What's worth the effort?

[FirstBubba]

On another post, I told about field dressing deer, suspending them on a pole and carry them back to camp (sometimes over a mile!) whole!
I don't care if an east Texas deer in those days only field dressed +/- 80 pounds. The weight swinging on a tote pole would eat into a shoulder.
By the time we made camp, I was one worn out soldier! LOL!

It brings to mind, what parts of a deer would you consider worth keeping if you knew you had a considerable hike with a dead deer?

Hind quarters
Fore quarters (what isn't blown to smithereens!)
Backstrap
Loins
Pelvis

I don't normally keep the ribs and neck unless I want the meat to make sausage or chili or it's a large deer. On smaller deer, i just don't find there is enough meat on the neck and ribs to be worth the effort.
Nor do I keep the heart or liver. Health wise, nobody in the family can eat them and I don't fish for catfish anymore.

What parts are you willing to haul a mile or more?

[dewman]

Never had that scenario but I have done the no gut method where you start at the back and cut the meat off the bone, bagging the chunks and leaving the skeletal frame with the bloodshot meat intact. Of course this method forgoes heart & liver.

[fitch270]

I don't even like thinking about how much trim meat from the Kid's mule deer ended up left behind.

When we were breaking it down the guide cut off a hunk of flank that had to be 3/4" thick and a couple pounds worth. When I said something about it he held it out and asked if we ate flank steak. I told him not like that but we'd grind anything we could. He tossed it aside. Everything that had to come out legally did, including neck meat, but that grizzly in the area and the location cost us some burger. The guide did get the tenders out even using the gutless method. Was like watching him do sugery other than the deer being very dead.

[Ontario Honker Hunter]

I have carried deer whole on my back a couple of times. Full grown mulies, not little Texas whitetails. There's a way to make them into a pack. Won't go into it here because I would rather no one try it ... and get hurt. I certainly would not do it today. Well, probably not. The doe came downhill perhaps a mile before I happened to literally step on a whitetail buck I had gut shot earlier in the day and thought I missed (no blood). Swapped the tag to the buck and dropped the doe. He had horns to hang onto and she was eating a hole in my collar bones. Came back up the next day with my dad and we dragged her out the rest of the way with rope. The forked horn muley buck I had to haul up a near vertical cliff face about 150 yards to the top of the ridge where the other one was down. Hooked their horns together with my belt and dragged them downhill like that.

I will never use the gutless method for bringing out a deer unless CWD regs require it. Too much meat is wasted and it gets too dirty. Back in my day only slob hunter idiots boned out elk in the field. Now everyone seems to be doing it. If the elk is in a place where the quarters can't be brought out without butchering on the spot, then it shouldn't be shot.

[Ontario Honker Hunter]

Leaving or throwing away the neck on a deer of any size is a waste of good burger meat. Meat between the ribs can be salvaged if the animal is butchered immediately. If it is hung to season for several days, that meat becomes leather. Good for dog food but watch out for those farts!! Heart is excellent cut in strips and cooked over a fire but I never take them home.

[PigHunter]

I hunt public land and for safety will never carry a deer out on my shoulders. Using a game cart works best for me.

I don't hunt for the meat so it doesn't bother me to sometimes use the gutless method. "Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms." To carry out the meat cleanly, I always keep unscented tall kitchen garbage bags folded into a pocket of my backpack.

[DakotaMan]

I don't carry them out. Most of the deer I've shot have been way too heavy for that. I carry a tow rope for hauling deer if need be. I field dress the deer to reduce the weight. Then I tie the tow rope around the base of their antlers or around a doe's neck. I can usually tow a good sized deer as far as necessary on flat ground. I almost reached my limits dragging a few big bucks up canyon walls or even up steep embankments but I've always managed to get it done. So far, I've never had to quarter a deer to get it out but as I age I may have to try it.

I would never put a deer on my back as half the hunters in America would probably take a shot at me.

[FirstBubba]

pighunter, I've only toted deer on private ground.
D'Man
In my current situation, I haven't shot but one deer in the last 19 years that I couldn't drive right up to.
Just one of the advantages of hunting agricultural country.

[MattM37]

I hunt just a hundred-acre wood with paved-road access. But since the majority of the drag is up a steep hill, across two deep-cut creekbeds, across swamp and bramble thickets, etc., it's not uncommon for a drag to take a good two-three hours, if it's a big deer and the ground is dry. So I've thought about butchering in the woods, and have my big frame backpack in the vehicle with whatever stuff I'd need. I'd be able to make more than one trip, though, so having to prioritize cuts of meat wouldn't be a concern. I guess if it was, I'd leave the ribs and parts of the front quarters. I like doing neck roasts and have always found there's enough neck meat to be worthwhile. Probably take that before parts of the front quarter, even aside from the shot-up part.

[Sarge01]

One of the last guys that got shot and killed before I retired was carrying a deer on his back.

[Ernie]

I just quarter them them on the spot, and pack them out with my pack...I am not dragging, carrying on my back or on a pole a big game animal.

[Milldawg]

I bought a four wheeler. My days of dragging are over. I’m not in the shape for not do I want to be. The usmc got the best years of my knees and ankles. And I don’t want to risk anything related to making my living in the woods. So I drag them with a Honda.

[jhjimbo]

When everybody gets a deer on my place they bring it to a place where they pile them up. Tied all together I hook up to my Yamaha Grizzly 600. One time the pile was on wet, slippery grass up a slight grade but I had to take a couple off to get started down the logging trail. I think I had 5 or 6 I pulled out back to camp that day.

[Ontario Honker Hunter]

Well obviously I wouldn't pack out a deer on my back without dressing it in hunter orange. I always carried an extra orange vest and a roll of orange flagging tape in my daypack. If I shot an animal and had to go for the horses, I hung the extra vest next to the carcass to keep the birds off it. Besides having the front legs dig holes in my collar bones, it was also a pain in the arse just getting the gun out with the deer. Can't sling it and impossible to carry it and keep adjusting the pack. I seem to recall I eventually lashed the rifle to side of the doe and then climbed in. My daypack was tied inside the body cavity. For the buck I left gun and pack at the gutpile and came back for it once the deer was on top of the ridge with his twin.

My mom about passed out when I got home after packing the first deer. She thought I'd been shot. I was blood soaked cap to my boots. Quite the mess.