way for me to get it in there by myself so I stopped a buddies house and he was kind enough to give me a hand. We got it into the cooler and I headed for home. I have learned something from all this, hunt where the deer are, cross the bridge when you get to it. This is part of hunting and I still cherish the entire memory of that hunt.
I gave up on the dragging thing a few yrs ago. Bought my self a cart and a sled for winter. Absolultely the best money I ever spent. I'd recommend a cart to anyone. Ask mad hunter about how handy it came this fall for that doe I shot. He helped me drag her out of the corn fields, then loaded her up on the cart, & walked it down the street to my truck.
I don't have any crazy stories about dragging out deer. It mostly consist of me dragging about 30 yards, stopping to catch my breath, dragging 30 more yards...and so on, and so on.. My best friends mom is quite the hunter and every time she shoots a deer we always end up dragging, dressing, and processing the deer for her. She has killed tons of deer and never gotten a drop of blood on her....
Here is one for ya, I hunt state land when I hunt in Michigan so you have to go the extra mile to get away for the big boys. Well there is this one place I hunt down in the river bottoms of the PM river up here and I have to cross 4 feeder creeks and the main river to get to this island I hunt. Well when I was in my 20"s it wasn't bad but now I am getting older and a fews years back I shot a nice 8pt back there and tried to get it out myself!!! Holy thought I was having a heart attack because I was being stubborn that I could do it myself and didn't want anybody to know where I was hunting. Well I didn't have the big one but sure felt like I did and now I just have come to the relization that I am getting older and have to ask for help when I need it.. Walt
Mines my buck from this past year. I shot him on a ledge on the side of a ridge, which is also where he died. I was about 1/4 of the way down, and 3/4 of the way up. If we drug him up, it would have been very hard, because of how steep it was. We decided to drag him down. With how it looks when you're sitting in my stand, you would think it opens up not too far down the ridge, but it just gets even thicker. So my dad and I had to drag a 200 pound + deer (field dressed around 170) through the thickest stuff we've ever seen. It even was a ton of trouble at the bottom of the ridge, because of how thick it was. Thank God someone picked us up at the bottom on a 4 wheeler trail that we didn't know was there. Oh ya, about 3/4 of the way down we got so worn out trying to drag it through the brush and fallen logs/rocks that we cut my buck in half. That made it a little easier It was well worth it though.
northern MN (carelton) shot a small six, down a ravine across the Namadgi river (about up to my knees) cross back over to get my gear, then cross again to get back to the deer... about a mile and half as the crow flys to my buick skylark at the time!haaaa then i put him in my trunk! I think a tear dropped outta my eye when i got to that car
I haven't had to drag much in the last 5 years until this weekend. At my place I have atv's. This weekend I hunted at a buddies place and shot a big doe Saturday afternoon. All I have to say is that I missed my ATV.
I usually drag to the nearest logging road and grab the New Holland....not too exciting. I did shoot a yearling doe once about 2 miles from nowhere...that was, um, a difficult drag...ish.
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