Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Alaskan Float Trip for moose and caribou

During the '80's I owned a 16' Avon white water raft & rowing frame - the whole schnizzle. I did four or five float hunts above the Yukon. If you've seen the movie "The Revenant" then you can have some idea about what a float hunt will be like. After the first camp is broken down and set back up again everything is wet and stays that way the rest of the trip. Constantly setting up camp and breaking it back down every day or so sucks. The wind is ALWAYS in your face, no matter how many twists and turns the river makes. And God help you if you're floating navigable waters where locals hunt. Your raft may well be sliced up when you return to camp from a day of hunting. Overall a float hunt is a miserable option compared to other types of moose hunts.

The ONLY two good points about float hunting versus a fly-in camp are: 1) when you get a moose you don't have to carry it very far, and 2) you can often have nice fishing to augment your freeze dried meals.

I stopped float hunting because even back in the '80's float hunting was becoming very popular. The last float hunt I organized and went on I saw two other camps. In other words I was hunting the same territory behind two other groups. And the river I was on was not easily accessible. It required a half-mile haul from the drop off point to reach the river. That is not why you want to hunt moose in Alaska. If you want crowds just stay in the L48.

If you can be assured of being the only party on the float and if you are assured that you will not have interference from locals along your way then float hunting can be a successful, albeit miserable, way to hunt moose. If you will not be the only party on the river or if you will be floating navigable waters then do not go.

We saw plenty of other floaters when we did the Sheenjek in early 2000’s took two moose & a griz, wolf got away 🤦🏼‍♂️

There have been over 200 plus Solar Inflatable jet boats sold mostly in Alaska that can run anywhere you can float a raft where legal. So expect some changes, makes
float hunting from a raft a question of why in my opinion.

I can tell you exactly what's going to happen, the serene peacefulness will be long gone thanks to the jet boats. They'll be running the rivers day and night and the game will move off.

That was a breezy night. I pulled the poles in my Sawtooth and rolled up in it until morning.

The storm of 9/11 in 1992 was much worse.

No country for old men.

Yeah, those critters hearing a boat a week are going to run... not...

ya, not gonna happen, I did mechanical logging for a few years in the 90's, I'd shut down the Timbco feller/buncher after 8 hrs of running it continuously, cutting down 800 or more spruce trees, making a hell of a racket all day, well, I'd shot big bulls off the machine within 30 minutes, I'd still hear the tik. tik, tik of the engine cooling and the moose would appear out of nowhere and walk right into the area I was dumping the trees in