It’s something every one of us who hunts alone has come to expect and to dread: How do we load a deer in our pickups without calling our buddies to help? Since many hunters often find themselves without a companion, they can use all the help they can get.
This is a nice problem to have, because it means your hunt was successful. But still: pushing, pulling, and humping a carcass into the bed of a pickup is a difficult and dangerous chore. You’ll need two ropes, a hardware-store pulley, and a makeshift ramp.
Tie up the deer’s hooves, field dressed, and place at the bottom of your ramp. Run the ropes through the pulleys and stand to the side of your truck bed. Be sure to allow enough slack in the rope to test the pull of the rope. This will ensure you won’t rip, tear or break anything and the deer is securely tied. Slowly begin pulling the ropes through the pulleys to allow the deer to slide up the ramp and into the bed.
Everyone has their methods, of course, but after you’re done deer hunting and have one on the ground, wrangling a 180-pound or larger buck alone in the cold weather is a chore. There’s also lifting products allowing a hunter to eliminate one of the most difficult and sometimes painful parts of the hunt, loading an animal for transport.