Fly or drive to Wyoming

[teej89]

That's insane. Made a 28 hr trip straight through with 4 guys. The drive to is part of the hunt..not so much on the way home lol

I hear you on the drive home but it is nice to have hours of nothing to do except reflect on the hunt and BS with your buddies about different things during the hunt. It's like discussing tape after a football game ha!

 

[Deleted member 28227]

I couldn't help but laugh at carrying your meat in the overhead bin. More for your ingenuity. I fly a lot of fish back from ANC to Omaha, I use fish boxes and as much dry ice as they will let me. Haven't had a problem with fish yet, but it could happen. Put it in there frozen solid with dry ice helps. If the bag gets delayed I'm toast. (also most years I'm bringing back like 3 fish boxes full, so too much to call a carry on )

Yeah the TSA agents give you some pretty funny looks.

Flying with fish is an entirely different ball of wax. IMHO. I'm in your camp... check your fish.

 

[bluespruce]

I couldn't help but laugh at carrying your meat in the overhead bin. More for your ingenuity. I fly a lot of fish back from ANC to Omaha, I use fish boxes and as much dry ice as they will let me. Haven't had a problem with fish yet, but it could happen. Put it in there frozen solid with dry ice helps. If the bag gets delayed I'm toast. (also most years I'm bringing back like 3 fish boxes full, so too much to call a carry on )

I had some fresh seafood that was supposed to be overnighted but instead the market somehow messed up the shipping and it was put in a semi-trailer for a multiple day cross-country drive in the middle of summer... by the time they figured out what had gone wrong there was nothing UPS could/would do and it was probably already too late anyway. Needless to say, we agreed it would be best if it was not actually delivered at that point.

 

[Huntkook]

Need some advice from experts here. Recently booked a guided Deer / Pronghorn hunt in SW Wyoming in early October. I live in Little Rock, AR which is 1,400 miles away. We could drive in two days or we could fly in to SLC, rent a truck and drive to our hunting location (80 miles from SLC I think). Flights are dirt cheap right now found one this morning for less than $200 round trip, can rent a truck for a week for around $350. My only hangups are getting the meat back and flying with possible corona virus issues or delays. What would you guys do? Interested in hearing about experiences flying home with capes / meat.

We drive every year since 2013.Two days is an easy drive. You won't have to worry about how your guns are being handled. Also if you take more than carry on your luggage could get misplaced. A lot less hassles in driving.

 

[efw]

It’s min 1200 mi for me and I always drive for same reasons others have said.

 

[Wildabeest]

Won’t help from Little Rock, but on my drives from back east on I-70, I’d usually try to time it so that I could have St. Louis ribs for lunch and Kansas City steaks for dinner. Gave me something to look forward to!

 

[Steve Petersen]

I’d drive. With that said I’d drive trough either Kansas or Nebraska at night so you don’t go mad not seeing anything for miles on end but that’s just me. I moved from OKC, OK to Rawlins, WY last spring. I made 2 round trips in a moving truck in 5 days. That was nearly 4K miles in all. Rest assured your gear and hard earned meat is in better hands with you than any airline.

 

[GlockZ]

I drive, living in NJ, it is just under 2,400 mile trip. The country is beautiful and I don’t worry about the meat and additional shipping costs.

 

[CUElk]

We drive from SC to mt, 34 hrs. Wyoming would be a Sunday afternoon drive. I like driving, don't have to worry about weapons or bringing meat and skulls home and i can take whatever i want. Since it is guided, i would consider flying out and driving back.

 

[MO Betta]

If you drive, a small route change adds 30 minutes and nets you some awesome fried chicken and onion rings near Pittsburg, KS.

 

[2rocky]

Single I’d fly and check coolers as extra baggage. 2,3,or 4 people drive

 

[3855WIN]

Fly. Give the deer meat away. Arky whitetails will taste better. Bone out the antelope and fly it in a cooler.
Don’t forget CWD rules with the deer, however you travel.
I’ve left deer and antelope with a taxi in Casper for euro mounts and never had a problem.

 

[Treeshark]

With other guys, the road trip is one of my favorite parts of the whole deal.

We always seem to time it where do it gets dark around the WI state line, and the sun is just coming up on the Wyoming or Colorado state line and we are officially “Out West.” I love that feeling.

 

[brushcreek]

We drive from SC to mt, 34 hrs. Wyoming would be a Sunday afternoon drive. I like driving, don't have to worry about weapons or bringing meat and skulls home and i can take whatever i want. Since it is guided, i would consider flying out and driving back.

looked into one way rentals from SLC pretty expensive $1,500 to $2,000

 

[JustinsDad]

My son and I are going to Wyoming in early October for Pronghorn. We are in Southern California and we are definitely driving. We always do. The drive is better father son time than the hunt! Nothing better than driving home from a successful hunt. I am cool with those that fly though. I just prefer to drive if it’s only 1200 or 1500 miles. Piece of cake! And I love seeing this liberal friggen state disappearing in my rear view mirror!

 

[wytex]

Given that he said he was only 80 miles from SLC, that means he’ll be in far western WY, arguably in the Unitas since SLC->WY border on I-80 is 80 miles. So if there’s weather, there’s a much higher likelihood of road closures across WY than there would be from SLC to WY which would be mostly through protected canyons (Parley’s and Echo) that are more protected from weather. Be aware that they often have 4WD with snow tires or chain requirements on that stretch if there’s heavy snow.

As long as he could get from Evanston to SLC then he would be fine but I-80 had extensive closures last year from Cheyenne to Evanston.

 

[wytex]

I’d drive. With that said I’d drive trough either Kansas or Nebraska at night so you don’t go mad not seeing anything for miles on end but that’s just me. I moved from OKC, OK to Rawlins, WY last spring. I made 2 round trips in a moving truck in 5 days. That was nearly 4K miles in all. Rest assured your gear and hard earned meat is in better hands with you than any airline.

sent you a pm Steve

 

[brushcreek]

we decided to fly on Southwest. subject to change if Covid causes issues

 

[2rocky]

here is a good thread to think about your meat coming back.

Flying with meat

I want to avoid the overweight fee with the Orion cooler, so what options are out there with flyinging your meat back? Back in 2010, I used collapsible coolers and waxlined boxes, but the coolers were expensive and while they worked for that initial purpose, they later leaked all over the...

www.hunttalk.com

 

[maxracx]

I have made the drive from Central WI to both Wyoming and Colorado. I would drive hands down. Last year my son and I drove to central Wyoming on an opening season archery elk hunt. I pulled a small enclosed trailer with a freezer inside. Once we filled our tags I was able to connect the freezer to my Honda generator located in the bed of the truck and we kept the meat frozen the entire 18 hour trip home.