"OK so now you got one" & you drive an economy car...

[Roger Norris]

On a more productive note...

I have hunted out of everything from a full sized Dodge truck to a Ford Escape.

Getting a deer on top of the Escape alone is a bear. I have some pulleys I keep in the back and can get it done...but it aint easy.

My favorite method is to knock on the neighbor farmers door and use his backhoe    

Kind of a funny story: I hunt near a Catholic Convent, and see and chat with the Sisters often. One night I killed a whopper. Drug it almost a mile, and I was whipped. I was so spent, I couldn't drag the deer into the bed of my truck.  3 Nuns, in full habit, helped me hoist the deer into my Dodge!

[goingoldskool]

bone it out in the field and just carry a medium sized cooler....  here in Missouri to 'tag' a deer, all you have to do is call it in and write the number/code that they give you on the tag.  it's that easy.

[Wannabe1]

 3 Nuns, in full habit, helped me hoist the deer into my Dodge!

Now that's what I call divine intervention!      :D

[Bud B.]

Drive what you can afford and hunt the way you want. I hope you have success and post a pic of your transport job afterwards. Plastic is a good way to go or as big a cooler you can haul and go gutless on the cleaning job.

A friend of mine shot a moose back in the Alaska tundra. We hauled/hiked it to my Bronco II and it wasn't hardly big enough, but we got it home. In bits and pieces but we got it home.

[Alexander Traditional]

Originally posted by goingoldskool:
bone it out in the field and just carry a medium sized cooler....  here in Missouri to 'tag' a deer, all you have to do is call it in and write the number/code that they give you on the tag.  it's that easy.

This is what I do even now that I have a truck.

[dagwood64]

I just stun my deer, then I hitch them to the front of my Prius and make them tow me home.  

[Pete McMiller]

Oh come ON you guys.  Most of you think you need a truck to be a successful hunter?  When I was a kid and new hunter in the early 60's almost nobody had trucks.  All the deer we shot back then were tied to the hood, trunk or up on top of the car.  Chuck C you are correct, for many years it was illegal in Wisconsin to haul an unregistered deer inside a vehicle where the tag could be manipulated.  By law we HAD to strap a deer on the outside.  It might not be PC nowdays to tie a deer to the hood or trunk but it sure is effective.  Remember, just because you don't have roof or trunk racks doesn't mean you can't haul your deer there - just roll down the back windows a crack and pass the rope through and wind the window back up.  Easy Peasy.

[3arrows]

Back in my younger days i had a Grimlem hatchback put guiet a few deer in the back.Some were over 200 dress weight.We would fly out west,DIY elk hunting with everthing in a backpack under 70 lbs.with a rental compack car and bring elk home.

[ChuckC]

Dagwood. . . you don't by chance have a long white beard ?  and giggle out loud ?  and hang around with short dudes ?

Pete, my first deer were hauled back on the rear end of a Pinto (with Starsky and Hutch stripe and 60's in the back).  

Opened the lil biddy trunk, looped two chunks of rope around the hinges and onto the window, then shut the trunk.  Left me a couple ties to attach a deer to, at least for a short haul home.
ChuckC

[nineworlds9]

Originally posted by dagwood64:
I just stun my deer, then I hitch them to the front of my Prius and make them tow me home.      

I like this LOL

That nun story is priceless!

[Stephengiles]

Yeah I'll buy a truck. Just as soon as I find a job that pays as much as the one I lost ,my daughter gets out of her cast , and the new a/c unit gets paid for. Till then I'll keep driving my free car, shooting my 200 dollar bow, and using my twelve aluminum arrows that I made. I'll kill deer just same.

[dagwood64]

Originally posted by ChuckC:
[QB] Dagwood. . . you don't by chance have a long white beard ?  and giggle out loud ?  and hang around with short dudes ?

No white beard.  

[cahaba]

Me and Jerry Hill fixed up a VW Bug. Since the trunk is in the front we would put our deer there. We had a rack on top. There we straped two 4" pvc tubes to put our bows in. That bug would go just about anywhere.

[RedShaft]

Originally posted by Stephengiles:
Yeah I'll buy a truck. Just as soon as I find a job that pays as much as the one I lost ,my daughter gets out of her cast , and the new a/c unit gets paid for. Till then I'll keep driving my free car, shooting my 200 dollar bow, and using my twelve aluminum arrows that I made. I'll kill deer just same.

Amen to that. You have to do what ya gotta do. Not everyone is well off and we have to remember that. Times are tough.  Eveyone here deserves respect.. . Some of these men are working with what they are given at the moment. And should not be belittled.

Back to the topic. Your best bet, as i have been in your situation is to use heavy duty tarp or quarter the deer up in the parking lot. You won't have no trouble. Or pull deer off the side somewhere and get a buddy who has another vehicle. Or.. You could get a hit h and throw on one of those game racks. They work great. I used one for years.

[VictoryHunter]

My mom killed a deer some time ago and had to put it in the back of her honda civic hatchback on trash bags!  

[dagwood64]

Originally posted by RedShaft:

Originally posted by Stephengiles:
[qb] Yeah I'll buy a truck. Just as soon as I find a job that pays as much as the one I lost ,my daughter gets out of her cast , and the new a/c unit gets paid for. Till then I'll keep driving my free car, shooting my 200 dollar bow, and using my twelve aluminum arrows that I made. I'll kill deer just same. [/b]

"Amen to that. You have to do what ya gotta do. Not everyone is well off and we have to remember that. Times are tough.  Eveyone here deserves respect.. . Some of these men are working with what they are given at the moment. And should not be belittled."

Amen!!!!

[Red Beastmaster]

I drive a Suzuki SX4 Crossover hatchback (it has manly 4x4) with a hitch. For hunting season I fold the seats forward and stash a cut down hitch hauler in the trunk. I throw a blanket over it and haul my longbow and all my gear in the back.

I get snickers from my truck driving buddies but I'm getting 30MPG while their getting less than half that.  

[reddogge]

Wandering monk, that is one of the neatest rigs I've seen. Can we see pics of the front inside too?

BTW I hauled a deer in the hatch of a Vega and the trunk of a Honda Accord once.

[pdk25]

90 percent of my hunts have been with small econonmy cars.  My wife has the truck in the family  In both my previous Nissan Sentra and my current Nissan Altima, I have had big game in the trunk, back seat, passenger seat, and partially in my lap.  All depends on how much other gear I have with me.  A treestand and hunting gear/bow can really limit the space.  When I was hunting in Pennsylvania, more than once I shot a deer and dragged it back to the car where I had a rubbermaid tub that just fit into the trunk.  A cut here and there and the deer fit inside.  Then I drove to get some ice for the chest cavity and went back hunting for another.  That is when a heavy duty back and the passenger seat are your best friend.  Another time I had to transport 3 deer, 2 shot by others and given to me.  I wound up quartering them and putting them in heavy duty bags.  Just gotta get creative and not be too hung up on how your vehicle looks.  Oh yeah, always have a good tarp with you in case something leaks.

[chinook907]

Got all of a very large caribou into a Ford Focus ZX3 a few years ago.  With me, an old lab, and a bunch of gear.  It was a winter hunt so he had shed his antlers.  Laid the quarters and boned out neck meat etc on a tarp on the floor of an unheated but attached garage overnight at gazillian-something below zero.  Burrito-ed the very firm, partially frozen meat in a blue tarp and put in the trunk, where it stayed cold for the 9 hour drive home (also had some meat in a large cooler in the back seat). Darn proud doing it also at 31 mpg.