Papa bear does a draw with new hunters and renfros says we could go in three years. They both sound great but from what I’ve read and heard papa bear is a smaller business and people tend to feel a little more taken care of. But that’s the only difference I’ve heard about, which I can live with.
I talked with one of their guys Oliver and he said they had 96% success and the other people could have tagged out but passed on smaller bulls (30”-40”). From talking to people does that sound accurate? He said the average bull is high 50s to 60s. I’m not a trophy hunter but I won’t pass on a trophy either!
I was only around there for a week but what I saw or heard of was bulls of all sizes from 40's to 70's and yes it seemed that most everyone killed, there were stories of a few guys that had a hard time finding bulls and they seemed like able bodied and competent hunters. not killing happens, I have been moose hunting in Alaska 2 times before, not with Renfro's but I was 0 for 2 before this hunt, I had incredible hunts but no kills.
Do repeat customers get any kind of preference (and if so, what) or do these guys who didn't kill have to wait 3+ yrs to go again through Renfros?
I have no idea, I know they would prefer anyone who does a ridge hunt to have done a marsh hunt with them first, those bulls from the ridges were bad mofo's
This is the part of it that makes no sense to me. Everyone I talk with says they hunt they same relative area and fly out of the same lake each morning. The guy that runs renfros from what I understand also does the scouting or gets the moose numbers for the area so he knows the area well. The only thing I can figure is that renfros takes around 100 hundreds per year and papa bear says they take around around 45. Maybe just having that many more hunters just makes it tougher for everyone to fill tags. Again I haven’t heard bad things about either it just seems like papa bear is a run with a more mom and pop feel.
I’m in that same boat. 0-2 on Alaska moose but I’m ok with that. I’ve had the adventures of a life time and love it out there!
It is the only moose hunt I’ve ever been on, so I have nothing to compare it to, but where we were, there were moose everywhere. Like you could see 10-20 at a time, any evening.
Ya their guy told me they had 99% success this year. Great operation they have going. I actually tried to book with them but they said they can’t guarantee or book out in 4 years when I’m looking to go and so I’ve booked with refros. They have an amazing reputation as well for successful moose hunts from people I’ve talked with
This is correct. To be fair, Wade is operating on floats and wheels while Justin is only operating on floats. Obviously gives him more opportunity for added groups. There are a lot of good hunting spots in GMU 18, to the points that even the "bad" ones are better than most anywhere else in the state. But there are limited excellent spots. Justin focuses in on 20-25 excellent spots. He expects all of his clients to shoot a moose and when they don't, it's typically b/c it was a bowhunter, an early exit, or someone passed themselves out of a moose. Also, Justin has several days during the heart of the season where he has no groups or maybe one group booked. They are factored in weather days. PB isn't so much a smaller operation. They have 3 planes hooked to heaters each night and could easily be pumping out 6-8 groups a day during the first 20 days of the season. they just choose to operate on a different scale.
