Arizona Unit 8!

[ds2]

Been working on finding good areas in unit 8 as I have a late season bull tag. I have been Hiking into areas that are a long ways from an "open" road. In almost all of the areas that I have gone, I find vehicles and even trailers on roads that are marked closed on all maps. As a non resident to Arizona, I wouldn't dare do this as I am sure the forest service would love to make an example out of a non resident Californian, but is this something that the forest service ever patrols? For those of you who have hunted that unit before, is this what I should expect during the season? Frustrating!

 

[Big Fin]

They can't get those vehicles into canyons, which is where you will find bulls on this hunt. When we hunted it in 2012, it was the first year of travel management rules. Very high rate of non-compliance, but that served to push the bulls into higher concentrations in places vehicles could not get to.

Episode of that hunt is here - https://youtu.be/adxrTHFpNII?list=PLLdxutimd-JuzbyEcZkmpKp0INeZGfWGu

Good luck. Hunt hard and you will find bulls. Have a first morning plan and then understand the deck gets shuffled when the shooting starts and the bulls will relocate to tougher places.

 

[ds2]

Thank you for the advice Randy. It is appreciated. Also, I have watched that episode multiple times and am pretty sure that I was very close to if not in a few of those spots. Since I shot a cow elk in Nevada this year and have a freezer mostly full, I am going to be a little more selective on my bull hunt in AZ.

 

[bowhunterjae]

listen to Big Fin and You will find them. Good luck.

 

[Trebek]

From someone who has lived in AZ my whole life, there are always gonna be folks who are ignorant to the travel management rule/law. You just need to find places where lazy people are not likely to be driving. good on ya for knowing which roads are open and which are closed, its a pain but take the moral high ground and walk that extra half mile. hope you got one, i had that same late hunt in 7West, shot a 7X5 at 300yrds on day three. Dealt with my fair share of uneducated hunters driving closed roads.