Contributors to this thread:
I started up a conversation with a good friend who's dream hunt is an Alaska/Yukon moose hunt. Given he can't afford a guided hunt I'm in the early stages of planning a DIY moose hunt with two options:
1) A float trip
2) A drop camp
Given a lack of rafting experience the drop camp is likely the better option.
I've got all the gear we need for either hunt, less rafting equipment or the plan and we're both experienced backcountry hunters. I've hunted all over the north and know what to expect and will be prepared.
So with the background I'm looking for input on:
Which type of hunt you've done along with the pluses or minuses.
Transporters used
General areas hunted and if they were any moose or 50" plus, draw or not.
Total cost once you arrive in Alaska via major airline.
Any advice is appreciated!
If you do the float trip I have a bit of advice for you.
Know the outfitter furnishing your equipment!!!
Know the outfitter furnishing your equipment!!
No, it wasn't a double post -- I figured it was that important.
While not working for a hunting camp, I did guide for a fishing outfit (in Alaska - Bristol Bay). The camp offered float trip fishing. They put "do it yourself" people out on the rivers with equipment that literally could have cost people their lives.
Get references, talk to the outfitter. Make darn sure they have done it and have an idea what it's all about.
Know the outfitter furnishing your equipment!!!
DDD
If you do the float trip I have a bit of advice for you.
Know the outfitter furnishing your equipment!!!
Know the outfitter furnishing your equipment!!
No, it wasn't a double post -- I figured it was that important.
While not working for a hunting camp, I did guide for a fishing outfit (in Alaska - Bristol Bay). The camp offered float trip fishing. They put "do it yourself" people out on the rivers with equipment that literally could have cost people their lives.
Get references, talk to the outfitter. Make darn sure they have done it and have an idea what it's all about.
Know the outfitter furnishing your equipment!!!
DDD
Rivers are a form of highway in Alaska. If an outfitter is floating you, he's floating others. There may be other parties from other outfitters using the same river. A navigable river is very likely to be a well-hunted corridor up there. Human pressure being what it is to moose (a negative) I would prefer to hunt where few or none have been tampering with the bulls. That may be almost impossible to find, but you can get close. You also are well advised not to follow a rifle camp by bowhunting there. Dead carcasses draw predators, and predators tend to repel moose in their area.
You can do Alaska door-to-door for $5,000 or less with a bush transport. Yes you can spend more (and I usually do) but it's optional money. I go every year and it's a familiar routine now.
I dont have much advice to offer...yet. Me and 2 buddies are doing a diy float trip next year though. Cant wait!!!!! If you decide to go that route pm me and will let you know what we have done up until this point.
I haven't posted my float hunt advice on Bowsite for a long time. I love to do it periodically.
Kevin is very perceptive. Most float hunting in AK is a "volume business" by the air taxiis and other transporters.
Here is what I suggest you do when you feel the need to go on a float hunt for moose in Alaska:
First put on your long johns, wool shirt and pants and your rain gear.
Next, fill the bathtub with cold water and add a few bags of ice cubes. Then turn the shower on like a light sprinkle of rain (still very cold.)
Then, pour about a cup and half of sand/silt into your shorts.
Finally, sit down in the tub (with the cold shower spraying you) and begin lifting weights.
After a few hours you will be having the same sensation as a drop-off float hunt for moose.
You will see just as many moose in your bathroom as if you were floating down a river a day or two behind the last raft full of gullible NR hunters.
But here is the great part: It is WAY less expensive.
I offer this as a public service. Yer welcome....
Pete
I will give a bump to Joe Schuster with Sportsmans Air Service. He is at 7K for a drop hunt. Its a 4 brow tine or 50" or wider My brother and I went and we both got moose. It was an awesome hunt but very wet. You need good rain gear for sure and the temps were about 35-37 degrees most of the time we were there when it was raining. It was plenty cold with no way to dry out wet clothes. But I can't wait to go back.
In the end I probably had an estimated 10K in it with bringing a whole moose home via a semi-freezer truck(split between my brother and I). My moose shoulder mounted about 2k and kuiu rain gear that I bought and hotels, etc...
If you want to hear the whole story let me know. Joe won't steer you wrong.
Save your money and do your research until you can do it right. If you have to scrimp and save to make the trip you will be miserable about every extra nickle you have to spend. Always have to plan on having at least an EXTRA grand in your pocket above and beyond what you planned on spending. Things have a way of popping up on an out of state or country hunt. Do not do it cheaply!! You will end up paying one way or the other. See you on the tundra. Rory
I know Alaska is Alaska and it has a mystique all its own, BUT if your more interested in an actual moose hunt there are other options out there, I prefer Ontario, its not Alaska but there is a lot of wild remote country, and lots of moose. You probably can do 2 maybe 3 Ontario hunts for 1 Alaska hunt,
I dont have much advice to offer...yet. Me and 2 buddies are doing a diy float trip next year though. Cant wait!!!!! If you decide to go that route pm me and will let you know what we have done up until this point.
Pete, I love your float trip advise. Spot on and saves a ton of money. There are exceptions I am sure.
Research research then more. It took me 2-3 years then a year or two on the transport list. We did the trip for about $5000 door to door and it could have been closer to $4000. 2 hunters and 2 p&y class bulls.
If you want to go in the next year or two you will have to pay with an outfit like Schuster. Nothing wrong with that.
One tip, the units with antler restrictions are there because of pressure, not quality.
Look up Alaska Double thread. Awesome trip.
Pete, I love your float trip advise. Spot on and saves a ton of money. There are exceptions I am sure.
Research research then more. It took me 2-3 years then a year or two on the transport list. We did the trip for about $5000 door to door and it could have been closer to $4000. 2 hunters and 2 p&y class bulls.
If you want to go in the next year or two you will have to pay with an outfit like Schuster. Nothing wrong with that.
One tip, the units with antler restrictions are there because of pressure, not quality.
Look up Alaska Double thread. Awesome trip.
Having seen (firsthand) the results of a raft trip through a tough river region, I can absolutely assure you that Pete's tongue-in-cheek advice is not too far off reality. My friend came off the river hypothermic with wet gear, missing gear, blisters, extreme exhaustion and more grit in his bottoms than I care to remember. I don't have a desire to float and hunt.
A stationary camp gives you a lot more hunting time and a better camp. You'll learn where moose tend to show up, and sometimes a pattern or pinch point will be noted. I know (and so do many others) how tough it can be to hear a bull grunt if it's over 1/4 mile away. Put yourself in a raft with the sounds of running water and it becomes much tougher. If there is a bank (invariably) then you have terrain between you and the moose. You could float by a huge bull and have no idea.
The part about door-to-door for $5k or less is accurate. My 2014 commercial ticket was $730 from Ohio. AK license and moose tag around $500. Bush flight basic price of $2k. Hotel on each end, food for the hunt, and some incidentals will push you toward 5. Yes, you gotta have your gear but I do and it's part of hunting on my own.
I'm going next year with 40 mile and no way am I doing a float trip.Just sounds like way too much work.Taking down and setting up camp almost daily,following other hunters,wet/wet and more wet;not for me.I had a great caribou trip with 40 mile and expect to have decent moose trip.The 5k is very accurate as far as pricing.Its well worth the money too!!!!
Years back I did a DIY drop camp w/ camping gear and grub supplied by a now out of business air taxi out of Talkeetna. I hired a local packer to come along and assist me w/ the pack out. No other hunters in my area for miles and none before me on an opening week hunt.
I insisted on the first hunt of the year and I think is solid advice for anyone wanting to go via the DIY drop camp or float trip.
I'm glad I did experience the hunt, rifled a 56", but what an experience and almost endless chore working on and packing out that monster. Never made it back to camp one night when we took what we thought was a shortcut back out and got in the middle of a bog after dark. Called it quits for the night after the packer went in over his boots.
A candy bar for dinner. Slept out on a plastic garbage bag in my raingear next to a log. Breakfast was three little cheese crackers and wild blueberries.
What an experience, great to have done it once...and it's in the past...but never again for me!
Good luck!
+1 Cubbies.
I hunted bears with Joe Shuester but he has some of the best moose hunting areas in AK.
I have yet to meet anyone who has hunted moose with him who wouldn't recommend him. It's a drop camp and his equiptment is great..
Kevin, Mixed Bag... they've done the homework for you. What you are asking is "Should I road hunt or have a place to call my own?" The answer is obvious. I find 6K to be a bit more accurate but that includes shipping gear ahead of me, renting a few items, & getting everything back home and every other little detail imaginable. Truly door to door.
I can't believe when people complain about what food they have to eat when hunting. I ate cheese crackers for 3 days straight while Turkey hunting and was driving by restaurant s and convienance stores every day...hunting is the priority not eating. There is plenty of time to eat after the hunt...besides that, my eyes get tighter together and I hunt better when hungry.
TBM,
That is because unlike moose hunting in Alaska, turkey hunting in the wilds of Alabama is a tough, rugged demanding sport.
These moose hunters are talking merely about staying in the wilderness for days or weeks at a time. In rainy or snowy conditions. Often in mountainous terrain. And packing out a 1200 lb animal on their backs.
A few crackers and a piece of cheese or can of sardines and a bit of water should be all they need to do that.
Hope this clears that minor detail that up....
Pete
TBM what is your fitness routine when preparing for these turkey missions? You burn more calories just getting to Alaska than you would in an entire turkey season including packing the buggers out. You'd eat the crackers on the plane!
You know I like you man but that was truly spoken like one of the cast from Moonshiners. OK....Remove foot from mouth.
"I ate cheese crackers for 3 days straight while Turkey hunting and was driving by restaurants and convienance stores every day..."
WOW, what percent body fat do you train for, 40?
Cubbies
I'm interested in hearing it. I've got Schuster booked for 2016!
"I ate cheese crackers for 3 days straight while Turkey hunting and was driving by restaurants and convienance stores every day...TBM"
no wonder youre FOS, eating all that cheese. Mike
Thanks for the input gents, checking with my bud to see what he can afford. If he can't swing $5,000 I might have to go guided and if that's the case I'll likely look at Northern BC.
I've hunted with Joe Scuster twice and plan on returning in the next few years. He runs an awesome operation.
definitely not knocking Joe Shuster but is there any reason, other than time and planning, that you can't just pay a bush pilot to drop you somewhere in that area? Man he is high priced. For my wallet anyway.
You get what you pay for with Schuster. He is top of line. Went with him couple years ago.
Given I've got my own gear and can eat freeze dried for 10 days I'd likely look at another option other than Schuster for a drop camp. Forty Mile Air charges about $2,800 per person if you kill a moose and has the option to add a flight for extra gear and food that's about $800 or $400 split two ways. So $3,200 for air charter and another $1,800 for all other expenses and the $5000 discussed throughout seems about right. FWIW, on a true drop camp hunt I don't consider food an expense since I've got to eat no matter what....
Here is a break down of my 2012 Ak. moose hunt for reference:
Commercial flight from Ohio to Ak. $900
transporter with a meat flight. $2700.
Moose license. $400
Cost to butcher and freeze the meat we brought home $300
Extra baggage fees $150.
Cost to ship uncut rack home $750.00
No hotels or rental cars, thanks Pete:)
We found out at the airport that we could have shipped our racks as baggage for @ $150.00 which would have saved $600.00 each.
As stated above when it comes to meals I still have to eat at home.
2 hunters and 2 mature bulls killed. Great time had by all.
Go for it!!!
Rick- Correction, the trip was from MI to AK and I think it was $890, not $900. Lol. We opted to fly out of Detroit because only one stop in Seattle, not two flying out of Cleveland.
Our biggest error was not taking euro's on the plane, BUT remember not all airlines will let you. Ours would have we just had bad info. on that subject.
Yes and thanks again to Pete for the hospitality!!!
DJ
Commercial airline travel is a bargain. I can fly over 6,000 miles for less than $800 this year. That's 13 cents a mile. On the other hand, my bush flight is around $2,000 and total distance is under 400 miles...at the very least it's $5/air mile in a Super Cub, and sometimes as much as $10/mile. Of course I get to wear a helmet in the Cub and look for game while flying. It's a lot more fun to step out of a plane and hear the sound of ravens and rivers vs a jetway into a busy terminal. No skycaps either.
Tilzbow, Not sure how important trophy quality, or even killing a bull is to you, but make sure you do a lot of research on the area you choose to hunt. Most guys choose to hunt with Schuster as much for his incredible success rate and giant bulls as they do for his gear and food. You'll have a hard time finding an inexpensive option that will give you as good a chance of killing a big bull, if that's a factor for you.
Compare success rates and average trophy size (again, if this is important) and the "high priced" option may start to look like the real value.
Trophy quality is not a priority to me, I'd be happy with a representative bull (I've got no where to put one anyway) and for me it's not about money, I could swing a fully guided hunt with Shockey but for moose it's about the experience more than anything and I'd prefer DIY with a good friend over a fully guided trophy hunt. My partner has limited funds and anything over $5,000 (or $4K for that matter) may be out of his reach so it's going to come down to his ability to find the hunt. I could cover the difference but that wouldn't fly with him...
Totally understand. Just pointing out why Schusters isn't necessarily a high priced hunt for what you get, more so for others reading this thread who are looking at all of the options.
