Planning First Moose Trip to AK... Pristine Ventures? Others?

[squeekieslayer]

I am planning on a trip in either 2016 or 2017 with at least 2 other guys, possibly 3. We are very early in the process and none of us have done it before. We do not want to pay for a guided hunt, but I don't want to go at this all by myself. It is not the added price we are worried about, we just like the idea of being on our own. I am willing to pay for good service to help me make sure that I don't miss something or go to the wrong places etc. We are all 3 in mid 30's, good to great shape, big (avg around 230), and eager. We all grew up hunting in the back country of wyoming.

I have read a lot of great reviews from different sources regarding Pristine Ventures planning service. I would love to hear some feedback from users on here. Also, any other groups that offer a similar service would be great. I think that the price went up about $700 bucks for the pristine ventures service, not a big deal, but want to make sure that it is worth it.

I know that Larry Bartlett is an active member on here, and seems like a great guy and awesome resource. Is it ok to call or PM him before dropping the dough to make sure that we have an idea on what we are getting in to???

A few of our concerns before we jumped right in...
-- Ballpark price range (obviously very variable... but an idea would be great)
-- Expectations
-- Time of year
-- Length of stay
-- Having an odd number of people vs number of rafts etc.
-- 2016 or 2017
-- etc

We would love to commit the money and start planning now. But as eager as we all are, we have busy schedules and need a few questions answered first so we can all make sure of the who/when/where and then go from there.

Joe

 

[bmart2622]

Hey Joe, get a hold of me some time, me and my group are heading up this September on a diy float hunt, almost 2 yrs of planning.

 

[Daniel_M]

Is it worth it? That can only be answer by a client, really. My first float hunt, I planned with Larry. I was new to the scene and he helped me get past that first plunge. It was remote, tough as hell. Kicked my ass, I lost 26#. But I took a bear, had 5+ bulls coming into camp on the same morning, could have easily taken another

I know that Larry Bartlett is an active member on here, and seems like a great guy and awesome resource. Is it ok to call or PM him before dropping the dough to make sure that we have an idea on what we are getting in to???

Yes! Definitely call Larry, pick his brain. He may offer a viable option, or it could be decided that a floa thunt just isn't your cup of tea.

A few of our concerns before we jumped right in...
-- Ballpark price range (obviously very variable... but an idea would be great) Thats a tough variable. From "some" of the hunts I've seen, you can get into the $3500+ range, per person. Air time is not cheap.
-- Expectations Zero. Hunting is about perspective. A positive attitude, knowing enough about the area you want to hunt, how the game moves in/out of the terrain and how to work with moose sign is big, especially on a float. You can spend 5 days no where near moose.
-- Time of year Depends on the drainage, but generally the 5th to the 25th is a workable timeframe.
-- Length of stay Average a float 12-14 day, 50-75 miles of range
-- Having an odd number of people vs number of rafts etc. 2 about the magic number on a float. 2 moose are already tough, few can hang 3. Plus your fly-in weights matter. A third hunter is another 400# of body weight and gear.
-- 2016 or 2017 Depends on what your budget is. Rule of thumb bare minimum 12 months out, sometimes more depending on the area.
-- etc

We would love to commit the money and start planning now. But as eager as we all are, we have busy schedules and need a few questions answered first so we can all make sure of the who/when/where and then go from there.

Joe[/QUOTE]

 

[Daniel_M]

Few pics from 2014.

The big eye afforded some amazing glassing. Discounting the mirage effect, counting tines at over a mile was not impossible.


Steve ran the sticks, he knew his craft well. She was a pig at times, but carried our very cush camp. Later in our trip, we rotated to keep the blood flowing. While I was on point we got into some thick stuff in the river, it was swift, heavy debri. Nasty. I only wish one of us could take pics or record, but the fast and furious approach didn't afford that opportunity. I could tell Steve was a bit nervous, heck I was too. I wasn't a rookie on a raft, but I hadn't piloted the Levitator with such a heavy load under the current conditions. We communicated well, he had ideal lines which I routed. Key is being able to hunt with someone you work well with. It's a unison effort, so crucial


Just when you think you have it all figured out, you don't. Great white buffalo. Beast of a bull.


And sometimes success is literally right around the bend.


2012 Float was brutal, over 100 miles river and lots of sweepers to contend with. But I knew we were in an area few men had hunted.

My wife was in charge of real estate and when we got to where it was notably moosey, she picked camp. Our first night it was game on. Scraping was super effective against our sheltered clearing, breaking brush for a campfire echoed forever.

The next morning we had 5 bulls coming to camp, 20 yards from the tent this fella popped out.

 

[squeekieslayer]

Gosh that is awesome. thanks for the info, I will call Larry sometime soon.

joe

 

[Daniel_M]

Gosh that is awesome. thanks for the info, I will call Larry sometime soon.

joe

Soon is good. Mid Winter is when many folks start the fall plans, including laying out areas, modes of transportation and Air Taxis. "Some" places fill up 18-24 months in advance. LarryB aka Moose Whisperer follows a whack n stack protocol, expect some brutal conditions and hard work, and if you wanna quit a few times..he's done his job.

Good luck.

 

[bmart2622]

We started planning in 2013 and there were several transporters and companies that were already filled up for 2015, so the sooner you can start the better. I will help you out on everything we have learned so far along the way Joe.

 

[Ray]

If you choose Larry, you will be in good hands for the fee. Think of it as a kind of assurance. If you wing it and you spend $5000 each and have nothing to show for it, then that up front fee for Larry's service looks pretty small.

If you want some information overload, which may make things worse, then go to the link below. Its a good resource to help define what you are looking for and helping you with questions you didn't think to ask.
http://www.alaskaoutdoorssupersite.com/activities/hunting/hunt-planning

The hardest part of hunt planning up here is the biology. Alaska is a biological desert compared to most places. If you are hunting plants and insects it would be easy, but anything larger and the diversity and population drops significantly. You can make a lot of phone calls and talk to a lot of people or pay Larry to do that and he will talk to people that you have no idea how to contact. Not just generalized boots on the ground info, but there will be actual feet in those boots on the ground.

 

[Larry Bartlett]

A couple of additional points and resources to consider:

1. If you and your buds are conservative and prefer not to take as many risks with river conditions and gear selection, you might consider Mike Strahan of the Alaska Outdoors Forum. He's a smart guy, although very traditional and very conservative. His groups go in heavier than mine and primarily he sticks his groups on rivers with known usage and routes. Straight forward river trips with average success rates, but you'll see other people without a doubt.

2. Hire a Transporter vs an air taxi. These businesses CAN market to hunters and CAN tell you where to go, but they cost more than an air taxi operator to the same areas. A Transporter will offer "where-to" suggestions in his area, but expect others to be on the same river for the majority. This prevents you from hiring someone like me or Strahan. You get what you get with a Transporter. But for some who dont wish to hire a planner, it might be better to narrow down a decent spot with not much effort...for a little more than an air taxi operator where you have to tell them where you want to go and they quote based on published rates.

3. My service isn't cheap, at all. I've recently lowered my volume to under 12 groups per season. This allows me to focus on only the quality trips in remote pockets. Water levels are usually disagreeable to some some degree, at least with potential low water years....so some float draggin' should be expected. Once I choose a spot, it's yours for the whole season. I cant stop others from finding these places on their own, but I work with specific air charters to "control" access in a way that offers our groups a quality experience. My focus is your ideal expectations, harvest goals, and the wilderness experience. Budgets vary from easy and cheap to difficult and expensive. I'm booked until 2016, and I have about 50% booked for that year. Small groups of 2-3 people are best. If groups of 4 guys go on the hunt, I ask them to expect to limit their harvest to 1-2 moose for best hunting efforts and game management. Most of the rivers I use cannot withstand taking 3-4 moose per season and still expect that resource to produce in 5-10 years, so self restriction is a key component in remote pockets. I turn away 90% of the people that contact me for planning, usually because their goals and mine are misaligned. If I think I can do a good job for your partners, I'll consider the risk. If I dont think I can help you in all areas, I'll tell you that up front. Truth is, i dont advertise my Hunt Planning service because the ones that really need my help find me on their own.

Regardless of who you use to help out, do your research online and be sure that you feel comfortable with what they are selling you. Some trips that seem to good to be true usually are just that.

Hope this helps.

Larry

 

[BSeals71]

Subscribed!

 

[squeekieslayer]

Thanks so much for all of your help guys. I will be talking to the other 2 guys and give Larry a call. It sounds like the extra you pay for Larry goes a heck of a lot further than the extra you may pay for a guided hunt... and likely a better, more "backcountry" experience lke we want.

joe

 

[Joee]

I used Larry this year and can't speak highly enough of his service. I recommend him for sure. I had never hunted in Alaska and I contacted him about 18 months before I planned on hunting and told him what I was after ( legal bull moose) and be delivered with more than I was expecting and an adventure of a lifetime.

 

[outdoorsman_3]

I contacted larry and asked him if I should go with him or another DIY moose outfitter. He turned me to the other. He is a stand up guy. Also please do your research concerning all of the hunt planners. Some are very open that you are going to be making the decisions and calling people. If I was going to hire someone I expect them to do a lot of the research and guide me to the correct location not the other way around. If I was hiring a hunt planner I would only hire larry. I also talked to others who had poor experiences using other hunt planners.

 

[Michael Strahan]

Hi folks. I don't normally post on forums outside my own, but I heard that my name was being tossed around in a discussion over here, so I popped over to see what was cooking. Looks like I probably need to clarify something.

I am not a hunting travel agent. I don’t make your air charter reservations, your equipment rental arrangements, your hotel reservations, or handle any of your money concerning your Alaska hunt. I never have offered those services, and I’ve been doing this for close to 25 years. If you’d like a preview of some of that, I see someone linked one of my articles earlier in this thread, from my hunt planning section on our site.

My primary mission is to provide information, training, and “connections” to hunters putting together their own DIY Alaska big-game hunts. I don't put a limit on how much time I spend with each group (I think my hunters and I spend between 40-60 hours on each hunt). We work off of a detailed checklist I developed that covers every step in the process. I believe in the training system I use, and that's why I don't charge anything for subsequent hunts.

If you’re looking for a turn-key solution that puts you on one hunt with a minimal amount of planning on your end, I am not your guy.

The people I work with prefer to plan their own hunts, and hope to hunt Alaska multiple times. The reason they hire me is because they don't know where to begin. They are aware that Alaska is challenging and expensive, and they prefer to hire an assistant instead of spending thousands of dollars and several seasons figuring it out on their own. I freely discuss many locations and commercial service providers with my hunters, but they make all the decisions. That includes the location, air service, gear rental, hotel, and so forth. That’s part of teaching them how to do this for themselves. I could do all that for them, but that would just create dependency, instead of self-sufficiency. Instead, I start working myself out of a job from Day One. In that respect, I don't "place" hunters anywhere.

There is MUCH more to this than providing a location and an air charter reservation. That’s why I don’t place a limit on the amount of time I spend with my hunters.

It's true that some of my hunters choose larger river systems. But it’s also true that others opt for smaller, lesser-known systems, where they are the only group on that river for the whole season. Those choices are made by my hunters, after discussing many options back and forth, and collectively coming up with recommendations that appear to be the best fit for their group. I'd like to think that their choices, combined with a really good hunt plan for that location, give them a serious edge when it comes to harvesting game. Most of my hunters are running somewhere north of the state average when it comes to success rates, even on rivers where they might see another group.

Now to the unpleasant stuff. As is the case with any business (and those of you who own businesses know this), there will always be dissatisfied customers, or those who are looking for something you don't offer. I am sure I make mistakes from time to time, and while I always hope my hunters will let me know when something doesn’t go off as it should, that does not always happen. I hope folks won’t hold that against me, as there’s not a lot I can do about it. If I do become aware of a problem that is my fault, I make every effort to make it right.

I will confess to having a terrible memory, and that’s why I try to keep everything in a database. That’s also why, when a group calls me while I’m on the road, I might not remember the details of their hunt. That’s my own failing, and there’s not much I can do about it. I’d like to think I more than make up for it with good quality information and expertise. And it’s not like I have too many hunters to remember it all; I believe I’m putting fewer groups in the field than any of my competitors! It’s just my memory.

There are other planners out there, and I encourage hunters to talk with all of them to ensure a good fit. No two of us are alike, and it appears that each of us does something completely different. For my part, somehow I am being branded here as putting folks only on larger rivers. That’s just not the case. Every season some of my hunters end up on smaller rivers where they are all alone. Some, of course, choose larger rivers. Each group is different.

At any rate, I wanted to clarify what I do, as it appears there might be some misunderstandings about that.

Thanks for your time-

-Mike

 

[Alaskan89]

I paid for Larry's services back in 2007 for a 2 man float hunt for moose on a remote river in northern Ak. I can tell you from experience that it is worth the money to pay for his services. We managed to shoot a 52" bull and passed up one that was probably close to 65" right at the start of the trip due to warm weather. His boats are top notch and that Levitator is a helluva raft, perfect for 2 guys, gear and 2 moose.

Larry knows his stuff when it comes to float hunting up here so listen to what he has to say.

 

[bmrfish]

My Brother with the famous Larry Barlett before our epic 2015 float. Liked it so much we signed on for the next 2 years running.


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