Arizona late rifle bull elk hunt

[sz28]

Congratulations on the tag! I live on the southern border of that unit. I also drew a late rifle bull tag in a different unit. Let me know if you need anything!

 

[Kopmana]

Congratulations on the tag! I live on the southern border of that unit. I also drew a late rifle bull tag in a different unit. Let me know if you need anything!

Cool! congrats to you as well! thanks for reaching out.

 

[Troy_Watkins]

Drew the same unit, wouldn’t mind swapping some info/ideas on where we will be spending time!

 

[Mykolaivka887]

Good unit. You can find uncrowded hunting in the junipers, but it's not easy to hunt. I have a couple friends going back this coming December. Good luck to you.

 

[fap1800]

I drew a late season AZ bull tag a couple years ago. Killed a nice 6pt on the second to last day. Best advice has already been stated. Find the nastiest canyons that will give you a good vantage point. Get there before first light and glass. They'll come out of the junipers and work their way down. One thing that I will say is, if you find a good spot overlooking a deep canyon that allows you to see a ways, like the pic below, stay there and give it time. You might not see them at first, but they'll eventually get up to feed and appear. Hunt them like a whitetail. As others mentioned, there are a lot of road hunters, but very little hunt the canyons. There's a reason for that. If you get one down in one, be prepared. It sucks. And if you're hunting solo, make sure you have a InReach or something similar. Oh, and goes without saying. It gets pretty cold at night. Mid-teens.

 

[theycallmemud]

I drew a late season AZ bull tag a couple years ago. Killed a nice 6pt on the second to last day. Best advice has already been stated. Find the nastiest canyons that will give you a good vantage point. Get there before first light and glass. They'll come out of the junipers and work their way down. One thing that I will say is, if you find a good spot overlooking a deep canyon that allows you to see a ways, like the pic below, stay there and give it time. You might not see them at first, but they'll eventually get up to feed and appear. Hunt them like a whitetail. As others mentioned, there are a lot of road hunters, but very little hunt the canyons. There's a reason for that. If you get one down in one, be prepared. It sucks. And if you're hunting solo, make sure you have a InReach or something similar. Oh, and goes without saying. It gets pretty cold at night. Mid-teens.

View attachment 734972

That canyon doesn't look that bad. Could definitely be wrong. Pic might not do it justice.

 

[Jumpnfish]

We drew the 3021 tag this year going to be A new unit for us.

 

[Muhonen Hunting]

Cool! congrats to you as well! thanks for reaching out.

Well any luck in AZ!?

 

[Kopmana]

Well any luck in AZ!?

This was the most challenging Elk hunt I have ever done! My Brother and I have hunted and killed Bulls on lots of OTC tags for archery and rifle in Idaho, Colorado, and Montana over the years, and everyone of those OTC hunts was easier and more successful than this late rifle hunt was in AZ. We got to Arizona 3 days before the season opened to scout. The two full days we had to scout yielded 11 Bulls to pursue come opener. A couple of the Bulls we found were very nice. However opening day was a zoo, and we were unable to connect, because the Bulls had moved. Pressure was intense, Ive never seen so much hunting pressure in my life, multiple people on each glassing knob, and very busy roads. I think each tagholder took there whole family along to help. The elk basically vanished after opener. We went 4 days with zero elk sightings, and it wasnt for lack of trying. The second to the last day i saw a spike with PTSD about 3 miles in that I was unable to connect on. And the final day of the season none of us even saw an elk. We hunted hard, each day we were up at 5am and would hike to the best vantages we had found. We would stay out all day glassing. As the trip wore on (day 3) we figured out the elk had moved off to the edges of the unit into the flat thick juniper country. we focused our efforts there. The juniper flats are hard to hunt, you either sit water, or walk a rim of a canyon glassing often. No luck there either. If you are considering a late hunt in any of the mid tier Arizona elk units, I would think again before burning 8 points. I would much rather go back to a OTC elk unit in CO before coming back to this unit again. In the future all three of us will be applying separately for early hunts in AZ, the late rifle hunt is hard, with lots of pressure, and Elk that are pretty much nocturnal.

 

[1denogean]

thats every unit and every hunt right now in AZ, if you talk to real hunters that have hunted it since the dawn of time they will all tell you its the worst they have ever seen, quality, tag numbers etc

 

[Kopmana]

thats every unit and every hunt right now in AZ, if you talk to real hunters that have hunted it since the dawn of time they will all tell you its the worst they have ever seen, quality, tag numbers etc

Gotcha, that is unfortunate. I had always heard good things about Arizona, so was hopeful it would be better. I won't give up on it, but will be more discerning as I apply for hunts going forward. Im curious to see what the avg success rate is this year for late rifle hunts in AZ.

 

[Kopmana]

We drew the 3021 tag this year going to be A new unit for us.

How did your hunt go?

 

[Kopmana]

I drew a late season AZ bull tag a couple years ago. Killed a nice 6pt on the second to last day. Best advice has already been stated. Find the nastiest canyons that will give you a good vantage point. Get there before first light and glass. They'll come out of the junipers and work their way down. One thing that I will say is, if you find a good spot overlooking a deep canyon that allows you to see a ways, like the pic below, stay there and give it time. You might not see them at first, but they'll eventually get up to feed and appear. Hunt them like a whitetail. As others mentioned, there are a lot of road hunters, but very little hunt the canyons. There's a reason for that. If you get one down in one, be prepared. It sucks. And if you're hunting solo, make sure you have a InReach or something similar. Oh, and goes without saying. It gets pretty cold at night. Mid-teens.

View attachment 734972

Somehow I missed this message before I went on the hunt. I appreciate the feedback though! I can say after hunting the unit. This statement is very true. Patience and hunting these elk like whitetails is key. Well said.

 

[DBuck]

thats every unit and every hunt right now in AZ, if you talk to real hunters that have hunted it since the dawn of time they will all tell you its the worst they have ever seen, quality, tag numbers etc

That's what we experienced as well, and same with a lot of other buddies/guides that I talked too. This was the toughest year yet hands down.

 

[satchamo]

I had a pretty good hunt myself but not sure I’d do it again. The amount of competition sours the experience so much for me.

 

[grizz19]

We drew the 3021 tag this year going to be A new unit for us.

how’d you guys do out there? I had the same tag this year. I tagged out opening morning, thankfully. It wasn’t too busy where I was opening morning but started getting that was later in the day. If we wouldn’t have killed opening morning I think it would have gotten tough. Looked like the elk kicked off the tops and down into the pines or onto the thick north slopes. I was only there through Sunday though.

 

[SteveBurton]

Sorry to hear you ate tag soup this year. Late bull is definitely a challenging season and this year was harder than most. I have heard/read many people not seeing any bulls at all. It was also a lot warmer than expected.
My buddy and I had 3A/3C and were lucky enough to both get bulls. Another friend of mine had the same unit and a guide but wasn't able to connect with a bull.

 

[Blackcats06]

You really have to be picky when selecting a late season bull tag in AZ There are some really good units and some really hard ones One of the best early season units (9) is probably one of the hardest late hunts there is. I don't know what unit you had but I've been to Colorado and there is no way your az hunt was as bad as what they have over there

 

[Kopmana]

That's what we experienced as well, and same with a lot of other buddies/guides that I talked too. This was the toughest year yet hands down.

I hear ya, man what a year to draw, we win some and loose some I guess. That's why they call it hunting.

 

[Kopmana]

You really have to be picky when selecting a late season bull tag in AZ There are some really good units and some really hard ones One of the best early season units (9) is probably one of the hardest late hunts there is. I don't know what unit you had but I've been to Colorado and there is no way your az hunt was as bad as what they have over there

I understand, I will be more focused on quality tags in Arizona in the future. We were in the large unit just west of sycamore canyon wilderness, figure I won't mention the unit here.

I've Hunted Colorado 2nd and 3rd season rifle elk, and both times it was more successful and enjoyable than this late rifle hunt in AZ. Less pressure too. Hard to believe, but it s true.