Tried a new way to hang a side of beef and it was a mess

I saw a video where a guy in Texas used a single gambrel hook on a 600 pound carcass, so I tried it in my shop last week. The whole thing tilted and nearly dropped when the hook bent under the weight, which was scary. Has anyone found a good setup for bigger animals that doesn't risk dropping them?

3 comments

3 Comments

david_adams25d ago

Man, that sounds terrifying. I read a forum post a while back where a guy swore by using two separate gambrels, one for each side of the pelvis, linked with a short chain to a single hoist hook. He said it spreads the load and stops that dangerous tilt. For something that heavy, maybe the single hook just can't handle the stress point. What kind of hoist are you using?

wyatt51325d ago

But is the tilt really that dangerous? It seems like a lot of extra gear for something that's probably fine.

the_kim18d ago

Wait, are we really trusting a single hook to hold up a moose without it doing a 360 spin on us? Lol I've seen what happens when gravity picks favorites, and it's never pretty. I once tried to hoist a buck with just one gambrel and it started spinning like a rotisserie chicken, I swear I got dizzy just watching it. Ended up with the whole mess tangled in the tree branches and my buddy laughing so hard he almost dropped his beer. So yeah, extra gear feels like overkill until you're untangling a 200 pound animal from a pine tree at midnight.