Rebel Dog

How do you get your meat home when traveling by air to go on a hunt? Driving is out of the question since it would be 8 days round trip. Is their a possibility of having it shipped? what would it cost? What is the norm?

psychowolverine

It just depends. If hunting with an outfitter they can answer all those questions for you, if not contact one and see what they do. I believe it can be flown back with you, but im not sure dry ice is allowed on planes.

bearklr

I know when my dad and his brothers took some elk in Idaho they shipped their meat back although I'm not sure of the cost. I would call ups or fed-ex and ask.

ShatoDavis

The best way I've found is to pack it in small coolers with dry ice and UPS it back home.

rick_reno

How much meat? You can ship and empty cooler and just fly back with it as luggage.

ShatoDavis

Generally speaking. Airlines limit bags to around 50 pounds. You are generally allowed two checked bags. after that they charge by the pound. I would hate to try and bring back an elk that way. I once had a bag that was 10 pounds over weight and it cost me $100.

SpyroAndes

8 days roundtrip sounds like Alaska...

Anyway, I use the airline.

First, all the meat should be frozen. A large mass of frozen meat will take a minimum of 36 hours to thaw out during normal hunting temps. There is no need for dry ice or any other ice.

Alaska is one of the easiest places to ship meat from since there is an abundance of fish boxes (waxed cardboard that holds 50lbs) around. They are by far the best for meat shipping.

I have used waxed produce boxes and trash bags coming back from Canada.

The problem with ice chests tend to get overweight very quickly, especially since many take the 120 quart, which also happen to be oversized so they hit your for oversize and over weight, although I have flown deer & antelope back in them.

Frankly, the last moose that I killed cost me $360 to ship the meat/hide and $160 for the antlers.

SA

Elkcrazy8

I just went through this with some friends of mine and found some interesting facts. If you decide to ship it, I would go with the post office. They contract with fed ex for air shipping. Surprisingly, the rates are cheaper because of a volume discount. The cheapest way would be to pack your hunting gear in a cooler as luggage for the trip out. If you get one down, ship your hunting gear(lighter) regular ground back to your house, and use your luggage(cooler) to bring the meat home with you on the plane. With the overweight luggage charges it would still be cheaper than trying to overnight it home. The guys that came out hunting with me each shot a nice mulie buck. They had around 200 lbs of meat combined. The cost to ship it was quite a bit. We found that it would have been cheaper to do it in the way that I described. I don't know what you are hunting, but I would find the average live weight and divide by 2 to get the pounds of meat that you will be dealing with. Call around and find out ahead of time so you are ready when the time comes. There can be a significant savings to you by doing it different ways.

Rebel Dog

I did the cooler ordeal last year with a Mountain Lion and it worked out well, I am in the process of planning a trip to BC for a combination Hunt - Mountain Goat and Moose or Mule Deer I havn't figured that part out yet. It is a long drive for me being on the east coast and the time for the drive and hunt I just couldn't do (18 or 19 days). If I am fortuanate enough to even take one animal it may be too expensive to bring back on a plane, so I think the shipping options are best. I would hate to loose a hide in the mail maybe ship the meat a bring the hide back in a cooler?

Elkcrazy8

The friends that I described came from New York to Idaho. I have done the drive several times. You just drive and drive and drive. I would suggest that if you can't get the meat home, leave it with any one of us westerners on here. We will take good care of it for you.