Being a hunting road warrior does not equate to bringing out your inner Mad Max for road trip success. Take off the leather jacket and return to your Sitka, or whatever appeases your hunting style. Now draft a plan to cover every aspect of your nomadic hunting adventure. Get in the mindset first. Are you journeying to hunt whitetails, pronghorn, elk or a small-game bucket list species in an unfamiliar landscape? With that vision rerunning in your thoughts, consider every scenario that could occur on the way there and back, plus during the hunt. Begin jotting your needs now.
Tools to Guarantee You Get There
Before you hunt, you need to get there. Assemble a toolbox that includes the basics to repair any jam that could occur, especially loose nuts, battery connections and the parts to patch wiring that may become worn. Most newer vehicles follow a metric assembly protocol so make sure wrenches, Allen hex wrenches and sockets match. Beyond wrenches and sockets, add in screwdrivers, hammers, pliers, vice grips, a pry bar, electrical tape, duct tape and plenty of zip ties for quick fixes. Tailor your toolbox as needed for specific issues including extra packed bearings for a trailer you may be towing and even several feet of wire to replace a rodent-ravaged segment.
You may even want to consider a portable jump-starting system if you plan to visit a remote area alone. Jumper cables always should be in your vehicle kit, but they do no good without another battery to pull from, hence the reason to consider a portable jump starter. Now consider all tire issues including having one properly inflated spare tire, if not two. A portable inflating system that includes 12-volt backup from your vehicle’s electrical system is also advised, and back that up with a couple cans of Fix-a-Flat. For an extra measure of precaution, purchase a tire puncture repair kit. This inflatable army should be able to stop any air escapees until you reach assistance.
Oh No! I’m Stuck!
With middle-age wisdom driving my truck hunting crusade these days, I rarely get stuck. It simply is too much work. I either park and hike longer or, more commonly, hop my ATV out of the back of the truck and race through even the worst of environments. Even so, I stock my truck with two jacks (floor or bottle) that, in addition to use for tire changing also help with extraction when securing tire chains to them and lifting the truck if it falls into a ditch to place logs underneath for traction. A Hi-Lift jack even has winch capabilities. YouTube it or consider adding a traditional winch to your rig.
Traction mats or the previously mentioned tire chains provide extra traction when tires slip. A bag of gravel also adds weight, so your vehicle does not spin out and provides a bed of traction for icy spots. When you need a pull, consider a heavy-duty tow strap with clevises for solid connections. Have a log chain along for backup, but remember they are dangerous and can break with ricocheting results. I know: My brother once almost lost his noggin when a chain broke while pulling out an old tractor.
Pack at least one shovel for snow, mud, rocks and other stuff. During hunting season my truck is packed with a ground-breaker shovel for dirt projects and a grain scoop shovel to handle snow that piles up. And just for added security while in Clampett country, stow 5 gallons of fuel in your truck bed. You never know. I also keep anti-gel fuel conditioner in my kit to baby my diesel when temperatures plummet.
Gear to Get it Home
You slept well last night knowing your vehicle kit has everything needed to get you out of any scrap where you sensibly roam. But Mad Max had other issues to deal with while patrolling in that leather jacket. Your next responsibility is getting home with your game. Be sure to bring along enough cooler space or improvise like many do now with a complete chest freezer on a trailer. A generator runs it long enough to ensure a frozen state inside.
The rest sounds easy, right? No. Read the regulations on transporting game after your hunt and then read them again. It is easier to walk across the southern border than to transport a deer head or a limit of geese back to your domicile. Read up.
Waterfowl, upland game, turkeys and small game all require special attention to detail when preparing to transport home. Some species require the attachment of a feathered wing, some require an attached head, others require a foot and turkeys may require a beard and tagged foot. Big game gets even more complicated depending on whether the critter will remain whole or be deboned.
One common theme nowadays focuses on chronic wasting disease. Unless you travel within your home state, your big-game head needs to be thoroughly cleaned. Be aware also that few states allow whole carcasses to enter their state, especially from a CWD-designated state. That means you will need to reduce a whole carcass into manageable meat portions.
The easy route is dropping it off at a processing facility, but if you embrace DIY, bring gear to butcher including latex gloves, meat-cutting gloves, knives, sharpeners, Ziplocs and even a vacuum sealer. Keep all appropriate tags with the meat and skull as required by law.
Now get that skull clean if antlers adorn it. For years, the go-to method was boiling or, in reality, simmering a skull. It softened the meat to slip off the bone along with brain materials. Your chore requires a pot large enough to hold the skull or skull plate, a stove, Dawn dishwashing soap as a degreaser and time. Do not boil a skull as it can make it fall apart. Simmer, scrape and simmer again until all meat surrenders off the bone.
I quit that method a decade or more back to utilize the pressure washer method. Strap a 3,000 psi pressure washer next to the chest freezer on your trailer and be ready for any skull cleaning task. Cape off the hide and scrape off as much meat as possible, then wrap the bases using plastic or aluminum foil secured with duct tape.
Now blast away while testing how close you need to be for an efficient cleaning. I wire a skull to a pallet to hold it steady from the powerful blast. Standard nozzles work, but a rotating nozzle speeds up the chore. Chunks will fly off—collect them later for proper disposal per regulations. You can whiten the skull at home, but rest assured that in less than 30 minutes you will have a legal skull for travel. Mad Max might even be fond enough of your work to strap it to the front of his GT Falcon muscle car … or not.
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