Getting meat and antlers home on a plane.

[fxd]

Hi everyone my first post. What are the differrent ways you pack meat and antlers to get home on a plane.And also the cheapest.Going to Colorado in Sept. for muzzleloader and hoping to get lucky and get a bull.

[wild4elk]

We work out a deal with at least one person in our hunting party to drive out and the gas and lodging is please for by the hunting party. Sometime you have to get creative in the deals to talk someone into driving for days.

Hope this helps, its just the way we do it.

[VT Outdoorsman]

My buddys dad was just out in Colorado huting elk for the first time in his life and he was fortunate enough to get a good bull. He simply processed the meat and sealed it in freezer bags and froze it and then overnighted it all home to Vermont in coleman coolers. Worked out fine and the meat was still frozen when it got to its destination.

[PA Bow/Flinter]

ORIGINAL: VT Outdoorsman

My buddys dad was just out in Colorado huting elk for the first time in his life and he was fortunate enough to get a good bull. He simply processed the meat and sealed it in freezer bags and froze it and then overnighted it all home to Vermont in coleman coolers. Worked out fine and the meat was still frozen when it got to its destination.

Any idea what the cost of that was? Just curious.

[Howler]

If you can get the meatprocessed and frozen would be the first step in getting any of it on a plane with you. Otherwise, plan on having it shipped back to you at a later date. Also might look into having the taxidermist work donelocallyof your hunting destination and then have it shipped back to you when finished. This won't be too cheap if you have a shoulder mount 6x6 elk, but more convinient than trying to take a large rack through an airport.
If you kill early enough and are lucky enough to get it processed in time to freeze it before youfly back home, then taking it back as checked luggage is the cheapest way to get it home. You can think about shipping your hunting gear by way of UPS instead of flying home with it. So your meat would be your checked luggage, and your luggage would be shipped home by way of UPS.

[AZBear]

A couple years back I brought my elk home with me on the plane and checked it in as excess baggage. It took two boxes and at the time they had to weigh less than 75 lbs each, but in the end it came to about $1/lb. I don't see any reason that if you wanted to do the same thing today that it wouldn't work since your paying for excess baggage.I do remember them being very adamant about it weighing less than 75 lbs per box other wise they would have made me go over to the air freight office and that would have been a bigger pain since it was on the other side of the airport. Make a call and see if the same thing still holds true for excess baggage.

[Bob H in NH]

I brought home 200 lbs of elk meat as checked in luggage, "typical" rules are you get 2 free checked bags as long as the are 50 lbs or less. After that you pay. Check with your carrier and work out the math to see ifits cheaper to have more bags under 50 lbs or fewer bags under 100lbs. I stayed at 50 and my trip home cost $300 or so for the over baggage charges. I think I checked either 5 or 6 bags.

Antlers can be split and taped, cape is very heavy.

One hunter in camp whenI was there overnighted his meat, cape and rack home. Cost him $800 (Idaho to MA)

[a1canadianoutfitters]

after figuring out which airline you're going to use,check out there website,it's all listed,how much for excess baggage,and for antlers,each airline has a little different way of going about it.

[gmil6184]

Yeah i would try to see if you can work out some kind of deal with the airline, if not you will end up paying for excess baggage, plus they will likely be overweight. When my family goes to montana (we are from upstate NY) we get our mulies processed by a local butcher and frozen, then we pack a coleman cooler with it (you can fit just about a whole deer in a large cooler) and just pay the extra cost. There really isn't an inexpensive or easy way to move that much meat across the country. The antlers and cape we just send through UPS, i think it is easier then having it mounted locally and sending the completed mount across the country. just my 2 cents..