THE MOST rewarding hunts are those which require you to work hard for your prize, and this often means hunting in rough, broken country where no vehicle can go. Even when the going is easy, a wounded animal can flee into the densest bush or the most inhospitable terrain. Either way, the carcass has to be manually carried out. In another scenario, it may be possible to drive a vehicle to the fallen animal, but the sheer size and weight of the carcass render it extremely difficult to load onto the back of the bakkie with the limited manpower you may have at your disposal. Here are a few tips that might be helpful.
Meat hunters know that the sooner they get the game carcass into a cold-room, the lower the likelihood of the meat becoming tainted. This is less of a problem now that we have cellphones to call for a recovery team (if available) but even this can be slow. Most of my hunting took place prior to the cellphone era; consequently, leaving a carcass in the veld while I returned to base to fetch manpower was seldom an option. Besides, cellphones can
