I flew home with an elk last fall.
My hunt was mid November in northern CO. I killed my bull early in the hunt and was able to hang quarters in an insulated mini barn my hunting partner has on his place. The day before I flew back the meat was mid 30s in the middle of the quarters, and I boned it all out, purchased 2 Coleman 70 qt coolers, lined them with plastic, and filled them to 95lbs total per cooler. I did have a couple pieces of meat in a soft sided cooler in my checked duffel as well. I paid oversize and overweight fees on them and checked them along with my duffel and rifle case. Everything was fine when I got home.
A few points to consider....
- I think I could have gotten 95 lbs in a 55 qt cooler instead of a 70 qt, and I believe it would have saved my oversize fees.
- September might have made chilling a bit more challenging.
- I flew non-stop DEN-STL. A longer set of flights might have changed things, but honestly a chunk of meat that size chilled all the way through to the mid 30s will be fine for quite some time.
-duct tape is cheap, and I taped the living daylights out of those coolers to keep everything closed up tight. I write my name and phone number on the side as well.
-I left the antlers with my hunting partner, as cwd regs wouldn't let me bring a skull home that wasn't clean. I had a euro done out there, and at some point I'll figure out a way to get it here. Antlers are probably the biggest issue with flying.
-Don't buy fancy roto molded coolers for this. The walls are too thick and you'll wind up way oversize to get the volume you need. If you can get the cooler full and keep the lid tight a standard cooler will do fine, unless your itinerary is way longer than normal.