I am planning on applying for an archery elk tag in AZ. I am looking for a little help to get started. Can some give me some recommendations on Units. I am not looking for a hunt area that requires horses or wilderness areas. I will most likely be hunting alone and want a area that has high success and relatively easy access (want a lot don't I). I apply for several states so I do not mind waiting for a few years to draw. Hell I have been waiting for 14 years trying to draw area 2 in Colorado. I read a article recently and the guys were into several elk and were hunting lower elevation in the Pinions.

10 or 8.

7m has some big bulls. You just have to put up the hikers,golfers and activists. Could be a bit easier to draw for one of the 2 hunts.

Tracker,

About any area in the state can produce a good bull, and most of them have good access without the need for horses.

Good units for archery are 1, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10. -TONY

I will most likey be hunting alone and will travel out from the East coast. I have hunted WY, CO, and UT and decided it was time to start looking for a archery hunt in AZ. I have no problem waiting a few years for a tag. My brother livs in Scottsdale so I figured if I could drill down on an area I could get some scotting in before I draw the tag while out visiting. While big bull would be nice I am just looking for an area that I will see lots of elk and get opportunities to take one. 8 and 10 were two that I have looked at based on looking at the AZ web site.

quote:

Originally posted by Tracker12:
I have no problem waiting a few years for a tag.

That's good because if you look at draw odds for these 2 units, they are worse for archery than rifle. Plus, you WILL have to wait a LONG time to get drawn. AND, if I recall, you will still have to buy an annual license to build points, which is around $113 if I recall. Might want to double check that though.

Unless you are extremely lucky -- and some hunters are -- you WILL likely wait a few years to draw.

Also, you can count on seeing increased tag costs, especially on the nonresident end. The game department is also considering a restructure of the hunts where it will move a lot of the archery permits to a later season, thus cutting the success rate down. Reason: to allocate more elk tags overall to attain the same kill rates. -TONY

Yea I was reading about the change in the Archery tags to later. Definitely not what I am looking for. So if we look at a unit that may not hold the biggest bulls but good success percentage which areas do we look at?

Tracker,

First, let's put the published "success rates in perspective. Here's a segment from my book, HOW TO HUNT COUES DEER; it also applies to all other big-game success rates.

If you’re a nonresident or not familiar with the hunting units and decide to apply for a draw permit for a do-it-yourself hunt in either of these states, do some research. Try to contact other hunters, guides or even the game departments for information and advice.

Also study the hunt statistics from prior years, but consider the success rates and actual harvest with some skepticism because the figures are usually extrapolated from mail-in survey cards. The return rate of these cards for almost every whitetail hunt in Arizona averages between 25 and 45 percent.

A real-time example from the 2002 season shows a harvest of 42 deer and a success rate of 42 percent for the December hunt in unit 36B, where 100 permits were issued. Only 43 hunters returned the cards. That means 18 of the 43 reported a deer kill, but with such a small sampling, the figures could be way off. Perhaps three-quarters of the hunters who didn’t send the cards back were unsuccessful, or it could be the other way around.

So if there's an elk unit with 20 tags and only five hunters who were all successful return the survey cards, that hunt will show a 100% success rate, even if the other 15 failed to tag a bull.

Now, as far as the units, ANY elk unit in the state has the potential to grow big bulls in the 375-400 class, regardless of the success rate. So if the latter is all you're concerned about pick one that gives the best drawing odds with a decent success rate and go for it. -TONY

1, 3b, and 27

Good luck and good hunting.

quote:

Originally posted by Tracker12:
I am planning on applying for an archery elk tag in AZ. I am looking for a little help to get started. Can some give me some recommendations on Units. I am not looking for a hunt area that requires horses or wilderness areas. I will most likely be hunting alone and want a area that has high success and relatively easy access (want a lot don't I). I apply for several states so I do not mind waiting for a few years to draw. Hell I have been waiting for 14 years trying to draw area 2 in Colorado. I read a article recently and the guys were into several elk and were hunting lower elevation in the Pinions.

billinthe wild
Thanks I will keep these in mind as I do my research. Area 27 looks very interesting!