After reading and watching everything I could find I started to contact various outfitter/air taxi services. Here is a list of those I spoke with.
Larry Bartlett - Pristine Ventures
Kent Kaiser - Alaskan Quest
Rob Kincade - Aniak Air Guides
Poppa Bear Outfitter
Renfro's
40 Mile Air
and two other air taxi services, one from Anchorage and the other from Tok.
All of these companies explained what they had to offer and the general experience we could expect. I don't want to make any negative comments towards the companies I spoke with but would rather briefly mention our discussions.
Pristine Ventures- Extremely knowledgeable, he handles the planning of your hunt for a price. I would say he specializes in drop float hunts but I believe he can coordinate anything you would like.
Alaskan Quest - Similar to Pristine ventures assists with the planning and coordination. Unlike Pristine Ventures who, at the time, was a flat fee then all other costs were handled individually, Alaskan Quest does package deals and the price will include just about everything.
Aniak Air Guides - will discuss below
Poppa Bear and Renfro's - If trying to book direct they are very difficult to get a hold of and aren't really taking new clients for several years. In 2017 they were booked out to 2021 and beyond. The hunts were primarily drop hunts on lakes in unit 18. Extremely high success rates but there statistics include guys who shoot 30" bulls because it’s the first thing they see and there is no size restrictions in that GMU. They do have other booking companies that can obtain hunts in earlier years than you can if you go direct. I have a friend here in Boise that is using Renfro's and was able to secure a hunt several years ahead of what was offered to me going directly.
40 Mile Air - Usually have to book a caribou hunt first because they offer spots to repeat customers before new customers.
Anchorage and Tok - Didn't really access the terrain we wanted to hunt and frankly the guy in Tok was kind of a..., well I said I wouldn't say anything negative so I will just stop there.
Most of the above hunts would have been under the 10K mark except Papa Bear and Renfro's there hunts were around 9K without your travel, hotel, tags licenses.. etc.
I'm sure there were more companies that I spoke with but these are the major ones that I can recall.
The first thing you must determine is what you actually want out of this experience. Do you want to chance lower harvest odds by chasing a giant, do you want an almost sure bet but lower trophy sized moose. Do you want to float a river or camp atop a ridge? Drop vs guided. Outfitted vs non. The choices and combinations are endless. We decided we wanted to experience AK from more than a flooded lake bed. We wanted to hunt terrain that offered relief and glassing points. A mix of tundra and forest with nearby rivers or lakes. We wanted the possibility of striking out and establishing a secondary spike camp away from the strip if necessary. We are willing to risk the possibility of not harvesting to have a higher possibility of harvesting 65" plus moose. Ultimately after factoring all of these considerations, plus others, we decided to hunt GMU 19B with Aniak Air Guides.
We will be dropped off on a ridge, by means of super cub, with an outfitted camp. Our flight into the backcountry will take off from Aniak. We will be able to take in 90lbs of gear each. This does not include your rifle and items on you physical person. Some companies restricted you to 50lbs. We choose an outfitted hunt because we felt that it would be difficult to hunt for length of time desired with weight restrictions that would occur by bringing everything necessary yourself. Some companies allow a gear flight to help with this problem but the cost difference becomes negligent when you factor in your costs on equipment and the extra flight vs the outfitted. We basically only need to bring our hunting clothes, sleeping bags, air pads, rifles/bow and food. You can review his site but basically we will arrive and gear will already be on site. He provides, tent, camp stove with fuel, camp chairs, cooking equipment, water, sleeping pads and other various things that typically weigh a lot. Our hunt will take place from September 4 -22. The season in 19B is only open from the 5-20 but we didn't want to waste a day flying in on the opener and didn't want to pass on a bull on the closing end because we had to leave so we added a buffer on both ends. He offers float hunts and ridge hunts with the potential option of relocation.
