My dad got drawn for a Maine moose permit! I'd love a gas capstan or chainsaw winch but I just don't see it in the budget. Anyone have any experience with the cheaper electric alternatives? Like the Warn drill winch or the battery operated capstan winches? Theyre only 750-1000 pound rated but with a few snatch blocks I feel they could atleast get it out of a mess enough for us to get our atv to it. Anyone have any experience?

We use a chain saw winch in Ontario moose hunting it will pull anything but heavy to move around and not cheap

I don't know about any of the winches you mentioned but we use a truck winch everyday for loading our carp boat and it's rated for 9000 pounds and will pull 15,000 pounds worth of boat and fish on the flatbed even when it's out of water. I don't know if the style your talking about would be as underated as that but I would guess they'll likely do better than the rating to some degree.

Get set up with a horse logger to pull the moose out.

I’ve used a come along and blue steel 5/16 rope cable to pull a few Moose out of bad spots. I find it the best option for weight/function when camping remote. Just my .02.

Good luck out there!

Take somebody with a strong back and a weak mind.
And a sled.
Took us 6 hours, and 5 trips, and we were able to get the truck reasonably close

I know when I took my 2010 Maine moose the chainsaw winch was the ticket to get it to where we could get the truck winch and long lines to it.

We deal with at least one moose per season here and we have gone to the gutless method. With a pack frame you can move a quarter over rough or swampy ground pretty efficiently. This is usually to get it to the canoe or somewhere we can reach with the atv.

Always quarter moose to carry out here.

I though all, or most, moose hunters gutted ,skinned and quartered moose to "move" them...

I have quartered every moose or elk I’ve ever killed and either packed on pack animals, pack frames, canoes depending. But several times a come along has came in real handy to get a moose to an easier spot to work it over.

When I moose hunted Maine in 2015, most hunters I saw in the north Maine woods were road hunting. We walked and called from the many over grown winter logging roads that you cannot drive a good pick up on in summer. We called my bull to one of these winter roads and I shot him and he dropped in the winter road. We had an old beater truck that we drove down the winter road to retrieve him. That was an ordeal, but it took some chainsaw work as well as some culverts that the frost had pushed up had to be moved. We skidded the moose down the winter road, it being moss covered and wet made it easy. Once to the main haul road we winched him onto a trailer.

You might look into a Rope-along. Similar to a come along but your pull is limited only by the length of your rope.

Never had an occasion to take the thing home in one piece.
Always reduced it to 9 pieces and moved them individually. Much easier unless you can get a tractor right to the critter

I love my rope along White. Lot easier to work with too. Just pull slack end to tighten up. Mine are a little more bulky than my folding compact come along but if I’m not packing it I’d way rather have my rope along.

Easiest moose I ever did was flown out by a buddy of mine and that was still a lot of work. 2 trips in a Cessna 180 on a real narrow and winding river. Had to pack it to landing spot.

I hear ya !! I always have the rope-along in the boat when hunting moose.

At least you didn't have to pack it to a ridge top to get it out

Pocket ox

This is advertised in the back of our regulations. Seems interesting. All the moose I have touched have been skinned, quartered, and hauled. No reason to swim in the guts

Quartering and packing will be an option if need be. In Maine up until the past 10 years not very many people quartered moose. They are/were gutted and loaded onto a truck or trailer whole to be weighed at the tagging station. It's one of those "That's just how we've always done it." Things. Ofcourse back then it was easy just to shoot one in the middle of the road. Nowa days its gotten harder and you need to go back farther.

This one works alright.

At least the antlers are good for something !

What a neat setup , Nate . Nice photo .

I have a Maasdam Rope Puller I use for felling trees and such.Is that what your talking about?

We have winched them into more desirable locations from where they fell, to get them out of water or sand, prior to gutting and piecing them out. The chainsaw winch is what we use.

Yup, same thing.

I guess we have been lucky have always got them out whole with chainsaw winch

Nice sharp medium sized knife with a pack works evertime. Had to pack this boy out 1 miles to boat. Keep an eye out for black bears that like to circle while you walk with blood running down your back lol.

If you have two pickups just hook cable thru a pulley on hitch of one truck to the moose and pull the moose to the road with the second truck.If only one truck hook the wheel to a tree and pull the moose to the road with the truck.

Never shot a moose before. But I dont drag deer anymore after I tried the gutless method.

I have killed a lot of elk in my days and one moose. If I have to pack them any distance I just bone them out at the kill site. No need to pack out a bunch of bones.
Packed my moose out 13 miles with mules. it was in quarters. There is a lot to be said for a couple good pack mules.