I Have noticed on the Map that there are Many diffrent types Goverment owned land in Alaska. How do you find out which is open to public Hunting. The area in question is has a national park, wilderness area, and national wildlife refuge that are adjcent to each other. I would like to do a drop hunt in this area.
Dr B

Unless you qualify as a resident subsistence user of the Park (localized), the National Parks are not open to hunting. You can hunt the Perserves, but not the hard parks.

National Wildlife Refuges are generally open, but may have restrictive covenants.

Some areas of National Forest may also have restrictive covenants not allowing non-resident hunters or drawing only, or as in a Research Natural Area, not allow hunting.

State Parks may or may not have covenants such as drawing permit only.

Get the hunting reg books, both State and Federal Subsistence and take a long hard study of them together.

The Alaska regs and figuring out which land is which is more complicated than the income tax books.IO think they the same guy wrote both ot them.If you dont believe me just look at area 20 .It has two wonderful pages to decifer .Dont forget native land they still shoot at white people hunting on their land.Once you have figured out if the land is Native Land,Priviate Corpation,State Land ,State Park Land ,Private Land,The pipe line which your not supose to cross hunting without a permit,BLM land,Federal Subsistance Land which all have very few or no markers.The Federal game warden sugested a GPS to find their survey pins which are burried at the surface and are about 2".Once you have figured out which land you can hunt then you have to decide which of the 500 diofferent subunits that you want to hunt.You must rember as a nonresident the bear has to be biting on you or eating on you before you can shoot him.So let him eat what he wants or you will hasve to answer to fish and game.Then if you do what a moose its most likely in a 4 brow time 50" are larger area.This means there are 100 unicorns for every 4 brow tine moose.The other moose usually run 49 and 7/8" which out number the 50 and 1/8" mosse 50 to one.Then whren you find the magical moose you must remove every once of etible meat.If your luck enough some areas let you keep the bone in so you can carry a few hundred extra pounds of bones back.The bush piolets usually just charge you double for bones.Then you have to hang it 100 foot in a tree so a bear that you cant shoot wont get your meat.After your back is too broken to carry anything else you can bring out your trophy head with the hide.Dont put it on the front of your four wheeler because this cause other hunters to shoot at you.Any way if you dont get shoot at you can just enjoy a roll down the hill with a few flips on your for wheeler like the guy I saw this year.The best place to shoot a moose is in the middle of the many ponds we have.I saw a 12 year old boy shoot one 30 mintues after his uncle told him the last place you shoot a moose is in the middle of a lake.He said it was the last place he had to shoot a moose so he shot.They brought along a 300 foot rope and the biggest comealong I ever saw the next year.Here is a good area to hunt in unit 20 here is the regulation as it reads on page 87 in area 20 :Unit 20 D ,South of the North Bank Of The Tanana River and East of the West Bank of the Johnson river ,Except that portion of within The Robertson River Drainage south of the confluence of the East and West Forks,and within 1 mile west of the west forks.I heard that except part is full of 3 brow tined moose.Opps its for residents only.Ok same page found you another good area :in 20 D south of the north bank of the Tanana river and west of the west bank of the Johnson River ,except the Delta JUNCTION management area and the Bison Youth hunt area.The Delta Management area start at the nonflowing imiaganary sawmill creek .Is the boundry where you can and cant hunt.Dont worry if there is no water in the creek as there has been for the last 75 years.The biologist said you could tell right where the creek use to be.Then you have to mave sure the imiagionary 4 brow tined moose has brow tines at least an inch long and longer than it is wide with the width measurement one inch or more from the tip.I have seen one 4 brow tined moose alive but his extra brow tine was a triangle almost which was not legal.One of the guys went back to the truck on the fourwheeler to see if this moose was legal or not.Then we decided he was legal after he stood there for around 45 mintues.Then we had to decide which person was to shoot this moose .The guys with me told me that if I shot the moose they were leaving me without the 4 wheeler that all three of us were riding and I could have fun with the bears and the moose by myself.Always rember the best place to shoot a moose is right beside the road.I called one to my truck just for fun two years ago but he didnt need a ride that year because he only had three brow tines which makes him ineatible in fish and games eyes.Ok you get your 4 brow tined moose with a 65 inch spread.Now you have to carry this thing out and get it to your freezer.The airlines allows you two 50 pound bags.Did you rember your horns?They will run you about $800 to ship down that if you still want them after the squirrels and porcupines naw them a few days. I saw two guys from Nevada who go a moose from one of our local guides it cost them $4300 to have the moose cut up wrapped and shipped then $800 for their antlers $8000 for each one on their hunts ,$700 for airlines tickets and artound $1000 for hotels and eating .Then they got special mounts on their moose which cost around $1500 .I asked them how much fun they had they said after they were wet a few days and had a few bears in camp and lost alot of their gear on the flights up and had both worn blisters on feet as big as silver dollars that they were pretty happy.I asked how their moose tasted they said it was tasty but about as tough as their shoe.They said the 3 brow tines moose looked really tender.Moose hunting is pretty fun once you find all those special not including areas and except areas.

dgr416
I think you missed your calling with your positive attitude you should be working for the Alaska Tourism Dep.
Dr B

Ne ver tell me why I can't do smething, just tell me How I can.

Sorry to say, for once, dgr416 is pretty close to the mark. If you don't believe him then get a copy of the hunting regs and look for yourself. If an area has plentiful game, is anywhere near a road or river and you are a non- res, then so sad-too bad, you can't hunt there. He's not far off on the costs either. And the 50"/4 points thing--calculate that from 200 yards.

I'll hunt again in Alaska, but it's not uncomplicated.

Baylor,

Even if you chose a drop off moose thing which I don't recommend any reputable flying service wil not drop you were hunting is illegal. These folks get a good part of their income each year from flying hunters and fisherman into the bush. Dropping you in a no hunting or resident only area would be very bad for them.

Mark

There was a guy who wrote a book on floating for moose in Alaska.I forget his name.The natives took his maps and made it illeagal for nonresidents to float and hunt moose in any of these areas.There are areas out in the middle of no where that corporations have land that not marked but you will get locked up if your hunting them.The Natives just shoot at you or tear your car to pieces in Areas like Tanacross.The Mentasta indians I have heard wont let anyone hunt near their land.There is progress though some native corporations are letting people hunt with permits.I think in 20 years or less the road system of Alaska will become a wildlife viewing santuary with no hunting in site.They also want to pave the Denali Hwy and Dalton Hwy (Priness Tours0.If hunters dont start raising cain with the law makers and fish and game Alaska will become the biggest Gay Disney world for Peta and other animal rights footloops.I have friends who have been here 30 ,40 and 50 years and they say they will se an end to hunting oin the road system.It took me 5 years to figure out where the moose were ,where I could hunt.I guess it will take 20 more years to find the unicorn of Alaska the three brow tined moose.If there were no shooting of spike forked moose and reduce the brow tine requirement state wide to 3 brow tines 0r 50 inch there would be alot more bull moose that would be able to legally harvested.There are so many states that are loosing hunters and we will be on the endangered list.The Alaska Fish and game book needs to be burned and totally rewritten.There is no reason for probally 500 different moose regulations.I know its hard taking a kid moose hunting and telling them yes we saw 40 bulls moose today and about 30 of them were 3 brow tined but we cant shoot any.I take as many kids as I can but its hard to keep them interested in moose watching instead of moose hunting.Hunting for meat which is a way of live in Alaska is disapearing and hunting all together will disapear some day unless we can keep kids interested.I know the state started youth hunts but there should be some law to where a kid can kill one bull moose of his choice for his first moose.This would increase the # of hunters staying in the sport.The fish and game wants only 2% of the moose shot by hunters.The bears,wolves,poachers,tourist and our cars wacking them get the rest.I dont want to see Alaska turn into a fly in only as a
guided state only.Its turning that way pretty quickly unless the hunters do something.You can get 10 hunters to agree on hardly anything .I have a degree in Wild life management and Zoology.I The F&G do some of the stupidest things up here such as the unit 20A cow calf moose hunts.They model their moose management after Whitetails.They love to play on their computers and stay out of the field as much as possible.If you talk to a biologist up here just find out how many of them really go hunting.In the 1960s and 1970s the biologist use to visit moose camps and ask how hunting was and how many moose they had seen.Now F&G thinks the few questions they ask on your hunting report solves all their answers.I asked the biologist how many moose he saw when he was flying one day.I had seen the plane and knew it was him.He said they had not seen any moose that day flying.I had seen 30 moose at daylight in the willow pastures at daylight.He flew at 12 noon when the moose were already bedded down.They have already combined the Troopers with Fish and Game.I think that was as big mistake.I wish some group besides ones that are interested in guided hunts would stand up for regular hunters in Alaska.The guides want nonresident to be fully guided for anything in Alaska.I am for guided hunts in Alaska but there are alot of people who want to hunt Alaska but cant afford $8000-$10000 for a moose.The caribou have been so mismanaged that there is very little hunting on the road system.There is the Dalton Hwy that is bow hunting each side for 5 miles and walk in only.Its a 500 mile long dirt road with hardly anything on it but game on it.I love Alaska but I dont want to see it turn into a Gay Disney World Tourist bus place without hunters.If you look at the Kenai those guy have to drive up to where I live to hunt unless they get picked for a draw there.They even drive the 660 miles to go bird hunting.I think Anchorage is the biggest prblem of Alaska it contains 60% of the population and there are alot of soccer moms there that want there kids to have nothing to do with hunting.They also control the majority of the votes in Alaska and such measures as same day flying for bears and wolves have a hard time passing.I have seen more and more antihunting groups in Juneau and Fairbanks against baiting for bears and same day flying for bears.If thye hunters of Alaska and those who love to hunt Alaska dont do something it will be gone forever.I see very few new laws that help hunters just ones that can limit the way of life that they love hunting.

Sigh...

Native Corporation lands are private lands. Some allow hunting, some do not. Some may require a fee, some may not. I think all that do allow hunting require a permit of some type (liability issues).

It is easy enough to figure out where their lands are, either by search the State's land records, the Bureau of Land Management or by merely calling the corporations and talking to them. If you can read a map (which you should be able to do) it isn't that difficult. It has always amazed me that people have no problem knowing the boundaries and avoiding hunting in the National Parks, but have a mysterious afflication to figuring out where the private corporations lands are. Both are part of the public record.

There are reserved public access easement in specific locations across the native lands to public lands. You cannot hunt or fish from these easements, but it does give access from public land or waters (such as a highway, a navigable river, or state/federal land) across private land to public land. These easements, their purpose and their locations are published in Easement Plats by the Bureau of Land Management and the State maintains Easement Atlas' showing and describing these easements, very easy to find the information and understand it. Or you could call the corporation that has land there and ask them, they'll probably send you map.

Fact is there is more public land acreage in Alaska than the entire state of Texas. Nearly 20 million acres of US Forest Service, 87% of all the National Wildlife Refuges and about 70% of National Parks and Perserves. The State of Alaska has 103 Million acres. All told, something in the neighborhood of 330,000 square miles of public lands.

Funny how a lot of people seem to focus their ire on Native Corporations when those lands only comprise about 12% of the acreage. Much of it isn't the best hunting either. And, as stated before, some of the corporations will allow you to hunt.

The regs are difficult to master, but remember we are talking about an area approximately 1/5 of the size of the entire continental U.S., with a diversity of animals and migratory birds not found in entire regions of the "lower 48".

dgr416,

If it's not the Russians, it's the natives....c'mon guy. You say you have a degree in wildlife management and zoology....maybe you could speak to the issue that the biologists on the Kenai Peninsula have less than $10,000 for discretionary studies; that's less than nothing when compared to the cost of real studies, but then, with your degree, you probably know that....that amount is for the whole Kenai peninsula, so it's not surprising they're desk-bound much of the time. Funding for F&G statewide is sadly lacking...You're always ready to criticize, but what have you done to make things better....do you participate in local advisory committee meetings....do you write to your representatives with lucid(stress that)ideas that would stand on their own merit? You worry that the soccer moms are taking over....what do you do to enlighten them and allay their fears about hunting? I can only imagine.....the Kenai Peninsula still has great hunting for moose and black bear for those willing to get off their duffs and work for it...we've got a huntable population of brown bear but they are labeled a species of concern due to an old study that takes precedent over no study as there are no funds to cover an expensive new study so a new season could be set...but you have that degree so you probably know that...there were 69" & 70"+ bulls taken within an hour of Homer this past season.......there's lots of hunting down here without drawing..lots of ptarmigan and spruce hens....I go north every year to hunt but it doesn't mean I don't have anything to hunt here....there's lots of land statewide to hunt on....just take off your blinders and look.....

One last thought....people like you are one of the reasons hunters can't seem to agree on much....everytime you diss an ethnic group or label others as antis when they're nons(big difference), you're forgetting that they have the right to vote and are more likely than hunters to get out and vote....if you're not part of the cure for the ills you love to grouse about, then you're just part of the problem.

Joe

I have taken kids hunting who other wise would not have ever gone.Of the 15 I have taken hunting in Alaska 14 are still hunting.The other one wants to hunt again but works two jobs.I have helped land owners in the area I live in find out about govt programs for wildlife and help them fill out the paper work.I dont get a dime from it.I build brush piles that moose can feed on ,grouse can hide in and help on farms to bush hog areas so new growth will be there for the wild life.I am part American Indian both my grand parents were native.I converted my farm in Georgia to a conservation farm.I had 10,000 pine trees planted and 1000 oak trees.We have one of the oldest and pretty big stands of white oaks on our farm.I will not let them be cut as long as I own the land.I use to help dairy farmers who quit having a dairy get into the govt programs for wild life.I have planted hundreds of acres of food plots in Alaska and Georgia.I have helped tag fish and count fish on runs for free.I have given guns,shells and hunting clothes to kids who cant afford them that what to hunt.I have reported to the biologist and guides things that needed reporting to them about moose,caribou,bears and upland birds.I have helped families with roadkill and moose they shot dress them so they would have meat for the winter.I have gone to meetings of both federal and state fish and game.I have helped about 75 kids in Alaska with their hunter safety courses.I also did the same thing in Georgia.You know how much I charged to do all these things nothing because I love hunting.I spend around 130 days or more in the field hunting ,watching ,photographing,learning animal behaviors,working on food plots,helping people with moose ,taking kids hunting and fishing .I ask you what have you done for Hunting lately?