I'm with Mike. You can do this yourself. Just figure how many days you plan to be out there and add 50% in food and fuel. You might also want to add a SMALL outboard. I have seen people trying to drift against the wind and not making any progress.

I'm sending you a PM.

Whatever you decide.........you should also rent a satellite phone. Iridium. NOT Globalstar

How about the Tok area? I did a little looking into Tok Air Service. I couldn't find anything but good reviews about the guy, I guess he used to fly for 40 mile.

Look around Gakona. Harley McMahan is likely the best Cub driver in the world. Not sure about the name of his business.

EDIT: McMahan Guide and Flying Services

http://www.aircharterguide.com/Operator_Info/MCMAHAN+GUIDE+AND+FLYING+SERVICE/627/GULKANA/682

Unit 18 is likely the best Moose hunting in the state. Non res has no antler restrictions. However, the good hunting is in the flats between Yukon and Kusko rivers. Ridge top hunting is a long ways from the good moose area.
You have listed all the outfits serving that area and they are booked. Pristine Ventures is a hunt planner, equipment renter. There is another hunt planner, Mike Strahan, and he owns the Alaska Outdoors Forums. he might be out of the planning biz tho.
Like I said, the good hunting is in the flats and mostly closer to the Yukon R. You can take scheduled air service From Anchorage to Aniak and then to a Yukon Village like Russian Mission. You could float the Yukon, getting in to some sloughs off the river. Float to St. Marys which has direct scheduled service back to Anchorage. A shorter float would be from Marshall or Pilot Station to St Marys.
mt

White - Chuck is no slouch either. They have Dad’s DNA ( papa was a bush pilot - good book ).

Alaska pike safaries does drop off as well as guided ( have not checked in awhile ).You were given boat, fuel, tent, etc. Some of the best hunting anywhere and lot’s of happy hunters. As always, prices have gone up. But might be worth a look.

True story about Chuck. I agree that is a good book. I have it )))

Thanks again everyone, you've given me a lot of info and I appreciate it. I'll get in touch with all suggested and see what I can come up with.

What would be the difference between a $5,500, $8,000 and $10,000 un guided hunt?? Location? Amount of hunters they book? Larger company?

Could be any number of reasons for a array of prices.

Sometimes just the distance from civilization...!

It might include back haul of meat rather than a later additional charge.

Sometimes in an area with greater chance of success.

Sometimes more gear provided (for example boat, motor and fuel.)

Sometimes it is includes going to private land with accommodations on it (transporters cannot provide services, other than transportation, "in the field," unless it is on private land.)

Pete

Makes sense, I guess I'd rather pay more and have a better experience, especially since I don't see myself doing something like this again anytime soon.

Wow, $6500-$8500 per person for an unguided moose hunt?? So we are talking about essentially a drop off. I guess you are paying a transporter fee and the cost includes the hope that you are getting dropped into a productive area.
I would think you could continue your research and save considerable money just paying an air taxi to drop you off somewhere.

"Hoping" you get dropped off in a productive area is not a terrific strategy.

A better idea is do adequate research and identify productive areas. Then contract with a transporter to get dropped off there. Alternatively, find out where a few transporters are operating, then choose the one who has the most productive area.

If one is relying entirely on their transporter to select a good place to hunt, one is going about it all wrong.

Pete

I would love to plan this all my self and have it work out. But I feel no matter how much research I do nothing compares to the local knowledge of the outfitters. If I lived in the state that wod be one thing. What do you think the percentage would be for me to actually kill a moose if I planned something myself? From what I've found if your %50 successful on a outfitted unguided hunt you're doing good. I'd think that would drop quite a bit panning it myself, but maybe I'm wrong. Personally, I'd rather pay a few thousand extra to have a decent shot at killing a nice bull.

Pete,
May have been vague on what I was trying to say.
Yes, hoping to get dropped in a productive area is a bad strategy all the way around. My point was 3 guys could pay for more than a half dozen beaver flights for $6500 per person. What are you getting for the extra cost versus finding a spot through research and getting an air taxi to drop you off.

I understand totally understand your concern about doing your own research and how it can be daunting, but you seem ti be off to a pretty good start.

I guess i an just amazed by those prices, but maybe I shouldn't be.

I think you can do just fine planning by yourself...with some help from this board.


Maybe start by calling the area biologist responsible for the area where you MIGHT want to hunt. They will tell you whatever they can.

Remember that most of the larger air taxi outfits (transporters) have the potential to virtually saturate a good sized river with float hunters. You may float down that river and never see another hunter, but there are 100 DIY guys that went before you and there will be more behind you. This type of pressure is a large part of why we had to completely close portions of GMU 19 to NR moose hunters a few years ago. Those companies may be able to show you a handful of photos of successful hunters, but they are dropping off tons of moose hunters. A few are bound to trip over moose. But I doubt any of them have anywhere near a 50% success rate.

One time I was guiding from a camp on one of those popular float rivers. Over the course of 10 days, we saw 34 rafts float by. Each with 1 or 2 moose hunters in it. Our camp was about 3 or 4 days float downstream from the popular dropoff spot. Only ONE of those hunters had actually shot a moose. Interestingly, he had not measured the antler spread of his moose. It was sub-legal and he likely got cited and lost his moose when he got to the pickup point.

The more popular floats get a lot of pressure. If it were me, I would float a small river with an unpronounceable Native name. Resident hunters tend to avoid being dropped off at places they cannot pronounce! Or just get put in on a ridgetop or small lake where I would only have moose for neighbors, not other hunters.

Pete

And that's what makes me nervous about a float hunt, not only do I have little to no floating experience, but how would i determine what a good river to float is? How fast, how deep, would I need a outboard? There's quite a few variables. What's the natives view on out of state hunters? I would imagine it would be pretty hostile.

Say I find an area I want to hunt, then I pick a specific river, lake or ridgetop, how do you know if a pilot can actually land where you are wanting to go? Don't the pilots know most of the decent landing areas in there specific area?

You can't really know until you look at it and the approaches to it. Most local guys will know the one's that are used regularly but those may NOT be where you want to go.