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Deer Pole for your garage

My family lost our deer skinning, butcher garage as my father sold his home. We had a great set up. We used to hang deer by the exposed rafters ( I had a fab shop make a gambrel hooks that went over the 2x8 rafters these were about 18" long (these are slick). I now need to construct some type of removable meat pole for my garage. So I am looking to construct something (free standing) that can hold 3-6 deer, that can easily be setup/removed. My garage is finished and the rafters are 2X4 so hanging from them is out of the questions. Suggestions?

HF43

Tractor and a bucket?? I use one and it's slick as well as using the bucket instead of dragging the things.

Please excuse my 2 min drawing skills but this is what I would do. 2x8's will be more than strong enough. 2x6's would make this rig considerably lighter and it will still be plenty strong. Think of a porch swing only on a bigger scale. You're hanging beam will fit snugly into the end notches and middle slot. Easily put up and taken apart. You should be able to put 3 deer on each side. Just a quick idea. Hope it helps. I can figure out the exact measurements and draw up exact instructions if you want.

When I was a teenager I used to pull engines out of cars using a comealong and an old railroad tie that I put up in the 2" x 4" rafters in my parent's garage. The railroad tie spread the weight of the big block chevy engines across multiple rafters and it was never a problem.

If you have a way of getting up into the attic of your garage you could just lay a long 4" x 4" across multiple rafters and then drill holes through the 4" x 4" and through your ceiling and install eye-bolts or eye-hooks through the 4" x 4" and protruding down through the ceiling that you could hang your deer from. The only thing anybody would see is the eye-bolts or hooks protruding down through your ceiling.

At home I use an I-hook with a pulley hoist and gambrel. At the cabin I do like Mike mentioned and simply run 4x4 between two rafters in the shed. I'm not much for the traditional meat pole that displays deer for some unscrupulous individual to back in and load up in the night or while we're in town celebrating. Looks good in the old nostalgic photos though!

I did exactly like Cheesehead Mike, but I spanned the rafters with another 2 x 4 and have several eye bolts spaced approximately 2' apart. I use a small come along to hoist them up rear end up and tie them off to the adjacent eye bolt. I've had up to (3) deer hung at the same time. I can skin and butcher them as they are hung. I've had it for 20+ years with no problems.

I built one last year out of 4 x 4's and one 2x4. It is 10' 4" tall and 8 ft wide. The top cross bar is 12 ft. I put "J" hooks with pulleys through the beam. It holds 7 deer. There are 7 pulleys and 7 screw eyes, each has a separate rope and I put a $20 boat winch on each upright post. The top cross bar is lag bolted to the 2 uprights. It easily is movable with the ATV or 2 guys can push it around. I just pull the 2 bolts for the uprights and it folds flat.

It is currently being used for hanging flower baskets.

I hope this helps.

Your concern with attachment to the bottom cord is valid. I assume you have an access door to the 'attic'. Screw a 2x6 that is about 5' long to the top cord. I say 5' so you get a set of screws well out from each side of the peak. Then at the center of the 2x6 tie a rope and run it thru a hole in the sheetrock right next to the bottom cord. Tie a bowline at the end just under the sheetrock to fasten the deer or a pulley to. You might want to put a strap of some sort over the rope just above the sheetrock so the rope does not move around and create a bigger hole in the sheetrock. Or screw a small piece of plywood to the underside of the bottom cord with a hole in it to run the rope thru to do the same thing. Put one of these on each rafter for as many deer as you think might be hanging there. If you are still worried about weight install one every other rafter.

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