Arizona Unit 10 Late Rifle

[Oregon4wheeler]

Nice bull! Which unit did you bag him?

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[FlyGuy]

I had some good intel when I had the tag several years ago. But, with most of the AZ late hunts, its all about staying engaged in the hunt for the full 7 days, scouting prior to the season if you can, and having realistic expectations.

I stayed out every single hour of every day I hunted (got mine on the evening of day 4).

The thing that kept me motivated is there are bulls there, and big ones, its just a matter of 2 things:

1. Finding them.

2. Getting them killed.

Sometimes you find them, but killing them can be another whole can of worms. Sometimes, you just cant turn them up.

I could have killed at least one bull 3 of the 4 days I hunted. Fortunately, I found one that was better than what I expected to get and was able to get him killed as well.

I will say, that in general, these late tags are NOT easy....as in, there isn't an elk around every juniper bush.

The good thing, IMO, you just lay it all out there for 7 days, do what you can, and have some fun along the way. If things go right, you may get a bull out of the deal.

Great Bull! What did he score?

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[BuzzH]

scored 356 gross, netted in the low 330's, had probably 14-15 inches busted and if clean would have been 370+ gross. The long 5th was over 20"...

Not busted up as bad as some of the bulls I've seen on late hunts. Which brings up another challenge with late hunts, trying to find one that's not broken.

 

[swampokie]

How did this hunt turn out????

 

[Phil4]

Drew this tag for 2018 curious to see how you did


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[robie]

Drew this tag for 2018 curious to see how you did


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Congrats. I did as well.

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[swampokie]

Was it as crappy as we heard it was?

 

[robie]

Was it as crappy as we heard it was?

If you like 5 point bulls it was great. If you were after an "Arizona" bull it was brutal.

I will post a full report and try to help people out that may want to apply for this hunt in the future. It was eye opening and the guides didn't hold back that this is always a terrible hunt where people can get lucky but most don't.

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[TimHerald]

how are the early bow hunts there? Was thinking about drawing one next year.

 

[robie]

Early hunt yes. And if you want a guide pm me. My guide has 90k acres of private and from what I saw with rubs and with what my guide said it's a hunters paradise during the rut. It is what I will apply for until I draw.

how are the early bow hunts there? Was thinking about drawing one next year.

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[Southforkguy]

how are the early bow hunts there? Was thinking about drawing one next year.

The early archery hunt is going to take a minimum of 15 points to draw, there are some impressive elk in there.

 

[Beendare]

I helped guide in one of those Northern AZ units in late rifle- yeah, its a tough hunt. Some guys never see an elk the whole hunt....and the odds of killing a big one or even one at all are small.......but thats why the odds of getting a tag are so much better.

The early hunt is fantastic...no secret. Keep in mind that those points to draw climb every year...so if its 15 now who knows what it will be in another 10 years. any draw hunt like this that doesn't give out enough non res tags to dent the backlog will be this way...essentially every year the points to draw climbs. You could always luck out with a tag in the random draw, but to think you will draw the early elk hunt in unit 10 with 15 points in 15 years is a pipe dream.

 

[swampokie]

I helped guide in one of those Northern AZ units in late rifle- yeah, its a tough hunt. Some guys never see an elk the whole hunt....and the odds of killing a big one or even one at all are small.......but thats why the odds of getting a tag are so much better.

The early hunt is fantastic...no secret. Keep in mind that those points to draw climb every year...so if its 15 now who knows what it will be in another 10 years. any draw hunt like this that doesn't give out enough non res tags to dent the backlog will be this way...essentially every year the points to draw climbs. You could always luck out with a tag in the random draw, but to think you will draw the early elk hunt in unit 10 with 15 points in 15 years is a pipe dream.

Right on brother! That's why ill try to get out of the game with an easier to draw late rifle hunt

 

[Jayski33]

Great info. Thanks.

 

[robie]

I helped guide in one of those Northern AZ units in late rifle- yeah, its a tough hunt. Some guys never see an elk the whole hunt....and the odds of killing a big one or even one at all are small.......but thats why the odds of getting a tag are so much better.

The early hunt is fantastic...no secret. Keep in mind that those points to draw climb every year...so if its 15 now who knows what it will be in another 10 years. any draw hunt like this that doesn't give out enough non res tags to dent the backlog will be this way...essentially every year the points to draw climbs. You could always luck out with a tag in the random draw, but to think you will draw the early elk hunt in unit 10 with 15 points in 15 years is a pipe dream.

If you just want a tag and are a DIY guy I think you can kill a bull on this hunt and have fun. If you go guided I think you can spend $5-$6K other places and have a better hunt. I won't ever catch max points but I will play the random tag game and see what happens.

I play the lottery tag game in most states so for AZ I would rather just keep applying and wait for a good/great tag.

 

[Bob92057]

Appreciate your info on this unit. I drew the CHAMP hunt for early November and will probably try to hunt the Big Bo Ranch. Will go out to scout in early Aug

Any info from others that may have hunted the early Nov week?

Bob

 

[hwy5076]

Most of the bad reviews on 10 are from road hunters. Get out and put in the work as there are some nice bulls to be found in that unit.

 

[Beendare]

Going to be a good year to hunt N AZ. The moisture there is incredible. Last year there were elk dying due to drought according to the GW.

This year could be 25% or more antler growth.