I know a similar quesiton was asked, good suggestions re handling meat.
My question is more specific to the rack. Checked w the airlines, Delta and its regional jets, apparently racks are ok if there is room, which could be an issue w some of these regional carriers. I have 3 legs to journey. Has anyone UPS shipped their Elk rack back? do they ship boxes that big via UPS? Just don't want to get hung up on one of my stops such as Cinci, and be told there is no room for the rack on that flight. A friend had the skull cut in half, and checked the two sides taped together, not sure ifthis a good idea? any more wisdom would be much appreciated. I think I'll freeze the cape and take that with me on the plane too.
I'm kinda facing the same problem , getting an Elkrack back to the UK .
I'm hoping that as my flight is direct back to London Heathrow , i will have space . Otherwise i will split Rack and get it shipped , Via USPS .
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Alaska airline does not let antler on the plane.On one hunt I split the skull and was able to smuggle a set of caribou antles on. A few years later I tryed that with a moose ,they knew what was in that large of a box.So I packed it with all my cloths and soft stuff and UPSed it home,then had the meat and cape as checked luggage.On one trip I took a 9.9 outboard as luggage and barrowed gas tanks and a raft from a air taxi I hired to fly me in. On the way home alaska airlines gave me a hard time about it,but what could they say I brought it with me and I'm taking it home.
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I went to Colorado last fall and was worried about getting my meat and horns back home if I would have had luck. I am going back this November, and I am still not sure what I am going to do. I am going with a friend, who's brother lives there, andask my friends brother where the closest butcher shop is to see if I have time, they can cut and put in on dry ice, and either try to fly it home or ship it some other way. If anyone has any experience with this, please advise.Icalled a few shipping carriers last fall, and it was looking pretty expensive. Any help appreciated, thanks.
When i went to Montana a few years ago we took all of our deer to a local butcher shop and had them keep it in their freezers, when it came time to fly home we bought a couple big red coleman coolers and packed them full of the meat. You can fit a whole mule deer (cut and wrapped) in a decent sized cooler. We just duct taped the crap out of the lid to make sure it stayed on and declared it as an extra bag. Had to pay the extra charge for the bag, plus it was overweight, but it got the meat home without any worries. You don't need dry ice when you do it this way though. The meat is all frozen, and with it packed in the cooler it didn't thaw at all. You have to remember that it stays real cold in the cargo hold of planes.
The horns and cape we put in a big cardboard box but when the airline found out what was in there they wouldn't let us take them on the plane (should have just lied about what was in the box), not to mention it was another outrageous extra bag and overweight fee. We had it sent back to our house via UPS and it arrived a few days later in fine condition. The muley I shot had a 30 inch spread (haha, not to brag or anything...) so we had to split its skull cap. The only thing to remember is that if you split the skull cap your trophy is no longer eligible for boone and crockett or pope and young record books if that sort of thing is important to you. Anyways good luck to you all and i hope that helped
Just a side note, if anyone knows which airline is the most "hunter friendly" it would be great if they could post it along with reasons why. That way hunters as a group can give our business to companies that are friendly to the cause, anyways just a thought
Thanks for the reply, hopefully I will have some luck this year, then I will have to worry about it. I am going for Elk, and a friend is going also. I will probably send clothes back thru postal, and fly the rest home as extra baggage also. sounds like that is the way to go. First 2 bags or boxes will be what I can bring anyways, will just be overweight. Have to have some luck first, right? Hope to, saw a lot of big muleys there, but takes 6 or 7 years to draw a tag there, and I don't want to get a muley anyways, I want an Elk.
To be perfectly honest, even if I was able to check ina set of antlers, I wouldn't allow the Baggage handlers to touch them. Heck, my luggage generallycomes out looking like its been ran over.
Shipping is the only solution. Crate them up and takeit to the Local UPS drop off. It will cost you a little coin, but at least your trophy willbe in one piecewhen it shows up a day after you.
I can't imagine hunting all these years hoping for a "muy grande" and finally scoring, then allowingThe baggage Gorillas tobust itup.Quit gripping those purse strings so tight and letloose a couple C notes and enjoy the memories.
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I shipped an elk rack via ups, they put it in a big box (skull was split), I tossed in lots of clothes and my boots and other stuff and shipped it. Showed up at my house just fine.
Elk rack shipping, flying..
