Latest / Wired To Hunt Podcast / Ep. 589: Foundations - Coming Out Heavy

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Ep. 589: Foundations - Coming Out Heavy · Wired To Hunt Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast, your guide
0:05
Speaker 1: to the fundamentals of better deer hunting, and now your
0:10
Speaker 1: host Tony Peterson. Hey everyone, welcome to the wire to
0:13
Speaker 1: Hunt Foundations podcast, which has brought to you you by First
0:16
Speaker 1: Like I'm your host, Tony Peterson, and today's episode is
0:19
Speaker 1: all about the best ways to get your deer out
0:21
Speaker 1: of the woods. There are I don't know quite a
0:39
Speaker 1: few reasons I don't want to be a murderer. Besides
0:42
Speaker 1: what should be the obvious reasons, I've pulled enough of
0:45
Speaker 1: dead critters out of the woods to know that I'm
0:46
Speaker 1: not interested in trying to. I don't know stealthily wrestle
0:50
Speaker 1: with a body as I love it to some far
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Speaker 1: off spot in a swamp where hopefully nobody will find it.
0:56
Speaker 1: I'm too lazy to be a murderer, I guess anyway.
0:59
Speaker 1: The reality of getting a deer out once you find
1:02
Speaker 1: it can be as simple as driving the old four
1:05
Speaker 1: wheeler out to the field, or as complicated as piecing
1:08
Speaker 1: one out in a white tailed version of the back
1:11
Speaker 1: country and impacking it for miles. Knowing and understanding all
1:16
Speaker 1: your options and being confident with them, I can really
1:19
Speaker 1: save you some headaches and back aches, so listen up.
1:23
Speaker 1: That's what this whole episode is all about. When I
1:37
Speaker 1: was a kid, my dad hunted with a group of
1:39
Speaker 1: guys that were mostly pretty decent, aside from one dude
1:42
Speaker 1: who was a one eyed lunatic who fancied himself a
1:45
Speaker 1: tough guy despite being out of shape, pretty small, and
1:49
Speaker 1: really at a disadvantage when it came to depth perception,
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Speaker 1: if you know what I mean. Those guys let me
1:54
Speaker 1: hang out with them at the hunt and shack, and
1:56
Speaker 1: while they bow hunted deer, I terrorized the local world
2:00
Speaker 1: population with my twenty two It was pretty fun to
2:02
Speaker 1: be around them. And while they seemed old to me
2:05
Speaker 1: at the time, I realized now sadly that they were
2:08
Speaker 1: younger than I am now. Even so, I remember how
2:13
Speaker 1: often they would talk about how you didn't want to
2:15
Speaker 1: shoot a deer in such and such a spot because
2:18
Speaker 1: it would be a nightmare to drag them out. And
2:20
Speaker 1: to be fair, the area they were hunting was the
2:23
Speaker 1: Bluff country of southern Minnesota, so there were some real
2:26
Speaker 1: hills to deal with, even if they were just Midwestern hills.
2:31
Speaker 1: And also, to be fair, at that time, the options
2:34
Speaker 1: for those guys. To get out a deer involved pure manpower,
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Speaker 1: grab the antlers with a buddy and start huffing away.
2:42
Speaker 1: If it was a dough, they'd loop their safety harness
2:45
Speaker 1: around the neck. While some of them did. Some of
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Speaker 1: those guys, like the one eyed lunatic who shoot his
2:50
Speaker 1: pants on stand one evening to everyone's delight, especially mine,
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Speaker 1: they were too manly to wear a harness, which is
2:57
Speaker 1: so dumb. Anyway, Getting a deer out of those spots
3:01
Speaker 1: at that time meant you had to be up to
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Speaker 1: the task of dragging them, and dragged them we did,
3:07
Speaker 1: which almost always sucked a lot. But I always felt,
3:11
Speaker 1: probably because I was young and really dumb and didn't
3:13
Speaker 1: have to do most of the work at that time,
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Speaker 1: that it was sort of a write of passage to
3:17
Speaker 1: nearly kill yourself with a task. My dad, who was
3:22
Speaker 1: less inclined to i don't know, unnecessary suffering than his son,
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Speaker 1: decided to try and remedy the problem. So he did
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Speaker 1: what my dad always did, which was trying to build
3:32
Speaker 1: something that he could have easily bought. The deer card
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Speaker 1: he made from two by fours in the cannibalized front
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Speaker 1: fork and wheel of my dirt bike. It was like
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Speaker 1: a wheelbarrel from hell. It was the worst. It was heavy, awkward,
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Speaker 1: and the one small wheel in the center meant you
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Speaker 1: had to spend all of your time fighting the balance.
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Speaker 1: I guess it probably would have been one hell of
3:55
Speaker 1: a workout considering how much it engaged your core stabilizer muscles,
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Speaker 1: but that isn't what it was built for. We used
4:02
Speaker 1: it a few times in my high school years when
4:04
Speaker 1: I occasionally shot dear, but it was not the answer
4:07
Speaker 1: to the dear removal question. What was I have found
4:11
Speaker 1: out now after a lot of years of trying different things,
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Speaker 1: was the best option for the individual hunt. How's that
4:18
Speaker 1: for a letdown answer. The thing is, like I mentioned
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Speaker 1: at the intro, is that there are really quite a
4:24
Speaker 1: few easy ways to get a deer out. It seems
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Speaker 1: like everyone and their brother owns a side by side
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Speaker 1: these days, which is crazy to me. After all, it's
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Speaker 1: weird that we buy a little car type thing that
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Speaker 1: costs as much as a little car, mostly kind of
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Speaker 1: just to drive around our neighborhood or bring to deer
4:41
Speaker 1: camp on the off chance someone shoots a buck side
4:44
Speaker 1: note here, and I'm not shooting on people who own
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Speaker 1: side by sides or four wheelers or whatever. But I
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Speaker 1: noticed when I was driving to Colorado elk hunt this
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Speaker 1: year that the road was full of fellow elk hunters.
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Speaker 1: No surprise there, but what hit me was the amount
5:01
Speaker 1: of money people have invested in toys that are somewhat
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Speaker 1: related to their hunting enjoyment. It made me realize that
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Speaker 1: as much as I'd like to see hunting not become
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Speaker 1: a pay to play type of endeavor or a rich
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Speaker 1: man's sport if you will, it's going to There's so
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Speaker 1: much money out there, and that money is always looking
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Speaker 1: for an advantage in hunting, whether it's a little deer
5:22
Speaker 1: hauling vehicle or a lease or a landowner tag, whatever.
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Speaker 1: That money isn't going to go away. It's here to
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Speaker 1: stay and it will influence the future of hunting opportunities.
5:35
Speaker 1: Now that I have that out of the way, I'll
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Speaker 1: get back to the dear retrieval issue. If you have
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Speaker 1: a private spot and you can use a truck or
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Speaker 1: a side by side or a four wheeler, things are
5:44
Speaker 1: pretty simple. But don't assume that every spot you hunt
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Speaker 1: will allow that. If you travel, you might find yourself
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Speaker 1: in a roadless section of the National forest or some
5:53
Speaker 1: other situation where wheels are a no no. When this happens,
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Speaker 1: or if you just happen to not have the means
6:00
Speaker 1: or situation to use a vehicle, you have to be
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Speaker 1: aware of your options besides dragging a deer. For me,
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Speaker 1: one of the best things that happened was that I
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Speaker 1: bought a real deer cart that my dad did not make.
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Speaker 1: A deer cart with two wheels and a low center
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Speaker 1: of gravity for the bulk of the weight to lay on.
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Speaker 1: That thing is awesome. And when I first bought one,
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Speaker 1: it was after I had really started traveling to kill
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Speaker 1: public land white tales. Being solo on most of my
6:28
Speaker 1: hunt and often hunting a few miles from the truck
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Speaker 1: meant that I might be in for like a six
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Speaker 1: hour drag or more, which is no fun. It's also
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Speaker 1: really no fun if you have to drag a deer
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Speaker 1: that weighs as much or more than you now. Listen,
6:43
Speaker 1: I don't care how much jim time you put in.
6:46
Speaker 1: If you weigh a hundred sixty pounds and have to
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Speaker 1: drag a two pound deer for three miles, you're gonna
6:50
Speaker 1: wish you were dead, or at least had a buddy
6:53
Speaker 1: with a helicopter you could call a good deer cart.
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Speaker 1: On the other hand, it makes this whole process so
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Speaker 1: much easier. But there is a catch, a catch that
7:03
Speaker 1: I figured out once I spent some time killing bucks
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Speaker 1: and random places far far from home. A deer cart,
7:09
Speaker 1: a good deer carter, I should say, is amazing if
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Speaker 1: you're hunting spots where there are two track roads or
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Speaker 1: logging roads, and as an added bonus, where the land
7:18
Speaker 1: is mostly level. If you kill a buck in a
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Speaker 1: swamp and then have to hike up a huge bluff
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Speaker 1: to get to your truck, that game cart is mostly
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Speaker 1: going to make things worse. Even with a buddy helping.
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Speaker 1: Pulling a game cart full of dead weight isn't so
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Speaker 1: much fun. If there are a lot of blowdowns or washouts,
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Speaker 1: or you're just in tight, nasty cover or whatever. On
7:38
Speaker 1: a nice field road or two track, they're amazing. Two
7:42
Speaker 1: things to consider if you do go this route, though,
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Speaker 1: are this Loading in a deer solo takes a little
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Speaker 1: bit of technique. You want to lay the cart down,
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Speaker 1: get most of the weight of the deer in the center,
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Speaker 1: pick them up slowly so they settle, and then usually
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Speaker 1: tie up the head in the legs so that they
8:01
Speaker 1: aren't dragging on the wheels or catching on brush or
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Speaker 1: hitting you in the back of the legs while you walk.
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Speaker 1: I'll also say this, if you go with a deer cart,
8:09
Speaker 1: don't go super cheap. The good ones aren't that expensive,
8:13
Speaker 1: but the more expensive they are usually they're a little
8:17
Speaker 1: bit better. And the cheapest options are the cheapest options
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Speaker 1: for a reason. The deer cart I use has served
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Speaker 1: me well for like fourteen years now, so for whatever
8:28
Speaker 1: I paid, which wasn't that much, it was worth it
8:30
Speaker 1: many many times over. And I should also say this too,
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Speaker 1: there are no free rides and deer retrieval. Even with
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Speaker 1: the deer cart that is designed well, you still have
8:40
Speaker 1: to work. Now if you go some other route, like
8:43
Speaker 1: with a harness design to make a drag easier or whatever,
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Speaker 1: it may be slightly easier now. I know. Earlier I
8:49
Speaker 1: said I had two things to say about a deer
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Speaker 1: cart when what you should consider, but I totally forgot
8:55
Speaker 1: what the first one was, so you only got one.
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Speaker 1: But I might come back around to that at some point.
9:00
Speaker 1: If you go with a sled, which is another option
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Speaker 1: out there, not like a deer cart, you still have
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Speaker 1: to drag your deer. There are a few options this way,
9:09
Speaker 1: and I've used some of them. All of them have
9:12
Speaker 1: their trade offs, and even a good ice fishing type
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Speaker 1: sled for late season retrieval when there is snow on
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Speaker 1: the ground, that should, like theoretically, be the easiest retrieval
9:21
Speaker 1: you have, but if the snow conditions are really powdery,
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Speaker 1: it won't be. I do think it's worth exploring all
9:29
Speaker 1: of these options for two reasons. The first is the
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Speaker 1: obvious one, which is I don't know, why do way
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Speaker 1: more work than you have to. The second is that
9:37
Speaker 1: if you have a good way to get a deer
9:38
Speaker 1: out of somewhere, you will hunt smarter and be far
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Speaker 1: less likely to default too easier spots. Now. I know
9:46
Speaker 1: that we all think we are pretty fit, stubbed muffins
9:48
Speaker 1: out here, who, if we really wanted to, could probably
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Speaker 1: throw half an elk over our shoulders and cover I
9:53
Speaker 1: don't know, like ten or twenty miles without too much trouble.
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Speaker 1: But the reality of dead weight often shatters are illusions
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Speaker 1: about ourselves. There are plenty of hunters out there who
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Speaker 1: won't hunt certain spots, or more likely hunt deep enough
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Speaker 1: into the cover to kill deer. This leads me to
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Speaker 1: my last and most preferred method of getting a deer
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Speaker 1: out of the woods, piecing it out and packing it out.
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Speaker 1: When I first started hunting out west quite a bit,
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Speaker 1: I killed a few critters that I could drag out. Then,
10:22
Speaker 1: one day in early September, a buddy and I were
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Speaker 1: spotting in stocking milder in western North Dakota. We spotted
10:28
Speaker 1: at a late morning buck on his feet, and since
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Speaker 1: it was my buddy's turn to stock, he took the lead.
10:33
Speaker 1: We got in above that meal deer, and eventually my
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Speaker 1: buddy shot him. It wasn't a giant deer, but it
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Speaker 1: was a nice one, and we were quite a ways
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Speaker 1: from the truck. We were also pretty inexperienced Western hunters,
10:45
Speaker 1: so we thought, well, hell, we'll just drag it. But
10:48
Speaker 1: it was hot, dusty, and probably the second most miserable
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Speaker 1: time I've ever had getting an animal out to the truck.
10:55
Speaker 1: It was also really, really dumb. We could have pieced
10:59
Speaker 1: that meal deer out and then packed half of him
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Speaker 1: a piece to get to the truck with so much
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Speaker 1: less effort. Well, lesson learned, because that's what I do
11:08
Speaker 1: every chance I can. For white tails. Now, before I
11:11
Speaker 1: get into this, I have to say you've got to
11:13
Speaker 1: check your local regulations on this. Not every state allows
11:17
Speaker 1: you to piece them out in the field, although I
11:19
Speaker 1: think it's pretty common these days now that in person
11:22
Speaker 1: registration is largely going away. If you can piece out
11:25
Speaker 1: at deer in the field, this option is incredible. But
11:28
Speaker 1: remember what I said earlier, there's a catch, because there's
11:32
Speaker 1: always a catch, and with this one, the catches, and
11:35
Speaker 1: this is going to seem dune, but it's true. You
11:38
Speaker 1: have to know how to do it. So I'm going
11:40
Speaker 1: to tell you my system, much of which I developed
11:43
Speaker 1: while hunting with Western hunters who really have no choice
11:45
Speaker 1: most of the time but to get an animal pieced
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Speaker 1: out and in their pack. What I do, first off,
11:51
Speaker 1: is I keep a butcher kid in my truck. I
11:53
Speaker 1: don't carry it in my pack like I do on
11:55
Speaker 1: an elk hunt, for example, because I tend to have
11:58
Speaker 1: more time with white tails, and I tend to have
12:00
Speaker 1: a pretty full pack every time I hunt. And when
12:03
Speaker 1: you start to consider the tree stand necessities and extra
12:05
Speaker 1: clothes and the food and camera gear another junk. So
12:08
Speaker 1: I keep a butcher kid in my truck along with
12:10
Speaker 1: a box of one gallon or two gallons at block bags.
12:14
Speaker 1: I've used dedicated game bags for deer in the past,
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Speaker 1: but it really has never made sense and it just
12:20
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like that good of an idea to me.
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Speaker 1: I don't need to pack out quarters or make sure
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Speaker 1: that I get them hung up instantly, so the freezer
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Speaker 1: bags are really an easier option. And this is how
12:31
Speaker 1: it goes if I shoot a deer in the white
12:33
Speaker 1: tailed back country, where easier retrieval isn't an option, or
12:37
Speaker 1: more likely, if I'm just hunting solo, I'll make sure
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Speaker 1: my tag is filled out and notched, get my photos,
12:43
Speaker 1: and then hike everything back to my truck. I want
12:46
Speaker 1: to empty my pack, which by the way, is the
12:48
Speaker 1: same pack I used to elk hunt, so I can
12:50
Speaker 1: get a full deer's worth of meat in There is
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Speaker 1: something to consider at the truck. Everything I don't need
12:57
Speaker 1: comes out of the pack when I go back in.
12:59
Speaker 1: I want a small tarp skinning knife and a knife
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Speaker 1: like the bench made meatcrafter, which is a badass blade
13:06
Speaker 1: for piecing out animals. Also want a small bone saw,
13:10
Speaker 1: and then about a dozen ziplocks. All of this ways
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Speaker 1: next to nothing. Once back at the deer, I find
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Speaker 1: a clean level spot and I lay it on its side.
13:21
Speaker 1: I don't know. Basically, just like you would with an
13:22
Speaker 1: elk or a meal deer in the high country. I
13:25
Speaker 1: start skinning on the top side, around the legs, straight
13:28
Speaker 1: up the chest, and essentially just trying to open up
13:30
Speaker 1: the front and back quarters to make it so the
13:33
Speaker 1: hide is only attached around the back side of the spine,
13:37
Speaker 1: you know, around the backstraps. Then I lay the tarp
13:41
Speaker 1: out and I start just taking off meat. This usually
13:44
Speaker 1: starts with the rear quarters because they are thicker and
13:47
Speaker 1: they hold more heat than the front shoulders. This is
13:50
Speaker 1: really hard to describe on a podcast, but you can
13:53
Speaker 1: basically follow the seams between muscle groups to piece them out.
13:57
Speaker 1: This is a skill I think every one of us
13:59
Speaker 1: should learn for couple of reasons. The first is that
14:02
Speaker 1: processing your own deer helps you own more of the
14:04
Speaker 1: overall process. The second is that you might not always
14:09
Speaker 1: have the option to bring your deer to a butcher,
14:12
Speaker 1: and if that's the case, having the knowledge to do
14:15
Speaker 1: this yourself is huge. So basically, you have to take
14:20
Speaker 1: all of the meat you can get your knife to
14:22
Speaker 1: off the deer. I start filling freezer bags up with
14:26
Speaker 1: various muscles without removing the hind legs. This helps keep
14:29
Speaker 1: the meat from hitting the dirt because it's easier to
14:32
Speaker 1: deal with a single roast than a whole hind quarter.
14:35
Speaker 1: It also lets you parse the meat out in the
14:37
Speaker 1: bags easily. I repeat this process on the front shoulders,
14:41
Speaker 1: and then with the neck, meat, the tender loins, and
14:45
Speaker 1: the top side backstrap. When you've cut all the meat
14:49
Speaker 1: off on one side, you flip the deer over on
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Speaker 1: its hide and repeat the process on the other side.
14:55
Speaker 1: It's really simple actually, and once you've done it a
14:58
Speaker 1: few times, and it might take two hours, but even
15:02
Speaker 1: under a head lamp in the middle of the night,
15:03
Speaker 1: it's not too difficult or time consuming. With the bags
15:07
Speaker 1: of meat laid out on the tarp, they have the
15:09
Speaker 1: chance to cool off some and allows you to see
15:12
Speaker 1: what you're working with before you load them in your pack.
15:14
Speaker 1: And when you have all the meat off of your buck.
15:17
Speaker 1: If you're dealing with a buck, you can saw the
15:19
Speaker 1: skull plate off or twist the head off if you
15:22
Speaker 1: want a euro if you plan them out your dear.
15:24
Speaker 1: That's another big consideration that involves having some scalpels or
15:27
Speaker 1: at least replaceable blade knives, and the patients and know
15:31
Speaker 1: how to keepe them. This is a bitch in the field,
15:34
Speaker 1: but it can be done. And I should also say this,
15:37
Speaker 1: pay attention to your local c w D rules as well.
15:41
Speaker 1: You might have restrictions on moving a spine or moving
15:44
Speaker 1: the head with the brain in it, or you might
15:47
Speaker 1: have mandatory CWD testing where you got to get the
15:50
Speaker 1: lymph nodes out. Understand that stuff before you go out hunting. Now,
15:55
Speaker 1: if you're not carrying a head and cape out and
15:57
Speaker 1: are just carrying meat and antlers, you load them up
16:00
Speaker 1: into and on your pack and it's just time to
16:02
Speaker 1: start hiking. Now. Let me say this, it's not an
16:06
Speaker 1: elk packed job to get a white tail out, but
16:09
Speaker 1: I don't care because I don't know. Seventy or eighty
16:12
Speaker 1: pounds in your pack is seventy or eighty pounds in
16:15
Speaker 1: your pack, no matter what critter it originated from. I
16:18
Speaker 1: have had some hellacious, dear pack out jobs. But the
16:22
Speaker 1: good thing is that it should only be one trip,
16:25
Speaker 1: or maybe maybe two if you need it. To the
16:29
Speaker 1: point is this is an option, and it's a hell
16:33
Speaker 1: of a good one if you like to hunt solo,
16:35
Speaker 1: or you like to hunt deep or both. It also
16:37
Speaker 1: feels pretty bad ass to carry a whole dear's worth
16:40
Speaker 1: of meat and antlers out on your pack. And I
16:43
Speaker 1: can't prove this, but might just help you grow your
16:45
Speaker 1: chest hair a little more. For the ladies out there
16:47
Speaker 1: that listen to this, I mean all three of them,
16:50
Speaker 1: that's a negative. But for the rest of us, it's
16:52
Speaker 1: a bonus reminder that we are pretty badass dudes who
16:55
Speaker 1: will look just a little bit more like the Magnum
16:57
Speaker 1: p I actor Tom Selleck via. So figure out your
17:03
Speaker 1: options for getting a deer out, all of your options
17:06
Speaker 1: for all the places you might hunt. The more ways
17:09
Speaker 1: you have to take a deer from the spotty died
17:11
Speaker 1: to your truck, the better you should. Also tune in
17:15
Speaker 1: next week when I talk about not falling in love
17:17
Speaker 1: with deer hunting ideas, because that'll bite you right in
17:20
Speaker 1: your cameo covered asks if you're not careful. That's it
17:25
Speaker 1: for this week, my friends. I'm Tony Peterson and this
17:27
Speaker 1: has been a Wired to Hunt Foundations podcast which has
17:30
Speaker 1: brought to you by First Light. As I always thank
17:32
Speaker 1: you so much for your support and If you want
17:34
Speaker 1: more white tail content, go to the metator dot com
17:37
Speaker 1: slash wired and you can read all kinds of deer
17:40
Speaker 1: hunting articles. Or you can head on over to our
17:42
Speaker 1: Wired to Hunt YouTube channel to see the weekly how
17:45
Speaker 1: to videos that we put up