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Thread: Loading Moose

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Campbell River
    Posts
    47

    Loading Moose

    How do most people load moose into their pickups? Whole, halved, quartered, etc? There was a time when I was younger and our group was bigger that we used to load the entire field dressed moose into the pickups and deal with them in the comfort of camp. Our group has shrunk to just 2 lately and moose are still big! Last few years we've been loading them in halves, but even that is getting to be too much. we much prefer dealing with the moose in camp where there is more light, noise, etc. and usually fewer grizzlies lurking in the dark!
    We've been considering one of those hitch mounted hoists with a hand winch. Anyone use one? And are they worth the money?
    How do you deal with getting moose back to camp?
    Thanks in advance.

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2018
    Location
    Abbotsford, BC
    Posts
    1,047

    Re: Loading Moose

    Quote Originally Posted by coastalhunter View Post
    How do most people load moose into their pickups? Whole, halved, quartered, etc? There was a time when I was younger and our group was bigger that we used to load the entire field dressed moose into the pickups and deal with them in the comfort of camp. Our group has shrunk to just 2 lately and moose are still big! Last few years we've been loading them in halves, but even that is getting to be too much. we much prefer dealing with the moose in camp where there is more light, noise, etc. and usually fewer grizzlies lurking in the dark!
    We've been considering one of those hitch mounted hoists with a hand winch. Anyone use one? And are they worth the money?
    How do you deal with getting moose back to camp?
    Thanks in advance.
    Every situation is different and you make the best of your surroundings, landscape and the equipment you have on hand.

    Word of advice - don't try running your winch cable back over the truck cab with the thought that you can simply winch your moose up a sheet of plywood and into your box. Bad shit happens why you do this.

    If you can drag the moose with your vehicle to a tree and then sling a pulley up high enough and then winch the beast up off the ground and tie him up there so you can back your truck into/under the moose.

    I've wondered if you had a portable winch to secure in the box of your truck and then pulley him up on a sheet or two of plywood or plywood on a ramp.

    I have the post and hand crank winch that plugs into the receiver hitch - you can only lift pieces of moose with that.

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Chilliwack
    Posts
    719

    Re: Loading Moose

    I’ve seen two guys load a moose in 5 min with a rope and pulley.
    One end on moose, one to a tree and a pulley mounted in front of box using some sketchy wood. Drive forward and the moose gets pulled into the truck. Ramps or a couple of poles helped get the moose up into the truck box.
    I cut my moose into 1/4 or more and just put them in piece work.

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Posts
    823

    Re: Loading Moose

    Cordless reciprocating saw with extra batteries and blades. Gut, skin, cut into manageable pieces and put into game bags. That's how we roll.

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
    Location
    Victoria
    Posts
    2,429

    Re: Loading Moose

    Quote Originally Posted by Rieber View Post
    Every situation is different and you make the best of your surroundings, landscape and the equipment you have on hand.

    Word of advice - don't try running your winch cable back over the truck cab with the thought that you can simply winch your moose up a sheet of plywood and into your box. Bad shit happens why you do this.

    If you can drag the moose with your vehicle to a tree and then sling a pulley up high enough and then winch the beast up off the ground and tie him up there so you can back your truck into/under the moose.

    I've wondered if you had a portable winch to secure in the box of your truck and then pulley him up on a sheet or two of plywood or plywood on a ramp.

    I have the post and hand crank winch that plugs into the receiver hitch - you can only lift pieces of moose with that.
    I've never taken part in a moose loading operation, but I have damaged a lot of trucks...think carefully about how you might secure a winch in the back of the truck before dragging a moose with it.

    I'm collecting steel and parts for a flatdeck for my truck that will include a 2" reciever mounted crane, with a few different mounts around the deck, depending on where it's needed.
    The only thing I like as much as trucks, is guns.

  7. #6
    Join Date
    May 2015
    Posts
    998

    Re: Loading Moose

    circumstances will always dictate how to dress your animal. where he dropped, temperature, circling predators, how many helpers, frame pack? ATV? Truck?... Lots of variables. As a kid I always loved to see a whole moose hanging in camp - was always disappointed if all I got to see was bloody game bags.

    My favourite method is to drive up to it with the skidder, throw the choker cables around his neck and winch him up to a nice working height... gut him there and drive back to camp.... but alas, I no longer hunt behind a locked gate with the camp foreman.

    Usually with two guys and a moose within a km or 2 of a road or ATV trail... we will quarter first, trim all edibles and move our game bags a couple hundred meters away - toward our exit route. Then go back to open the gut and get the tenderloins and ribs as well as rack/head... leap frog your meat to the closest access point for truck or quad and transport back to the meat pole near camp.

    The 2 biggest threats are not cooling fast enough and ringing the dinner bell for bears - that's why we get the quarters off asap and move them before releasing the delicious aroma of moose guts.

    Not a fan of doing this in the dark.

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Nanaimo
    Posts
    433

    Re: Loading Moose

    I always short quarter. Easier to manage when solo.
    I support PETA!
    People Eating Tasty Animals!

  9. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    1,792

    Re: Loading Moose

    I like to quarter and then debone the neck meat, tenderloin, straps, etc into game bag, then sawzall the rib cage off and deal with that in camp/home...I might try the rib roll method on my next successful moose
    Unfortunately, the rifles are getting lighter because we are getting heavier and more unfit as a society. This is the key to the mainstream acceptance of the short magnums. - Nathan Foster

  10. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Tent city Victoria
    Posts
    3,562

    Re: Loading Moose

    Gutless method.

  11. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    up the hill
    Posts
    1,513

    Re: Loading Moose

    Last one me and my buddy got we got it in whole. After chainsawing through 400m of terrible blowdown we dragged it out on top of a small mound of dirt. Gutted it then rolled it in. Drove back to camp and up he went onto the game poll. Skinned and wiped down. Next morning quartered and put into game bags. It was November so temperature was in the negatives or we would have cut it into smaller pieces earlier to cool quicker. I like getting the animal in whole and skinning from there as I find it cleaner. Have loaded moose whole, half, quartered and deboned......like others have said it really depends on the situation.

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