Your Toughest or Longest Drag-Out

[fireman32]

Longest drag was a yearling doe at Chikasawhatchee. Close to a mile, but it was about as easy as walking. Toughest was a 250ish pound hog in Wilcox Co. My cousin and I walked him up and he shot him. That was a long half mile through the Alapaha swamp. Should’ve left that stanking thing where he fell.
Hats off to y’all that drug stuff out of Cohutta, my first trip up there this year showed this Ol flat lander how tough mountain hunting can be.

 

[Buckman18]

I'm from and hunt public land mountains, and I've had many, many long days dragging and packing...

I reckon my longest drag was ~6 hours and about 5 miles in Towns County near the NC line. I had toted my climber in there, and didn't have a good way to pack out. It wasn't a great big buck but it was a day I was trigger happy.


Another honorable mention is this old dawson forest buck, 6.5 yr old. He was only 3 miles in but it was a 1500ft ascent to the truck. Several hour drag.


Here's a 2 mile drag from last year. Thankfully not a huge bear...


At some point as age set in, I wised up and started packing instead of dragging...


I have dozens and dozens - well over 100 - more examples of long drags and packs. If youre from the mountains its what you do. Happy hunting.

 

[BamaGeorgialine]

I climbed at tree in my climber on the side of Pine Mountain. Well, when I got 25 ft up I turned to sit. When I did, my foot was stuck so my knee turned but my foot didn't. I tore my meniscus right then and there. It blew up twice the size as normal. With all that being said, I guess my longest drag was dragging one leg down the side of Pine Mountain and back up about 1/2 mile. Not all that far but it was painful and it sucked.

 

[BeerThirty]

Where I grew up in Wisconsin you could hunt on the timber company land. Common practice for chunks of property to be clear cut for the paper mills. Anyone familiar with how they do this, most of time these pieces of land are very rutted and tore up from the machinery with stumps, logs and brush left literally everywhere. We used to drive deer out to those clear cuts with decent success. Draggin big ones out of that stuff, with no road access, was miserable beyond belief.

 

[1982ace]

A buddy and I dragged a doe at FDR state park from the bottom of Dowdells Knob which is the highest point in the park. A lot different for a fellow from the flat woods

 

[Taco4x4]

Last year on public archery only WMA it was peak of the rut and I got off work early and flew to my parking spot by one of the gates. It was 3 o'clock when I started my hour walk to my lock on in the deepest hole on the property. I knew it was eat up with sign and I was getting pics of a few gooduns. 4 o'clock I get settled in and pull up my crossbow and I hear deer running. A nice 9 point is chasing a doe and the doe turns and trots 5 yards from my tree. I'm up and safety off as I had to make a bleat sound to stop him at 10 yards. Twack and he jumped the creek below me and stood there. His legs started shaking and he fell over. It was now 4.15 and one of the shortest hunts I have ever had. Ha Ha it was 8 o'clock before I got him to the road where I could use my cart. The cart was in my truck 45 min down the road and 45 min back. Loaded the buck on the cart and it was 11.30 when I got to the truck with the deer. I am 56 and was hurtin for a week after that. Guess where I will be setting Saturday morning.

 

[pse hunter]

Last year with this buck right at a mile drag out and then did it again a couple weeks later with two does also had my climbing stand and my gun on the way out both times

 

[huntfish]

Rookies....Elk, 3 hours to quarter, 7 miles from camp across 2 ranges, 2 days....

I'm not dragging a deer through the woods, doesn't take long to quarter and debone if necessary.

 

[blood on the ground]

Y’all ain’t shooting them right…. All the deer I shoot run straight to the truck and fall dead by the tailgate!

 

[Jonboater]

As others said my dragging or even using a deer cart days are over. Way easier cutting them up where they fall and backpacking them out.

 

[elfiii]

3 does up a steep, long hill with thick cover and underbrush. Probably a quarter mile and then another half mile drag through thick brush to the truck. My buddy that helped me drag them told me "Don't ever do this again."

 

[bear claw]

Y’all ain’t shooting them right…. All the deer I shoot run straight to the truck and fall dead by the tailgate!

I Wait till they get in the middle of the road then neck shoot em and pull right up there always have someone in the passenger seat ready to jump out and load up.

 

[bloodiarrow68]

One morning around 2003 my cousin and I killed a total of 4 mature does about 3/4 of mile from the truck and fourwheeler. We had completely crossed a mountain. We flipped the fourwheeler multiple times trying to get them out and ended up dragging them a good part of the way. Took 4 of us around 4 hours to have everything loaded and ready.

My longest confirmed drag was 1.25 miles on fdr state park. I used a sled and it wasn’t horrible.
In 2006 I shot a good buck and a spike one morning on a check in wma hunt .9 miles on gps from the truck. That was a long day getting them out.
Luckily all of those “worst” drags took place in December during cold fronts.
pic of the buck I killed .9 miles from the truck. View attachment 1103128

You can tell it was a long drag the bucks mouth is even gaped open.

 

[dang]

Worst one i've had was a sow hog. She was probably only 150lbs. I was hunting way up on the top third on a WMA, and the bottom dropped down to a thick creek bed that necked down to almost a bluff on either side. I heard pigs raising heck down in that bottom and climbed down out of my tree and stalked to the lower third of the bottom. Got eyes on them in the bottom, pulled the trigger and the sow started running up the hill directly at me. One more shot laid her down basically parallel to my elevation about 20 yards from me. I walked over to check her out and she twitched a bit and promptly slid about 50 yards back down the hillside alllllllllllll they way to the creek. This was about 5pm. I phoned a buddy and he ditched work and met me. Our options were hands and knees up the ridge and side-hill it till the creek got less thick, or back out the creek and up the opposite hillside. We decided we werent gonna be able to get up the bluff so we dragged through / out of the briar tangled creek and i'll spare all the details but we made it back to the truck at 11:30pm, skinned, bruised knees and cussing the whole way there. It ended up being a hair shy of a mile. The creek bed was rocky and covered in slippery moss....absolutely miserable. Spent a lot of time laying on our backs gasping for air. I drew back on one the next year in archery in the same area and decided not to let it fly for that very reason. Since then I wont go back without a frame pack and game bags. Never making that mistake again. Second worst was a buck i shot on a check in hunt. It was .93 miles from the road, and to be honest, the terrain wasnt that bad....but half way back my game cart wheel fell off. So i ended up having to drag the buck and my cart...... not fun!

 

[Theturtle]

Never had any that were to bad some that where wet and muddy weren’t to fun tho

 

[7Mag Hunter]

25+ yrs ago i killed a big doe on Oaky Woods WMA , and the DNR and Ga State ( i think) was doing research studies on deer and asked you NOT field dress your deer before bringing to the check station....I shot the deer at 3:00 PM and got back to the truck after dark....when they hoisted the deer up at the check station the doe had a bald spot on her side and hind quarter where all the hair has been rubbed off while i drug her out !!!!! doe weighed 130 lbs live weight....5 yrs old....

 

[gawildlife]

I'm from and hunt public land mountains, and I've had many, many long days dragging and packing...

I reckon my longest drag was ~6 hours and about 5 miles in Towns County near the NC line. I had toted my climber in there, and didn't have a good way to pack out. It wasn't a great big buck but it was a day I was trigger happy.
View attachment 1103179

Another honorable mention is this old dawson forest buck, 6.5 yr old. He was only 3 miles in but it was a 1500ft ascent to the truck. Several hour drag.
View attachment 1103180

Here's a 2 mile drag from last year. Thankfully not a huge bear...
View attachment 1103182

At some point as age set in, I wised up and started packing instead of dragging...
View attachment 1103188

I have dozens and dozens - well over 100 - more examples of long drags and packs. If youre from the mountains its what you do. Happy hunting.

I was going to post a couple of my war stories but I know when I'm beat. LOL
You mountain hunters are made of tougher stuff or crazy or both.

 

[Buckman18]

I was going to post a couple of my war stories but I know when I'm beat. LOL
You mountain hunters are made of tougher stuff or crazy or both.

Post it anyway. I enjoy reading others tales.

 

[johnnyk2000]

Not a deer but a hog. My sons first hog. The year was 2012 and my son wanted to go chase some pigs in the swamp. We had just seen a cotton mouth and a gator and we were against a tree drinking some water when my said that he he heard snorting. I thought he was making up a story but after a few moments I heard it myself. It was coming in hot and he turned and fired at it. The hog took off running deeper into the swamp. I saw blood pouring out the front shoulder so I knew it wasn't going to go far but it soon out of sight. We put the water in the pack and went to look for it. Soon after starting the track were both up to our knees in mud following a good blood trail. About 75 yards later we found the boar hog with his head in a creek about 4 foot down. We were able to get it out of the creek but at that time we were both tired from getting it out of the water.

We quickly realized that we could not field dress it at that location. We also realized it it a tough drag sinking in mud up to our knees. I decided to break a chem light to mark the location and go to the truck and get a ratchet strap. GPS said I was 490 yards from the truck. Not far on hard ground but a nightmare in the mud. I was able to ratchet the hog across the mud until we reached hard ground. By this time it was just shy of 11pm. Field dressed it there and loaded it on the cart. About 50 yards later the cart crumbled under the weight of that pig. So, we went back to dragging. Finally back at the truck we had to tie it to a tree branch and back under it to get it loaded. At the scale this hog weighted 288 pounds dressed.

I made a plaque with the cutters, shell, picture and the projectile from that hog and gave it to him. It now hangs in his own house. As for the bottom tusk on that hog one was 5.25 and other was 5.5 inches. I love listening to him tell that story as it brings back great memories while also bringing back nightmares. Sorry about the long read

 

[gawildlife]

Well since I've been asked.

I grew up on the ridge and valley west of Birmingham. The terrain was made up of long thin ridges and deep hollows. Average height top to bottom an even hundred feet.
Slopes ranged from easy walk to near vertical with rock bluffs on the creeks.

So the ridge back of the house was a good mix of pine, oak and hickory. Mostly chestnut oak but there was a good stand of white oak on the north slope. Down on the end where a clearcut crossed there was a bench about a third of the way down about thirty yards wide and a good stand of white oaks. A solid trail came out of the clearcut onto this bench.
This is where I run into the dumbest deer and an equally dumb hunter.
So I'm using a climber that has me facing the tree and I usually stand up in this climber so I can lean right to shoot around the tree. So as I'm standing there a spike comes be bopping down the trail, yes I know I'm a shameless meat hunter. Well the angle is such I can't lean far enough right to clear the tree so I start the slow hand swap to shoot offside shoulder.
Well Mr spike spots me and whirls and takes two hops but curiosity has him stop for a look back. So dummy takes a snap shot and shoots right over him. Spike must not have understood as two more hops and a stop and look again. This time dummy connects with a brenekke slug.
Spike drops kicks and rolls. Right off the bench and dummy hears the splash as it lands in the branch below.

I thought Dad was going to whip my tail by the time we got that one back up that ridge. Probably would've if he wasn't so winded.