A Meat Pole for Deer Camp

Every good deer camp needs a meat pole. We’ve been making do for the past three years, gutting and cleaning deer on the front porch. However, it makes for a messy clean-up, and Girlfriend has decided that there is no way she can stomach another episode, with her holding the light while I get elbow-deep in a deer.

I’ve pondered the problem for a while. I figured a kid’s swing set would be an ideal model, but for the height I intended, the base would be dramatically wide. I also didn’t want to use too many long pieces. It finally occurred to me that unlike children, I don’t think any deer will be doing any serious swinging—only hanging. That meant I did not have to build a huge A-frame for stability. A simple Y frame would work. I made a trip down to the barn to look through my stock of scraps, and came up with 6 nice 3X5’s, all about 5 feet long and 1 3X5 12 footer. I also used scraps of 2X4 for the top braces. The bottom braces were 2X6X5’.

If you were going to do this yourself, I’d think 4X4 treated would replace the 3X5. I had a 12-foot piece, so that was the length I used. It really doesn’t matter. I suppose an eight footer would give you enough span for 2. I used 3 ½” eyes on mine with the idea of having room for up to 5-8 deer . It’s all put together with 3” deck screws. All cuts are 45 or 90 degrees.

Now that we’ve got the sheds electrified, I can run an extension cord out to the pole and do my work. Meanwhile, Girlfriend can stay in the house and dream of puppies in the sunshine.

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