# Farthest Drag



## mbentle2 (Feb 21, 2016)

For those of us that hunt public land we are limited to how close we can get a vehicle to retrieve our game. Hunting deep in the woods usually increases success on public land but also leaves us with a lot of work from our success. If it was easy everyone would do it. What's the farthest you have drug out a deer? Also anything you do to make the haul easier? My first public kill was 1.5 miles in and I used a cart but it was still a struggle. Gonna try to quarter my deer where they fall next year and pack them out when not on a check in hunt.


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## Redman54 (Feb 22, 2016)

When we hunt public land we always clean the animal where they fall and pack them out. It's 100 times easier that way.


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## j_seph (Feb 22, 2016)

Not far but a 1/2 mile with a 200lb dressed hog by myself with 2 creek crossings. Was a feeling of self accomplishment when I loaded him in the back of the truck for sure. I weigh 210, I laughed and said I must be crazy when I leaned forward against the weight of the hog and seen that he could not be moved by my weight alone. Lesson learned..................................don't do that again


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## Gerrik (Feb 22, 2016)

quarter mile, uphill & across a creek dragging a 275lb pig. I weigh 125. Powerlifting year round is the only thing that made it possible. Luckily it was all open hardwoods. I don't want to imagine dragging that joker through the swamp.


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## GAbuckhunter88 (Feb 22, 2016)

Longest drag we had was a little over a mile, could not field dress the deer on this property and we didnt have a game cart with us. Worst part was, we had two deer to drag out that night from back there.


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## Bucky T (Feb 22, 2016)

Back in 98, I drug a nice 8pt out of Cedar Creek I'm guessing close to a mile.  I google earthed where I was, which was 780ish yards as the crow flies from where I parked.  I traced out the path I dragged and it came out to right around 4000 odd feet..  1,333yds.

I drug him out with a cig in my mouth, my old Treemaster climber on my back, and my rifle in my other hand.

LOL  When I got to the road, a guy drove by and saw me loading him up in my truck.  He gave me a Budweiser and a Dr Pepper.  LOL

I was 20yrs old


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## Paymaster (Feb 22, 2016)

I had a 2.5 hour drag on West Point Corps land once. Had to cross one big gully and it was up hill the whole way. When I got to the truck I just let the buck lay for about 30 minutes while I rested up enough to load him up.


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## 7Mag Hunter (Feb 22, 2016)

Oaky Woods hunt, (before land sell off) 20 or so
years ago, DNR was doing research and wanted 
deer brought back to check station, not field
dressed.....Not sure how far, but the doe i killed
did not have any hair on her side when i got
her to the truck....Estimate at least a mile....no
cart.....


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## GA DAWG (Feb 22, 2016)

I always get in bad situations. Ive killed em that hrs and hrs to drag out. Ive killed em that took hrs and hrs to cart out. I dont know how far exactly though. The one in the mountains. I would tote gun and backpack about 200 yards. Then go back and get deer. Go by other stuff and go back and get it. Had to drag him across a river. Field dressed over 140. Dern near killed me I think. Ive not been back up there hunting since then and all that drag but about 400 yards was down hill.


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## brandonsc (Feb 25, 2016)

I used the hunt stand app to measure my longest at just over 4000' on Altoona WMA I killed a good buck chasing a doe thanksgiving weekend 2007 that was my senior year of high school after football season ended and it took me about 3 hours to get him out with some help from my dad


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## mbentle2 (Feb 25, 2016)

When I got to my truck after my mile drag my truck was parked across from a low income neighborhood. Some boy asked me for a ride and I told him if he would load my deer in my lifted Toyota I would take him into town. Should have seen him loading that deer scared of getting blood on him. He said you killed him good.


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## Ohoopee Tusker (Feb 25, 2016)

I quarter when possible but I've had some tough hauls even with a cart. I think the worst was a 7/10 cart out of Rum Creek. I had to go up and down two tall/steep ridges one ha a dry creek at the bottom with about a 10-12 feet drop straight down. Luckily I brought a long rope with me and tied it to the handle of the cart and walked up out of the ditch then put it around my waist and pulled that deer and cart straight up that bank. Once at the road I had to cross about a 10 feet deep ditch. I was so give out by then I sat 20 yards from my vehicle for about 20 mins just resting. Lol. Figured I'd just use my truck to pull the deer out of the ditch but once I got up it with the rope I pulled it on up behind me with leg power. This year on Ocmulgee I carted one 6/10 of a mile through flooded timber. Most in ankle and knee deep mud with one unlucky step up to my waist. The worst of it though was navigating my way through a 30-50 yard maze of cypress knees. None of which were far enough apart for the cart wheels. Carted a doe off of Bullard Creek that was 1.2 mile in the Sept heat. I was pulling a buck off of River Bend when the ground gave way under me. One leg fell into a hole all the way up to my straddle. Luckily I didn't hit bottom and didn't break my leg or destroy my knee. Had a pretty tough time getting out of that hole but was lucky enough to be able to cart out with no broken bones.


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## Alexander (Feb 26, 2016)

Furthest for me on public land was round trip was just shy of 7 miles. Shot a 200lb boar hog minutes after climbing in the stand and watched him die maybe 100 yards away down in the bottom. Decided Id stay put cause I had seen two nice bucks in the area earlier on in the season and wanted to see if I might get a shot at one of them. Climbed down at 9ish and hiked back to the truck where I dropped some clothes and gathered my knives and deer cart and strapped a cooler to the cart and hiked back in to the hog where I then quartered him out, loaded into the cooler and headed back for the truck. Got back to the truck at around 1:10, ran to the publix to get some ice for the meat and home to change for work and let the dog out, and  then headed to the water treatment plant I work at and worked an 8 hour shift from 2:45-10:45 that night lol. So to recap shot the hog at 7:20ish that morning made it back to the truck to leave about 1:10 then to work for 8 hours after getting up at 4:30! Certainly made for a long but memorable day!


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## 35 Whelen (Feb 28, 2016)

I hunt public land almost 100% of the time, have done numerous drags 1.6 miles and over, according to the GPS.  One of the hardest was when I was hunting alone and killed two hogs with one shot at the last few minutes of legal shooting time 1.6 miles from the truck.  Fortunately both hogs were small and I was able to drag them tied together, got back to the truck around 8:00 pm.  Here is the pictures of the hogs:

http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=609917&highlight=


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## ripplerider (Mar 1, 2016)

My worst drag was my first one. Brought him out the same way I came in which was a huge mistake. I had packed in a trail to upper Desoto Falls, climbed above the falls and set up a "spike camp" about 400 yds. up the valley. Killed a 90 lb. dressed wt. spike close to the top of Rocky Mtn. above camp first morning of the hunt. Could have just drug him straight off the mtn. to Desoto Falls campground, hung him up in a laurel thicket and hitchhiked my way back to my truck and retrieved him. Didnt know about topo maps back then so I came out dumb. Wasnt bad getting him to the trail head but it was all uphill from there. Took me 6 hrs. total to get him out. If a friendly game warden hadnt helped awhile it would have took 7 or 8. Worst sore I've ever been in my life including the aftermath of some tough ball games. I'm smarter now. Have no real idea how far it was, maybe 2 1/2 miles?


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## northgeorgiasportsman (Mar 4, 2016)

Farthest drag was my first bear.  I was 19 and in college at UGA.  I called my granddad one Wednesday and asked him if he knew where we might get on a bear.  He was in the woods about every day and I knew if there was any bear sign on the ground, he had already found it.  He told me where there was a stand of white oaks that were dropping and had lots of sign under them.  So on Saturday morning, we left his house a couple hours before daylight and started up.  When I say up, I mean UP.  Straight up.  

An hour and a half later, I'm soaked in sweat and sitting on a ridge overlooking a white oak flat.  Right at daybreak, I had a hen turkey walk within 10 feet of me and turn and go up the ridge.  She was barely out of sight, when I saw a bobcat slipping along a log.  I debated shooting it, but didn't want to ruin the early morning hunt with a gunshot.  While I was watching the bobcat, I heard a limb break behind me and turned to see a bear feeding under the white oaks.  I shot it and it went down immediately.  That's the first time I'd ever heard a bear's death moan.  Man, it will give you chills.  

The drag out was a little over a mile and a half, but took half the day.  The bear was about 170lbs.


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## rabunridgerunner (Aug 29, 2016)

I moved here from the rockies and I never understood dragging a deer. If I cannot drive right to it I either quarter it or bone it out and then pack it.


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## Ohoopee Tusker (Aug 30, 2016)

rabunridgerunner said:


> I moved here from the rockies and I never understood dragging a deer. If I cannot drive right to it I either quarter it or bone it out and then pack it.



Some of the check in and quota hunts won't allow you to do any of that here.


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