MY GUNSMITH was talking to me about one of his customers who talked about a self guided float hunt for moose.

Seemed interesting. If I am clear on the concept, your "outfitter" drops you on a river and you just travel along down the river at your own pace hunting along the way, getting to a pickup point at some later specified time.
You are responsible for your personal gear, all the work and basically you are just getting flown in and flown out plus a boat/raft.

Anyone ever done one of those?
any recommendations for who offers this service?

Sounds like a GREAT way to spend a week or two even if you don't score.

I haven't tried it yet, but I can tell you it's becoming a very popular way to hunt moose here. If you go to www.outdoorsdirectory.com and browse the hunting forums for the last month or two, and check out the archives, you'll find a lot of info there.

I strongly recommend contacting Larry Bartlett. He posts here. He offers consulting and guide work in this field. He also has a good book on the subject. I have not personally used him but he is well thought of. He's also a local and not someone trying to get in some side work. That's important to me anyway.

LAWCOP,

The float trip thing sounds better than what it really is. Consider that moose are most active in very early morning and just before dark at night. That means you need to have your camp taken down and packed up before first light in the AM and at night your going to have to find a camping spot before it gets completely dark. On either end of the day you are going to be mucking around in the dark getting ready in the AM and setting up camp at night.

Sorry! I kind of get off on a rant about float trips because I feel so many people get ripped off on this deal. To answer your question you do only need to bring your camping and personal gear. The flying service will provide the flight and raft etc. They will drop you off and then pick you up on a designated day. There is another problem. How do you know how many hours per day you need to put in on the river to get from point A to point B to be picked up? What if there is a hard wind blowing up the river some of the time? How much does that slow you up?

If you go you need 2 rafts to accomodate you and the meat. The second raft does not always follow directly behind the first as it is being towed and can get you in big trouble with sweepers, log jams etc.

A float trip is a very pleasant experience if you are not seriously hunting and the weather is not too bad. I have done float trips but I just can't imagine that it would be the way to go for a novice AK hunter and someone new to floating small streams.

Personally I think that getting dropped off at a lake that has been pre scouted is the way to go. You can spend your time hunting rather than setting up, taking down your camp and looking for a camp site.

If you want I can send you contact info. on a couple of guys that specialize in drop off hunts in my area. I have used both and they are very reliable. Also they can set up a float trip for you if you want. I have no business ties with either. E-mail me!

[ 10-27-2003, 21:57: Message edited by: MARK H. YOUNG ]

LAWCOP

Mark pretty well summed it up . One thing to think on , most small rivers and streams do not allow for a middle of the hunt to pick up meat . If your on a ten day hunt and happen to get on on day one or two that is a long time to care for meat when it is hot and wet . A drop off hunt is a great way to go , most can have a one time relocating move during the hunt or have the meat flown back . Which ever way you go have fun be safe and take lots of ammo , Alaska can throw a cure at any time , I know I live and hunt here.

Richard

I have done a drop-camp float for fish, bear, and caribou. We did not consider Moose because the amount of meat would be way too great to even consider: hang, take down, rehang, take down, NO WAY if there are bears you are a floating catastrophe. I have seen what bears do to rubber rafts: complete total loss with the swipe of a paw. It would be a long walk out!!

I did not want to be a baited boat. It could be done with a short (less than 30 miles of total float, so you could just float and blow out after shooting, but we were going 76 miles in first descent waters. Most raftable rivers flow at 2-3 miles per hour, same as a typical walk speed, if you know how to keep off the hangups and away from sweeps. We had one Boar Brown sit on his haunches and watch us approach from two miles away, right to about 250 yeards. WE were relieved when he upped and retreated over the hill behind. You can not imagine the feeling of exposure until you are in a single rubber boat in two feet of slow water with a hungry bear looking you over.. as you float into his territory... the protection gun was out and loaded the whole time.

floated into a sow/cub pair... another story.

Saw a big bull on the stream bank, begging for a shooting.. late in the day as poster above said.

I would say float down a day or two to a remote or unhunted area, keeping a clean camp, no dead fish and a clean boat, set up a camp for 2-3-4 days, then float out: great idea. float everyday and hope for a shot? less ideal. But it will need be late in year or where a float plane can pick up your meat in a hurry.

We tried it for caribou and bear, but we were selflimited to only hunting the last three days of our 7 day float trip so meat would not spoil. And our outfitters camp was direclty downstream. It turned out we could have shot 3 brown bears without stalking, as they hand by the river bottoms... but alas saw zero blackies and zero caribou.

We were on a tributary to the ANIAK river in late August.

Hope this helps.

Jameister

THANKS for the replies so far.

I have done several canoe/river hunts (Ontario)for moose in the past and I always felt that a canoe just isn't as forgiving as a raft would be. Throwing half a moose leg into a canoe with your gear can get exciting when the water is really cold and the banks are slippery......

Not sure if I am that mad at moose any more so much as looking for a unique way of seeing the country and really getting away from it all.

I learned a long time ago that there are 3 places to shoot moose and 2 of them are VERY BAD. (1-back in the bush with long carry to water, 2-IN the water) My last moose I promised myself that I wouldn't shoot one unless I knew that when it fell over the waves of the lake/river would be gently lapping at it's hooves while the rest of it's body was on the shore. That is why I started carrying the .375H&H. Break them down right in place. I was close. 10 foot from where he fell to the shore where we beached the freighter canoe.

I figured a moose hunt for the float trip since it doesn't require a guide, but I am always open to other suggestions for getting away.

again thanks so far for the responses.

Good question and even better answers; I've always been interested in a float trip of this type, but never considered even ONE of the negative points brought up! Pretty much removed this type of hunt from my "wish list" Of course, being from California and all, we'd just just use a jet-type river boat and eliminate all of the slow-float issues......

[ 10-28-2003, 03:49: Message edited by: Craig Nolan ]