Flying vs driving

[cnelk]

Something I learned about flying to go hunting.

Buy a one way ticket to get there. And then after your hunt, use your miles for the one way return trip. This is helpful if your schedule changes and you need more time. Way cheaper than changing your return round trip flight.

 

[7Bartman]

Something I learned about flying to go hunting.

Buy a one way ticket to get there. And then after your hunt, use your miles for the one way return trip. This is helpful if your schedule changes and you need more time. Way cheaper than changing your return round trip flight.

Shhh, you're ruining my tips for the video, lol.

 

[88man]

If you do a group trip I guess four guys, ideal two can drive out and then the other two fly home. We have done that. Or one guy fly out or back depending. Just gotta pre agree on all the cost shares etc.

 

[justin84]

16 hour drive for me. Driving sucks but I think coordinating (and paying for) flights, rental truck, shipping sucks more. I also like being there with my own vehicle and not having to be anywhere at a certain time on the tail end of the trip.

 

[Grumman]

I despise driving but it sure is peace of mind not worrying about luggage being lost.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[7Bartman]

Okay, this took a little longer than anticipated. First time I filmed it I didn't realize that i had confidential information in the background, so I had to do a re-take today. I'll start my own thread as well.

 

[Don Qui Puncher]

If you do drive make sure the people you go with are solid, I drove out with a kid that had never been western hunting before in his truck, but he had sailed from Europe to Alaska and hiked/camped in CO for 15 days so I figured he was good to go. Day 4 he quit on me, and when I say quit I came back to camp he had everything packed up and was literally in tears saying he can’t do it anymore. I tried to talk him through it but to no avail he said if you want to drive back with me I’m leaving now if not you can get a flight. He drove me to SLC to pick up a buddy’s truck he left from there I hunted 5 more days and had to fly home, it ended up working out and I continued to hunt but lost days hunting.

 

[darcytribe]

Okay, this took a little longer than anticipated. First time I filmed it I didn't realize that i had confidential information in the background, so I had to do a re-take today. I'll start my own thread as well.

Nice rundown, thanks!

 

[Wmmichael20]

Do you have more time than money? (Drive)
or
Do you have more money than time? (Fly)


Guys who only get 15 days of vacation each year dont want to burn 4 of them sitting in a truck.

makes me glad I get 6 weeks of vacation time a year.

I havent been out west yet but am planning a trip. We looked at a rental truck early in the planning. 9 days is somewhere between $3-400. Itll take a day and a half to drive there but we are ok with it. The newer trucks are more full efficient than anything we have so that helps too. Flying was brought up but between meat or gear back and the cost of tickets, we are just gonna drive.

We have a wierd work schedule so only burning 3 vacation days to get those 9 days off.

I've got a schedule like that mines 4 days a week,so take off 4 get 10 total off...great isn't it!

 

[Tannerb80]

I prefer driving. Have room for all your gear, own equipment, own schedule, no delays/cancellations/lost luggage.

 

[Bolt]

Spend some time over on the Moose forum and read about how to fly with gear and meat (I.e. Alaska).

It doesn’t matter where you fly to/from, the logistics are the same.

There are reports that anytime you drive up to or over 1000 miles it’s best to rent a vehicle, just based on wear and tear and depreciation.

There is lots to see when driving cross country - excluding Nebraska and Kansas.

I hate driving through Kansas!!!

 

[Fullfan]

Bolt you should try Driving across South Dakota and then eastern Montana.

 

[mcseal2]

I prefer to drive unless I'm going to Alaska or meeting a buddy somewhere in the lower 48 that has a truck to use. In AK I have transportation lined up with a transporter and don't need a vehicle.

Having my own vehicle means I have my 12V air compressor, plug kit, decent tires, spare serpentine belt, and all the other little things that can save me a bunch of time and headache in rough remote areas. Renting a vehicle I don't have all that. It may cost more to drive, but I can take everything I want to have along. If I was backpacking from somewhere easily reached by a normal vehicle I'd probably think differently, but that isn't the norm for me. I like mobility and seeing a lot of the unit if it's a place I haven't hunted before, even if I have pre-scouted it. I to go to plan B,C,D, or further to much of the time when the actual hunt starts.

 

[HunterJoeMI]

I flew once for a rifle mule deer hunt. It worked, but I was meeting resident friends out there. I shot a buck and got the boned packaged meat home in checked baggage. Friend shipped antlers and some of my other gear UPS. Driving from MI is not that bad. Leave work a little early in the afternoon and we are to most of our locations the next day. I have done it solo several times.

 

[SemperHunter]

I will be going with 2 friends to ID on OTC DIY. We will be driving. I'm hoping between the 3 of us we can spread out the drive and make it one straight shot. I personally prefer the ability to have control over what I can bring and not leaving the possibility to lose things or have travel go awry with flying. We'll see how this year goes.

 

[Bearshirt]

After seeing all my meat sitting on a tarmak in 80's in the sun for 4-5 hours at ohare I just cant handle the stress of it. Plus Im always worried them loosing gear especially my bow. Flying is a huge hassle to me. I suppose if you can work it out to not have a lay over in craplanta or ohare airports you have a better chance. Plus the amount of money to get 250 pounds of frozen elk meat and head home is obserd. Most flights charge extra for all carry on luggage now days, your going to need at least 2 bags for bow and gear ( remeber its a 50 pound limit per bag . So by the time you spend 350 for luggage fees then another 100 for a head. ugh You can carry some meat as a carry on. I carried 50 pounds or so in my day pack. Thankfully it is water proof since the blood all stayed in the pack.

I will take driving any day. I do like the driving a rental truck but I dont have a credit card so there is that.

 

[Marmots]

One big caveat about flying is that a lot of rental trucks have cheap tires mounted. I've picked up out-of-staters before who got two flats on their rental rig because it had 4-ply highway tires. The whole fiasco cost them more time than it would have taken to drive out.

 

[Trial153]

Been doing multiple trips year since my sophomore year of collage in 96. I vacillate back and forth. For me driving adds 4 days, at three hunts bowhunts a year thats 12 days ..... i already try get 30 days a year in bowhunting so adding or subtracting 12 is good chunk either way.
I do both, mostly fly for anything smaller then an elk because i can get it back easy enough on the plane.
This year i have driven twice and flown twice. With my last hunt next week being a flight.

In short it depends.

 

[FLAK]

Very true. Hard to find decent, even mild off road vehicle set up at the rental car kiosk at the airport.

I rolled a tire off a rim once in the middle of nowhere. What a cluster. And that donut spare didnt help. If that thing had failed I would have been up the creek.

 

[Missahba]

I hunt OTC archery every year. I flew this year into Denver and got a bull. The year before, I drove out there and drove a bull back. Here's my take on it.

I pretty much live on the Atlantic Ocean. Western slope is a hell of a drive from here. I'm the type of guy that if a drive is all that's between me and elk hunting, I absolutely will not stop to sleep, eat, pee, etc. I will just hammer on the pedal like a psychopath until I get there. Acclimating isn't my game since I usually pull up, exhausted, and blast into hyperdrive since I'm so excited. This leaves me totally exhausted, dehydrated, and the sitting for so long is terrible for the legs. I have also had issues with altitude in the past since I'm usually hunting at 11k' my first day there - but every day counts. When I drove, I brought a truck full of stuff and coolers. I just put the meat on ice in the coolers and drove it back. Head came back too and taxidermist work was done here.

When I flew, I left my house at about 4:30 a.m., got a good enough night sleep, and was driving in the rental by about 10 a.m. That left me time to go check some cameras I put at lower elevations in the basin that I hunt while i was there in June and climb my way up to about 11k' where the elk were hanging, well before dark. That's a huge plus. I wasn't exhausted and I was hydrated. Another huge plus.

I'm not a gear guy. I packed my exo pack and my bow case and i didn't use half the stuff i packed. I always dayhunted from the truck which I think makes things immensely more enjoyable and easier - for me another huge plus.

As for the logistics of getting the elk back, I rented a tiny VRBO for my last night there and took the picnic table from outside into the living room and deboned everything. I threw it in coolers i bought out there and put dry ice on top of it. On the way to the airport, I dropped the head at a taxidermist. They crated and shipped it back. It was a bit pricy but let's be real - the whole elk hunting thing is pricy and that's why I work. I did 3-day ground for the shipping and when i packed the coolers - the meat was probably 50ish degrees. When I opened the cooler after they arrived to my house, the meat was mostly frozen and perfectly fine. the dry ice worked like a charm. It was $400 to ship all the meat and i think the coolers were about $130 for the 4 of them.

I will never drive again, I hope. There is no comparison for me. When you consider all the $ you spend driving, the time lost, and particularly the extra useless crap most people pack and buy if they drive - the costs are offset. I'm just going to have to find something to do with all these coolers in a few years.

@Moondoondude do you have a packing list or layout pic for the gear you take to fly out and hunt from a rental car camp? All the detailed loadouts I’ve seen are fly to backcountry hunts.