caribou on a plane

[Roger Moerke]

Has anyone been on a caribou hunt this year? If so is it expensive and or difficult to get the horns and meat on the plane home? Thanks in advance. roger

[LKH]

Roger,
While I just drove down the road to Wasilla with my bou, I do fly fish to MT and meat back here to AK.  Bottom line is that there is no cheap way to do antlers, especially if you want the skull intact for measuring.  They are bulky and get measured for cost that way.  

As far as the meat goes, just ship all your gear home via USPS and buy a couple cheap coolers to take home.  You get about 80 pounds of meat that way.  3rd cooler is $100, still a lot cheaper than FEDEX.

[Ray Hammond]

cut the horns in half and duct tape them together- use pieces of garden hose to cover the tips of the antlers... they go a lot cheaper that way.

I was fortunate to have a freezer in camp- we put the backstraps in a box and froze them. I wrapped them up in my sleeping bag inside my duffel and got back to Edmonton with them for my overnight layover.

I asked the hotel to store the box in their freezer, which they had specifically for that purpose in house.

next morning, back in the sleeping bag. When I arrived home the next day around 6pm the meat was frozen solid.

[Roger Moerke]

Thanks guys I went in 05 to Quebec and it was no big hassel at that time but a lot has changed since then. The outfitter had all the meat and antlers ready to go so that was huge. But even then it was not for sure the meat would be on the same plane as we were, forntunetly it was though.
If I go again I will consider driving even if its a long haul. thanks again

[CJ Pearson]

Ray and I went in 07 and it was no hassle for us either. We didn't even see a Caribou. I was told though that if you spilt the horns you cannot enter them in P&Y.
As far as driving goes, man I would reconsider that thought, or at least give yourself 3 days of driving time. That is one wicked road trip.
We did have a great time fishing though.