2016 Alaska Float Hunt

[mato06]

I want share a brief write up and a few photos of a moose float hunt three friends and myself did this last September. We hired an air transporter to drop us off on a ten day 130 mile (river miles) float hunt on a remote river in western Alaska. We had a spectacular hunt with beautiful scenery and for the first three days great weather. The weather turned on us but I think that helped with the hunting. We all ended up harvesting big bulls, everyone 60" or greater. The most challenging part of the hunt was unloading the meat from the rafts each night, hanging it and starting the process over in the morning. We couldn't stay more than one night at a camp as we had to keep moving in order to make it to the pick-up point on time. I have included photos of my moose and one of the others, I don't have permission to post photos of the other two.

[carpsniperg2]

Those are some stud bulls! Congrats nice and close to river to

[DaleVR]

OH MY!  congratulations on a great trophy! 

[Skillet]

 
Well done, that's a great trip right there!

[Mark251]

Awesome bulls 

[highside74]

4 for 4 on 60"+ moose. That must have been amazing to be a part of.

[JoeE]

4 for 4 on moose on a float hunt is amazing!

[jackmaster]

Did you guys do any fishn to? Did you guys see other critters? That looks like one of the coolest hunts ever ??

[mfswallace]

 

[elkrack]

Looks like a fantastic hunt!

[jmscon]

Awesome!! Self guided? Congrats on some monsters!


Great country, can't wait to get to AK again!

[syoungs]

Congrats! This is my dream hunt for sure, can't wait till I can pull the trigger and do it!

[bobcat]

Amazing hunt!

[cooltimber]

how far from the river or camp did u have to hang the meat. come along, to do this.? any bear encounter's

[Mfowl]

Awesome bulls! Thanks for sharing!

[3boys]

What a beast! Great pics.

[mwhite]

Wow!  Incredible hunt for you guys!  This is a hunt I'm beginning the planning stages for in 2018.

[MADMAX]

too cool some details  would be fabulous on how you did it
dream hunt

[Gringo31]

EPIC!

[Bigluke1981]

Congrats on some amazing bulls, sounds like you all had a blast!!!!

[mato06]

Thanks everyone for the kind comments. This hunt was self-guided,  the air transporter provided the flights in and out and we provided everything else. We started planning for this hunt nineteen months in advance; reading books, choosing a transporter, going over maps, looking at harvest statistics, analyzing gear, buying gear and weighing it. We encountered grizzly tracks on the exposed sand (mud) bars the first few days before the river rose but never did see a bear. We saw seven wolves but unfortunately those who saw them didn't purchase the tags, we also saw about a thousand beavers. We fished a little the first few days without luck but after getting moose down we hardly had time for anything else besides break camp, load the rafts, float for eight hours, set-up camp and hang the meat. Our days typically stated at 7 AM and ended at midnight, several times later. We always tried to hang the meat as close to the river as possible. The unit we were in the bulls had to have a 50" minimum spread or at least 4 brow tines on one side, we decided against trying to judge the spread unless it was really obvious and only look at the brow tines. None of us were looking for trophies and we each took the first legal bull we saw.

[packmule]

None of us were looking for trophies and we each took the first legal bull we saw.

Ahhh, that explains why you didn't harvest any big ones  great bulls thanks for sharing!

[sumpnz]

Looks like you shot them right by the river's edge.  Did you just float along glassing and shoot them from the water once close enough?

Also, how many days into the float before you considered shooting something?  Was it cold enough out to limit worries on spoilage, and if not how did you handle that aspect?

[Axle]

Beautiful! Last time I hunted moose up there was in '91. I loved those hunts. What an adventure it was! Got any more pictures?

[Wea300mag]

That's a dream hunt, congrats!!!

[boneaddict]

Amazing

[jackelope]

Unreal. 4 bulls over 60" and they were the first legal shooters you saw. What a trip. I'd still have the ear to ear perma-grin going.

[HvyHorn338]

Sounds like a picture perfect experience.  Posts like these, just can't get enuf of.  Congrats.

[JoeE]

just hanging meat would have been a huge job. We just made a meat cache by stacking logs and laying the meat over it to get air flow under it.

[MtnMuley]

Amazing trip. Congrats to you and crew for planning and succeeding on an epic trip.

[no1waterdog]

Great bulls,and a lot of great eating.John

[RB]

What an incredible experience, hunt of a lifetime for most! 

[jae]

Congratulations! What a great hunt!

[fishngamereaper]

  epic hunt. Congrats. Definitely on my two to three year plan list.

[Houndhunter]

That hunt is on my list, thanks for sharing and great work 

[branches]

That is an awesome hunt thank you for sharing with us. Do you have any other story's to tell?  Anything about the float down the river to beat the freeze up?

[Machias]

Wow what a fantastic adventure.  Any close calls while floating?  Sweepers or bad jams you had to negotiate?  I hope to do this before I get too old.  Thanks for sharing!!!

[mato06]

There were a lot of sweepers but the river rose enough that it was fairly wide and we had no trouble getting around them. As far as snow/Ice we never had any, not sure when the rivers freeze over but I would guess it is much later. I have attached a few more photos, one is of the two bullets I recovered from my moose. I was using a .338 Win Mag with 210 grain Barnes TTSX, both bullets penetrated the entire width of the moose and lodged just inside the hide on the opposite side, one broke both shoulders. Both bullets had 100% weight retention. I didn't need to shoot more than once but I didn't want him to stumble into the river.

[Skyvalhunter]

 

[LDennis24]

This is definitely a dream hunt for most of us down in the lower 48! Thanks for sharing! I always wonder how many moose sheds are laying in those tree's!