Shipping Meat/Hide/Gear vs. Flying it Checked

[tmwtrfwler]

Question: Has anyone used USHIP or a service like them with any success?

If I draw I'm heading to Wyoming for my first elk hunt in October.

IF succesful I need to get the meat, hide, and antlers home. I think I can check the antlers depending on which airline. I can check my bags heading home. The meat is the big question. I plan on buying a cooler(s) out there if succesful and shipping it to avoid exhorbitant costs of checking it. I can ship it UPS (after the local butcher freezes it) of course but I've heard horror stories of capes getting lost (permanetly and/or ruined b/c of delays).

Driving is pretty much out of the question b/c I'm needing to max out days off to go and driving from VA to WY would add too many more days.

Thanks guys.

 

[N2TRKYS]

If successful, cancel your flight and drive home.

 

[couesbitten]

I would think shipping the meat, head, hide, etc. would be horrifyingly expensive via UPS or any other carrier. If available, I would think that your best option would be to use airline freight to the nearest airport if it's available.

 

[GotDraw?]

Forget trying to bring home every scrap of meat. Shipping antlers is expensive since you'll have to pay someone to crate and ship them. Also, the skull will rot on the way if not frozen or cleaned.

It will take you time to deal with all this, plan to leave a full extra day or two on the back end of your hunt, (can't be a Sunday and maybe not a Saturday because you need to get your stuff to UPS) and:

1) Bring a digital hand held luggage scale with you ($20 or so at REI). Have shipping labels and boxes ready for the end of your hunt. Box and Ship all your hunting gear home via UPS.
2) Scrape your hide and heavily salt and freeze the hide, box it and ship it UPS straight to Rocky Mountain Tanners in CO. Pricing is very fair. RMT Home Check with Rocky mountain, I don't believe it will matter if it thaws on the way if you salt the hell out of it and it is scraped . Plus most western states to CO is only 1-2 days via UPS
3) Pull the backstraps and tenderloins, zip lock or vacuum bag and freeze them hard over night in 2-4 pound packs. Cut up the rear hams, zip lock or vacuum bag and freeze them in 2-4lb pieces. Pack everthing them in four soft cooler bags at 50 lbs each (like Costco insulated bags). Weigh the bags with the t-handle scale you brought with you. Bring one bag on the plane as your carry-on. Check three at 50lbs each and don't gripe about the baggage fees, it's way cheaper then shipping. Donate the shoulder meat and lower back leg meat, neck and all other scrap for ground meat to charity.
4) Pay a taxidermist to deal with the skull and rack, then crate it and ship it to you. Not cheap.

That way you can bring back 150-200lbs of the best meat on the plane. Worked for me, I brought back 100+ Lbs of moose from Yukon that way, plus my gear. It was too much hassle to try to ship all my gear from Canada.

Or get your elk on day #1 and drive it all home.

Or plan to use the 1 or 2 days you'd otherwise have to set aside to deal with the above and haul ass and drive back non-stop. I made it from DC to Aspen, CO in 26 hours with two other friends last year, straight through stopping only for gas. (this is what I would do). Have all the meat butchered and frozen, stuff it and the frozen hide in coolers, rent a mini van and haul ass back. Stop only for gas. Plus! you can bring your rack back this way.

JL

 

[Scottyboy]

i've also heard of people upgrading to first class to get additional free baggage for coolers (meat). also sending your gear via UPS is a good option. if you are gun hunting, you can mail your rifle to yourself, to avoid any FFL fee's.

long and short of it, you are going to be eating a lot of shipping costs, but i assume you knew that choosing to fly.

 

[tmwtrfwler]

Great feedback guys. Thanks.

I looked at driving back in a one way rental but neither Hertz or some other company in Cody had any available cars. Of course this can change by the time of the trip.

I went by fedex and got a quote to ship a cooler back. We entered a 26x13x16 cooler (roughly) at 100lbs. and it would only be $136.00 (seems crazy cheap so I'll check again) from Cody > Richmond, VA via FedEx ground. That would take them 4 day.

So with that cost, it's definitely worth it to ship a couple coolers. I'll keep researching the getting the hide back. My local taxidermist (Rapalee) and I need to talk more. (I'm all ears for good taxidermists out west but getting a mount back could be a fortunate in addition to the mount. I'm getting ahead of myself I know but need to have all these things planned out in the event of a successful hunt.) Then I'll bubble wrap the antlers and ship those in a box.

The guide has told my friend who's going with me that the local butcher will take care of the meat, freeze it, and have it ready to ship. I like the idea of donating it. I'll talk to the guide about that.

Long and short of it is that it looks like I'll be shipping everything I need out and back. I'll pay a few hundred to do so but that beats the hassle of flying with it.

 

[TradAg02]

You might try renting a vehicle without telling them it is a one way rental. Like flights they don’t like booking one way. I rented a Jeep in September from Colorado Springs then called the company (Budget) and told them I would be returning it in Houston after I shot an elk. United credited my return flight and Budget charged me $200 for returning to another location. After getting an elk down it was much easier than dealing with a bunch of bloody gear and worrying about the meat and head in the mail.


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[BrushyHillGuide]

In the past, when I didn’t want to drive, I’ve flown (from Texas) to a hunt in the lower 48 and, when successful, rented a small u-haul vehicle to drive home. Usually the plane tickets I buy are non refundable but I don’t mind eating that cost to bring a full elk home. Uhaul is pretty inexpensive and one-way travel is the norm. On a group trip, one of us drives the meat and some gear home and the price for the uhaul gets split. Might take an extra day or two on the trip but it’s not that hard to call work and say, “Hey, I caught something on my trip and won’t be back until I’m not contagious, in a couple days.” Lol!

Forget trying to bring home every scrap of meat. Shipping antlers is expensive since you'll have to pay someone to crate and ship them. Also, the skull will rot on the way if not frozen or cleaned.

It will take you time to deal with all this, plan to leave a full extra day or two on the back end of your hunt, (can't be a Sunday and maybe not a Saturday because you need to get your stuff to UPS) and:

1) Bring a digital hand held luggage scale with you ($20 or so at REI). Have shipping labels and boxes ready for the end of your hunt. Box and Ship all your hunting gear home via UPS.
2) Scrape your hide and heavily salt and freeze the hide, box it and ship it UPS straight to Rocky Mountain Tanners in CO. Pricing is very fair. RMT Home Check with Rocky mountain, I don't believe it will matter if it thaws on the way if you salt the hell out of it and it is scraped . Plus most western states to CO is only 1-2 days via UPS
3) Pull the backstraps and tenderloins, zip lock or vacuum bag and freeze them hard over night in 2-4 pound packs. Cut up the rear hams, zip lock or vacuum bag and freeze them in 2-4lb pieces. Pack everthing them in four soft cooler bags at 50 lbs each (like Costco insulated bags). Weigh the bags with the t-handle scale you brought with you. Bring one bag on the plane as your carry-on. Check three at 50lbs each and don't gripe about the baggage fees, it's way cheaper then shipping. Donate the shoulder meat and lower back leg meat, neck and all other scrap for ground meat to charity.
4) Pay a taxidermist to deal with the skull and rack, then crate it and ship it to you. Not cheap.

That way you can bring back 150-200lbs of the best meat on the plane. Worked for me, I brought back 100+ Lbs of moose from Yukon that way, plus my gear. It was too much hassle to try to ship all my gear from Canada.

JL

That’s a pretty good method! I like that.


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[tommymo]

Forget trying to bring home every scrap of meat. Shipping antlers is expensive since you'll have to pay someone to crate and ship them. Also, the skull will rot on the way if not frozen or cleaned.

It will take you time to deal with all this, plan to leave a full extra day or two on the back end of your hunt, (can't be a Sunday and maybe not a Saturday because you need to get your stuff to UPS) and:

1) Bring a digital hand held luggage scale with you ($20 or so at REI). Have shipping labels and boxes ready for the end of your hunt. Box and Ship all your hunting gear home via UPS.
2) Scrape your hide and heavily salt and freeze the hide, box it and ship it UPS straight to Rocky Mountain Tanners in CO. Pricing is very fair. RMT Home Check with Rocky mountain, I don't believe it will matter if it thaws on the way if you salt the hell out of it and it is scraped . Plus most western states to CO is only 1-2 days via UPS
3) Pull the backstraps and tenderloins, zip lock or vacuum bag and freeze them hard over night in 2-4 pound packs. Cut up the rear hams, zip lock or vacuum bag and freeze them in 2-4lb pieces. Pack everthing them in four soft cooler bags at 50 lbs each (like Costco insulated bags). Weigh the bags with the t-handle scale you brought with you. Bring one bag on the plane as your carry-on. Check three at 50lbs each and don't gripe about the baggage fees, it's way cheaper then shipping. Donate the shoulder meat and lower back leg meat, neck and all other scrap for ground meat to charity.
4) Pay a taxidermist to deal with the skull and rack, then crate it and ship it to you. Not cheap.

That way you can bring back 150-200lbs of the best meat on the plane. Worked for me, I brought back 100+ Lbs of moose from Yukon that way, plus my gear. It was too much hassle to try to ship all my gear from Canada.

Or get your elk on day #1 and drive it all home.

Or plan to use the 1 or 2 days you'd otherwise have to set aside to deal with the above and haul ass and drive back non-stop. I made it from DC to Aspen, CO in 26 hours with two other friends last year, straight through stopping only for gas. (this is what I would do). Have all the meat butchered and frozen, stuff it and the frozen hide in coolers, rent a mini van and haul ass back. Stop only for gas. Plus! you can bring your rack back this way.

JL

Where are you cutting up and freezing all this meat?

 

[GotDraw?]

Prior to our trip, we bought a bunch of ziplock 1 gallon and 2.5 gallon bags, as well as heavy duty black plastic trash bags and brought them with us, along with a sharpie marker to label the zip lock bags. We also made arrangements in advance with a local hotel that had a restaurant. We agreed to stay there if they'd agree to let us put our meat in their -20 degree walk in freezer over night before flying out the next morning. We spread the meat out on unused shelf space and on cardboard box paper on the floor and by morning it was all rock hard. We had our cooler and insulated freezer bags in the freezer too, so they were pre-cooled. Then we loaded and weighed the insulated bags and headed to the airport the next morning. Those insulated bags worked great for a long, multi-leg plane trip home.

Be sure to line the insulated freezer bags with plastic trash bags before loading them. Then zip tie the trash bag shut.

We originally cut the meat up and bagged it on a table outside at our outfitters prior to taking it to the hotel. If you can't get a local butcher to rough cut, bag and freeze in one day, you could cut it an bag it and ice it at your truck. Not pretty, but it could be done. Then haul butt to the hotel/freezer to freeze it solid.

We were in the back country in the Yukon, so driving back was not an option. That said, the best and cheapest way by far if you're in the lower 48 is to suck it up, rent a car or van and drive back non-stop. Once the meat is frozen hard from the hotel, drop some dry ice on it and start driving. Any reasonable cooler will keep it hard frozen for 3 days or more.