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Game Bags

1.9K views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  mamainthewild  
#1 ·
So who has a game bag where they quarter their deer and pack out. I have a cart but some places I hunt with elevation and steep ravines that isn’t option. This is just whitetail. What’s the best and how do you pack out!?


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#3 ·
Depends on the situation and how far back I am for me. If I can reasonably drag the deer I still prefer to butcher one hanging. But I have also quartered them up in the field and packed put. I also like the caribou gear bags that were posted above, but have some other cheaper black ovis bags that also work fine. I then use my exo mountain 3500 pack to pack out the deer, but if that's all I were using that pack for I'm sure there are cheaper frame options that would suffice for packing a deer out once or twice a year. I had a buddy once help me pack out a mulie in Idaho almost 7 miles using an osprey 28 day pack, but he is build like an NFL linebacker, not sure my shoulders would have faired the same.
 
#6 · (Edited)
I have pretty much had them all, caribou’s are great, argali are my favorite by a good bit.

I quarter deer, put hams in one, fronts in another, and trim, backstrap and tenderloin in a separate bag.

the beauty of deer hunting is if I can walk somewhere, I can get a whole deer out in one trip…

a good pack and pre season weighted pack training gives a lot of freedom in the woods. If you aren’t in great shape just do 2 trips.

even a big bodied deer, your pack with meat and pack contents will be sub 100lbs… my buck this year I started with a 36# pack and when I got home my pack was 103# with my buck in it, and it was 4.74 miles… not crazy steep, first mile was climbing pretty good, then pretty flat the rest, wasn’t that bad
You can always bone them out too, if you do watch some YouTube videos on it or it can be pretty wasteful… takes time to do right, but is an option… with deer I just pack bones, elk I usually do too unless I think it will actually save me a whole trip

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#7 ·
I use caribou bags and continually AMAZED at how clean they get very easily after use!

For up to a large deer you can fit it in one bag, two max. Then pack it out on your bag, assuming you have a backpack setup for that. I've also carried a whitetail doe out in a bag, no pack just carried it, I don't recommend that for a long pack.

I will never gut/drag again unless I really have a good reason