How to get an elk in the back of a truck

[bob_lafrentz]

Hi all,

I've never hunted elk before but am thinking about it next year. But, I often seen elk in the back of trucks after a hunter has harvested them. How do you get them in there? I hunt deer solo almost all the time and a deer can give you a pretty good fight getting it into the back of a truck by yourself. So, how do you do it with an animal that large?

Also, how much does an average elk weigh and a large elk weigh (rocky mountain elk)?

Thanks.

[Bigolwiggler]

This past season , I had a 4X8 sheet of stout plywood in the bed of my truck . When I loaded the elk I made a ramp out of the plywood ( from the ground to my tailgate.) We roped the elk up onto the "ramp" then one guy on each rear corner of the plywood lifted then slid the whole mess into the bed of the truck.
It would be tough with one guy unless maybe you had a come-along.

BOW

[Lives2Hunt]

Wow you are from Montana and you've never hunted elk in that beautiful country before? Just pullin your leg. Two ways to get an elk in the back of the truck, winch or come-a-long or other mechanical means or you will probably have to half the animal or quarter it up...after you cape it if you get one you want to mount. That is if your alone. We always had 8 guys or so in our elk camps, but once we got an animal in the tree, buy hoist/pulley it up there, we backed the truck up under it. Get creative, take lumber and winch it up? I dont know. IMHO would just quarter it up.

You said elk so I will tell you, for my own experience what they weigh. I will also tell you hanging weight. An average cow we shot a couple years ago weighed 214, no hide, legs or guts. SO maybe 325-350 live weight. A big cow we dressed out was 277, so then do the math you maybe looking at 425 lb cow, thats a big-un. A average bull, dresses out near what the large cow weighs 250-300, thats no hide/cape , guts or legs. A large bull can dress at 350-450, or more depending on where you hunt and what is a large bull to you, 320 class or a 8000 400 class, haha jk. I have personally never gotten a real big bull. Some will disagree and say other weights, these animals were all rockey mountain elk, taken out of SW CO. Good luck and enjoy.

[jackrabbit]

3 small guys can get it into the back of an enclosed Suburban -- but I don't recommend it!!!

Follow the advice of L2H above. But this is how we did it when my idiot buddy insisted on taking a 4pt Colorado bull back to the KOA campground we were based at. The bull was so long, limp, and heavy, with a wide rack, we could not get it in the 'burban directly. We ended up wedging full size ice chests underneath the body like a semi-ramp. Then one guy got in the 'burban holding the antlers with his feet propped on the wheel wells and pulled inward. Another guy got under the gutted chest cavity on all fours and heaved upward. And the third guy grabbed the hind quarters, lifted and pushed forward -- what a mess, we damn near got into a fistfight with me complaining about the stupidity of not cutting it up!!

Funniest thing was the KOA would not let us hang him up or butcher it on their property, so the damn bull spent the night in the 'burban and we trucked it back up to where my buddy shot it so he could hang it from a tree and butcher it while we tried to fill our elk tags -- what a waste of effort, but memorable!!

Oh, and by the way, the Suburban was a lease job, and that damn bull still had enough blood oozing overnight to totally soak the new carpets in that classy 'burban!!


PS: the way we hung it up in the tree was with 1/2 inch ropes and pulleys swung over a limb and tied to the trailer hitch of one of the vehicles to hoist it up off the ground. Since we already had the beast in the 'burban it was easy to drive up under a good tree.

[outdoorsman35]

Originally Posted by bob_lafrentz

How do you get them in there?
Thanks.

A knife.

[DirtyDave]

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[weekender21]

debone or quarter your elk, or phone a friend.....or two!

[MJB]

Originally Posted by jackrabbit

3 small guys can get it into the back of an enclosed Suburban -- but I don't recommend it!!!

Follow the advice of L2H above. But this is how we did it when my idiot buddy insisted on taking a 4pt Colorado bull back to the KOA campground we were based at. The bull was so long, limp, and heavy, with a wide rack, we could not get it in the 'burban directly. We ended up wedging full size ice chests underneath the body like a semi-ramp. Then one guy got in the 'burban holding the antlers with his feet propped on the wheel wells and pulled inward. Another guy got under the gutted chest cavity on all fours and heaved upward. And the third guy grabbed the hind quarters, lifted and pushed forward -- what a mess, we damn near got into a fistfight with me complaining about the stupidity of not cutting it up!!

Funniest thing was the KOA would not let us hang him up or butcher it on their property, so the damn bull spent the night in the 'burban and we trucked it back up to where my buddy shot it so he could hang it from a tree and butcher it while we tried to fill our elk tags -- what a waste of effort, but memorable!!

Oh, and by the way, the Suburban was a lease job, and that damn bull still had enough blood oozing overnight to totally soak the new carpets in that classy 'burban!!


PS: the way we hung it up in the tree was with 1/2 inch ropes and pulleys swung over a limb and tied to the trailer hitch of one of the vehicles to hoist it up off the ground. Since we already had the beast in the 'burban it was easy to drive up under a good tree.

Thats some funny shit!!!!! spent the night in the burban

[DirtyDave]

[bob_lafrentz]

Thanks for all the info and a great story!! I think quartering or boing-out will be the way to go for me, should I be fortuneate enough.

On another note, should you shoot a ways off the nearest road, how do you pack it out? Sorry for all the questions, I've just been thinking about elk hunting a lot lately and.......

Thanks again.

[Kentuck]

If, and I really mean If, you get an elk you can get to with a truck, either a bunch of help or a winch/come-along. I loaded my cow elk onto my friends truck yesterday with a come-along and ATV ramps. Still took a lot of work.

The best way would be to quarter/de-bone and pack it to the truck. Get a good pack/pack frame and it will help a lot.

P.S. which ever way you go, get help.

[weekender21]

Originally Posted by bob_lafrentz

Thanks for all the info and a great story!! I think quartering or boing-out will be the way to go for me, should I be fortuneate enough.

On another note, should you shoot a ways off the nearest road, how do you pack it out? Sorry for all the questions, I've just been thinking about elk hunting a lot lately and.......

Thanks again.

Again, debone and quarter. You will be one lucky hunter if you shoot an elk near a road. You need to learn how to debone or quarter your elk and carry the elk out in a backpack or hire someone with horses.

[soupr]

I was luck enough to get my bull about 2 - 300 yards from our truck on a very long day of hunting. Funny how that works out. There were three of us and we managed to get the 340 class bull in the bed of the truck. It was no easy feat at all. We were all cusing and sweating but we managed to do some how. Next time that baby will be chopped up. We all learn from experience, but some experiences make some pretty good campfire stories.

[outdoorsman35]

Originally Posted by bob_lafrentz

On another note, should you shoot a ways off the nearest road, how do you pack it out?

Thanks again.

a horse, mule, or ATV.

one guy packing out an elk on his back is usually not a practical option.

[Kit Fox]

My idea is to mount a single pulley to the front of the truck bed, then run the line over the top of the pulley, then underneath, and back to the elk. Tie the other end to a solid object (tree, boulder, another vehicle). As you drove away from the anchor, the elk would be pulled into your vehicle. You would need a method for attaching, or keeping the plywood ramp on the back of your truck as you drove.

[BelchFire]

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[jerryt]

I killed this elk this year in Colorado. Got lucky and killed him about 600 yards above an old jeep trail and I drug him down the hill and loaded him into the truck by myself whole with the campershell on. It was not an easy task but it wasnt' that hard either. After I got him in the truck I then hiked two miles to my buddies elk with the frame packs to get his out. Got his bull out in 3 trips. My load was about 140 lbs since I carried all the boned meat, the hide, head and horns for mounting. Dad and the other guy each carried a front leg and hind leg each in one trip. We took that evening off from hunting and had some cocktails to easy the pain away and then Dad went and shot his bull early the next morning and instead of hiking two miles to him we drove the quad into the canyon since all our tags were filled and loaded the quarters on the quad and sent the meat out on the quad rather than our backs. Quads are a wonderful thing if they are used for the right purposes.

[inchr48]

Remember: "Friends help you move. Good friends help you move the bodies."

There's been a few Whitetails I'd wished I could of cut up to get out, can't imagine moving a whole elk. I'd quarter or bone out to haul. It needs to be done anyway, so why wait?

[jerryt]

It needs to be done anyway, so why wait?

Why wait, because the butcher shop will do it for you for the same price whether you bring it in whole or in pieces! So why do the work when someone else will and you can watch them do it while enjoying a cocktail.

[hank4elk]

Originally Posted by outdoorsman35

A knife.

That about sums it up!

[CaliJeephuntr]

Or you can just get a bunch of guys to lift it into the back of the truck so you can get a picture like this... Took 5 or 6 guys to get it in the truck.

[SoJo]

Taking a nap in the bed of your truck! Good job!

[Litch]

Wyoming 06 Elk Hunt 046.jpg

How about 2 Elk in the back of my truck?

[SoJo]

Litch, nice!!! Where in Wyoming did you hunt in '06? I hunted near the Green River and Green River Lake back in the Bridger Mountains last year - wilderness so I used a guide per the Wyoming regs. I love that country --- also, grew up in Nevada City (saw your location in Truckee)...been hunting that area (D3 + x7) for past 35 yrs...

[Litch]

Originally Posted by SoJo

Litch, nice!!! Where in Wyoming did you hunt in '06? I hunted near the Green River and Green River Lake back in the Bridger Mountains last year - wilderness so I used a guide per the Wyoming regs. I love that country --- also, grew up in Nevada City (saw your location in Truckee)...been hunting that area (D3 + x7) for past 35 yrs...

It was a migration hunt between Yellowstone and the Winter grounds in Jackson. The hunt was in Grand Teton, and as you can see from the pics, they don't start moving until the snow flies. We got 4 for a party of 5 a couple of days before Thanksgiving 06. We drug those 2 back whole to the truck with horses, real easy with snow on the ground. Had to cut the heads off to get them in the truck, but with 3 of us it wasn't too bad.

[SoJo]

Originally Posted by Litch

It was a migration hunt between Yellowstone and the Winter grounds in Jackson. The hunt was in Grand Teton, and as you can see from the pics, they don't start moving until the snow flies. We got 4 for a party of 5 a couple of days before Thanksgiving 06. We drug those 2 back whole to the truck with horses, real easy with snow on the ground. Had to cut the heads off to get them in the truck, but with 3 of us it wasn't too bad.

I know of that area -- I flew into Jackson, rented one of those new Jeeps and drove 1 1/2hrs south to the base camp. Beautiful areas. Before I left I went out to the migration stop in Jackson..of course I was there the 1st part of Oct so there was nothing that had migrated in yet. I'm hopping to get drawn next year!

[kevinandboys]

calijeephuntr is that a east park bull?

[REM3006]

Loading my elk was an easy task with 5 guys. What friends are for ?

[XDHUNTER]

Originally Posted by REM3006

Loading my elk was an easy task with 5 guys. What friends are for ?

Da.......m you!!!! Wify still mad about washing the bloody clothes..

[richracer1]

Like others have mentioned, either have some peope to help out or start cutting/sawing. I hunt elk with 4-5 other guys so loading them is fairly easy task. This is one of my favorite hunting pictures from 2006. 5 cow elk and a muley in my truck.