2025 AK Moose Drop Hunt. Archery/Rifle From Start to Finish

[CommonRookie]

This thread will document our process from start to finish of planning, prepping and executing a partial DIY drop hunt in AK in 2025. This is a bucket list adventure for me and my hunting buddy. Rockslide forums have been a huge part of our early planning and this thread will be an attempt to consolidate and share what we learn along the way in hopes that it helps someone else in the future.

Hunt Location: Iliama, AK Area
Dates: Sept, 2025
Style: Drop Hunt, Self Guided
Transport Service/Planner: Bushwhack Alaska
Weapon: Archery w/ Rifle Backup

 

[CommonRookie]

Guided, Pure DIY or Partial Service?

If this is something you're considering at all, you should start now. Most good operations are at least 1-2 years out on bookings and it doesn't hurt to get yourself on wait lists now. We have both been on serval moose hunts as cameramen so we felt confident in our ability to execute the hunt unguided. While I don't find moose hunts to be particularly difficult I do think it would be tough to go unguided for your first. Fully guided options were out of our price range and booked many years in advance so we settled on an unguided hunt. This is an expensive endeavor and requires a lot of time off from work and away from families. We looked at a lot of pure DIY options and felt like it was worth the investment of a service to boost our odds of success and close the knowledge gap since this isn't something we expect to be able to do often.

After calling around serval operations based on suggestions here we landed on Bushwhack AK operating out of Iliamna. Our primary objective is killing 2 mature bulls with bows. We aren't planning on being picky about the size but Bushwhack expressed confidence in our chances and their DIY hunts have a high success rate and quality of animal. They charge a premium but we liked what they had to say and their overall approach. Ultimately, we felt like it was an investment in the overall experience and booked.

Cost: $12,500/hunter (30% deposit at booking)
Includes: Hunt Planning and Coordination, transport from Iliamna to drop camp, hunter extraction, animal extraction. Raft/boat based on hunting location and style. Satellite communication device.
Does not include: Camp Gear, License, Tags, etc.

 

[CommonRookie]

To Float or not to Float?

What have you guys done and what's your preferred method? For most DIYers I think a basecamp with a powered boat is less feasible so it comes down to float or basecamp for most. If you had to pick one, which would you do?

When first beginning the planning we were pretty set on a float. While a float hunt gives us the opportunity to cover more ground it presents a couple logistical challenges. We are two hunters with tags. Should a guy kill, the float stops for the amount of time it takes to breakdown and extract that animal which at best would be a couple days based on conditions and circumstances. This means who ever still had a tag in his pocket is more or less stuck with the animal as well until the float can continue. It's not a huge problem but certainly one we didn't consider when comparing the two approaches.

Another downside of floating that we hadn't considered was the prospect of striking and setting camp everyday in the dark. I've done this on backpack hunts for sheep but almost always in high country where it's generally dry and a minimalist approach is fairly easy and necessary. The prospect of locating a suitable site and setting/striking a potentially wet camp daily is less appealing to me.

On the flip side, I've been on a basecamp hunt that went dead. The bull we were after left the area and we spent the next several days hiking and sitting on ridge tops glassing up nothing.

 

[arctichunting]

Float float float. Shouldn’t really take more than a day to get it butchered and back to camp- just don’t shoot that far away . Depending on length of float don’t need to float every day. Find a good area with sign and stay for a couple days. Treat it as multiple base camps vs floating every day. Even if you shoot one and are working on it no reason can’t call another one into that one!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[bozeman]

On my list for a 1 on 1 float hunt....still looking at outfitters for this. I have ZERO interest from other hunting buddies to go on a moose archery hunt, so the 1 on 1 hunt is my only option. Enjoying this thread so far, keep the info coming!

 

[medvedyt]

To Float or not to Float?

What have you guys done and what's your preferred method? For most DIYers I think a basecamp with a powered boat is less feasible so it comes down to float or basecamp for most. If you had to pick one, which would you do?

When first beginning the planning we were pretty set on a float. While a float hunt gives us the opportunity to cover more ground it presents a couple logistical challenges. We are two hunters with tags. Should a guy kill, the float stops for the amount of time it takes to breakdown and extract that animal which at best would be a couple days based on conditions and circumstances. This means who ever still had a tag in his pocket is more or less stuck with the animal as well until the float can continue. It's not a huge problem but certainly one we didn't consider when comparing the two approaches.

Another downside of floating that we hadn't considered was the prospect of striking and setting camp everyday in the dark. I've done this on backpack hunts for sheep but almost always in high country where it's generally dry and a minimalist approach is fairly easy and necessary. The prospect of locating a suitable site and setting/striking a potentially wet camp daily is less appealing to me.

On the flip side, I've been on a basecamp hunt that went dead. The bull we were after left the area and we spent the next several days hiking and sitting on ridge tops glassing up nothing.

well i can tell something about caribou or moose that is a given ...if you see them they are but if they are not around or running away on the tundra you will not get them back to you unless they are coming back to you. you will cover more ground for sure in floating but you have to think about your confort zone and the analysis of what you can accept or endure.

this is not based on alaska hunting but on my 5 years guiding in northern quebec for caribou mostly and almost 15 years here in the yukon for moose and caribou... i hunted them on fly in camp with boat, hike for them and on a basecamp with no boat... in the early summer we can hunt starting the 1st of august (best for caribou and meat) and you have to hike hight almost as high for the caribou that are trying to avoid the flies ....

 

[akcabin]

Id suggest a base camp with a boat on a river. If you find good sign you can stay and have a chance and just get more familiar with the place and increase your chances. If just floating your going to pass a lot of good ground. Remember if ,when you harvest a moose the clock is ticking and you need to take care of a whole lot of heavy meat that should stay dry. Wanting to harvest 2 moose, better be ready to handle near a ton of moose. And being remote, weather is a big deal and unpredictable.
Good luck n have fun

 

[CommonRookie]

WEAPON(S)

Bow:
For the bow, I'm using this hunt as an excuse to get a new one. I've shot a Hoyt for the last 6 years but I'm building out a Mathews LIFT for this hunt. I've used the bow spider for mounting bows to my pack in the past and generally like it for getting the bow out. Getting it back in... is a little tougher. There are some new kids on the block for pack mounting so I'll bee looking into them as well. What do you guys like?

Arrows:
I'm moving away from FMJ's on this hunt. They've been great but my confidence in them has waned over the years as I feel they develop very minor bends during summer shooting and with the remote nature of this hunt I'd prefer a broken arrow over a bent I don't/can't notice. I've spent far too much time trying to build the perfect arrows and finally settled on, what I hope, will be a nice balance of weight and speed. The bow is a 70lb, 28.5" draw and I've specced out a build weight of 480 grain arrows with +/- 18% FOC. This is on the lighter side of the recommendations I've seen but appears to be a good sweet spot for velocity and weight and it's the top of the K/E curve for my set up. I'm also hedging a bit on the lighter side as I prefer single pin sights and hate big adjustments on called animals who are staring at you. With a moose-sized target I'm banking on a the ability to set it at 30-40 yards and have minimal hold over/under with a 480 g arrow moving +/- 280 FPS. Am I going too light?

Heads:
I chose 125 g iron will s series heads, they are silly expensive. Of all of the stupid purchases I've made for this hunt, this was only one with sticker shock but I've seen NOTHING but praise so I made the leap. Iron will doesn't do a great job outlining the different benefits and weaknesses of their heads. Ultimately, I chose 6x s series with bleeders for max penetration. The single bevel design appealed to me but I envisioned energy loss as they "twisted" through the animal is they do what they say they are designed to do. Probably not anything significant but the double bevel appealed to me for penetration. Since I was losing the rotational wound channel, I kept the bleeders.

Rifle:
This is a bow hunt BUT.... This hunt is a big deal for me and something I'll likely only be able to do once. I'd hate to miss an opportunity outside of bow range so I'm gonna bring a little insurance. I hope the rifle stays in the pack. I'm in the process of building an ultralight 7MM backcountry rifle as a back up weapon. I chose the 7 BC because I can get exceptional velocity out of a 16.5" or 18" barrel further cutting weight and I'll be putting a Springfield Model 2020 Action in a MDT HNT folding chassis. This should come in just over 5.5 lbs before optic. It'll cost me some 12% of my total gear weight allowance so I'll need to cut elsewhere to make it work.

I'll polish up the gear list and share that next.