Deer hunters that drive SUV's

[clemsonfor]

About the mileage i have a ranger that i still drive that has 287K on it and my daily driver saturn has 207K on it!

I have a 1980 chevy k10 with about a 2-3 " lift on it. Its about the height of a 4wd ram or a big f350 superduty. Im 6'2" and the tailgate down it my waist or heighr, down i just dont remember?

It hard as heck to get them in there by my self. I usually killl deer now over 150lbs. More like 160-180lb. The only way i can self load is to get in the bed and pull the antlers into the truck with me as i pull him up, hoping his shoulder dosent get caught on tailgate. The carrier is much easier to put them on! Im not a small guy either, i dont lift weights but like i said im over 6' tall and weight over 200lbs.

I killed 2 bucks a few years ago. I had just got to the farm and had a 3/4 full bed of firewood i was delivering to my grandmother who lived there at the time. Only space was one wood length long at the tailgate. I had to put both deer, a 6 point and a 10 point if i remember right, in that small space that was like 16-18" wide between the tailgate and the wood which was leveled out with the bedrails or abouve. There were antlers and hooves everywhere!

 

[foggy1111]

I gave up on PU trucks a few years ago. First went to a Suburban(s), then a GMC Acadia and now a Jeep Overland. We have pulled a trailer, used a tarp on the SUV floor and used the receiver carrier (as well as cut up in quarters and put in coolers inside the vehicle).

I prefer a small trailer and a tarp for a short haul.....or some big coolers for a long distance haul. We had a big insulated box (grocery store Pizza cooler / display) that worked good for a long time....but big coolers hold cut-up deer quarters pretty well.

Once had an old chest freezer for my trailer.....and it was ideal for out of state hunting trips. I kept it in my shed. One day we lost power to that freezer.....and you never smelled bad until you smell four foxes that have thawed out over a six week period. I still cringe when I think about that stink when I opened the freezer. :confused2::laughing:

I much prefer the extra inside room of an SUV and the more nimble drive around town. Better fuel economy and better ride too!

 

[PapaPerk]

Skip the hitch rack and get a trailer. I don't care for those racks and their tendency to subject the hitch to torsional moment. They never sit level.

Plus with the trailer you can haul an ATV. Here's how it all works together!

1. Unload ATV from trailer.
2. Drive ATV to hunting area
3. Shoot deer
4. Drive ATV to dead deer
5. Prep deer
6. Load deer on ATV rack
7. Drive ATV/deer to trailer
8. Drive ATV onto trailer
9. Driver home! :thumbsup:

100% mechanized hunting!

 

[PapaPerk]

BTW what else u gonna do with the vehicle. If all the vehicle is gonna do "man wise" is haul a dead deer once a year then you could just buy a car with a roof rack.... or heck... a big trunk. In the old days people hauled dead deer on their cars all the time!

For real hauling and pulling there's no replacing a pickup truck. In fact I have two because each has their own abilities! :thumbsup:

I agree that if driving around town a lot and going on road trips... a cross over SUV would be very nice.... just don't expect to be pulling 12,000 lbs of cargo up step grades at 70 mph. But then again that would be way too many deer. :laughing:

 

[dstig1]

I agree a pickup is great BUT my 10 yr old dodge has 70k, while my wifes 3 yr old Forester has 70k... We never take my truck anywhere because she doesnt like how it rides..

my goal is to get something that we can use regularly to slow her miles down..

brian

Why would you want to do that? Burning up one car while keeping the truck low miles (and running forever) sounds like a pretty good strategy. Miles are miles. If you are going to travel the same number of miles, why would it matter if you spread it over 2 vehicles? You can keep that truck for another 10 yrs and replace the wife's car as needed. 70k in 3 yrs means 210k in 9 yrs. Right about time to let it go, I'd think, both age and miles.

 

[EddieWalker]

When I first started deer hunting, we would gut and skin the deer in the field, put it in a deer back and haul it to the butcher. I've had several jeeps and a Ford Bronco that I always just put the deer in the back.

Later on I learned how to debone a deer. I don't even gut them anymore, just slice it up and put the meat into pillow cases, which go into my backpack or ice chest.

While a deer isn't all that heavy, being able to debone an animal is really important when hunting bigger animals like elk, and animals that are really a long ways from the road.

Eddie

 

[clemsonfor]

Skip the hitch rack and get a trailer. I don't care for those racks and their tendency to subject the hitch to torsional moment. They never sit level.

Plus with the trailer you can haul an ATV. Here's how it all works together!

1. Unload ATV from trailer.
2. Drive ATV to hunting area
3. Shoot deer
4. Drive ATV to dead deer
5. Prep deer
6. Load deer on ATV rack
7. Drive ATV/deer to trailer
8. Drive ATV onto trailer
9. Driver home! :thumbsup:

100% mechanized hunting!

that A: assumes he has a 4wheeler, and B that he rides it to the stand. I dont have one but do have access to one. I still will only get it if a deer is way off the road and i need to drive to it. The reason, noise is one but you smell like exhaust after riding one, it wafts up your back as you ride and smells like you have been on the lawnmower for an hour once you ride just 5-10 mins. All the while your in an area that the only "gas" smell exists on hunters that ride ATV's in! Maybe im all too concerned with my sent these days, but i dont think its a coincidence that when i started getting sent cautious i started killing bigger deer! And no i dont hunt more now, actually, less than i did before, in days like when i rode 4wheelers or washed my chlothes in the regular soap, etc.

 

[thatguy]

what a great idea - so will you buy me an ATV next? LOL

I typically hunt on National Forest so ATV are not allowed.. :-( But I like that idea..

b

Skip the hitch rack and get a trailer. I don't care for those racks and their tendency to subject the hitch to torsional moment. They never sit level.

Plus with the trailer you can haul an ATV. Here's how it all works together!

1. Unload ATV from trailer.
2. Drive ATV to hunting area
3. Shoot deer
4. Drive ATV to dead deer
5. Prep deer
6. Load deer on ATV rack
7. Drive ATV/deer to trailer
8. Drive ATV onto trailer
9. Driver home! :thumbsup:

100% mechanized hunting!

 

[dmccarty]

Why not get a four door pick up?

My Chevy Extended Cab had to go because it was an unreliable POS and our first born was getting too big to fit in the back bench.

So we needed a pick up with four doors. Which at the turn of the century meant a F250/350 which meant big dollars.

Now there are four doors trucks with a smaller bed. I suspect with the price of diesel and diesel engines, I will be getting a F150 with four doors when the F350 wears out. Hopefully the F350 will last another decade or so. :thumbsup:

We used a hitch hauler in our old Jeep. It worked fine as long as it was not overloaded. A single deer would be fine.

Later,
Dan

 

[thatguy]

BTW what else u gonna do with the vehicle. If all the vehicle is gonna do "man wise" is haul a dead deer once a year then you could just buy a car with a roof rack.... or heck... a big trunk. In the old days people hauled dead deer on their cars all the time!

For real hauling and pulling there's no replacing a pickup truck. In fact I have two because each has their own abilities! :thumbsup:

I agree that if driving around town a lot and going on road trips... a cross over SUV would be very nice.... just don't expect to be pulling 12,000 lbs of cargo up step grades at 70 mph. But then again that would be way too many deer. :laughing:

Currently I am putting about ~7k miles a year on my truck - typically that is made up of running around locally (walmart, TSC, lowes) a couple times a week.. I log all my fuel usage and typically refuel after traveling 400 miles - which can be up to 3 months time period. So it sits in the garage most of the time.. The most I use my truck is when hunting season rolls around because I typically drive about an hour each way to the places I hunt.

We sold our camper, we now buy mulch by the T/A dump truck load due to how much we use, the last true hauling it did was a friend borrowed it to take his race car to Charlotte NC 4 yrs ago because the vehicle issues he was having..

So in all reality (except for hunting) I could have been driving just about anything for my needs.. AND we would be slowing down my wifes annual mileage by shifting the trips in her vehicle to something else..

I agonized over my decision but when you look at my usage - I dont need a truck.. Im sure as soon as I do sell it, something will come up and I would need it, but my dad has a 1ton dodge/cummins dually, a friend has a 3/4 chevy, and a good neighbor has a 3/4 Chevy and any of them would help me out..

Brian