Delta Airlines Flyers - Any Issues with Checking Caribou Antlers when Flying Home?

A

AKBorn

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We're taking my best friend's son (just turned 18 and graduated HS) up for a flyout caribou hunt out of Tok this year. They are flying Delta Airlines to/from Anchorage. How have you Delta flyers been getting your antlers home? If Delta accepts them as checked baggage, what kind of prep do you need to do for Delta to accept them? I haven't brought antlers home with me since 2004, so I am definitely out of the loop on this one -

Thanks,

Michael (AKBorn)
 
Buy or take garden hose cut up pieces for tips.

Make sure skull is taped up and baggied up good so it looks neat and not bloody sloppy.

Should be no brainer except for the cost they are charging now for antlers. I hope it’s direct or at least delta the entire way home for ya.

Get to airport early to avoid any haste they give ya.

Good luck


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
From personal experience I would strongly encourage you to arrive at least 3 hours early and I I would also a copy of their regulations from online.

Flying back my initial gate attendant wound up being an anti-hunter and wasn’t going to let me fly the antlers home. Said they just stopped allowing that. I started reasonably making my case as regulations before I left said they were fine and my outfitter had done this numerous times and assured me everything was up to spec… (I had to keep telling myself not to loose my shit)

The voices in my head said screen shot regs before my flight up and luckily I had in hand. .. she showed her anti hunting colors and started yelling that if I was a true hunter bringing just the meat back would be all I really cared about …. I calmly asked for her manager…

He walked up and asked what the problem was . She started going into her deal and he said it’s not a problem and me and him started BS’ing. Before I walked around to security he gave me a high 5 and a pat on the back for getting it done with a traditional bow .
Fish and Game happened to be there at the airport and was non-eventful. Just made sure I had my hunting license then started talking to me about traditional archery.

Horns made it safely back to Alabama
 
Split the skull cap and then wrap the skull cap in several layers of plastic, and then apply several layers of Duct Tape to that. Duct Tape both antlers together to create one bundle. Then wrap the tines and palmation in heavy cardboard and apply copious amounts of Duct Tape to that. You're golden at that point. Garden hose taped over tine ends will also work when protecting antler tines.
 
Did you guys remove all the velvet prior to wrapping the antlers? Is it fairly easy to remove velvet and clean blood off the antlers in the field?
 
dirtyredvmax said:
Did you guys remove all the velvet prior to wrapping the antlers? Is it fairly easy to remove velvet and clean blood off the antlers in the field?
Click to expand...

Very simple to peel velvet from antlers. If you're going to fly velveteen antlers on the airlines, you'll want to wrap every square inch of them in several layers of plastic and then attach it with shipping tape.
 
I am the owner of AK Trophy Expediters in Anchorage and I am located right next to the airport. I do antler wrapping and also have walking freezer to store meat until flight home. Delta charges alot for extra bags so sometimes cheaper to cargo everything home if they live near a major hub. I
I would be happy to talk to you about everything and how to prepare. My personal cell# 907-223-2666

Nick Ploesser
Ak Trophy Expediters
Owner
 
AKHunter22 said:
I am the owner of AK Trophy Expediters in Anchorage and I am located right next to the airport. My personal cell# 907-223-2666

Nick Ploesser
Ak Trophy Expediters
Owner
Click to expand...

I rarely get all the way into Anchorage, but I'll stop in and see you sometime, Nick. I'll keep your number and pass it on to clients. I've been using Shean (Anchorage) and Aaron (Palmer) but it's always nice to have options. Thanks for the post!
 
I used Nick’s service few years ago to help me with my moose meat. He’s a great guy and went out of his way to accommodate!

Highly recommend him!
 
We stopped and talked with Nick last February about our muskox logistics. He was a wealth of information and help. I can't recommend him strongly enough. Great guy and we will definitely be using him on future Alaska trips..
 
Great info to know, I booked Alaska Airlines for my AK trip and made sure each connecting flight was Alaska as well. Was a little hesitant to fly Delta because I wasn’t able to find good info, this post sounds like Delta would be okay too. Cargo also sounds like a good option from Anchorage.
 
With all of this said, would it be easier to just fly Alaska the whole way?
Buddies and I have a tripped planned for 27 and want to get as much streamlined as possible and look/think about everything
We would be flying from Detroit to Prudhoe Bay
I’ve found flights that are Alaska the whole way
 
JustinRB said:
With all of this said, would it be easier to just fly Alaska the whole way?
Buddies and I have a tripped planned for 27 and want to get as much streamlined as possible and look/think about everything
We would be flying from Detroit to Prudhoe Bay
I’ve found flights that are Alaska the whole way
Click to expand...
I used Alaska on my caribou hunt out of Kotzebue and Alaska airlines was terrific and way cheaper than cargo flights I was charged for an extra bag $50 for the 50 lbs. of meat well wrapped and frozen in a fish / wax box and then charged an oversize / extra bag $75 for the two sets of antlers that were in one big box antlers they were split taped etc. and it was easy just charged for two extra bags I think it was 125.OO this was in 2021. Our outfitter helped us with this and made sure there wasn't any blood on the boxes. This made it so easy it just flew with us, and we grabbed it and put it in the truck and drove home. If I ever go back which I intend to do I will make sure I set up this process up again because I heard and seen the nightmare scenario of the other way and the meat is really important to me.

Now there was two guys with a different outfitter on this same flight and they were going to do the same thing and wanted the velvet left on which the outfitter / hunters didn't make sure they were wrapped well enough / frozen enough to not bleed through the big cardboard box and Alaska denied that box to fly on the flight so they ended up in a goat rope to try to do something 1hr. before their flight left and paid out the butt for flying it cargo at the last minute so do not make that mistake. If there is any spot of blood bleeding through that cardboard box, they will not let it on the plane. The spot of blood on their box was about 3 inches wide and 2 inches long on a big box so there is a zero-blood spot policy that Alaska does enforce pretty hard.
 
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