Float Hunt

[bigbrother]

Has anyone on here done a float hunt for moose? Any suggestions on what to do or not to do? Good area / bad area? Any help or info would be appreciated.

[bigbrother]

Anybody have any info? Heard any good or bad stories?

[M.T. Pockets]

I read the book "Hunt Alaska Now" by Dennis Confer about 10 years ago. It is an entire book on how to do an Alaska hunt on your own. A lot has changed since then but there is still a lot of useful information in it.

I've did a caribou drop camp hunt in 2002. I spent a lot of time doing research and was well prepared, but I did learn a lot.

Be very careful choosing your air service and contact every reference you can.

If I were going to do any Alaskan hunt again I would hire a hunt planner. I'll try to find the one I'm thinking of in Fairbanks and send you a pm with his name and web site. It would be money well spent.

[bigbrother]

thanks for the input. Were you successful on the drop hunt for caribou? Did you research and choose the area you wanted to hunt yourself or did you have someone do that?

[M.T. Pockets]

I did a lot of reading, calling and emailing for a couple years before booking an air service. I hunted the Mulchatna herd in 2002 and from what I've heard hunting was a lot better in earlier years and has gotten worse. The air service we used no longer takes caribou hunters since their numbers are down, they used to brag of 100% success for several years.

We also saw 4 or 5 other hunting parties on the ground placed when we were there from other outfitters.

I did get a bull, nothing great, but the only one I saw in 5 days. I was after a wolf for a while, and we saw an absolutely huge grizzly bear.

I'll go back to Alaska, but not to the same area unless something drastic changes.

[Kusko]

I've never done a float hunt, but I've been on many drop hunts.

That book that M.T. Pockets is referring to is a good one. You can also look at Floating Hunting by Larry Bartlett.

Choose your air taxi carefully and be prepared to deal with a 1200 lb animal on the ground.

IMO, nonresidents who do not have an "in" in Alaska have a hard time dealing with logistics. Once you get your meat from the field, how do you get it home? You can donate it in most circumstances if you want, but what if you can't?

There are piles of variables. Send me a few more specific questions and I will do my best to answer them.