For the most part there are no "bad" units in Arizona. I don't like the late hunt in some of the flat units but the corresponding archery and early rifle hunts are usually great.
Play the odds, try and draw a general season tag. I saw two 350, a 375 and two 300" bulls in 2 days of guiding in November this year. I saw a few smaller bulls too.
If you can come to Arizona, unguided and kill a 300" bull you are doing just fine. Contrary to internet chatter, 350" bulls aren't lurking around every dry wash here even in the best units. I have had hunts where I have guided out of state hunters where we had to bust our butts from dark to dark 5 or 6 days before we found a decent bull. I have had others where we have killed 380" bulls on opening morning.
The General season tags are 10 X easier to draw than the early bull tags. I, even as a resident, have never drawn a September rifle bull tag my whole life. I have had two archery bull tags. The rest of my tags have been during the Thanksgiving hunts. They start the day after or the week before Thanksgiving.
Generally, the mature bulls drop into nasty canyons or at least thick oak brush and manzanita that makes them hard to find. You will spend hours glassing for them. Once and a while, you will find them all together. We killed a bull in the late hunt this year that was grazing all by himself in an alpine meadow at 9500' in the middle of the day. I generally hunt this area during the September archery hunt. It was a warm day to I tried it!
I know a lot of guys that haven't deer hunted for 10+ years because they only want a strip tag in Arizona. Don't want to lose their bonus points on anything else. Most likely, they will never deer hunt in Arizona again. Odds are less than 5%.
