Arizona Black Bear (Non-Permit tag)

[Silver15tacoma]

New to the forum so please forgive if this topic has been posted about before, tried the search function but couldn’t find much. Anyway, I am very interested in hunting black bear this spring (it’ll be a first for me) I’d prefer to harvest one spot and stalk with a rifle. Since I live in southern Utah, an Arizona Non permit tag seems like a good option for me to give a shot. So my question is should I hunt spring bear in Arizona over Idaho/Montana due to it being closer to where I live and cheaper? Any Bear units in Arizona have good density where as someone with no bear hunting experience (other then google and podcasts) would have a chance? Thanks in advance!

 

[Bigjay73]

I'm an az native. I would go to Idaho/Montana. Az does have some surprisingly decent bear hunting considering the habitat, but its a very tough tag to fill, even in some of the units with higher densities. But hey, if you do go to Az, it will be a great adventure, and tough or not, there is a chance you'll fill a tag.

 

[Silver15tacoma]

I'm an az native. I would go to Idaho/Montana. Az does have some surprisingly decent bear hunting considering the habitat, but its a very tough tag to fill, even in some of the units with higher densities. But hey, if you do go to Az, it will be a great adventure, and tough or not, there is a chance you'll fill a tag.

Thanks for the reply! Ya I was looking at either unit 27 or 23. What makes the tags hard to fill? Just the terrain the bears are in?

 

[cfree]

90% of AZ bears are taken during the fall season. The spring hunts are tough. They don't come close to ID/MT. Wait until the fall season if you are set on AZ. Some units have high densities of prickly pear cacti and the bears will gorge on their fruits(google "bears in the pears"). Harvest report attached.

NM has some excellent fall bear hunting also for a fair price.

 

[Bigjay73]

Thanks for the reply! Ya I was looking at either unit 27 or 23. What makes the tags hard to fill? Just the terrain the bears are in?

Just hard to locate, as cfree, especially in the spring. 27 and 23 have a lot of bears, id go with whichever has the highest yearly harvest objective, should translate to more bears. 27 can be a rough unit terrain wise in case you didn't know

 

[rustednuts]

Spring bear in AZ is tough to find the food and they don’t move that much. I think hunting farther north you cans follow the green line which helps to eliminate a lot of country

 

[Silver15tacoma]

Just hard to locate, as cfree, especially in the spring. 27 and 23 have a lot of bears, id go with whichever has the highest yearly harvest objective, should translate to more bears. 27 can be a rough unit terrain wise in case you didn't know

Thanks for the info! Looks like I’ll be heading to Idaho for spring and Arizona in the fall

 

[glass eye]

Fall hunts end very quickly because most units have very low harvest quotas for sows.

 

[Bigjay73]

Thanks for the info! Looks like I’ll be heading to Idaho for spring and Arizona in the fall

Id look at 24b in the fall. Lots of bears in the superstitions if you know where to look

 

[Crusty Buckeye]

I'm an az native. I would go to Idaho/Montana. Az does have some surprisingly decent bear hunting considering the habitat, but its a very tough tag to fill, even in some of the units with higher densities. But hey, if you do go to Az, it will be a great adventure, and tough or not, there is a chance you'll fill a tag.

Thanks for the advice. I was also thinking of bear hunting there. Sounds like the money would be better utilized in another state.

 

[Sharp stick]

I too am interested in doing a spring spot and stalk bear hunt in AZ zone 27 or 8. I chose these zones simply due to I have 13 points for Elk in Az and those are my prefered hunt zones for elk. A bear hunt could double as a shed hunting trip and give me more intel in these areas. AZ is on my short list