mate...I do them on the ground in the bush...as for sheep at home after dropping one of our wee housemuttons with 3 of us on the end of rope through a double double hoist set up,no longer bugger around and tie rope to bullbar on front of terrano and quietly reverse back while watching carefully..... the young fella at butcher shop coundnt lift carcass...they only 50 kgs dressed

I use a 3:1 rope block to lift my bleaters.
Heck MD those sound like big sheep. 100kg live weight since sheep normally dress out at about 50% 

Climbing micro pulleys be the way to go I reckon
Reasonably light weight more than strong enough and then a few meters of rope just long enough for what ya need.

beretta all the way wrote on Jun 25^th, 2018 at 7:47pm:



Will look into those - but what I have just done is grab some old pulleys out the garage - two singles and a double and rigged them up with soft braided 8mm rope.
Bit ugly - then I tied them to the pole behind my upstairs bannister and let the bottom pulley down. Tied a 'T' bar bit of kindling to that and was able to haul my 55 kg son up hanging off the bar..
He was also able to do that with me - 65 kg.
Then my wife wanted to be hauled up - and it took two of us to do that as she's roughly equivalent to a good size stag - and I told her that and promptly wished I hadn't.

The rope was hard on your hands, so a 'T' bar on the end would make it easier.
I wouldn't say it was easy, but it's doable.

Better pulleys would probably work better - and a harder rope as the one I had was stretchy and too soft- I think.

Yeah - something to work on - and I better practice my climbing because last time I did that I fell out of a tree retrieving fishing flies.

Micky Duck wrote on Jun 25^th, 2018 at 9:46pm:


So easy up in the air mate, no bending and you can move all the way around making your cuts. And, you can use your weight yanking the skin off and pealing meat if you want the bone out of your hindquarters.
And I'm no great butcher - still get screwed with the innies and outies of those back leg bones - and the pelvis.

And sometimes I just forget how I did it last time.

SF90 wrote on Jun 25^th, 2018 at 5:15pm:


A simple single rope two pully system halves the lifted weight, ie 2 to 1.    if you use two small double pullies its  a mechanical advantage of 4 to 1

too much pissing about to show you a picture, this site needs a simple way to copy and paste pictures etc

Other option is to go to a wreckers and get a seat belt system, you tie it up and then lift the deer bit by bit and it wont drop back down on you. Works a treat and stuff all to carry. If you have a permanent bush camp you can leave it up the tree and no one will know its there.

always cleaner if you can break them down whilst there hangin, i reckon

Try and stay away from nylon type ropes - once a bit of fat gets on your hands it becomes a greasy as a butchers &*%$
the old sisal type is a good one

http://nifty-lift.com/

I just use 2 double pulleys for hanging pigs and sheep and only ocassional deer as most I get I just take the back wheels and backsteak

SF90 wrote on Jun 26^th, 2018 at 2:41pm:


I don't have one but know a couple of guys that do and it's small and lightweight but bloody good.

Micky Duck wrote on Jun 27^th, 2018 at 6:22pm:


Went a bit silly today - rigged my two doubles and hung them off a tree branch with a 'T' bar for my missus to hang of, then I tied a single sheave pulley to the base of the tree and threaded the rope through that so I could pull at an upward angle.
Could lift her easy, then I wanted to shove her on the bathroom scales - and that's when I lost my portable weight.
Quite a lot of rope involved there which adds to bulk, so probably not something you want to shove in your pack.

I did the maths after a bit more reading and that 140lb dressed deer will require 35lb of effort to get up with the two double pulleys, but if you were to use the extra pulley at ground level, the effort needed is only 23lb.
Even at that weight the rope chews your hands a bit, so a loop on the end you can shove a branch through helps a lot.

So - after the missus got shitty I ground the sheave pins and hammered them out of the housings and removed the rollers and they did run straight on the pin - and the pins were stuffed, chewed halfway through.
So I bored them out and whacked in some sealed bearings and tomorrow I'll make the housing out of some 1/16" plate and pin or bolt it together with spacers top and bottom to see if I can get rid of some weight - and to reduce size.

Thing is - you're about where I was 26 years ago, could do all sorts of stuff then - now I can't.
Hell - I popped a rib just reaching for a garden rake a couple of years ago.
If it was me and my son we would likely handle one, but I'm sick of him not being able to go because mum has got him booked for this and that - so I'm talking about dealing with it on my own.

And - it's only just struck me - I doubt I could carry a full boned out deer anyway.
A couple of years back I weighed 20kg of sand into a plastic bag in my pack - and got the shock of my life when I hoisted it on my back - it was bloody heavy.
I took that bag to the bottom of the steepest hill around here - 300 meters up, with no flat bits. Took me ages to get to the top - and to get down, and when I got home I re-weighed that bag - 7kgs.
Turfed out handfuls all the way up that hill.

Don't know what I'm carrying now - bit more than that, haven't weighed it - but I haven't been up that hill since.
Did spend four days over Easter walking the Urewera's though - light loads and lots of rests - and had no real trouble, but it was soft country.

Yeah mate - ain't what I used to be, so I'm having to think of ways I can get around doing things.

ICEMAN wrote on Jun 29^th, 2018 at 9:56pm:


Yeah, I know - I think I've got really weak - my wife says I have.
Can push a mower around okay and can still handsaw and split wood, but when it comes to lifting stuff is when I notice it - everything is heavier than it used to be.
Wouldn't think so looking at me - I still have the appearance of a superb male specimen - and I spend enough time in front of the mirror to say that with some honesty.

Maybe it's all in my head - or maybe it all turned to custard when my tits sagged.

And edit ....
Disregarding my nonsense, you're dead right there Ice, 35lb isn't that much - certainly a whole lot better than throwing a rope over a branch and hauling a whole carcass. The friction on the rope dragging over that branch must be considerable - but that's how we used to do it.
I just like to play with stuff, tried all sorts of configurations and was surprised how that extra little pulley at the bottom eased the effort - so much so I just might throw it in the bag.
I went down to a hard twist 4mm rope and that really reduced the bulk a lot.
The thing too - is rope is always handy around a camp, so that 30 feet of pulley rope can serve double purpose.

ICEMAN wrote on Jul 1^st, 2018 at 4:42pm:


Oh - I'm a staggeringly trim 65kg - been about that for the past fifty years.
The missus prefers the term 'weedy'.

The heaviest I ever got was 12 stone and never really figured that as I was about as fit as I'd ever been - did it on vegetables too, no meat.

Wonder if that says something - like, is plankton a vegetable, are whales vegetarians ?

Not saying anything - just wondering.

Oh shit, you're not a whale - are ya ?

Look at that deer's eye's !    .... It died of fright. 

Bloody hell Ice - you could pop me up your bum and wouldn't know I was there.
Not only that - I finished the new frames on my pulleys, have got them right here in front of me, and they suddenly don't look too substantial, not like they did 2 minutes ago.
Shit !

I do suspect that is a bloody old photo, and probably photo shopped to hell and gone - you ain't no racing sardine like what I am - used to be.
Ha - just learned how to do that.

And no - I got no desire to be 'popped up your bum'.

Shame I wasn't there - you could have borrowed my hoist.

You're looking good mate, like your grundies too - the ones I'm wearing right now are blue with little yellow 'Spongebob's' all over them - just looked.

Wonder what the old Poacher is wearing ?

X-POACHER-YEAH RYT wrote on Jul 2^nd, 2018 at 10:02pm:


ha, ha, ha - well done.

Patunui wrote on Jul 8^th, 2018 at 7:40pm:


Yeah - they're all over the place when you get pointed in the right direction.
Am quite happy with mine though, cost nothing - just the rope and some time spent modifying them.
4mm polyprop rope cost $3.95 (I think) and all up it weighs 448 gms.
If I throw that extra pulley in total weight becomes 526 gms.
I actually could have made it a bit lighter if I'd thought a bit more - but didn't.
Yeah - it'll do the job.

As for me few climbing carabiners and robust rope are quite enough for the creation of proper pulleys system for the lifting of deer or something else. Carabiners and ropes are light and useful for many reasons.

bushrat wrote on Aug 1^st, 2018 at 9:25pm:


That was really cool - and probably all you'd need for out there.

Might struggle with a big one - bit of friction there as evidenced by him able to hold the line with two fingers once the jerry cans were up.

Bugga - might have to have a play with one.

5yrs ago made a lifting system out of a double & triple sailing pulley and 10m of 3-4mm braided curtain cord (breaking strength of about 170kg). Have used it for about 20 animals and works great. Main problem in the South is the Beech trees and finding a suitable and reachable branch - total weight including bag to store is 299gms.
Just made a version of the Skin It Rite (www.skinitrite.com)
Had a couple of times where the animal managed to come off the gambel and it was close call with the knife.
The version we made uses curtain cord again and all up weighs 90gms. Have used aluminum pipe for initial version as thinking that weight should be through cord and pipe is simply a spacer. Yet to be tested.