Floating Elk Camp

The most important person on the boat - Jim the skipper and Captain

We have been doing our floating elk hunt for 16 straight years and have harvested 23 elk.  That is a long time and a lot of elk!

In hunting magazines there are always stories about various annual hunting camps.  Usually they are based in some sort of rustic cabin and the same guys go year after year.  I've never read about an annual hunt that takes place on a boat like ours does.  Each year we all pile into a 50 foot seiner and head to north Afognak to hunt elk.

We go ashore and hike looking for the elk on the landscape, and camp as we go.  Then when we find the elk we harvest them and go to the nearest coastline where the boat picks us up.  Once on the boat the meat is safe from bears and, if need be, we can hunt for more elk.

I think 'boat hunts' are a uniquely Alaskan experience.  They are the type of hunt that needs vast areas of public access land (or private land where you can purchase access).  Most of the cabin based hunts you read about are limited to a defined area.  I think the only hunts similar to the Alaskan experience is the horse based hunts in the Rocky Mountain wilderness areas.

Anyway, Philip made a great video of our recent hunt - it shows the whole process of a boat based hunt quite well.

https://vimeo.com/238313499

Patrick