Gettin the meat home ?

[wannaBelkhuntin]

I drew my Elk and Mule Deer tags for Colorado Muzzle loader season. We have always driven to Colorado from western NY but this year we are going to fly out. How do you get the meat back. I have been told to ship all my equipment/clothes back via UPS and take the meat on the airline and pay the extra baggage fee for the boxes of meat [frozen]. This sounds reasonable. Any suggestions and any actual numbers on what it cost would be greatly appreciated. We have 3 of us going with 2 guys with archery Elk tags and me with an MZ tag and all 3 of us have MZ Mule Deer tags. So the possibility of a fair amount of meat and some antlers to get back to NY is a concern. Over night shipping would be cost prohibitive to our budgets. I have even thought of renting a car/mini van and hauling the meat back if we are very lucky. Yea I know I am dreaming big but if your going to dream is there any other way ?
Thanks Dave

 

[apollosmith]

Delta (as a good example) charges $25 for the first bag and $35 for the second. They'll charge you $90 for bags weighing 51-70 lbs. and $175 for bags weighing 71-100 lbs. That's if they are within the normal luggage size requirements. Bigger bags will be another $175. More than 2 of these will be an extra $125-$200 more. Two coolers up to 100 pounds will be $760. Remember that they need to be iced too (though NOT dry ice on the airlines).

If travelling by air, you might consider Southwest or some other discount airline that won't rape you on your baggage fees.

I'd imagine that FedEx or UPS next day would probably be less expensive and a one-way rental + gas even less expensive (though a lot more time-consuming).

 

[BIGJOHNT]

My guess you would have to leave your animals hanging at the butcher. When the butcher gets the meat cut and packaged. He would have to wait until its frozen. Package it in dry ice and next day air it to you .
Call a butcher in the area you are hunting and talk details with him .

 

[justr_86]

>Call a butcher in the area
>you are hunting and talk
>details with him .

+1 he might have more options for you. I would lean towards the rental car idea if you and your buddies are very successful. 1 maybe 2 animals it would be worth shipping but anymore than that you can split the cost and have a nice drive.

 

[wannaBelkhuntin]

Thanks for the responses so far. I am flying Delta , mainly because of a poll on AT that rated Delta as the best at getting your hunting supplies to your destination on time with your arrival. Also Southwest does not fly to Buffalo,NY
I have since checked the cost of a rental car one way and it is 600.00 + for a mini van /mid size SUV. Ryder/U haul seemed about the same. Add in some coolers, dry ice and fuel to get home and ouch !!
Also next day on 300 lbs. of frozen meat [1 packaged Elk] would cost my left and right nut so I am thinking that is not an option. It would be cheaper to pay Delta the extra baggage fees. I will contact the butcher in Bayfield that we have used in the past and see what he says.
I am starting to regret the few days time savings by flying out. It may cost a small fortune in the end if we are successful. The only good thing is we share all meat and ALL cost.
Any body else have suggestions or help. Anybody hauling a trailer back from SW Colorado after the MZ season to NY, Ohio or PA that might be able to help? I know that was desperate but I want to be prepared.
Thanks Dave

Is it 9/9/10 yet ? Good Luck to all.

 

[Gator]

This is the reason you always have at least one retired person in your group so they can drive out Bringing the camp with them and take the meat and horns back so the rest of you can fly to and from. LOL
Frozen and shipped will be the best way. IMO


"I have found if you go the extra mile it's Never crowded".

 

[7ultra]

I checked on this last year. I know you aren't flying Southwest but I found out they have a cargo service. You have to register with the airline and they verify your place of residence, all b/c of 9-11. Anyway, you can ship packages with this cargo service for a lot cheaper. Maybe Delta has the same service. Are you too far of a drive from a Southwest serving terminal?

Last year I took a 100 qt cooler( it has a handle and wheels which makes it easy to wheel around in the airport by yourself) on the plane as one of my checked bags. Packed it with hunting clothes and the like.

You're going to SW Co, what unit will you be hunting?

Good luck, knock um down.

 

[7ultra]

Southwest does fly to Buffalo, NY according to their website. Save yourself some money and fly SW airlines.

 

[upmuley]

Are you going to have it processed in CO? If you are you can buy a 7 day cooler from Sams or Costco and send it GROUND. You can buy a 7 day cooler that holds 145 pounds of meat (maximum weight by FEDEX or USP is 150# so you must stay under that weight with each cooler. Make sure your processor sends it on MONDAY so it will be in NY on FRIDAY. You should also send all your gear, clothing etc FEDEX except for a firearm (unless muzzy) which can not be sent FEDEX/UPS. Just wear the clothes on your back and take a carry on with 40# of meat and two checked bags each at the airline's maximum weight.

The airlines are the cheapest way to get your meat home for the first roughly 120#. Over an above that if you can get it frozen the FEDEX/UPS bill on 150# will be about $75 (I use my company's shipper account to get a discount and if you have access to someone with an account use it you will save some bucks and can reimburse them). That comes out to about 50 cents a pound to get it home. If you overnight it you can plan on $2-2.50 per pound to ship it and you might as well rent a car at that point. Remember - no dry ice on airplanes and there are venting restrictions for UPS / FEDEX so if you are going to make a big meat haul in CO either get it frozen or rent a car. Overnighting it will cost as much as the rest of your hunt!

Good luck!

Jason

 

[whaletail]

Have you considered just taking some backstrap home with you on the plane and donating the rest of it to a Navajo mission or some other needy group? Thats what I did a few years back when I hunted in NM.A lot less hassle ,and you get to help out some needy people. Just a thought.

 

[wannaBelkhuntin]

>Southwest does fly to Buffalo, NY
>according to their website.
>Save yourself some money and
>fly SW airlines.

Already booked with Delta 2 months ago. Cost was the basically same no matter who I chose,so I chose Delta because of the high praise I read on them NOT LOSING luggage. Although it seemed SW did well with that also.

Yes we will take an Elk to Bayfield to get it processed. A deer we will probably do ourselves. 74 I have seen decent to very good Bulls my first 3 trips [archery] but no shot. With the MZ I should have a very good chance.

I will look into the cargo service also.

As for the retired guy I know 1 that drives out there, but he goes the first 2 weeks of archery. I wonder if we could bribe him into hunting a couple weeks later ? Need to check on that.

Thanks guys this has been very helpful. Anyone else ?
Thanks Dave

 

[nripepi]

The best advice is return your ticket and by one from southwest, you will save big money both ways! Did they change the dry ice rules recently...I have taken dry ice a number of times in the past 5 years. To maximize the amount of meat you can fit in your 50 lb limit...I usually buy insulated cardboard boxes that hold right at 50 lbs of meat and add my 4 lbs of dry ice. Seal it up with heavy duty garbage bags and tape the seams. With a big group in the past we found it cheaper to ship home a pallet of our gear from Denver (basically constructed our own box and threw everything in including antlers) for a couple of hundred bucks and then just took our guns and meat (2 elk with 4 persons flying southwest) home with us.

I saw advice about carrying on 40 lbs of frozen elk meat. You better check first to see if this is allowed. I would be interested to know.

 

[wannaBelkhuntin]

>The best advice is return your
>ticket and by one from
>southwest, you will save big
>money both ways!

Delta only cost me 380.00 round trip from Buffalo NY to Albuquerque,NM., and as I said all of them were within a few dollars of each other. Plus these flights get me into NM at 12:20 PM so I can still drive to Colorado and scout for a couple hours. Their flights just fit our schedule and what we hope to do very nicely. Plus only one change of planes each way vs. sitting in airports for hours or multiple planes changes. I did research this fairly well with Expedia, priceline, orbitz and a couple others.

OK now back to figuring out how to get our meat back to western NY.
Thanks Dave
And A SPECIAL THANK YOU to ALL OF OUR ARMED FORCES for all they give and do so we can all live our own AMERICAN DREAM.

 

[Karlofdawild]

LAST EDITED ON May-31-10 AT 05:12PM (MST)[p]Last September, just before we flew out west for a WY elk hunt Delta changed their carry on baggage policy. The SIZE restriction 14 x 10 x 31 (?) stayed the same, but they now allow unlimited weight for your carry on.

First,we greased the butcher so he'd freeze our meat down quicker. We went to Home Depot and bought a 4' x 8' sheet of 1/2" rigid foam, duck tape, and 4 grey plastic tubs from Walmart for $5.00 ea. The grey tubs, once lined with foam, held 49.9 pounds perfect. Our carry ons were also lined the same held 60+ lbs!!( + a trash bag for insurance).

Our gear was sent back home via the U.S. Postal Service priority mail ( about a buck per lb. ) in the same grey tubs. Since we both scored elk and antelope we coudn't take it all so we gave a bunch to a shelter and also to the guys we rented the rv from.
Some meat on the outsides of the tubs thawed slightly partially due to the fact that it sat on the 90 degree tarmac in Atlanta for an 1 1/2. It still stayed frozen enough.

Hope this helps. Best of luck.

ps. the antlers and some other gear went to a trucking that accepted our 180 lb box that exceeded Fed Ex's and UPS Ground limit. Incidentally, that box arrived within 2 weeks,and,though it was too heavy for UPS and Fedex ground, the trucking co. charged us less. That box came from a local furniture place.

 

[nripepi]

LAST EDITED ON May-31-10 AT 07:31PM (MST)[p]not to be hammering this Southwest thing and I don't own any stock in them either, but it looks like southwest would be cheaper when you factor in luggage and they can get you there through Baltimore for the same price and same time as Delta (not adding in the $120 savings in luggage). Southwest does not show up on Expedia or Priceline, you have to visit their site directly. First two bags are free and your 3rd through 9th are $50 each ($1 per lb). You will save about $120 on your first two bags and Delta's 3rd is $125 and 4th and up are $200.

If you end up with a lot of meat that you want to take back, it might make sense for one person to buy a one way ticket back on Southwest ($200) and load them up with 9 50lb boxes of meat ($350)! Another option is to upgrade to first class if you can cheaply on Delta (you get 3 bags at 70lbs for free flying first class).

I shouldn't be going on this Southwest bandwagon as I am flying USAIRWAYS to Denver to hunt elk in Wyoming this Fall! I do have 4 friends flying Southwest though, so they get to take the elk meat if we are lucky enough to get a few. USAIRWAYS no longer does the Delta deal on first class (3 free for 70 lbs) or I would be flying Cargo on the way out and First Class back and handing out elk meat to all my fellow first classers.

 

[wannaBelkhuntin]

nripepi I think I am starting to like you.lol Anybody as bound and determined to help me get my Elk meat home and do it at a fair price can't be all bad. I have looked at the SWA site and that does look like a winner. Thanks for all of your help.

 

[huntfishall1]

This is the route I'm going to try on any future elk hunts. I'm planning on giving plenty of meat away anyways since I'm the only one who usually easts it at my house, so it easier to just give it away near where I harvest instead of the hassle and $$$$ of dragging it home.

 

[MNElkNut]

We are in a similar situation but will be driving to MN. 2 of us going. Our plan is to have the butcher freeze the first one and ice down and drive like mad for the second one. Anybody got any good ideas on keeping them cool on the drive other than coolers/ice?

 

[wannaBelkhuntin]

MNElknut;Driving is easy getting the meat home. The cooler and dry ice works fine. We have hauled meat back to NY twice with coolers and dry ice. The dry ice has lasted the 2 1/2 days. I know others who put a chest freezer and a generator on a trailer. Just don't use regular ice and allow it to melt onto the meat, the water can damage the meat.

 

[alsatian]

Perhaps this question has already been answered satisfactorily, I don't have the patience to read through all the posts to determine this. If this is redundant, excuse me.

If the meat is hard frozen, packaged in one or more styrofoam insulating containers, the joint between lid and body of these containers well sealed with tape, my guess is you could ship this meat via 3-day shipper without the meat thawing. It may well be possible to include dry ice in such a shipment and increase the certainty of the meat arriving frozen. Some businesses ship frozen foods in insulated containers, perhaps with dry ice included (the dry ice part is speculative here). The key is (1) hard frozen meat and (2) well insulated container. I have carried meat in coolers for three days with dry ice and found most of the dry ice still in place, still keeping things real cold, at the end. While the meat is cooling down, the dry ice will be used up to some extent. Once the meat is hard frozen, however, it won't take much dry ice to keep it that way. Again, I sealed the joint between the cooler lid and the cooler body with tape.

 

[dleonard3]

I would seriously consider donating the meat to a local hunter or charity organization. Then take the money you would have spent on processing and shipping the meat home, and buy yourself some good beef when you get home.

 

[wannaBelkhuntin]

>I would seriously consider donating the
>meat to a local hunter
>or charity organization. Then
>take the money you would
>have spent on processing and
>shipping the meat home, and
>buy yourself some good beef
>when you get home.

I think you and I hunt for different reasons.
Dave

 

[Stiffy]

id talk to the airlines and find out rates.either way it sounds like it is gonna be expensive

 

[Whiterock]

The only time I flew the meat home was when I hunted in Newfoundland.Two caribou,meat,hides and antlers cost me $750 . After that we drove our selves.

 

[Outdoordan]

I completely agree with Alsatian and have done this myself and it works fine. Put your frozen elk meat in a couple of the new coleman extreme five day coolers which are gauranteed to keep ice frozen for 5 days in 90 degreee heat. Send them 3 day on UPS or Fedex. The coolers are $35 dollars at Wal-mart.

Driving 50+ hours from Western NY is insane, and with the price of gas the way it is, doesn't save you any money. In fact, you will lose 4 days each way of hunting with stop overs. The most important factor in elk/deer hunting is more time spent in the field.

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