Bringing home meat on a plane

[Gunnersdad49]

If you can fly Southwest, your first two bags fly for free. Get one bigass gun case and put everyone's guns in it. That leaves the three of you with 5 bags at 50 lbs each for free. Don't over pack on clothes, etc. Most TX hog ranches have showers, bunks, etc, and you are just sitting and sweating in a blind over a feeder. Don't over think that part of it. Between your carry-ons, and 5 bags, you can get a lot of meat home. The other option is to have your meat processed in TX, and have the processor ship it to you.
I have limited vacation time, so more often than not, I would prefer to hunt for those extra 3 days than spend them driving. Though there is some appeal to a road trip with the hunting buddies every once in a while.

 

[nickstone]

I drive down from Northern California to Texas usually 2 times a year to hunt pigs with my dogs. I fill up the bed of my truck with ice chests, the pigs I bring home just go into them. I usually stop to sleep in ABQ on the way down, and Flagstaff on the way home.

I actually enjoy the drive.

Where in Texas are you planning on hunting? Rifle? Bow? Dogs?

 

[Jtay561]

I second flying Southwest if you can. Bring your clothes/gear in coolers, guns in one case, and each take a backpack and a soft sided iced chest that can fit under the seat in front of you (southwest calls this a "personal item)on the way there. Then pack as much meat as you can in the soft sided ice chest and backpack as full as possible with frozen meat (they wont weigh these), pack the ice chest too as close to the weight limits as possible, and then either ship clothes home, throwing cheap stuff loke socks, undies out or pack around guns/any excess space.

Ive flown multiple times this way with two fully boned out whitetail and not paid extra.

Has always been the cheapest way i could find ( going solo though so nobody to split gas with)

 

[archer wapiti]

about 45-50 min into this podcast, Steve and Remi talk about it.
Episode 050: Steven Rinella answers frequently asked listener questions with Remi Warren along with Janis Putelis, and Garret Smith from the MeatEater crew. – MeatEater

 

[Laelkhunter]

about 45-50 min into this podcast, Steve and Remi talk about it.
Episode 050: Steven Rinella answers frequently asked listener questions with Remi Warren along with Janis Putelis, and Garret Smith from the MeatEater crew. – MeatEater

Good stuff. Thanks for the link.

 

[pwsINC]

Currently for work I live and work on island and south florida. So for a few years every hunt has involved flying.

What I do now. Fly whoever gets you most free bags. Get an airline credit card... free bags.

After the kill get meat frozen. Buy the styofoam cooler from walmart. Weights like a pound *AND* a large carboard box from walmart. The cooler will fit into thr box. And then i check that. It weighs like 2 lbs. No dry ice, nothing to declare. I have had to go 3 flights to return from every trip and meat made it fine. What i learned hard ways.

1- Dry ice varies by airline and is regulated so i dont use it.

2- Styrofoam coolers alone arent allowed by some airlines.

3- A box is allowed by everyone. Just double bag the sealed meat and tape the cooler seam good. I make some handles for the box from duct tape.

A good tip, any cooler not full i stuff my sleeping bag or puffy into around the bag of meat.



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[pwsINC]

This above will get you most meat per $. And cooler with box usually costs around $9-10.

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[Rs3003]

There is a lot of great info here.