Bringing Them Home

By Dave Freeman

It was the morning of opening day of New Mexico’s second rifle season. We were halfway up San Antonio Mountain at about 11,000 feet. We inched our way across a meadow as we glassed the next meadow and the woods between the two. Just below, we spotted the herd of between twenty-five and thirty animals.

The herd had also seen us and were already making their way through the wooded section, climbing up the mountain through the next clearing.

“Get set up and if you get the shot, take it,” were the words from my guide, Steve Linenbrink from Kiowa Outfitters “There’s a good five-by-five near the rear of the herd.”

Sitting on the ground near a small pine tree, I rested my Remington 300 Win-Mag on top of my Stoney Point Bi-Pod. As the bull cleared the trees, I took the shot.

For those of you who are regular readers of Ohio Valley Outdoors, you know that this story didn’t begin this past October but, in fact, mid-October 2003, when the last day of a week-long hunt saw me missing a good bull the last hour, last light at about 350 yards. The missed opportunity occurred at about the same level on the same mountain and just about one mile east of where I had just squeezed the trigger.

The miss two years ago was due, I felt, to inadequate practice and preparation. On this day, as I heard the loud crack of my rifle, I at least knew that I had spent hours of time with target practice and hours walking and using the tread mill (I was still sucking air at 11,000 feet), finding what I felt was the best load for me and my gun, the Winchester Acua-Bond. And, while hunting is hunting and one can never predict what may happen in a given hunting scene, this day was mine. The time spent getting ready for the hunt had paid off. Two hundred yards from where the Elk was when I had taken my 364-yard shot, we found him: a magnificent trophy and somewhat of a redemption for my last attempt.

Only four hours into a weeklong trip. End of story? Not on your life - only the beginning.

Now, having flown commercially for this trip, the fun begins: getting the elk rack and meat back to Ohio.

Before booking my trip, my wife had spent many hours calling several airlines that fly into Denver in an effort to find what was involved in bringing home both rack and meat. Based on the fact that US Airlines told us that bringing home an elk rack from Denver would be free, we had booked the flight with them. I was told that the rack had to have the tips covered (in this case we used garden hose) as well as covering the skull (I had decided beforehand that, if successful, I was planning on an European mount). I was also told that the meat had to be packed in coolers, weighing no more than fifty pounds and, depending upon with whom you spoke from the airlines, had to or was not allowed to have dry ice on it.

Armed with this information and having a few extra days now before we headed home, I took the meat to a processor in Alamosa, Colorado. My instructions to him were to cut mostly steaks, thinking that because we were limited by weight, any ground meat would be given to the outfitter for camp meat. My goal was to get as many of the steaks home as possible.

My next focus was on preparing the skull for shipment. I had thought that I would just boil the meat off the skull, clean it as best I could, and wrap it for the trip.

After several hours traveling to every likely store in Alamosa, we had just about given up on finding a thirty inch long, ten inch wide, and thirteen inch deep anything that would be capable of boiling our skull.

Our last stop, and indeed, last hope, found us at a small hardware store with a very helpful young lady who was determined to find something to meet our requirements. After a lot of thought and effort, she found something that would fill the bill. We rented a chaffing dish. Don’t laugh, it worked!

So, for the rest of that day and part of the next, we boiled, picked off cooked meat, and bleached until our rack was ready. It was now taped with hose, clean and white, and ready for the trip home…. we thought.

The airline had told us that any additional luggage or coolers of meat would cost us around $100 each. After picking up our steaks, we found that we had approximately two hundred pounds of steaks to get home.

Somewhere in this process we got the bright idea that it would be much cheaper to ship our hunting clothing home, thus being able to check several coolers on as our luggage. This now necessitated making a trip to the UPS store as well as packing up almost everything we wore, praying that we would receive them in time to continue with the bow-hunting season in Ohio.

After purchasing several coolers and packing them with as much meat and dry ice as we could, we headed for Denver and our return flight home the next day.

Upon arriving in Denver, where we would spend the night, we once again called US Air to confirm what we had been told twice before regarding what we could bring, how to prepare it, and the cost involved.

The information given to us in previous calls was the same, with the exception of one call earlier in the week when we were told no dry ice. On this evening, we were told that the only way the airline would allow us to bring our meat home was if it was packed with dry ice and sealed with tape.

So, at 10 PM the night before our flight, we went grocery shopping for duck tape and dry ice. We bought ten pounds of ice that was divided among three coolers, then taped the two that we planned to take as checked baggage and prepared for a smooth flight back to Pittsburgh.

The flight that next day didn’t leave Denver until noon, but still skeptical about what we had been told the day before, we arrived at the airport at 9 AM and prepared to check-in at the US Airlines counter.

It was soon apparent that what I had been told and what the attendant had been told by her supervisor were two different tales.

After being informed that there would be a one hundred dollar charge for the rack, we asked for a supervisor. This supervisor informed us that the change from free to $100 had occurred the first of October with the merger of US Airlines and South West.

After a long and heated discussion, based on the fact that we had been told of the free rack transportation three times in the past three weeks (including the evening before), the supervisor agreed not to charge us for the rack.

Great, I thought, until we were told that while the rack was free, it would constitute another piece of luggage and, therefore, an additional charge.

More discussion and finally, I’m sure in an effort just to get rid of me, they agreed to the ‘no charge’ elk rack.

Now the question was focused as to the meat.

“Was it packed with dry ice?” I was asked. “Yes,” I replied. “How much dry ice?” I was asked. “About three pounds per cooler when it was packed the night before.” “Much less than that by now,” I told them.

“Prove it.” I was told. “How can I do that?” I replied. While the supervisor initially wanted to un-tape and open the cooler, she finally decided to send the coolers through X-ray where she felt the X-ray technician could determine the amount of dry ice still inside.

As we were taking the coolers to X-ray, we were told that an X-ray cannot detect dry ice and that the coolers would have to be opened and checked by hand. Upon examination, it was discovered that there was little or no dry ice left in the coolers.

Around two hours had passed and we still had to go through the security section with our carry-ons, which included a backpack with about forty pounds of frozen elk steaks.

While there was no problem at all in getting through the security screening, even with the elk, it took nearly two-and-a-half hours and a lot of loud conversation to get our trophy home.

I point out this part of my trip to our readers for several reasons. I have no problem with the security part of Denver airport, or for that matter, any airport, as these folks are performing a service to keep me safe. Not only do I support them, I also salute them.

My problem was with US Air. While I am sure they are going through a large number of policy changes as part of the merger with South West, it is their job to know what these policies are and be able to clearly and accurately convey them to their customers, whether in person or on the telephone.

The real story here, however, is the continuation of my story two years ago, and that it is indeed necessary to be prepared for your hunt. Not only prepare for the hunt itself, but also for getting to and from the hunt as well as getting your animal home by vehicle or plane. If you travel by plane, check all the regulations and make sure that you have any information pertaining to you, your equipment, or trophy transportation in writing.

One thing for certain is that if I ever have the chance to elk hunt again, I will NOT be traveling by any commercial means; or, if I do, I will be even more prepared than