I am no longer able to use a backpack over 25 lbs. because I now have a pacemaker. I have been contemplating getting a game cart to haul elk or deer. I will be hunting with a partner so I will have help with a cart. Any good cart recommendations? Thanks in advance.
Game cart
- Thread starter pls5264
- Start date
Topgun 30-06
Active member
If you can't backpack more than 25#, I doubt that a cart is going to decrease your exertion level and it may even increase it. IMHO unless you get a one wheel cart that a guy is on each end of you'll have trouble in most areas with a two wheel cart because they are basically designed for one person and many trails are too narrow to use them. The Cabelas cart I used to use was okay in open areas, but as I got older I found that it was easier and less taxing to make multiple trips with meat in a good backpack and I haven't used the cart in about ten years.
Ben Long
Well-known member
Hmmm. I gave my self a game cart like Syte's for my 40th birthday. I've only used it for pronghorn and whitetail, but I would say it works pretty slick in the right conditions. Specifically, closed logging roads with no snow. The biggest whitetail I ever shot I hauled out alone (downhill) and didn't much break a sweat. Uphill is a different story.
devon deer
Well-known member
I have the same cart, i can honestly say, pulling one of them up hill with a heavy load is very hard work, just as, perhaps even more so than carrying a heavy pack.
Funnily enough, the chaps in these photo's never asked to hunt with me again after this extraction!
Cheers
Richard
buckykm1
Member
I don't think that a game cart is the answer either, I have the Cabela's heavy duty cart, with dual wheels, and it is still not easy, on flat ground it isn't bad, but if there is much of a hill you just about have to unload it and carry the meat to the top, and then put it back on the cart.
Kevin
Kevin
Hunting Wife
Well-known member
We have a NeetCart. It's one of those two wheel inline style with handles on the front and back. It's great, particularly for sidehills and single track type trails, and the handbrake really helps downhill travel. But as others have said, the cart is still a haul when you have a heavy load, even with two people.
The carts work great in the right terrain like no large rocks, no sagebrush more than ankle high, no steep hills, no sidehills that must be crossed, no blow downs. Like someone else said closed logging roads would be a great place to use a cart.
I have used the Cabelas game cart to haul out a whole bull elk at once, whole. It was down hill and very steep but it worked. I have also used it haul out a quartered bull in an area with no roads. They can work great. For antelope they are very useful.
oswald2581
Active member
I agree they can be a lot of work depending on the terrain. We have a cabelas dual wheel cart and it works great for deer and antelope. I pulled a bull out of a drainage with two other guys and when it was all said and done I wished I would have just quartered it. I think they work great for smaller animals, however they don't side hill very well even with a smaller deer. not bad to have and use in a case by case basis, but I'm not sure I would rely 100% on one.
I sold my single motor cycle wheel Game Tote game carrier. It was very stout and well built. However, I hauled out two elk on it and it was a killer and if there was a hill involved, dangerous! Way more exertion than multiple trips. A cart is not the answer.
