Tips for transporting your harvest home?

[DrewS]

Any tips for transporting the meat, cape, and skull home via air travel? I live in the Midwest but hunt throughout the country and I prefer to process the meat myself and I have a taxidermist in my home town. I have not found a good way to do this at a reasonable price. Any advice would help? Thanks.

 

[willfrye027]

Would love to hear other suggestions on this, I'm doing air travel for archery mule deer in 2019. So far what I have come up with is using my airline card to get two free checked bags and spreading out the meat between those bags. I can take apart my pack and fit it into my carry on. I will wait to buy two cheap ice chests to use as my checked bags for the meat if I do kill one. Will either take it to the butcher or just get it cold before packing it away to butcher at home. For backpacking and archery I think it will work, but probably will have to pay someone to taxidermy and ship antlers.

 

[rayporter]

fish boxes are extremely light weight and hold 49 lb of meat. if a cooler weighs 10 lb you will only get 40 lb of meat in a cooler, if that.

 

[N2TRKYS]

If successful, cancel your returning flight and drive home.

 

[Crapshoot]

Bring a few rolls of Duct tape. Buy the cheap foam coolers when you get to your location. Completely wrap the foam coolers with the Duct tape, a little dry ice and your good to go. This will be cheap, lightweight and strong enough for the airline journey back home. I have done this a dozen times.

 

[willfrye027]

Where can you find these fish boxes? Googled it and I like the idea better than my cooler idea, but not sure how widely available they would be.

 

[Jordan Budd]

Kristy just did this:

She checked 2 duffel bags that were about half full of her things, then had a soft cooler in one bag. (Big cabelas canvas duffels). Then we put her meat in the cooler in one bag and her cape and antlers skull capped in the other bag. Each added to 45-50 lbs. We made sure everything was frozen solid before we went to the airport and it was all good.

Last year she did a european mount and we had our local guy boil most everything off of the skull then she put it in her carry-on and no one said a word. Said she does it all the time.

That was a whitetail deer. I would do the cooler or fish box method if it was anything larger.

 

[rayporter]

I don't think the fish boxes are super available in the lower 48.

order them ahead and take them with you or have them drop shipped to a place near your destination.[ processor]

 

[N2TRKYS]

Kristy just did this:

She checked 2 duffel bags that were about half full of her things, then had a soft cooler in one bag. (Big cabelas canvas duffels). Then we put her meat in the cooler in one bag and her cape and antlers skull capped in the other bag. Each added to 45-50 lbs. We made sure everything was frozen solid before we went to the airport and it was all good.

Last year she did a european mount and we had our local guy boil most everything off of the skull then she put it in her carry-on and no one said a word. Said she does it all the time.

That was a whitetail deer. I would do the cooler or fish box method if it was anything larger.

I put frozen turkey breast in my checked luggage when I hunted Nebraska. Stayed frozen from Denver to Atlanta.

 

[Dcaccia]

If successful, cancel your returning flight and drive home.

I’d second this.. I don’t check anything when flying if I can help it. I see the abuse, and mishandling of luggage every day at the airports that I’ve worked at. If I was under time constraints I’d have to look at ground shipping prices before checking any meat on a passenger plane.

 

[Gehrig Tucker]

Dry ice. Put it on top of whatever you're trying to keep cold (this will freeze it) and under anything you're trying to refrigerate. Don't let it touch anything you don't want frozen solid. You can use a towel to separate.

 

[Holocene]

It depends on what kind of game animal you are transporting and how much meat/horns we are talking about.

If ~40 pound of meat (doe, a few turkeys, etc.), then freeze the meat, wrap your packages in freezer grade aluminum foil, carefully back in a light backpack or duffle and take with you as a carry on. If you have a rack, then remove all hide and as much flesh as possible and wrap with thin cloth and strap to your hunting pack/backpack. It is legal to carry horns/antlers on an airline and I have done it several times. Great conversation starter. Don't know what I'd do about elk...

If you have a long layover or flight, you can add a layer of bubble wrap from Wal-Mart, though this stuff is somewhat expensive. I still use it in situations.

These recommendations assume you have processed and frozen the game somehow. For big game, I'd prefer to get it solidly wrapped in plastic game sleeves you see most game processors use or vacuum packed. For game birds, you can get away with a few gallon ziploc bags. In both cases, if you freeze the meat it will still be frozen (mostly) when you get home.

I don't bother with dry ice, opting instead for extra insulation. I don't care if edges of my meat defrost. It's totally okay to refreeze.

Other suggestions were good too.

 

[GeauxBackcountry]

Looking into this as well. Planning on checking ice chests for meat. Problem is the skull/antlers. The airline Im flying charges pretty steep fee for antler transport. I was wondering if I could just package it REALLY well and ship it Fedex like 2nd day air or something. Would only be able to remove hide and some meat from skull but if frozen I don't think it would be an issue in 2 days. I would rather do my own euro mount when I get home. Thoughts?

 

[walleye26]

Is there any reimbursement from the airline if they bust your cooler or you end up with meat damage?

 

[Vandy321]

Depends how far you are going... I shipped a car bumper on greyhound once from FL to TX, cost me about $100, lol, took 2 days. It was too heavy to ship through FedEx or anything. Drop it off at the station, package it how you want. They throw it in a cargo only spot on under the bus. Have someone meet the bus on the other end and pick it up. You can load it on the bus yourself if you like, and in theory it shouldnt be touched till your buddy grabs it off the bus at the end of the line.

It's actually not a bad way to ship heavy good. Aside from having to go to the greyhound station.

 

[davidemclean]

good info!

 

[cburgin72]

If the meat has been deboned and frozen solid for the flight home is it okay to thaw the meat, make the desired cuts, then vacuum seal to refreeze?

 

[Jimss]

Definitely bone out your game and if possible get it frozen somewhere. I've done this in Alaska many times. If possible boil and clean your skull. Large antlers (like moose, caribou, and elk) can go "oversized" baggage and will likely get charged additional. If you can take measurements (width, etc) and split the skull or cut the antlers below the pedicles....this may save a little cost on some airlines. Cut sprinkler hose and place small chunks around antler tips, then wrap with duct tape.

On Alaska Air it's usually around $50 for each additional bag. If you have airline credit cards you can sometimes get more bags free. Some airlines charge A LOT more for excess bags so shop around! Southwest and Alaska Air are likely 2 of the cheaper routes to go. I've signed up for different credit cards to get miles to use towards trips.

Action packers that can be purchased at Walmart or Home Depot are great for skulls, horns, capes, etc. I like insulated boxes for capes but in a pinch I've frozen them and wrapped them in my chest waders/coats etc for insulation. Insulated fish boxes work exceptionally well. It's fairly easy to find salmon boxes in Alaska but may be tougher to find elsewhere? I secure what ever box/crate I use with lots of duct tape. My biggest word of advice is to freeze your meat, capes, etc. before transit. Dry ice may work but I've never needed to use it on airlines. Then thaw and process meat. I have 2 freezers in my garage....one I set aside each fall to freeze boned meat when it's too hot to process it immediately.

 

[cburgin72]

Then thaw and process meat. I have 2 freezers in my garage....one I set aside each fall to freeze boned meat when it's too hot to process it immediately.

That was a ton of good information. Thank you. It sounds like you are experienced with this. So have you ever experienced any problems with thawing the meat to process then refreezing it? I’ve got boned out antelope meat in my freezer that hasn’t been processed yet. Will I mess the meat up if I thaw it, process it, then refreeze it?



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[Jimss]

I've never had a problem thawing, processing, and then refreezing processed meat. You will need to cut off the outer, thin layer of meat once it thaws because it will dry out but other than that everything should be good. I do the same thing with big game, turkeys, fish, capes/skins, etc.