My son has 8 NR points, and wants to do a late bull hunt this year (that's all his schedule will provide). Looking hard at 1/2B/2C, 23 and 27. Anyone done these before and have a recommendation or intell? He's 23 and has hunted quite a bit. He's only hunted elk once before on a UT youth tag and did not bag one. I'll probably come down from AK to enjoy some nice fall weather and help out.
I don't think you will have nice fall weather. The late hunts in these areas run Nov 27- Dec 3. It gets pretty chilly at that time of year. I haven't hunted these units but they are among the better units in AZ.
He's born and raised in AK. He's prolly coming from Boston, as he's wrapping up a gig at the MIT geology lab. He's cold weather camped here in AK and in the Rockies.
It gets pretty chilly at that time of year.
Yeah, but it's a dry cold, right?
I camped at my property in Young (unit23) this Dec. 30 degrees at night and 60 in the afternoon. Not very cold imho.
The weather on the late hunts is a crap shoot. This year is was incredibly warm; 58-60� in the afternoons. It was cool in the mornings but only for a couple of hours. I have had late hunts that had big snow storms and single digit temps all day. I have hunted and guided in 1, 3A, 3C, 4A, 4B, 5Bnorth, 7, 8, 9, 10, 22, 23, 24A, 25, and 27. For a do-it-yourself from out of town, I would recommend 1 and 27 as the best units. 23 is a great unit but a lot of work and takes some serious scouting to be reliably into elk. The other units are not my choices for late hunts.
Oh, I don't know that 8 points is enough to really get him a tag other than just getting plain lucky. Worth a shot though. Unit 1 was pretty fun this year. 4B sucked last year.
hope you don't mind me jumping in here. dennisinaz, I'll be moving to Mohave Valley in April, what are the best units up in the northern region west of Flagstaff?
I'm from the south and used to deer hunting where I can scout year round, not sure if I can do that there or not inside these units and with the summer and fall patterns is it even worth scouting during the summer?
TAD... If you planning to hunt this year, the application cutoff is Feb 10th. The current elk regulations can be downloaded at azgfd.gov.
West of Flag you have units 7,8,9 10.
Forget unit 9, it sucks for the general hunt and the odds of an early tag are astronomical. There are some units closer that have good elk, just not lots of them. I don't know those units very well- 18 stands out.
I completed my applications last night myself.
dennisaz, I was getting ready to apply and read this. What is wrong with unit 9 these days? I was there with a buddy who had a tag a couple years ago and there seemed to be a lot of bulls there. The terrain is pretty flat so visibility isn't good but is there something else that makes it a poor choice for late season?
A lot of the bulls migrate off onto the Hualapai and Havasupai and Navajo reservations during November. As you also mentioned, very difficult unit to glass for bulls. I wouldn't take a late tag in 9 with my 5th choice!
So that explains it! I suppose more leave if it is colder. It was warm and dry when I was there. It looks like there isn't an early season hunt in 9 this year. That's probably not a good sign either.
I am between a rock and a hard place. I am 65, a non resident and only have 3 points going into this year. I have a much better chance of drawing unit 9 before my body gives out completely. It doesn't really matter this year as I won't draw anything.
As they say... you can't win if you don't play. Last year I pulled an early bull tag in 10 and that was the first time I had put in for it. My dad is kicking himself for pulling out at the last minute. He already put in our app. He lives in NM where I am from. Oh yeah, thanks again Dennis.
I say put in in for the top hunts. My dad keeps talking about the door closing on his chance to kill a nice 6x6. After last year I expect him to put in here in AZ for the rest of his hunting career.
That's what I will do. Don't expect to draw this year anyway so it makes more sense to apply for the top units. My luck usually doesn't run that way but maybe it will change.
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%.
Looking at the draw odds, 22N looks the best with 7,8, 10, 19A and 22S all reasonable odds.
Application process ended tonight for Arizona elk and antelope. Hope everyone got their's in in time!
Application process ended tonight for Arizona elk and antelope. Hope everyone got their's in in time!
The draw has been extended to Wednesday 2-11 7:00 MST.
I saw that- this is the 5th year in a row that they couldn't get it right! What a bunch of bozos in that department.
Damn. Wish I would have read that about unit 9 before I put in.