2024 Elk Meat Transport Strategy

Marine4life said:
I always drive because it is most often the most cost effective, gives me flexibility and allows me to take all the gear I need to be adaptable to the hunt. Seems simple for me based on my personal experience with trips west over the last 30 years from as far east as PA. I always drive, sleep in the truck when I get tired, hunt and drive home when done. I did a quick search and from Kalispell to Phoenix is under 19 hours. For me that’s a day trip. No need for hotel/motel and I surely don’t like to leave my rig at any hotel between home and my hunting destination. Last year I did a trip from my home in Missouri to Hunt sheep in NV then elk in Az, then home to Missouri for 10 days. Then back to Western Nevada to continue my sheep hunt, then home again. Sure it was almost 10k miles but I had everything I needed for a successful hunt. Never slept in a hotel.
For meat, I recommend you buy a $200 freezer and run a generator a few hours a day to keep any meat or meals you have frozen. If successful I process my meat and vac seal in camp while sipping bourbon and celebrating success. The year before last I traveled to Wyoming to hunt elk, killed a bull then went to MT to also hunt elk. Meat in the freezer stayed frozen with a 4-6 hour generator run every day for the 7 days I hunted in MT. I save money by eating home made meals vac sealed and frozen, sleeping in the truck while traveling and processing my own meat. If you took those savings it will equal the cost of an elk tag for the next year. Plus I have flexibility to leave when I want. What do you do if you have a return flight scheduled 10 days out and kill a bull on day one or you have to leave early for a family emergency?
Just how I think I guess.


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Seems sound advice. How big of freezer are you talking here for $200 ? Re self processing the meat. That's my plan. My parents live about 30 minutes from the hunt area (trailhead)...so we'll be staging from there, and heading out on 3-6 day backpack hunting missions from there.
 
MaybeLostNeverStuck said:
Seems sound advice. How big of freezer are you talking here for $200 ? Re self processing the meat. That's my plan. My parents live about 30 minutes from the hunt area (trailhead)...so we'll be staging from there, and heading out on 3-6 day backpack hunting missions from there.
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Mine is a 5 cubic foot I bought at Lowe’s for under $200 and is going in 8+ years. It’s a bait freezer for fish when not going back and forth out west. It will hold 2 processed bulls and also is great to cool down quarters when too warm to hang.
I have a cheaper champion 1800 watt genny that runs it just fine and either use the genny or truck inverter to run the food saver vac sealer. On the road the freezer goes inside my box trailer and the genny in the back of truck so I can easily refuel. I have a Noco plug and extension cord mounted in front of my trailer to connect genny power to freezer.


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I’d drive and stick with your plan of 2 days travel each way. I’ll typically do a longer 12+ hour leg the first day, crash in a motel, then finish up the drive the second day and possibly be hunting by that evening feeling rested up. Driving gives you the benefit of bringing whatever you want, safe travel for your meat, and you get to see some country you’ve maybe never seen before. I’ll even bring a target stand and shoot a little bit on the way out on BLM. Helps to break up the drive.
 
Drive...You aren't missing out on 3-4 days of hunting. Night is 10ish + hours. Means 1/2 of your driving you can't hunt anyways. Leave after work you'll even gain a couple hours driving in the light. Leave Friday around 4pm you'd be there late afternoon. enough to set up camp, do some scouting, start hiking in etc.

Just bring coolers full of ice...when you kill something debone it and get it on ice. Chances are you won't kill something for a few days so you don't have to worry about keeping meat for 14days anyways. Or, pay a little bit for freezer space at a meat shop.

Not sure why guys make everything more difficult.
 
WCB said:
Drive...You aren't missing out on 3-4 days of hunting. Night is 10ish + hours. Means 1/2 of your driving you can't hunt anyways. Leave after work you'll even gain a couple hours driving in the light. Leave Friday around 4pm you'd be there late afternoon. enough to set up camp, do some scouting, start hiking in etc.

Just bring coolers full of ice...when you kill something debone it and get it on ice. Chances are you won't kill something for a few days so you don't have to worry about keeping meat for 14days anyways. Or, pay a little bit for freezer space at a meat shop.

Not sure why guys make everything more difficult.
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Thanks for the input! Everyone's feedback has helped me to come to the "just drive" conclusion .

To be clear though, I wasn't worried about the meat going bad while I was in the field. I grew up in the area, and still have plenty of friends and family around (i.e if I kill, I'm not trying to preserve the meat in the field ..it's going into a freezer in town, before i start hunting/camping again). My concern was solely on the logistics of transporting meat from Montana, back to Arizona where currently reside

Cheers everyone!
 
I do California to Colorado Drive. I always drive and camp or get a airbnb or hotel etc.
I bring a large folding table. and I break the animal down to the main muscle groups when I am there, then I bring a vacuum sealer and I seal up the large muscle groups, throw them in the ice chest allowing them to "wet age (Proper term, I'm not talking about soaking the meat)" You could let it age in there for a few weeks if you wanted to and kept it covered in Ice. I was able to fit a full elk in a big costco 150qt cooler this way.
Im going to Maui to hunt again this year, I will just buy cheap coolers when I am there freeze the meat and duct tape the cooler shut and keep them at like $50 for each cooler it luggage fees.
 
Since you have family near where you will be hunting that makes it an easy decision. Drive. Bring the freezer and you can leave it at your parents house plugged in. Debone the meat or process it and freeze right at their house. Stays there until you are ready to go home. If you are done early then you get to hang out with family and friends for a day or two without worrying about flights. If you don’t want to worry about a freezer then send your family the money for one and have them buy it and leave at their house. Bring it home with you frozen and packed tight and you wouldn’t even have to worry about running it for a short two day trip. Or, leave it there for your next return hunt and come home with coolers and maybe use a little dry ice.
 
LostArra said:
Option 1 (drive): you are in control of the meat.
Option 3: (fly): the airline is in control. I just returned from a three day fishing trip with my daughter and son in-law. My rods never made it to the destination and I am now home and the rods are nowhere to be found. I would not trust meat to an airline (although I've trusted frozen salmon and halibut from Alaska to an airline and it went fine)
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+1 on being mindful that the airlines may lose your luggage. I flew back from New Zealand years ago, trip there and back went well until I arrived in Phoenix and they lost my case with my Bow and Optics in it. it was a real hassle to get back a day later.

Have you considered peeling off the highway and sleeping on a Cot to chip away at hotel expenses? $400 for hotels and meals could be cut to just meals and potentially save a little time behind the wheel
 
What about delivering carcasses to processor and recieving them back at your house via common carrier?

I had a bear processed in MT a few weeks ago and shipped to my door for around $200 total.
 
On the same trip I got reamed at airline for the 3rd bag fees you are already are aware of. $460 to fly with 2 bags and a rifle for both legs in addition to airfare.
 
I really like your analysis. Well thought out. Here is my $.02.

I like being in control of my schedule and will drive in most cases. When you fly there are a lot of things out of your control. Flights canceled or changed, lost luggage, etc. Plus, you don't have control over the vehicle that you get when you rent. We did a bear hunt in ID a few years back and got a Jeep with street tires on it. All we needed was to get to a trail head and we got stuck in a small snowdrift. It caused a big delay.

Also, when you fly, you don't get to have coolers with you, which should be a consideration. You could purchase some of those Styrofoam ones, but they aren't that great. If the weather gets warm, then you run the risk of meat spoilage if you don't have available coolers.

For hotels, have you considered picking a hotel credit card? I play the points game and almost never pay for hotels when traveling. I've seen IHG offer a card with +100k points if you spend $3k in 3 months. I usually pay it off immediately and hold the points. That could be a $400 savings.

If you drive, then you can leave early if you tag out too!

Personally, I like to drive because I like podcasts and Copenhagen.
 
Boone-In-Wall said:
I really like your analysis. Well thought out. Here is my $.02.

I like being in control of my schedule and will drive in most cases. When you fly there are a lot of things out of your control. Flights canceled or changed, lost luggage, etc. Plus, you don't have control over the vehicle that you get when you rent. We did a bear hunt in ID a few years back and got a Jeep with street tires on it. All we needed was to get to a trail head and we got stuck in a small snowdrift. It caused a big delay.

Also, when you fly, you don't get to have coolers with you, which should be a consideration. You could purchase some of those Styrofoam ones, but they aren't that great. If the weather gets warm, then you run the risk of meat spoilage if you don't have available coolers.

For hotels, have you considered picking a hotel credit card? I play the points game and almost never pay for hotels when traveling. I've seen IHG offer a card with +100k points if you spend $3k in 3 months. I usually pay it off immediately and hold the points. That could be a $400 savings.

If you drive, then you can leave early if you tag out too!

Personally, I like to drive because I like podcasts and Copenhagen.
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Why can’t you have coolers with you when flying?
 
Traveler said:
Why can’t you have coolers with you when flying?
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You certainly can, but I doubt it would be cost effective for 1 elk and 2 deer. I have a larger soft sided Yeti cooler that I have flown with. In fact, you can carry it on! If done right, I think you could fit a deboned mule antelope in there, minus the antlers. You would definably want to freeze the meat before hand.
 
I do it every year. Chama to New Orleans. I get the meat processed in Chama, and pick it up frozen already processed (cut and wrapped). I put it in ice chests, pack it with dry ice and duct tape the ice chests. We leave Chama the next day and stop halfway home (Quanah, Texas) 12 hours later. Get home the next evening after driving another 12 hours. When I get home, the meat is still fully frozen, and some dry ice is still in the ice chests. That's after 72 hours. I thought about shipping it home once but the cost to ship was really outrageous, and you have to have someone receive it when it arrives, or it will sit by your front door. Not even thinking about what happens if it misses the connection, sits in a warehouse, sits on a delivery truck for hours, etc.
I'm leaving in October for trip #35 to Chama, and plan on doing the same. Only concern is locating dry ice, but it's usually available in Chama, Pagosa Springs (45 minutes away), or Santa Fe which we pass through on our way home.
 
I really think you made the right choice to drive. I just came back from a successful off-range broken horn oryx hunt (OR to NM). I flew to save time and in the end driving wouldn't have been much more time consuming and definitely no more expensive. I hauled back the skull/horns and 200+ pounds of meat plus rifle and carry on. It was pretty tough by myself and would have been much more enjoyable and actually cheaper to drive
 
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