Don Thomas Deer carry method?

[wildschwein]

#2453

I was looking through my back issues tonight and I came across a picture on page 17 of the Oct/Nov 2006 issue where Mr. Thomas is carrying a Blacktail buck on his back. I was just wondering if anyone here knows how he rigged it up for carry like that? Seems like a handy way of packing.

[Dpowers311]

#10071

Make sure it is not gun season if you do carry a deer on your back.

Dave

[David Petersen]

#10194

Don is away from the computer the rest of this week. I’ll let him know of your question. My own first suggestion would be to “shoot a really small deer.” 😛 dave

[Snakeeater]

#10232

It was actually Mike Mitten wearing a really bushy beard! 😀

[stalkin4elk]

#10586

Once upon a time my friends and I carried whole deer and antelope back to the truck. Then we wondered why we were covered in blood and had to clean such a mess. Soon after a senior mentor told me “it is only what you learn after you knew it all that matters” I never did anything quite as silly again. Now, any game past spitting from the truck distance is boned with the gutless technique and comfortably backpacked out.The mess is coyote dinner and I don’t have any injuries. If it makes you happy to take a whole one out on your back then more power to you!

[Treetopflier]

#10590

Snakeater — Ho-ho! Guys, this is at best of times the Funniest of any hunting website. And in this world we need all the laughs we can get!

Now, what I want to see is an un-doctored (get it re Don T.? get it?) photo of someone carrying a whole elk or moose out on his back! 😆 In my family, my paternal grandfather is credited with “winning a bar bet” by lifting a thousand-pound (or so) wagon, tongue and all, off the ground and carrying it across the street. (Dirt street we can assume, and across to where the bar was located.) May or may not be, but it’s a fact that he suffered crippling back pain before death.

Same old “brains vs. brawn” (sp?) question. 😛

[wildschwein]

#10693

Not so much “brains vs. brawn”, I just usually get the opportunity to shoot 2 antlerless Deer a year and prefer to shoot yearlings and let the older Does walk. The areas I hunt are pretty thick and dragging a gutted critter can be at best described as a pain in the arse, so I figured a method of carrying them out whole can’t be any worse. Especially since the Deer in question wouldn’t make 100 pounds.

[Treetopflier]

#10731

Wild — while you didn’t seem to have taken offense at my sloppy post, I see now that you rightly could have. I was making fun of my own family history, not you or your perfectly logical question. The harder I try to be funny, the stupider I get. We used to have Patrick to rely on here for laughs, but he must of gone serious on us lately. Anyhow, I meant no harm and glad you didn’t interpret it that way. ttf

[wildschwein]

#11268

Hey no worries Treetopflier, no offence was taken. It is all to easy for ones intent to be mistaken with online forums.

[stalkin4elk]

#11731

The ones we carried whole were minus the guts, so subtract some weight and add some mess. 100 pound deer/antelope with gutless method are about a 20 minute job and about half a full backpack load of clean meat.A big deer is a full pack single load. Bring a 8×8 or smaller piece of painters plastic(a few ounces)for a clean work area, or rope if you have trees and fillet the critter on the spot. We are able to take full boned elk in 2-5 trips depending on distance and terrain. Whole animals are really awkward if you like your knees and back. I’m guessing some may like to get out quick in bear areas and so the whole animal is carried. Think about it.Why bring all the mess home and then haul it away again? It would really be a bummer if boning an animal were illegal in Montana!

[sagebrush]

#11742

Back in the seventies, my brother-in-law shot a doe mule deer. He had my sister with him and had her help lift the deer up on his shoulders after cleaning it. The deer slipped and his head went up inside of the ribcage. My sister heard a voice echoing “get this thing off of me”. Hahahaha, when he came back to the truck he had blood all over his head. Gary

[wildschwein]

#11776

Man oh man if only there was a picture for that! 😀

[SteveMcD]

#12276

sagebrush wrote: Back in the seventies, my brother-in-law shot a doe mule deer. He had my sister with him and had her help lift the deer up on his shoulders after cleaning it. The deer slipped and his head went up inside of the ribcage. My sister heard a voice echoing “get this thing off of me”. Hahahaha, when he came back to the truck he had blood all over his head. Gary

That’s funny!!!

30 years ago I carried them hind legs over the shoulder. 😀 But I was so much older then, I’m younger then that now. 8)

[Don Thomas]

#12860

Well, I hate to compromise my new Superman image, but… I’d gutted the deer and cut it in half, giving what I hoped was the heaviest half to my friend Dick LeBlond. I’m actually a big fan of boning in the field, but we were carrying fly rods instead of meat bags that day, so we kept it simple. For small deer, there is a neat way of carrying one out whole (gutted)–Make a slit in the hide along each foreleg, run the hind feet through the hole, and you can turn the whole deer into a backpack, carrying the deer upside down and running an arm through each circle formed by the legs. (Guess I better post a picture of this someday.) But the older I get the less interested I become in packing out weight I don’t plan to meat. I can bone out a deer in about 20 minutes. Best, Don

[wildschwein]

#12893

Thanks for reply Mr.Thomas. I might have to give the Deer backpack trick a try.

[Robin Conrads]

#12900

Hmmm… I see another Tip of the Week here. 8)

[Treetopflier]

#13934

Photo, photo, photo …

[Killdeer]

#14870

“I can bone out a deer in about 20 minutes. Best, Don”

It takes me that long to get one backstrap off. ( I jealously recover EVERY scrap!)

Oh, to have a surgeon’s skill!
Luckily, nobody has to witness my ineptitude. First reason is that I rarely kill anything but time, and secondly, the deer has to be removed from the place of kill whole, in Virginia. I did try to carry a fawn once. Found out that even a fawn is bigger than I am. I may outweigh them, but they can whup me even after they have expired.

Killdeer

[Don Thomas]

#15099

Okay; I’ve made a note to self. First doe I shoot next year, I’ll take the photos. Not sure it would work with a cougar. The tail would get in the way!Killdeer, I won’t even ask why the state of Virginia makes you bring out the whole deer (and I too am a fan of getting every bit of the good stuff, by the way). I’m trying to imagine what hunting would be like in Alaska if you had to bring out every moose whole! Cheers, Don

[wildschwein]

#15152

Hullo Killdeer. I don’t mean to pry but may I ask the reason behind the “bring em out whole” law in your state? Sounds kind counter-productive in certain situations. Do you also have to register them? In Alberta all were are required to do is keep evidence of sex and specie attached to one quarter. It seems were quite fortunate compared.

[Killdeer]

#16177

You can make yourself crazy trying to figure out the reasons behind some of the laws that we must live with! Best I can figure is that it is easier for a warden to see exactly who has what instead of having to reassemble a jigsaw puzzle of pieces-parts when he came upon a successful group of hunters.

Don, I am trying to picture exactly how that cougar tail would be in the way. 😆

Killdeer

[assenheimer]

#16190

I live and hunt in southeastern Virginia,mostly flat and swampy.Just like everything else in life ,its a geographical thing.We are thick with deer and the tags are plentiful(as many doe tags as you can buy,no limit!)Until a few years ago you had to check the whole deer at a check station,so deer are field dressed and drug out whole.Now you can call a number.I hunt 1 week a year in the western part of the state,straight up staight down.You better believe them deer are deboned and hiked out!I guess what ever floats your boat.Something that I have always wondered about is,here in the south we hang our deer up by their back legs (What blood is left runs down to the head) I see pictures of deer hanging up by their head in the northern states.

[Killdeer]

#16197

[quote=assenheimer]I live and hunt in southeastern Virginia,mostly flat and swampy.

Sounds positively Dismal!:wink:
If I had cell service where I hunt, I would perhaps start the boning-out thing. Or drag it to camp where I could be a little more obsessive-compulsive about the process.:roll:

Killdeer

[assenheimer]

#16208

Killdeer, I’m not quite that far east ,around southampton county.By the way I’m not lying about the deer poulation!

[Killdeer]

#16248

I don’t doubt you!
I often wonder why the heck I go up to where there aren’t that many deer, when I see them every day at work. I have been invited to hunt a local farm, but I would have to spend my vacation down here in the flatlands instead of up in the mountains that I love.

Oh well, few deer, few hunters.
Killdeer8)

[Chris Shelton]

#16312

Boy can I relate guys and gals! When we leave to go hunting there will be deer not 200 yards away from the back porch . . . but their standing in the middle of a corn field, and they are fatty ag deer!

We drive an hour and hit the mountains . . . work our butts off all week to see a few deer, but if we are so blessed to come home with some meat its that lean mountain deer meat!!

Plus that and the mountains are so much fun!

[maineac]

#24911

We have to bring out and check the whole deer here in Maine as well. Moose we can bring out in pieces, with proof of sex. Deer and bear have to be whole.

[rwbowman]

#30689

donthomas wrote: Okay; I’ve made a note to self. First doe I shoot next year, I’ll take the photos”

Okay, so since I’m dying from curiousity, was a picture of this method taken this year Mr. Don? I would like to learn a new trick!

[Don Thomas]

#31473

Elkheart called this oldie to my attention. Much as a writer hates to admit it, a picture can be worth a thousand words and I just spent an hour searching my files, since I was almost certain I had one–no luck. I apologize for breaking my promise and will try to do better this year. Fact is I haven’t used this trick in a long time, since I’m a firm believer in boning game in the field unless you’re facing an unusual situation. Anyway, it was fun to read back through this old thread. As for Treetop’s earlier question, I did pack out a whole moose this way once back when I was young and tough. But it was a spike…:) Don

[rwbowman]

#31511

No hard feelings, from me or anyone else here I’d bet- ‘good habits’ (boning an animal out in your case) are hard to break and can be worth more than a thousand words in reward… 🙂

[William Warren]

#31534

Yep,I carried my first one out when I was 19 years old. It was a yearling and yes I “blooded” myself lacking a mentor to to administer the sacred rite and advise me better. Dragged or carted all the rest.

Don’s method sort of reminds me of how the bushmen of Africa carry small antelope except they carry the legs over the shoulder like a messenger bag. Probably works fine for small deer.

[wildschwein]

#42276

Yah I was going to give Don’s method a try last year as well, but all the small Deer outwitted me. If I am lucky enough to bag a small Black Bear in May perhaps…

[David Coulter]

#43685

Steve,

I like your quote. dwcphoto

[mittenm]

#44771

We used tohave to check our deer at the station with the DNr. Now we simply call in and get a confirmation number over the phone. I will cut them up where they lay, unless its a big buck I want to show the family. Ha! MIke

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