Loading an elk

[High Plains]

Me and a friend loaded an elk in the back of my 2009 Ranger 700XP in the Moose Mountain Sask area. had 2 ropes and some sweat-I don't have a winch, but think running a winch cable over the roll bars might work quite good. Has anyone set something like this up?

[caglezxj]

You could probably make some rollers to attach so everything goes smooth. And synthetic rope would be better than the steel.

[GRAZOR]

It is not an easy task at all!

I helped load a 600 pound black bear into a Rino and we had to hoist the bear up in a tree with one ATV tied off to a tree and using a snatch block. Then we backed the Rino under it and let it down.

Even then we had all sorts of issues because the bear kept wanting to roll and slide out. Until the rigor sets in, these things are about 300 pounds of squishy fat and fur and refuse to stay put no matter what you do. My best description is like a giant water balloon, pick up one end and all the fat goes to the other.

Keep us posted if you ever devise a better way.

Gary

[ELK_HUN10]

I take a come-a-long with me and also pulley (snatch block). If I am going to haul the elk out, I always cut it into half. I have seen pictures on this site where a guy had a pulley set up like you mentioned. with the pulleys mounted on the frame. It looked like it would work good in the desert. I would not trust hauling a whole elk out of the woods that way. It results in a real high and back center of gravity. If you do not have all four wheels on the ground, you may end up with all four wheels in the air. A whole elk has a weight problem. Going downhill, with this load, can make it impossible to stop. I have done that before. You hope nobody else is coming up the hill while you are going down because they will have to get out of the way. Some people stop first and say "huh" before they react and in this situation that would be too late. Because of this reason, that was the only time I hauled both halves out at the same time. In steep country, with snow, it is not too hard for people to drag a whole elk. Again with snow, you can drag an elk out with your UTV in less steep country. My brother-in-law did that with two elk some years ago (two trips). Except for a full body mount, there is no reason to bring a elk out whole. Halves of elk are still pretty impressive and they will hang for aging in your shop or garage if they are in halves. A barn or large tall shop would be no problem hanging an elk whole. If the elk is too big for two people to load, we have thrown a rope over a high limb and using rope and a pulley, pulled the animal up in the air, tied it off, then backed under it. You need trees to do this with that are fairly big. With scrub timber or in the desert, this would not work. Then, you would need your winch and pulley system that you are asking about.
I just checked this site for the pictures of the elk loader, They were listed as an attachment and do not exist anymore. Basically they used pulleys on top of the cage, cable and a horse halter to load the elk into the back. It would work for loading the elk as long as you were in the plains or desert.

[bigdiggerman]

Load the elk in Quarters. You can use your arms then. You are going to quarter sooner or later anyways. I have a little tilting trailer that I loaded the two halves of a small elk on, but I had a winch on the back of my machine and that made it easy. IMO the back is the best place to have a winch, or at least have it so you can put the winch in front or back, or both.

[OtisblkR1]

of course not nearly as big as a elk or bear, but i easily loaded my whitetail this season with my rear reciever mounted crane. vut a couple slit in the deers rear leg's, crane came with a animal hanger. lowered the cable inserted the hanger, cranked her up in the air and simply turned the crane and simply loaded her in the bed (this crane also works on my trucks reese hitch) also made field dressing the deer alot easier.

[Russ Chastain]

I have a game loader that attaches to the hitch receiver. You load the critter and then drive forward slowly and it cantilevers the animal upward - a whitetail, anyhow. IT worked great with a 160-lb buck. It would work well with elk quarters, too.

[Fishtail]

I was hunting moose in Alberta this fall. They are brutal on Rangers and they hold up better than you could ever expect. We loaded moose in a Ranger by pulling the 1000 pound bulls from over the top with the wench. We cut one in two, but the others we just muscled into the box. They need to engineer a pully to keep the cable from tearing things up, but we would put cloth and gloves between the cable and the bars on the cage. With a 1000 pound moose, three in the cab, and all the gear, the Ranger climbed out of the bush and back to camp with no problem. Up in that country they use Rangers exclusively and really have no use for any other rig. We hauled four moose out.