Hanging big game in the garage
 

I’m looking for a way to hang game in my garage this fall. It’s a finished garage so I’m not really looking at messing with anything roof-wise. I’m looking at buying a 1 ton gantry from princess auto. Anyone have any suggestions to something similar and or better? Or anyone have experience with the gantry and are they any good for hanging game.

4 Little J Hooks screwed into the studs I know it's finished but you could puddy it up after or just leave for little hooks that no one will ever see lot cheaper

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Good luck with what ever you find

The gantry would work great for hanging game plus you can help friends do motor swaps on there boats etc... it’ll take up a lot of room when your not using it. One thing I’ve learned hanging game in my garage in Alberta is the outer layer of skin dries out extremely quick if you can’t control the humidity and you end up with a layer of tough skin. Most of my meat is packed out so I never have the hide on but, some guys will hang animals with the hide still on You can knock off the tough layer with a fillet knife same as you would with the silverskin fairly easy. Depending when you shoot the animal maintaining 2-5 degrees C can be the hard part if it’s colder than that and freezes there’s no point in hanging it and if it starts getting hotter Meat Rot can occur fairly quick. My next project is turning an old school stand up beverage fridge into a temperature/humidity controlled meat locker if I can find a good deal on one.
There’s lots of experience on this site I’m sure some others will chime in
Cheers

I ran a 4x4 post across several trusses. I then purchased some 6” long eye bolts from Princess Auto. I dropped the eye bolts through the drywall between trusses. I can then hook my block and tackle or meat hooks into the eye bolt.

If hanging game is all you are going to use it for I would make one out of 2X4s and save yourself $500.

I’m going to make a beam and then mount a winch that I have laying around it to.

Cut a small square hole in the drywall for the hook to come up and down, but I’ll be able to put the square back up to cover the hole when I’m not using it. I’ll use a motorcycle battery to power the winch.

I bought an electric hoist from princess auto for around a hundred bucks and it can lift 1400 lbs or so. I use that with a gambrel and it's been great for hoisting / hanging / butchering.. temp and humidity control is a whole other ballgame

I have used the attic access in the garage with a beam spanning a few trusses. Then when done just replaced the access cover.

No need to cut into ceiling. We put an I beam in that rests on header supports in walls

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I use a pallet rack. Added heavy duty castors to wheel it over an endgate. I can tarp the whole thing in with a canvas tarp and add an open cooler of dry ice placed on the floor if too warm out.

I find it much easier to quarter my animals in the bush and just hang the quarters but to each their own good luck

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Get some used fridges off kajiji and install bars inside to you can hang quarters in as you need. hanging raw meat in a non temperature controlled environment isn’t ideal as the meat air drys out and hardens it adds to waste non to mention the non food safe temperatures.

x2.

My addition once garage is finished next month is to secure a sliding rail/hook system to the ceiling -- into the beams. I use a Warn Puillzall portable winch to lift animals into position.

I have a four post lift in the garage. It serves as storage for an extra vehicle, makes working on cars WAY easier and it is also great for hanging meat. It will easily hold 8,000 pounds so a moose or two is no big deal. It has welded studs as well as a full length rail on each inside lip of the long horizontal rails you drive on that you can attach regular meat hooks to.


http://liftkingusa.com/wp-content/uploads/LIFT27.png

I screwed those J hooks for hanging bicycles from into my roof truss...works OK? (for deer sized critters) but I have a very low roof (about 7') and have to quarter my animal or it is to long and hits the floor. As others have suggested keeping the game at a safe temperature is the hardest part.

Several of us went in on a used coldstream standup double door aluminum cooler. Bolted couple 2x6 supports on inside end walls that I notched and piece heavy gas line pipe that fits into notches and runs length of cooler that meat hooks hang from. Meat hooks we got from Princess Auto I believe. Can easily hang a quartered moose or 3 deer. Paid $400. Keeps our meat cool.

I put a 2'' pipe running the length of several rafters then hung a chain around that pokes through the drywall celling. I have a single shiv pulley that attaches to that. I run my winch cable from my quad or side x side through the pulley. I can lift a whole elk or moose for skinning and butchering no problem.

I hang them in my shop from a 8x10 beam so don’t have much advice for garage but I bought a cheap quad winch and hung it up there. Best money I ever spent. Years of fighting with rope and pulleys.

I have shelf I built out of doubled up 2x4 and plywood, loos very much like the pallet shelf posted. 90% of the year it's a shelf. If I get something I have to quarter it out anyways. Putting a 4x4 post across the shelves allows me to hang a quarter off each side of it easily.

The setup that Buckwheat has is awesome. Mine is very similar but my garage is NOT that clean. I used a triple wall stud on the outside wall and put two " hangers " from the trussed down through the ceiling and ran a heavy pipe through the hangers and into the triple wall studs. Works good. I would stay away from the old fridge idea. If the hips or shoulders touch each other it will not cool and with the high humidity of a moose or elk carcass you will get mold very quickly. Better to hang it in a 10* garage than a wet 2* fridge. Buddy piled his moose quarters in a fridge and lost most of it in 4 days to mold and smell.

Nice but that's not a real shop, it's way too neat and clean in there! LOL



My hunting partner custom build his shop with a 16' ceiling and has eight hooks in the main beans. He used eye hooks instead of J hooks. I'd say they're at least a 1/2" diameter. Nice and heavy and handle a moose or elk really well. He just pre-drilled the holes smaller than the size he needed and threaded the hooks in using a pry bar to torque them in to the correct depth.

The extra height means our game never touches the floor......no matter if it's a bull moose or cow elk.

Typically, we back under the hook and stand the animal on it's front legs and then depending on how many in our crew that year, lift it as high as we can and tie it off. But even if it's just the two of us, one guy holding, one guy tying, pull the truck out and it's still a foot or more off the floor. He has cardboard he puts under the animals to catch blood and prevent it from staining his floor.

We always skin them at camp. The process is, drop it, gut it, hang it, skin it then cover it with heavy poly (leaving it open at top and bottom to allow heat to escape). The poly keeps critters and ravens off our meat (it's hanging outside at camp right) and prevents any contamination when we transport it. I find too that the poly helps to keep the meat from drying out while it's hanging.

Oh yes, stand it on end you ask? Yes, if it's frozen solid. If not, then we get a come-along out, connect it to the hook, crank the animal up, when it's high enough, tie it off and remove come-along.

It's a heated shop so as soon as we get back from camp, heat comes on so the meat thaws. On the "too warm" years, we butcher right away before the meat can start going bad.

Now I've hung a deer in a normal height garage a few times and in every case, they animal was almost on the floor so I imagine a moose or elk would need to be cut into at least two pieces in order to not be hanging on the floor.


Oh, I should mention, on a good year, with all 6 of the crew together, we've come back with a bull moose, a calf moose and 8 deer.....so yes, 8 hooks is a good idea in our case! :)

Trusses are not made to support hanging loads. Those little screw in j hooks are ok to handle a coyote sized item. The pallet racking idea looks great until I would fill it up with a pile of junk and fight with that when I need it. I have a built up 2x6 beam with plywood sandwiched in between. PL400 glue and nailed. If you need to laminate just make sure you stay within 4ft of any joints.

First, the ceiling of my hunting partner's shop is drywalled, so I can't see what (if anything) has been done to beef up support where he put his hooks. He used the eye hooks (closed) as compared to open J hooks and they're no less than 1/2" diameter. As I stated, they've held up many elk and bull moose without issue or damage to the ceiling.

I'll have to ask him if he did indeed beef up the supports because now I'm curious as to whether or not it was done. Being a civil engineer (retired) I'm sure if it was required, he did. If you're interested, I'll ask him and report back.

If you guys learn to bone out your game you won’t need to build or buy these heavy supports. If your going to butcher it on your own you can bone it out in the field and fit an entire whitetail in a regular sized cooler or in a spare fridge. It’ll keep nice and cool in the fridge if it’s frozen it’ll thaw out at a nice controlled temperature and when your ready to cut half the processing will already done. you can get a big enough fridge you can fit an entire moose or elk in there if you watch kajiji sometimes there free.


I’ve included a link to randy newburg boneing out an elk for the guys that are interested. I’ve totally shifted from quartering and sawing or gutting and dragging to this method. It’s Easy to pack and transport not difficult and dosnt take a lot of time and all you need is a knife.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny5z3kJWbn8

We have hung full moose, elk and even a couple steers from the 4x4 posts I have run through the trusses in my garage. Never had a problem and we can straight swing them into the cooler with the pulley system we installed. Works well.

https://i.imgur.com/krdGw6h.jpg

LC

This sounds like a great idea. I have an antlerless moose tag this year. So, is that what everyone does to hang their moose for a week is debone and then place in cooler to "hang"?

I debone and cut them at home On the next day depending on if it’s a day trip or a weekend deal and age in the fridge where it’s temp controlled. I have hung in the garage but you lose so much just to drying out if you can process quick and then pull them from the freezer a few days before you want to eat them to age them in the fridge/marinade/brine there’s not as much waste and you still get a tender end product.

I've been teaching people this for 20 years all you need is a knife and not even a very big one I just have no idea why people would want to bring a whole animal home unless you live on an acreage or something I guess.

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I just took a piece of gang laminate beam material, it was a cut off from a construction site and screwed it to the ceiling of my garage. I believe I had it span 3 trusses, which distributes the load. Then a eye bolt going it that and you have a strong anchor. If you can't find a cut off at a construction site, just pick up a piece of 2*12" and have it span 4 trusses, 4 screws into each truss and the problem is solved.