Flying vs. driving to Hunt out West from the East any experiences appreciated

Not sure if this is the right spot for this question.... Can we classify it as gossip? Who knows.

Myself and 2 buddies are currently locking down the state we are going to, then we will utilize that gohunt.com to decide on an area and what not for the Wapiti (Ill never draw Kentucky). Not asking for questions and hints and what not on the areas to hunt. I am curious on experiences driving out versus flying out. I know I can go to each website of each agency and see their policies. I want to know YOUR experiences. If you flew, did you have issues in checking in your equipment (taking our bows), how tough was it getting meat back? Are the folks that ship reasonable? If you drove, how many folks? How often did you switch out drivers?

Reason I am asking is because I put the challenge out to go in Sept. of 2018. THey accepted and we have began the process. However, we all have younger children and obligation to the family beach trip each summer and must reserve time for this trip out of our usual rutcations for Whitetail. Trying to find that happy medium of cost-effective and maximize time.

I personally have always driven. It is a 24 hour drive, and we used to go straight through taking turns at the wheel. We got to Chama wasted and exhausted. We started stopping in Amarillo for the night, and drove the last 10 hours or so the next day. We enjoyed that much better. We chose to drive because we were worried about our rifles arriving there in one piece (if they arrived at all), and sitting around an airport waiting to board the plane drives me crazy. I think that I could be driving to my hunt right now at 70 mph instead of sitting here. We don't have to worry about bringing too much crap, as long as it fits in the truck, we have it with us.
Coming home, we are able to bring the processed meat home, and dump it in the freezer. No problems with too much weight for the airlines and being charged extra for anything over 50 pounds.
Lots of hunters love to fly, and they don't have the extra time to drive, but we prefer to drive. It helps us acclimate slowly to the altitude by driving for two days, and not just stepping off of a plane in Denver. And many hunters will tell you they have never had a problem with their rifles arriving safely and in one piece, but we just don't want to take the chance. This is my opinion only, and I'm sure those that have flown will respond.

Laelkhunter said:

I personally have always driven. It is a 24 hour drive, and we used to go straight through taking turns at the wheel. We got to Chama wasted and exhausted. We started stopping in Amarillo for the night, and drove the last 10 hours or so the next day. We enjoyed that much better. We chose to drive because we were worried about our rifles arriving there in one piece (if they arrived at all), and sitting around an airport waiting to board the plane drives me crazy. I think that I could be driving to my hunt right now at 70 mph instead of sitting here. We don't have to worry about bringing too much crap, as long as it fits in the truck, we have it with us.
Coming home, we are able to bring the processed meat home, and dump it in the freezer. No problems with too much weight for the airlines and being charged extra for anything over 50 pounds.
Lots of hunters love to fly, and they don't have the extra time to drive, but we prefer to drive. It helps us acclimate slowly to the altitude by driving for two days, and not just stepping off of a plane in Denver. And many hunters will tell you they have never had a problem with their rifles arriving safely and in one piece, but we just don't want to take the chance. This is my opinion only, and I'm sure those that have flown will respond.

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Thanks for the response!

Factoring in air travel, vehicle rental and the cost of fuel would be the things to consider. With friends you can split driving time and make a straight through trip to cut down on days on the road. Weather can always throw a wrench into things. Roads closures mean you are not driving that day or the next few depending on the storm.
Do you have vehicles you trust for mountain driving? A rental may be iffy for the area you want to hunt. Do you trust the airlines with your guns and meat?
Looks like a long drive for you, 26 hours (?) or so, that would be another day to hunt if you flew.
Are you camping ? That adds more equipment to deal with.
Personally I would drive if possible, but I hate to fly. Sounds to me like to amount of time you can get away will be the determining factor. A whole week off with 2 days of driving will get you 5 days of hunting.

I live in CO and often drive to MT to hunt (14hrs), I'm also planning a trip to AK which I will have to fly up for. Flying is great if you have the money, but you have to ship back meat and antlers and you have to rent a vehicle when you get there... you also can't bring heavy gear or equipment. It's often nice to have a chainsaw to get past that tree that blew down or jack when you get a flat or stuck... you won't have these on a rental truck.

If you fly you got 2 hours before you get to the airport a 4 hr flight and 1 hour at least screwing around with baggage... so 7hrs total of time on the front end of the trip, on the back end you need to deal with meat either packing for a plane or taking it to a processor... same thing with a rack lets say that takes 3 because you plan it out ahead of time and know where you will be taking your meat and have a taxidermist lined up. So on the back end your travel is 10 hours.

Driving will leave you tired, but I have done a 17 hour drive straight through solo slept 4 hours and hunted and it sucks but is totally doable.

I think flying will probably save you maybe 24-30 hours of total travel time but will cost $800 more per person. I think if two groups left the same day one drove the other flew you could be at the same trail head in the morning to hunt at the same time the driving team would just be a bit road weary but would make up for it with a better camp.

I've done it both ways. The big difference is that my hunting partner has 235 Piper Cherokee. We have flown to Alaska twice this way. Our biggest trouble came clearing customs at Northway AK. Other than that no problem. Driving is easily the best way. My friend and I drove to Prince George BC for a moose and black bear hunt. We drove from Flagstaff AZ to Lake Louise Alberta in 23 hours taking turns driving, 4 on, 4 off. Had a nice dinner at the Château and spent the next day sight seeing thru Banff and Jasper parks. Stayed overnight in Jasper and next day to Prince George. We had arranged for a U-Haul trailer at PG. We both shot 50 inch moose and a couple of 6'+ bears. We had the meat cut and frozen in PG. We bought a couple of sheets of 2 inch Styrofoam insulation and lined the U-Haul and packed the meat (boxed) inside with dry ice and covered it with leftover insulation and drove back to AZ in two days. The meat was rock solid when we got home. All totaled we were gone 15 days and had a great time. GJ

My dad and I always drive out. I do all of the driving. Not because I don't trust dad, but I figure I owe him a little hauling around since he did it for me for a good portion of my life. I have drove anywhere from 21 to 28 hours on our trips. The most a I will do straight is about 15. We usually do a layover at that point. I try to time it so that I can get to camp early enough the next evening to set up camp and get to bed before it is getting too late. So for a 22 hour trip like I will have to Wyoming if we draw our antelope tags, I will drive about 15 hours first day, and leave the 7 for the next. With multiple guys driving, we drove 25 hours straight out and straight back and didn't even get tired driving.

driving is my choice if i am not traveling alone and can share the driving time. you can bring extra stuff out and you can bring back your meat (hopefully) and other stuff you may find

More guys to drive will always help with the work and cost. To date I've done have a done 6 trips out west with drives from 12-20 hours with 1-3 people, but this year I'm doing 2 trips flying. It becomes a factor of time and money. Mostly how much vacation you have and how much money you can spare. Driving though as mentioned really leaves you worn out when you get somewhere especially in the middle of the night or early in the morning where as when you show up somewhere from flying you are generally fresher mentally and physically. Flying starts to lose some value once you start adding multiple flights in the lower 48 unless you are flying directly into the area you are hunting out of. It also depends on which airports you have close by and whether or not those are hubs or have direct flights.

The logistics of flying with gear are a lot easier if you aren't camping, or at least if you are backpack camping where your tent/sleeping bag and stove weigh less than 10 lbs (can't fly with fuel canisters). The reason I wouldn't recommend this as a newbie is your first trips you will be taking too much gear. At least with Southwest you can check (2) 50 lb bags for free plus a carry on. Flying meat back is best done by paying the $75 for up to 100 lbs bags which would be a chilled and boned out 48 quart cooler on Southwest or upgrading to first class on some airlines where you can make up the difference on free bags. Its worth noting some people are really comfortable with air travel and some aren't.

Another option is to have someone with more time than money drive out and have people pressed for time fly out and get picked up. You can basically pay the difference on bags to cover fuel and rental car on a trip with multiple people and lots of gear. I have done this on cycling trips where everyone flying saves $150/each on bike baggage fees and that goes to the driver who ends up with their trip all but comp'd.

Why I'm flying this year is that I can fly direct into major airports and be within 2-4 hours of where I'm hunting and I'm saving a day of travel on one trip and at least 2 on the other on trips where I'm the only hunter.

I've driven out West twice for hunts and have flown out West several times for hunts. I much prefer to fly. I can't stand the wasted time of driving. I haven't had any issues with my stuff not getting there or being torn up. Flying is usually cheaper for me, as well.

The only driving I'll do is heading home when I kill something. If I'm not successful, I fly home.

If you like to drive/ride, then go that route. If you don't, then fly.

Good luck.

We usually drive and break it up into 2 or 2-1/2 days. Sometimes have horses so makes for interesting sleeping arrangements and such. The trip, like the planning, can be a big part of the adventure. I have flown home before when couldn't stay as long as friends - that was actually really nice and they just brought my gear home with them (I didn't have meat that trip). My buddy usually does most of the driving because he likes to. There are advantages to driving like bringing what you want and getting meat home. Disadvantages to driving, besides time, is sitting at rest for that long after training everyday all summer/year and trying to eat fairly decent while traveling. Fast food will tear your gut up when not used to it. Throw in some altitude sickness and you have an interesting first day or 2 on the mountain...Can't wait for September!!!

My buddy and I drove to Wyoming from Pennsylvania last October for our first hunt. It was definitely way cheaper for us than flying out. We had around $5-600 total in gas for the roundtrip. It was a 27 hour drive and we just split time driving. When one guy got tired the other took over and we'd just take naps in the passenger seat. I get a little over 300 miles on a tank in my F-150 so we'd just eat and use the bathroom when we had to stop to get gas. So much easier to haul all of our gear as well. I can't imagine how much it would be to fly out, excess baggage fees, and shipping the meat home. The convenience of flying out isn't worth the cost to me, but that is my personal preference I guess.

My only fly to hunt experience was last year to Alaska. No issues at all and flying the meat back was no problem, just had to pay the extra baggage fees.

I drive out west from the Pittsburgh area usually twice a year, either to Colorado, Wyoming or both. I've never run into any major problems driving. Had to detour around a major snowstorm one year. I usually make the drive alone and have fallen into somewhat of a routine. I leave my house late afternoon and pull over at a rest stop around 1am and sleep 4 or 5 hours. From there I will drive straight through to the town closest to where I plan to hunt and get a hotel room. Next morning I get to where I'm hunting. The drive for me, including snooze, is about 28-30 hours.
It would be faster to fly but for me, the drive is part of the experience.

I drove from NY to SWCO last year solo. I have no issue driving and I just threw on some books on tape or a podcast and settled in. For me, I could bring whatever I wanted and have a nice comfy base camp at the truck in addition to a couple of spike camp outfits depending on what I wanted to do when I got there. It was marginally cheaper to drive and I spent a night in a hotel on the way out and on the way back. An added bonus, since I was not successful in notching a tag, was stopping in KC at Arthur Bryant's on the way home and picking up a few racks of ribs and some brisket for when I got home.

I'm toying with flying this season depending if I'm drawn for elk or not. If I'm only hunting deer, then I'll fly, if both, then I'm driving.

Drive. Why? Flying has lots of drawbacks including:

Some remote areas do not have any convenient flights or perhaps is just one small plane flying once a day into a small airport that shuts down for storms leaving you to hope to get a seat on standby on the next day's small, fully-booked plane when weather clears.

So many things can not fly with such as blackpowder and ignition caps so no muzzie hunting unless after landing find a way to swing buy a place that had in stock the specific items you used to sight in your gun.

Want to stay a day more? Want to head home early if tag out? Good luck getting your ticket changed and the fees are sometimes more than the ticket you got when shopping prudently for weeks.

Want to prepare for various types of weather so toss in plenty of clothes and maybe take that Sawzall for around camp? Your basic gear will put you over weight limits for flying so start emptying your wallet to pay for oversize and overweight bags.

Want to take your meat home? Well, allow another day or two to cut up and completely freeze your game. Did you bring your seal-a-meal? Meat needs to be frozen solid. Good luck finding dry ice since can't use regular ice. Oh, need to buy a cooler or two to add to your growing collection at home. More overweight fees. Oops, did you cover the points on the antlers? Or, head to UPS and pay for shipping. Ouch, that is expensive.

Unable to carry on all your optics? Good luck with the seals holding up in unpressurized luggage area of the plane. Maybe your luggage makes it, maybe not. Do you have time to wait at airport for another day?

I only fly to a hunt if is guided and know I can have the outfitter take care of the meat, cape and antlers, plus provide a lot of the gear other than my weapon, ammo, backpack and clothing.

Drive. Is part of the adventure. Get a few books on tape (Jack Reacher are page burners, Stone Barrington, etc) to help the hours and miles zoom by as you drive.

I've done both, and I much prefer driving. I actually enjoy most of the drive. I don't mind the extra time, I don't earn enough in a day to justify the extra airfare, I just extend the hunt as needed.

I have done both several times. Deer or antelope hunting I prefer to fly. Elk hunting I prefer to drive. If you try to get an elk processed and home on a flight you better get out a thick wallet because it's costly and so is shipping it back. Save yourself a lot of headache and worry and hit the road and drive it.

Another note...Once you go elk, whitetails won't be near as important and you will make time for the drive every year. Fact.

I flew once. Unless I'm using my outfitter buddy exclusively ...or If I couldnt drive out and am meeting my group out there I wouldnt fly. If you fly you're short amenities that are awfully nice to have. It sucks driving out there, but the drive back is soooooooo much worse. Another perk to driving is you gain elevation more gradually. It takes a little less time to get use to it than if you flew. Airfare and gas are probably a wash...but the rental car kinda hurts.

Festus said:

Another note...Once you go elk, whitetails won't be near as important and you will make time for the drive every year. Fact.

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Agreed. I havent bought a whitetail license in 3 or 4 years. Elk has completely ruined me.