Living in the boonies I have never tried dry ice before about 2 weeks ago.The wife splurged and bought some and it worked great for keeping blocks of ice frozen solid for several days in warm weather.

How do you guys use it for the best results way back in or shipping meat?

Jayco

Check your individual airline regs. Some allow it, some don't. Most have about a 5# limit in a cooler because of the off-gassing, and it must be declared. If you can process any of the meat and freeze it, it keeps for several days by itself if packed with some newspaper. That works, even for driving in pickup for days. I have never found it necessary for any trips on airlines.

check with the various shippers such as fed ex. they often carry frozen steaks and premium meats across the contry packed in dry ice (solid CO2). I may turn out to be les expensive to ship that way than to tae the meat onan airine.
JA

Once you decide to use dry ice, make sure of two things:

(1) insulate the dry ice from the meat to avoid freezer burn (wrap the dry ice in several layers of news paper).

(2) use duct tape to seal your cooler shut (tape over the entire seal between the cooler side and top). That will prolong the life of the dry ice by a large margine. Taping the lid seal works wonders with block or cubed ice as well.

I've only traveled with dry ice once as it isn't handy most of the time. It worked great in the coolers.

What I have done a couple times before I got my huge cooler was to get the meat processed before I left for home. I put the boxes of meat in the back of the truck on a piece of styrofoam then put a couple blocks of ice around the pile with one on top. Then covered the pile with blankets and sleeping bags.
It's a 12hr drive from my Dad's in So. Ore to my place here in bakersfield and in the fall it's still miserably hot here. I made it down here with blocks of ice still intact and barely melted. The biggest issue is to insulate. Nate

FWIW:

I just flew back from Denver last night with an antelope. Delta accepted the ice chest with frozen meat as baggage. They allowed up to 2kg (4.4 lbs) of dry ice in the chest.

I taped it up, but it was opened by TSA. They did retape, but poorly.

They put a tag on it saying not to put in a compartment with live animals. Other than that, it was just like checking a bag.

The meat arrived still frozen solid, even after a 3hr drive in 90° temps.

I used UPS to send my clothes back via ground. It was cheaper than checking a thrid bag. Mainly, I did it to prevent having to manhandle 3 bags in the airport.

Please do take the airline restrictions on dry ice seriously. CO2 displaces oxygen from the blood stream: not a great thing, especially when you have the guy driving the thing breathing it......

When we ship frozen fish samples, we'll create a double wall structure. An insulated box with the package inside another insulated box. We put the dry ice between the two boxes. This usually keeps even small samples (1 or 2 pounds) frozen solid, even when Fedex turns it into a two or three day shipment.

I have never used dry ice in the back country, but I know that a several of the river outfitters use it so they can spring little surprises on the dudes such as ice-cream on the fifth day out.

For shipping meat, the best way to control heat loss is to increase the size of the package. The higher the weight, the longer the stuff will stay cool. In a "HUGE" cooler, one that holds 150 lbs or better of meat, you could just about drive cross-country without thawing any of it. JMO, Dutch.