Deer Hunting Bike Hack

Note:  If it makes you squeamish to see dead animals, if you don't eat meat, if you love the film Bambi, or if you are an animal rights activist you can stop reading here.  For the rest, this might be one of the most unique submissions we have ever seen to BikeHacks.com. 

I do not hunt but I don't have anything against those who do.  I have thought about how some decry the "sport" of hunting but don't seem to bat at eyelash when major companies or governments either institute or bless mass production or harvesting of wildlife. Okay, enough about politics and on to the hack.

I use my bike all of the time as a way to carry things, and this is while not riding it.  For example, recently I bought a bunch of paint and had to get it home.  I rode my bike to the store, but on the way back I balanced a fairly large box full of several gallons of paint on my bike and wheeled it home.  Reader John, who enjoys hunting, also uses a bike for transport purposes.  Take it away John . . . .

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Thought you might enjoy seeing a technique I've perfected to haul deer out of the woods using a bicycle and zip ties.  I hunt in a road closure area in Western Washington which limits travel to foot or bicycle.  The photos might make some folks squeamish but I'm proud of the "hack" aspect of this game hauling technique. 

So here are the deer I took out of the woods in 2011 and 2010.  I've been using this technique for several years now and found that zip ties make the job much easier than rope or strapping.  I take the seat off the post before mounting the deer to the bike to keep the rib cage and spine from messing up the seating surface.

Anyway, after you've gutted the animal and have it laying on its side, you slide the bike up to it and start attaching the legs to the frame as you can see in these photos.  The smaller deer you see in the 2010 photo was attached with a bit more care than last year's but it seems you always run into some steering issues with the front legs.  The real trick is to try and get your bike's wheels in a ditch or up next to a tree before trying to lift the deer up to a rolling position.  If you've got a few miles to walk out as I usually do, my advice is to make sure you've eaten a snack, taken a drink, and got your gear and rifle strapped on your back because once that animal is upright on the bike you don't want to have to stop and lay it down until you reach your rig.

Also, I use my velcro pant leg strap to attach the deer tag to the horns.  You can see it in the 2011 photo.

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Comments

[Mike Freiberger]

Nice Buck! Thank you for honoring the animal with a clean presentation in the picture...well done.

[Brendan]

You should be careful, though...read this story to get an idea of just what can go wrong hunting deer on a bicycle.

http://usdeer.com/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=612.0

[LW]

Could you please somehow "hide" the photos? Like write something like "Click here to see the photos." I appreciated the warning in the first sentence and dutifully tried skip this post and scroll to the next post but I still had to see the pictures. Very disturbing. (Love your blog. Just not these photos.) Thank you.

[Jean.marie.ricci]

I don't understand. This is not a hack. It isn't useful and rather tasteless. why such a post ?

[gonzo]

This is fucking disguisting.

[Leo Horishny]

I'd have liked to have read a mention of what he did to keep the deer innards off his bike frame and out of the seat post :-p But it is practical and, as long as he's not riding the deer out on the bicycle like that, more power to him ;-)

[Sonia D]

What a lame hack. Here's a much better way to haul a deer:

http://bfw.org/2012/02/24/goes-together-like-deer-hunting-and-bicycles/

[atom]

You might be a redneck if...

[John]

Excellent use for a bicycle. Thanks for the tip.

[John]

You have great taste... bikes and Ford trucks! A 66?

[Paul]

A hunter myself, I certainly sympathize with your predicament, but this looks ridiculous. How about improvising a drag-sled from some old sheetmetal, or rigging a trailer.

[mzungu]

This is disgusting, please cut it up and wrap it up with some Saran Wrap with a yellow foam tray before you take the pictures.

I like it. I don't hunt, but this is how I'll do it, if the NFS land don't allow for motorized vehicles.

OK, now back to trolling around and go pick on some helpless vegetables that cannot run away from my hungry mouth. :-)

[Dena]

Very, very offensive. Please exclude this kind of thing in the future.