Drive or Fly in?

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Polecat

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Burns, Tn. USA
Ok guys, just checking to see where your personal limits are in traveling for a hunt. We did a Maine bear hunt last year and decided to make the drive instead of flying. 26 hours later and it was something I swear I'll never do again. Fast forward to Feb. I get invited to do a Texas pig hunt. Guy tells me it usually takes 15 plus hours to drive but this year they want to fly. Much better than the drive to Maine. From the time we left San Antonio until I pulled in my driveway in Dickson Co was around 5 hours. Where do you draw the line and decide to put down money for a plane ticket or load the vehicle and make the drive?
 
I haven't done an out of state hunt, but do plan on doing a Maine bear hunt one of these days. I was just planning on doing the drive - how big of a pain is the whole transporting firearms on an airliner? That's the main reason why I was planning on driving.
 
I would check to make sure your airline isnt charging a "sporting good" baggage fee. Im flying to bangor maine and buddy is picking me up and we driving the rest of the way to our bear camp in canada and I just happen to read some small print on the airline website that said sporting good baggage "guns, bows, golf clubs, etc...." now come with a $200 price tag. so I UPS'd my bow to my buddy and he will tote it for me so i dont have to fly with it

I have flown with hunting rifles many times up til this point and it wasnt any big deal.

i look at cost of driving vs cost of flying. I love a road trip, its part of the adventure to me. You can find deals on flights if you keep looking and be ready to buy when you find the deal. With the price of fuel it doesnt take long to spend a couple hundred in gas alone.
 
that is our current delima,going to north west montana on a elk,muley combo.the thing is is cost of getting meat and trophies shipped home..we havent made up our mind yet
 
Good Point on the sporting goods fee. When we looked at the Maine trip it was going to cost between 600 and 800 for airline tickets and luggage fees. We also took into consideration that there are no direct flights from BNA- Nashville to Bangor or Portland. It seems all had at least one if not two connecting flights, usually either Philadelphia or Detroit. Not the most firearm friendly towns. One of the guys in our group was doing his hunt with a pistol and didn't want to fly into either with a handgun, add to that it was 9/11 week end and we anticipated extra security and more of a delay if traveling with a firearm.

At the time we had five guys lined up to go on the hunt with the plan to drive up and split the fuel bill four ways, the owner of the truck doesn't pay for fuel in exchange for wear and tear on his vehicle. Well three wound uo backing out leaving myself and another guy to go. The outfitter was great and let us sub another guy in place of one that backed out. So three of us made the long drive to Maine. We stopped at Richard's Sporting Goods in Bangor for licenses. While there we were approached by another outfitter who asked us about the drive up. During conversation he mentioned that it was a good call on the concerns of flying with firearms as the previous week he and another outfitter had five hunters come in on three different flights and not one of their guns arrived. They were scrambling trying to find loaners and borrowing guns from family members for these guys to use. This was on a Sunday with the airlines finally delivering the last firearm on Thursday. Who travels 1600 miles and wants to use a borrowed gun that they're not familiar with?

I do plan on doing the bear hunt again. Next time I think I'm gonna fly and UPS my gun ahead of me to the outfitter so my gun case won't be counted against my checked baggage allowance. Flying back with meat wasn't much of a problem either. I brought back 85 lbs of boneless trimmed pork in a cooler and had to pay a 50.00 overage fee. Had they measured my pelican rifle case they would have found it over the allowance for checked baggage and dinged it for a 50.00 fee also, both ways. Lucky for me the ticket agent never took the time to measure it only weighing it instead.

When it comes to flying the best thing to do is check the rules and regs for not only your initial flight but also the regs for any connecting flights if they happen to be with a different carrier. We had meat packed in a cooler and the agent wasn't going to allow us to check it saying it wasn't properly packaged. We knew it was as we had their requirements printed and in hand. To satisfy all we agreed to a requested TSA inspection with the airlines wrapping our cooler in cellophane plastic wrap to prevent any spillage. No big thing but could have been had we not been allowed to check the cooler.
Use a good gun case. Two guys I was flying with had their guns in brand new aluminum airline approved hard cases. After being handled three times by baggage handlers they now have the appearance of having been strapped to the outside of the plane and been subjected to a few bird strikes. I have a pelican rifle case that I'm sure TSA hates as it does not have the traditional locking hasps that most universal locking gun cases use. Instead I use two same keyed Master locks. Now I just hand one of the keys to the agent when checking bags and request a TSA inspection with instructions for the TSA officer to lock the key inside the case when done.

As far as personal limits, I'm putting it around 14-16 hours. Anything more than that I'm considering hopping on a plane. Unless the hunt is for something big like elk where there's a large amount of meat and bulky antlers and cape to deal with or multiple drivers and plenty of time to take it easy and enjoy the drive.
 
i have flown several times with a rifle before and after 9/11, even to mexico and it was actually a piece of cake for me, and luckily everything turned out great! that was before this 200 sporting good fee. Good luck on your adventure.

my flight from dayton ohio takes me to DC then bangor and then on the way back I stop in philly. I couldnt find a direct flight either.
 
Ive done both several times in the past, and while driving definitely has some benefits and is simply the only option many times, flying saves tons of time. After a 32 hour drive straight thru to Northwest Colorado, I fly when I can!
 
looks like we will be flying,this will be my first time flying to a hunt,and flying with a gun.now im going to have to slim down on what i was going to carry
 
Last time I flew to go hunting was 2001, as in Sept 2001. I had to hitchike home. From then on I fly Toyota. I can bring all my gear and leave early or stay longer. I do not have to worry about a rifle or bow being trashed or losing zero. I have driven solo to UT, CO, and NM. And I learned the hard way about my elk meat. It travels with me now, when I leave. No waiting for it to show up days, weeks, or months later. I suppose this is a bit limiting as I am not planning to drive to say Alaska for a hunt. But I probably would not go to Alaska anyway.
 
Have done both many times, but much prefer to drive if time allows. I kind of like to ramble around and see what's over the next hill....Also enjoy driving the backroads as opposed to interstate, and have discovered several new hunting opportunities doing that.

A couple of years ago, I finished a KS ML hunt a couple of days early and had time to kill. Was scheduled to pick grandsons up at Denver airport to take them up to WY for antelope. Instead of laying around motel in KS, I headed out cross country and drove 2 lane roads from Witchita to Colorado Springs. During the travel west I checked out Dodge City, the Sand Creek Massacre site & Bents Fort, all very cool.

We also tagged out in WY a day early, so I took the boys down to Rocky Mtn National Park and let them see the elk in full rut.

Lots of good memories made by being flexiable and having truck to get around in.
 
I drove to the northern end of New Foundland in 2007 by myself.
I did get to take a nap on the 8 hour fairy ride.
On the way back, I only stopped for gas, drove straight thru after I got off the fairy. Made it back to Hilham TN. in 32 hours by myself.
Told myself I would never do it again, but I would do it again for another Moose.
I drove so I could bring all my meat home.
 

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