I wrote this article as a resource for people traveling by air to hunt in Alaska. Much of it is applicable to traveling to hunt anywhere. I have made a cursory effort to remove or modify those things that apply strictly to Alaska.

THE TRAVELING HUNTER
I went on my first out-of-state expedition in 1987 and repeated the adventure every two or three years since then. I prefer to do everything myself and reap the greater personal satisfaction and lower cost that comes from doing it myself. If I had to pay an outfitter, I couldn't afford to go as often. So all of my out-of-state hunting trips have been DIY hunts where we did all the recon and planning (that’s half the fun) and provided all of our own camping gear and food. We contracted with locals for transportation, horses, rafts, etc., but that’s about it. Over the years, I've had questions and encountered problems. I wrote down the answers and solutions and have updated the list after every trip. Here's the latest version.

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Modern restrictions and costs associated with baggage when flying make it critical that you keep down the weight and bulk of what you take. When I fly, I think of the trip as a backpack hunt whether or not I’m actually backpacking. I assume that everything that I take will eventually end up on my back in a pack. That strategy automatically keeps the weight and bulk to a minimum.

A 100 quart Igloo or Coleman cooler is the largest that the US Postal Service will accept without charging extra for over-sized packages. I don't know about other countries. Avoid wheels and small door in the top lid. The wheels make the cooler heavier and they take up room that could be filled with contents. The door makes the cooler leak in the rain. I mail a 120-quart Igloo cooler via US Postal Service. It is mostly filled with freeze-dried and dehydrated food and other disposable/consumable stuff. Make sure you insure your mail and mark your name and address on the outside with magic marker, then seal it shut with strapping tape. I have mailed two containers in both directions because airline baggage rates are a lot higher than US Postal Service rates. Freeze your meat and put it in the cooler and carry it home as your baggage on the airplane. It will stay frozen for at least 24 hours.

On the departing trip I check only a rifle case and one large duffel bag or Duluth Bag filled with clothes and camping gear. I also take two carry-on items. One is a small hunting daypack filled mostly with travel items. The other was a small duffel bag that I leave at the trailhead or landing strip. It is filled with my first set of hunting clothes and a pair of boots. Make sure that there are no TSA prohibited items in your carry-ons.

Gun Case: needs to be very sturdy and have locks. I use a Cabelas two-gun "Bulletproof" gun case, which works OK. There are many that aren't as good and a few that are better. I put all my fragile optics (range finder, camera, GPS, binoculars, etc.) inside the gun case along with rifle and ammo. You must declare your firearm at the ticket counter and have it inspected by TSA, then locked. Then you give it to the ticket agent at the counter. Your gun case will be delivered at a location or window separate from regular baggage.

Postal Service: You don't want things to get lost so mark your name and address on the outside of all packages in such a way that it can't possibly get lost, torn off, etc. They will accept some really odd looking packages so long as they are within certain dimensional restrictions. I have mailed two sets of caribou antlers via US Postal Service and they both arrived in perfect condition. Cut the skull plate in half and nest one antler inside the other, tape them together and cover all the points with cardboard and duct tape. It looks really awkward but works fine. I also mail back my large duffel bag full of clothes and camping gear. I used the same cooler to carry frozen meat, as my luggage on the plane and I mailed my gear home, again with USPS. I froze the meat, put it in the cooler and it was still frozen when I got home. I have subsequently arranged to become a "known shipper" with Alaska Airlines so that I can ship via frozen air cargo. If you are hunting in another country, you might want to investigate doing the same thing with a local airline.

I’ve flown and camped on all of my Alaska hunts, three trips onto Mount McKinley, seven hunting trips, and a bunch of trips in the lower forty-eight. You really have to know what you are doing and be very organized, if you are flying to a remote spot in Alaska and you better have good gear because if something fails, you don’t have any backup.

I use an MSR Whisperlite or Dragonfly stove for cold weather and MSR Pocket Rocket or Optimus Crux Isobutane stove for warm weather. I use propane appliances when base camping.

For base camping I use a Cabelas Instinct-6 tent as a group cook shack. The dome tent takes up less room when packed, is lighter, and is easier to setup and break down than a wall tent. But it’s not big enough to use a wood burning stove like a wall tent. There are always trade-offs. We sleep in a Cabelas XPG Expedition, 4-season, 4-person tent for two people.

If it's warm, you will have to be concerned with keeping your meat from spoiling while waiting to return to the bush community. We put our meat in game bags, kept it clean and hung it up every night covered by a tarp to keep it dry. We saw that some other hunters had placed their meat in a side braid of the river so that the cold water kept the meat cool. We also used Game Saver citric acid spray. You mix the powder with water in a spray bottle and it works great. I ordered it over the Internet from Indian Valley Meat Co., in Indian Valley, AK. http://www.indianvalleymeats.com/about.htm

We carry small Motorola radios in case of emergency. We didn’t use them though, because radio recon for hunting is illegal. If you communicate via radio, your hunting is done for the day.

We use Leupold 10x42 binoculars in 2007. In 2009, my buddy showed up with a pair of Zeis 15x56 binos mounted on a tripod and used them to spot a black bear from five miles away. So I bought a pair of Nikon Oculus 15x56 binoculars and a tripod. We both had chest harnesses attached to our binos.

I use T/C Icon Weathershield 30-06 rifle with Leupold VX-III 3.5x10x40 scope and Warne rings when I hunt in Alaska.

My buddy took some T.T.C. (Taxidermy Trophy Compound) https://www.bringmin.com/catalog/index.php and used it to treat the capes in the field. It’s lighter than salt. If you are not returning home immediately, put some “Stop Rot” on the cape. Once I left mine at the meat processor for two weeks and instructed them to keep it frozen. They put it in a cooler (not a freezer) and it was ruined.

The meat of a big bull elk will fill two 100 quart coolers. Including the ice, a caribou, mule deer, axis deer, or big whitetail deer will fill one 100 quart cooler. You can use a smaller cooler when hunting antelope.

Good luck, have a great adventure and a safe hunt.

KC

Wind in my hair, Sun on my face, I gazed at the wide open spaces, And I was at home.