Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Arizona Unit 8 Late Season Elk

I was fortunate to draw and I'm going on my first elk hunt this year. This will also be my first hunt in "the West". Never been to this part of Arizona either. Looking for advice on what to expect in term of weather, equipment, etc. Hunt is first week in December. I've got most equipement to hunt Alaska so hopefully I am covered. Taking a Model 70 338-06 shooting 210 Scirocco's for a rifle. I'll be hunting with friends in the area and have talked with them already. Just excited and looking for others advice.

I hunted with a buddy on a late hunt in unit 10 a few years ago. Temp was around 40-45 in the daytime, only dropping to the low 30's at night. there was snow on the ground at higher elevation. I took to the field in long underwear under blue jeans with gators most days, and a wool coat. wasn't too extreme. and most local guys were saying it was much colder than it normally was.

I think you will be well covered with average winter gear.

I have some advice.

Stay out hunting all day, find, if possible, high places to glass.

Dont expect to see large numbers of elk, despite what you hear about Arizona there isnt big bulls behind every tree. Dont go down there with the expectations of looking over lots of bulls standing around in the open...you'll be disappointed.

Its not a physically hard hunt, but it can beat you up mentally as lots of the country is thick pinyon/juniper. The elk, at least when I hunted there, were not real active at all. The first couple hours in the morning and evening is when I found the most activity. But, even then, the larger bulls seemed to stay pretty close to their bedding areas. I had to pretty much look in every draw and spent A LOT of time behind glass. It will help having a couple friends along to cover more country and help glassing.

Most people I saw hunting were more interested in driving all over than they were hunting it seemed. If you get out of the truck, you've left at least half the hunters in the dust. Also, if you stick out the entire hunt, you give yourself a better chance. I saw quite a number of hunters taking off without elk after the first weekend. Not sure why you'd wait several years to draw a good tag, then take off after hunting a couple days...but to each their own.

I killed my bull about half way through the late hunt last year, first time I ever hunted elk in AZ, but I have to admit that I had some great advice from a friend who hunts down there a lot and is about as knowledgeable as any hunter I know.

I've pretty much shared his advice here...stay positive, hunt smart, hunt hard...good things happen.

Heres what the country typically looks like down that way:



For the record, the bull I killed is in that shaded draw in the center of the photo. The picture was taken shortly after my buddy glassed up the bull in the draw.

Heres a closer pic of that shaded draw and the bull I shot, bedded.



Finally the bull I took:



Good luck on your hunt and just keep at it...

I havent hunted unit 8 but I have hunted units 6A and 5B North during the same time period as your hunt and it can get pretty cold at night. I would expect below freezing temps over night even if it doesnt snow. During the day isnt too bad especially if you are moving. My first elk hunt in unit 6A I had a gallon jug of water in my tent when I went to bed. I remember waking up through out the night thinking it was cold. When I woke up I had a gallon jug of ice lol. Later I heard that it got down to 15 degrees that night and it was below 30 every night for the hunt. I know that may not be cold to most people here but for someone raised in Phoenix its pretty damn cold lol. We got heavy snow the last day of the hunt in 5B North two years ago so be prepared for that just in case.

Low temps will be in the single digits/teens at higher elevations, teens/twenties at the lower elavations. The only way it may be warmer is if it's cloudy and/or snowing. Highs could hit 60 in the lowest elavations, if the weather is warm, but it will still be cold at night. Be prepared for 0 degrees up. Read Buzz's advice again. Hunt all day, Glass for feeding animals in the morning and evening, glass for bedded animals midday. Bulls really get in a pattern this time of year until spring. If they aren't bumped they will eat, drink and bed in the same area every day, most the time not moving more than a mile all winter.

Good Luck, Kent

Buzz,

You're advice is exactly what I've received so far. Lots of glassing and tough to find animals. I'm shopping for a new pair of binocs for this trip. I do plan to stay the entire season and get off the beaten path as mush as possible. That's a real nice elk. Hopefully I can be as sucessful.

Thanks to all who've commented.

I remember the winter of 2007 late hunt in unit 9, it hit -3 at night. But, that is a rarity, still a possibility in 8. You drew a great tag, and all the above advice is spot on-sad to say that I agree that if you step 10 feet off the road, you'll be doing more than 50% of the tag holders out there. Enjoy and good luck!

I grew up in prescott, about 60miles or so south of unit 8 and have been hunting that area since the 50's. I also have a bull elk tag starting the day after thanksgiving in that same area. The next week, the first week in december is my ex son in laws cow elk tag, same area. I have hunted that area during the day at that time of the year literally in a t shirt, and in 2000 killed an elk in there where with the snow, wind chill factor, i bet it was 20 below zero. I will be hunting just accross the freeway from there in 7 thursday for elk and the night temps are in the 30's. You can get ANY kind of weather, and when it is wet the liche mud as i call it is "special." Eight runs from the top of bill williams mountain, which is high up, to lower altitudes. I think most congregrate on the FR 108 which is the bill williams loop road around the mountain. There has been continuous human activity in the area since september. Camped up there a few weeks ago it looked like a freeway on fr108 with all the vehicles.
The animals have a habit of concregating where the people are not, at least as to the bigger bulls. And, there ARE some really big bulls in that unit. On the other hand, a few weeks ago a friend shot a cow about five minutes from camp and right off of FR108. The elk was at the processor by ten a.m. I have some definite areas of the unit in mind for my bull elk, ask me after the last week in november and i would share, but not right now. As to the ground, varies from very thick overgrown ponderosa pine up on the mountain, to the south you run into juniper. In some ways pray for snow and cold. It tends to drive them down into the meadows and flats. There was a fire just a couple of weeks ago just to the west and south of the freeway on the edge of williams.
In 2000 i had a herd of elk literally run over me to get away from other hunters. Scored about 7am opening day. Son in law did the same thing next day. And some years can't seem to find the darn things. I have also seen herds of 40or so animals at a time. There use to be an old bull up there that was pretty smart. He wouldn't panic, and his cows would surround him, and they would literally walk to a private ranch where no hunting was allowed. Never figured out how he convinced the girls to cover his bacon that way.