BOOM! Deer Down! Congrats! Ready to work? Any true hunter will attest that the real work doesn’t begin until you have bagged your game. Hauling 100+ lbs of dead weight through the woods is not easy. A four-wheeler, Side-by-side or pickup truck usually is a necessity for larger game. Unless you have bob-cat just waiting in the woods, you’re not gonna be carrying a moose carcass anywhere.
Nothing is stopping you from butchering a deer right on the spot. All you need is a knife and some time. However, most deer hunters use some type of cleaning station. They can be as simple as a rope slung over a tree branch or as extravagant as a chilled room with drains and sliding meat hooks. If you’re like me, you fall somewhere on the lower end. We were in need of a cleaning station on my hunting lease, so this is what we did. Nothing extremely fancy. Just something that we could hang deer from and wouldn’t collapse on us. Here’s how we did it.
Supplies
3 – 4×12’s lumber
4 bags of quick-set concrete
Super Heavy Duty Eye Bolt with Nut
HD Scale – You’re gonna wanna know what the deer weighs
- Know where you want to build the thing. Is it easy to access? How close is it to water? Will it withstand the elements?
- Decide how tall you need it. We bought 12’ posts. And dug 2’ holes for supports. This left us with 10’ of working hoisting space. Plenty of room.
- Measure how wide you want your station to be. How many deer will be hanging from your station? One at a time? Or multiple at a time?
- Dig those holes. Auger, driller, or post hole diggers and shovel. Whichever you have access too, get to digging.
- Measure twice, cut once. Our power saw died during construction, so we made due with a chainsaw. Hey, work with what you got.
- We just kept it simple stupid (K.I.S.S.) Three 12ft posts. Two posts buried 2 ft deep for the main support posts. The third was cut into (1) 8ft section and (2) 2ft sections cut at 45º angles for the corner supports. Simple.
- Cut lumber, drill holes, run cable, attach hoist and assemble all the hardware for the hunting station on the ground BEFORE you set the posts in the holes. You don’t want to get the posts cemented in the ground only to forget you didn’t drill a hole in the crossbeam for the top eye bolt support.
- The supporting beams were joined together on each side with truss plates. You can use nails or screws though. Truss plates are just super sturdy and quick.
- Once you have everything assembled on the ground, stand the station up in the support holes and fill with the quick-set Quikcrete. Two bags for each hole.
- Let the concrete fully set-up and you’re done. Ready to clean some deer during the season.
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