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Marc Offline OP
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Does anybody have any advice on where to find a good bull in Unit 9? It is just south of Grand Canyon NP. I am going there with a friend to help him find a bull next week.

I have been to the GC several times and it all looks pretty flat and well timbered. Is there any high ground where you can glass any distance?

Thanks for any help.

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sent you a PM


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As you noticed, 9 is relatively flat and there are few vantages to glass from. I've noticed that the elk are well dispersed and can't recommend one area over another. You might look on Google Earth to find some openings away from a road. If it stays dry, don't discount sitting water. Since it has not snowed deeply, the pines in the higher areas will likely have elk still, and they not have moved much to the winter areas that are noted on the AZGFD website.

I have the same tag this year. Good luck on your friend's hunt.

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RedRabbit, thanks for the info. It doesn't look like an easy area to hunt. Good luck to you also.

flagstaff, I didn't get your message.

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Marc, I forgot to mention Red Butte as an obvious vantage.

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Originally Posted by Marc
RedRabbit, thanks for the info. It doesn't look like an easy area to hunt. Good luck to you also.

flagstaff, I didn't get your message.


sent a PM.


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This is the goal! My daughter took this picture a couple months ago while driving through the park.

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You guys having any luck down there? I just got back from helping a friend in unit 10, he's still at it but I had to come home..What a tuff year, we werent finding elk in the deep canyons like we have in the past..Busted our azz in the cliffs and only seen a raghorn and a decent 6x6 that we didnt want to shoot, he was just too busted up.Last time we hunted that area hard we seen lots of bulls. It was in the mid 60's everyday, just tuff hunting.

I think his plan after I left was to try to hunt the juniper jungles, we found lots of sign in a few area's, but its so flat I dont know how you would score in there without a lot of luck.I've never been lucky.

We did see a few nice bulls in 9 going to beat hell across the Babbit ranch headed for Cataract canyon, might be worth hunting that area..

Last edited by rosco1; 12/04/12.
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Helped a 20 year old girl and her Dad on Saturday. I took them to where I was 3 for 3 getting 6X6's. Didn't see one elk. Everything was dry. Every dirt tank was dry. Glad I didn't have the tag.


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Guided a hunt in 9 during the Sept rifle hunt. It's pretty easy then as they are vocal. Unit 9 pretty much sucks for the winter hunt; too flat. Buddy just killed a real big bull in 10 last night- last 5 minutes of light on last day! It was a tough hunt. Guided a hunt in 23 where we got into bulls every morning but they were either too far or too spooky. This has been a really tough and dry year.


So, Marc, how did you do???



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I just got home this morning. No bull! We had 3 days to scout before season and saw several bulls. Two were real good bulls on the Coconino Rim. We also saw several five points there and a smaller six point and a broken horned six point out on the western side of the unit. They got scarce after the shooting started.

My partner, Chris, spotted a six point on the face of the rim on opening morning. I was several hundred yards away glassing a different area. For some reason he hesitated to go after it and we lost time. We were in the basin and had to far to go to get to him and he disappeared before we got there. A few days later Chris got on a five point at about 375 yards up on the rim but the bull never gave him a clear shot and that was about it for the season. We saw bulls in the headlights while driving out in the morning along the rim several times. Most of the shooting we heard came from the north end of the rim.

We camped on top of the rim and temps averaged about 40 degrees at night and about 60 in the day. Chris didn't believe the thermometer so we put a can of water out to see if it would freeze. It never froze until yesterday morning when it started to freeze a little.

There are plenty of bulls there but it is a tough unit to hunt with the flat country and poor visibility. A little snow would have helped.

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My friend ended up not killing one either. Said he chased them around in the junipers for a few days with a few smaller bulls spotted.Then he hit the cliffs again and found a few more but nothing he wanted to hang a tag on..Overall it was one of the least productive hunts him or I have ever been on as far as numbers of elk seen, that includes lots of general season hunts in a number of states.

Both of us are just kinda scratching our heads because the last time we were there we seen lots of elk..Bad year? Tag numbers catching up with them? I dont know.

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Originally Posted by rosco1
My friend ended up not killing one either. Said he chased them around in the junipers for a few days with a few smaller bulls spotted.Then he hit the cliffs again and found a few more but nothing he wanted to hang a tag on..Overall it was one of the least productive hunts him or I have ever been on as far as numbers of elk seen, that includes lots of general season hunts in a number of states.

Both of us are just kinda scratching our heads because the last time we were there we seen lots of elk..Bad year? Tag numbers catching up with them? I dont know.


Hey guys, I don't know anything about Arizona, but years ago watching the videos of Arizona rifle hunters knocking down those giant rutting bulls I thought, "Man, that can't last forever". At least not to my pea brain way of sorting it out.


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Marc, sorry to hear of your tough hunt. How was the hunter pressure along the rim?

The tag numbers in unit 9 have remained relatively stable over the years, both for bull and cow. This year was tough, partly due to the full moon. I also think that the endless hunts in the fall are training the elk to become more nocturnal in nature.

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There were a lot of hunters on the northwest end of the rim. We hunted along the southern stretch that runs east to west and there were a lot fewer hunters. We only saw two hunters along that southern stretch that were actually out on the rim. One of those was glassing the area where we saw the six point disappear so he had seen it too. I am sure there were others but it was nothing like the north end. I saw some boot tracks out there but a lot of them were old-from a previous season.

One thing about the rim is that all we saw there was bulls. The cows must stay back in the timber. We saw plenty of cows on the west side of the unit but only a couple bulls before the season and no bulls during the season.

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I've hunted 9 during archery.....grin

As I recall the rifle elk season is after the pressure of the deer hunt and they give out a fair number of tags for that- disclaimer, I don't look at the rifle seasons much- but I've heard those rifle elk tags are crummy due to the pressure from previous hunts


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