Point of extraction
It is often said that the real work begins after you squeeze the trigger; in the case of deer this can be very true. There are some words of wisdom that every hunter should think of before the shot (I rarely remember these until after the shot!). “You shoot it, you drag it” is a well known phrase and makes it fairly clear what the consequences of your actions will be. When I am doing the shooting I am usually on my own and when I am guiding then it’s usually a case of “you shoot it and I’ll carry it out”. For these reasons my own personal favourite phrase that refers to hauling deer was coined by my good friend Mick and it is as simple as “small is good”.
When I first started deer stalking, it was simply a case of dragging the deer by the back leg, We soon realised the benefits of a drag rope and I recall attaching a dog lead to my stick to drag the deer head first. This soon led to the development of my own drag harness; I had a local cobbler stitch some seat belt onto an old CEFO (Combat Equipment
