I have just completed the last leg of a deer hunt I helped a couple of friends out with last November. We made several mistakes that cost them additional money even until now. Some of this issues have been talked about on this forum but I would like to add some information so that maybe you could all save some money.
The cost of shipping meat and also the mount can add up quicker than expected. My buddies decided to have jerky made at a local processing shop. The jerky would have been cheap to ship but they decided to have peperoni and salami made which retains water weight.
Also they decided to have the heads mounted here and then have them shipped.(They shipped today)
After some thought about the situation I have found what I beleive is the cheapest way to get both the meat and the trophy home.
To avoid a 200.00 shipping bill for two good size deer's worth of meat. A good plan would be to pack all you gear in 2 coolers. Upon returning with your meat, pack all your gear into a box and ship it home regular groud fed/ex(about 30.00) and check your meat filled coolers as your baggage. This should save you some money even with the heavy baggage charge,
If you have an animal that you want to mount, it might be a good idea to cape the animal(or have it caped) and drench it in salt, after fleshing it a bit, and check the hide in with your baggage( frozen would be best, If you have a way to boil out the skull portion of the horns do so and pack the horns in the large box with your hunting gear you are sending home.
I shipped 2 heads today and wanted them to go by air to cut down on the amount of times the heads would be handled. To go next day air would have been 700.00, to go 3 day was 418.88, the cheapest was ground 7 day for 40.00 but the clerk said that the box would go through some heavy handleing. So I opted for the second choice. Some proper planning before you go can save you a ton of money and leave you in better shape to start saving for a return trip. I hope this helps some of you keep your adventure somewhat affordable.
rather be hunting, I am glad to. Thank good I was able to save them guides fees etc. It was a realatively cheap hunt but could have been cheaper. Next time we will know how to do that.
We take a two axle flat bed trailer with 2 foot Aluminum sides.
In the front of trailer we carry a chest type frezzer
with Dry Ice and a rack over the ice so the meat won't
touch the ice. WE also load 4 ATV's on trailer and 6 GI cans of gas.
Heads, if we want them mounted, we leave them with a Tax.. if not we load
the racks.
We have made 4 trips to CO. and back, without any problems.
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For those hunting far from home,
