Hiawatha

I have also found myself in similar situations in the past so i wised up this year and created a device to rid me of this headache. First of my huntin truck ain't much to lay eyes on she's a 85 dodge 2 wheel drive baby blue god bless er. So i decided to mount a hand winch on the box just back of the rear window. I have a strap of box iron going form the passenger side to the drivers side of the box bolted down right at the front of the box. On that iron i have another strap in the middle with a hand winch bolted to it about 8 inches up from the cross ways piece. This helps you out cause it gives you a little more height when your winching. I then built a false floor in my truck bed placing 2 2x4's on edge and nailing 2x8's across them. I then built a ramp that slides under the false floor using some plywood and 2x6's. You get a deer ya back up, slide out the ramp, winch the deer up onto the false floor and slide the ramp back under the floor. Works slick for loading the quad also. I painted git r done on the strap of box iron then one day we were listening to the jeff foxworthy countdown and some lady calls in and says "you might be a redneck if you got git r done painted on the back of your dodge pickup". Me and my bud just shook our heads. I will get a pic posted on the forums soon i hope with my invention.

zekeskar

This has been a great discussion, learning new tricks to save a 1/2 century old back. You can tell the young'ns because they just grunt 'em up (BTDT).As I grow older I find I can't just grunt things no matter how much ofa stud-buck I am -The price paid is too steep.

My picks in two categories.

Cheap and simple category: the guy with the 8 foot section of ladder. Cheap, simple, makes use of leverage. Sliding it in would be even easier with my plastic bed liner.

Most versitile and ultimate solutioncategory: (and also pretty cheap too): they guy with the false floor, mounted winch and hidden ramp compartment. A thousand uses from deer hunting to 4 wheeler to the heavy garden and yard equipment you rent once a year and have to haul home and load and unload. I imagine the false floor could be removed if necessary (but probably not necessary). I have a friend that I'll show this to and I'll bet any of you $50 that he will not only do this, but install a remote controlled 12V winch. Just the way he is.

Of course there's many other ideas equally as labor saving and smart, but these just happened to ring my chime.

stubblejumper

The most interesting part is that many of these methods were not thought out beforehand but were thought of onlywhen a single hunter shot a deer and couldn't lift it into the box himself.In my case ,I was 10 miles from home(no cell phones in those days)and I didn't want to leave alargebuck laying in the field to go and get help for fear that someone would take it before I returned.It's amazing how desparation breeds ingenuity.

uncle matt

The plywood sheet is great. A sheet is used quite frequently in the bed to protect the floor - so use it as a loading ramp. Doesn't take up any space except the bottom 1/2 - 3/4" of the bed.

skeeter 7MM

I have been using the same simple Red Green setup for years and it works very well. I cut 2x4 @ 6feet (fits easily in a short box truck bed), then screwed on 2x2 across the 2x4's - like a ladder. I simply roll the deer on, secure the front leg &antler with a tie down to the ladder (we'll call it), pick up the front portion rest it on the tailgate and then pick up the back portion to slide it on in. It beats having to find a large tree timb to hoist then tie off the animal and whereI hunt finding that tree might be more work then grunting him up in the first place.

Like SJ, says this idea came out of desperation really while guiding I had a client who wrenched his back attempting to move the large buck prior to my arrival, he wasn't leaving without that deer and was useless a teets on a boar at that point!! The only thing I had was quad ramps in my truck so I strapped the deer to one and viola an idea was born. I have been using it ever since. In fact all my hunting buddies carrying such a setup as well, it also works well when their are 2 of you, no need to worry about pulling something for the guy who is bent over up in the truck bed yanking on the rack!!! Cheap, easy and effective.

DOUBLE-LUNG

There are several good methods provided in previous replies. If you have a truck here is what works for me.I have a hook on each corner of my pickup bed behind the back window. Toyota truck. Use a five foot chunck of chain to connect between the hooks in the pickup bed. I always carry a comealong for emergencies or loading deer/elk(2500lb). No boards needed, but helps. Connect the comealong to the chain in bed of truck. Shouldn't take more than five minutes to setup. Take other end and loop through the hind quarters. Now start cranking into bed of truck.Due to the weight capacity of the comealong not very much strength is need to crank in a animal. Approximately $50 for everything.