Alaska moose hunt ?’s

[Nate Ortloff]

I have been trying to figure out how to even begin doing a diy moose hunt to Alaska and in my research keep seeing the 60” club Troy sessions hunt planning. Looks like moose hunts are about 21% successful up in Alaska and his clients are  around a 90% success rate but nothing about it is cheap.  I think it could be a worthwhile investment to fulfill a dream hunt but all in I think it would be close to 15k each. 7k of that would be the air taxis in and out with a moose if harvested. Not sure I can sell that to my hunting partner.  Has anyone put together a successful moose trip to Alaska in the last few years and what was your major costs and anything else that was great or you wouldn’t do again.  Not sure even where to begin. 

[Taco280AI]

I went DIY with two other guys. Biggest cost was the float plane. And it didn't help that the five places we had picked out already had camps. We weren't about to set up near anyone else so keep going and going and going, then eventually just landed in some random area. That didn't pan out, so after a few days had the plane pick us up and relocate us. Expensive move, but worth it.

Look at units, success rates, aerial imagery, topos, call wildlife biologists, then be flexible.

Are you okay with dropping $8k and not getting one? It's possible. Or is it worth the $15k and most likely getting one?

[boneaddict]

Im a DIY hunter so was able to put it together fairly reasonable. Biggest expense was getting there.  Just understand, there is nothing not epic about AK.  It gets real unbelievably fast, yet the rewards are unfathomable.

[HillHound]

I can fill you in when we get back in a month. Don’t want to give you info we thought was good but turns out the other way. We are going by ourselves fly in float hunting. If we both get moose we will each be into bush plane flights for $7000. But any guided hunt going to the same general area we are is 20-30k per person. Only way I would do that is so I could kill a grizzly. Dumbest rule Alaska has on the books that nonresidents can’t hunt grizzlies without a guide. You can go out and live in their habitat for three weeks. They will let you kill their main food source and keep that in your camp until It can be picked up. But you can’t shoot the grizzly when he comes to try to take it.  This is obviously not to keep us safe, but to ensure the outfitters are making money. Still might be cheaper to become a resident for a few years, kill what I want and move back down here. Maybe one day

[Nate Ortloff]

Hillhound after you get back if you wouldn’t mind I would like to pick your brain on how you started planning and researching where you were going to go.

[actionshooter]

 I'm leaving in 3 weeks for my 9th hunt up there, mostly moose and caribou float trips... There are a couple books available that are pretty helpful in planning float hunts, one by Larry Barlett (who we bought our 1st raft from) and Strahan..

 I actually know Troy from a "friend of a friend" type scenario and have spent some time with him over a couple seasons. He gave us one of his spots to use before he started his service and I will say that was the most succseful trip we ever had. Called in 8-9 bulls over a few days and my buddy and I both killed nice bulls 12hrs apart. His was 150yds from our camp and mine was 40yds from the tent. Troy knows what he is doing... Been to his house and he and his friends have multiple 70" bulls.
 If this is a "once in a lifetime" type trip, spending some money with him might not be a bad idea.

 I have friends up there and can go every year if I want, they don't want to spend the transpo costs these days and we do hiway to hiway floats which do not always have the success rates some of the fly in hunts might have....