Hi everyone. I have been hunting for 5 years now, 3 successfully, but this is my first year bow hunting. I tried my first spot and stalk hunt earlier this year during Colorado OTC elk season, but neither spotted nor stalked anything and I just returned to CA where I now live after a failed whitetail season in NY with my father. I am pretty bummed to have such a sloppy year so I am thinking of trying my first mule deer hunt in AZ for the January rut. I have a friend near Phoenix so I plan to go out there and stay a night with him then spend maybe three or four days in a unit around that area. I may bring a friend interested in hunting to help me glass and pass the time. I am looking for some advice so I can narrow down my research and optimize the little time I have before the new year when I plan to go out. Any and all advice is greatly appreciated, I know that a lot of AZ hunters like to play their cards close to their chest. From the research I have done through Google and azgfd.com I have some interest in units 41, 22 and 20B. It seems 41 has very low densities, at one deer per square mile, and 22 has a lot of pressure. 20B seems like an area of interest for me around the Bradshaws, since I have read about some fires 6 or 7 years ago, and I know that large fauna like to hang around the regrowth. I am 28, in good health, and looking to be as far from other pressure as I can be. 2 months ago I hiked a 16 mile day with 4,800ft altitude gain and although was very tired at the end, was ready for another hike the next day, so packing in long distance would be welcome. I understand the success rate to be very low for archery mule deer, so I am considering not purchasing a tag and just spending a few days scouting and stalking as if I had one for the lesson. I have no experience hunting outside of the woods, and my three deer I harvested were all taken in ambush, so I have very little stalking talent. I never even knew people hunted that way until last year, being from the East, but I am very interested in gaining ability. Knowing what little background I provided, what should I concentrate my efforts on? Any and all advice is welcome and appreciated.
When I was planning my coues/muley hunt last December we focused on staying away from crowds 1st and worrying about finding deer 2nd. I believe you could basically close your eyes and pick an OTC unit and have a good hunt. Best of luck, I fell in love with hunting the desert during my short time there last year. Be aware that this is a very, very tough hunt. I focused more on Coues, but the muleys seemed a bit more tolerable to stalks though. It'll get very cold at night if you're camping. We had 10-15 degree temps every night. If you're planning on packing in be aware of water shortages. We opted for just using a base camp and hiking each day. My best piece of advice that I learned is to start out high. My one shot opportunity came from me being able to slip around and come over the top on a buck. There was little to no cover other than terrain features. Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk
I did this hunt last year with my son and we went to unit 10 in December. We rented a house and hunted behind the golf course outside of Williams I saw a few deer almost every day.One nice mule deer no shot opportunity and one small buck I let walk.Also saw elk several times. I will be going back in a year or two we also looked at 22 good luck
Just moved back to Michigan after 13 years in AZ. First thing you need to do is get good glass. Look at classifieds if they aren't in the budget but the biggest difference between eastern and western hunting is the glassing involved. Read or watch videos on how to break up an area and glass it systematically. Depending on where you end up your next move will be to put them to bed before you make your move. You can't catch up. Just put em to bed and make a plan. And practice longer ranges. I know it's not popular but western hunting routinely involves shooting to 50 yards so practice out as far as you can. Not to shoot super long but long practice shrinks the shots in your normal effective range; makes the 40 yard shot a lot less daunting when you practice at 60. Good luck and watch for snakes.
