Az Deer hunting

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

Afte the recent deer seasons what are some observations on deer herds in your areas?

We had a great couple of trips this year but in two units we have been in a bunch over the years and spent roughly 7 or 8 days in each this year we saw 4 Coues spikes and 3 Muley spikes. Saw a ton of does but man this was one of the toughest years I can remember. Didn't even get one opportunity over two hunts. We worked everything from the camp to 4 miles into the wilderness. My eyes are still baked from glassing.

[wish2hunt]

I only helped for two days but 36a seemed pretty tough for finding does and bucks to me

[HuntHarder]

Most deer ( Bucks and does) I have ever seen this year.  This was near Flagstaff.  Overall, my desert spots seem to be steady, to slightly declining. 

[trphyhntr]

I don’t think you can make an educated guess on the buck population in central and southern AZ after a couple general season hunts. Especially when you consider it rained 2” 2 weeks before the hunts. Had a super moon on one of the hunts.

2 drought years and tons of tags every year, they probably didn’t increase this year. 
 

there’s hardly a quail out there. If you got a lot of quail where you’re at this year, you’re the anomaly. 

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

Ya I will say that, the water was crazy. I have for sure never seen as much water as we did this year. Every single tank was loaded. A couple of springs that were dry 2 years in a row were flowing again.

Tons of logging going on across the state as well so hopefully they are doing it right and not going too far. Some of the cuts we ran across seemed a little excessive. We got hooked up by one crew, helped them out with a floor jack and they filled my truck with juniper and oak.

[Ed67]

36B early WT was tough and warm. First time I didn’t see a single buck down there 

[Apache7mm]

Tribal hunts on San Carlos were about normal for mule deer harvests while coues hunting was really tough and very few mature bucks seen/taken (there's always a beauty or two in the hundreds of tags but not a single one this year). Also same story on the quail as most other places in the state and the mention of old springs coming back to life has certainly been observed out here as well. Fall turkey hunts probably the worst ever too.

 

DAN

[Sky Island junkie]

No tag for me this year but I’ve spent a ton of time helping on the last 2 wt hunts and the last 2 mornings on the muzzleloader hunt in 33. I’m not sure about deer numbers overall but from the poking around I’ve done in different canyons I believe that late rain scattered the critters around. We’ve found several wet spots in otherwise normally dry canyons this time of year. The big thing I’ve noticed in my home unit are the lions getting out of hand again. I think most hunters don’t do any off season predator hunting and it doesn’t help that a lot of lion hunters with dogs catch and release younger cats and not kill them because they’re not some monster tom, educating the heck out of them. A rancher friend of mine set trail cams at several drinkers trying to locate cows and he shared pics with me. One drinker had a pic of 3 younger lions at one time and the next night another older female. We killed one young lion in there last fall which was prior to him setting the cameras up so that was 5 that were living in that particular canyon prior. 

[stanley]

We were in our usual coues spot down south.  Deer sightings seemed basically on par with past years in our small corner of the state.

S.

[dsotm]

Pretty normal in my usual unit

[Viper]

9 hours ago, Ed67 said:

36B early WT was tough and warm. First time I didn’t see a single buck down there 

That's not good to hear! My 36B hunt starts the 28th. We plan to hunt around Arivaca Lake.

[trphyhntr]

4 hours ago, Sky Island junkie said:

No tag for me this year but I’ve spent a ton of time helping on the last 2 wt hunts and the last 2 mornings on the muzzleloader hunt in 33. I’m not sure about deer numbers overall but from the poking around I’ve done in different canyons I believe that late rain scattered the critters around. We’ve found several wet spots in otherwise normally dry canyons this time of year. The big thing I’ve noticed in my home unit are the lions getting out of hand again. I think most hunters don’t do any off season predator hunting and it doesn’t help that a lot of lion hunters with dogs catch and release younger cats and not kill them because they’re not some monster tom, educating the heck out of them. A rancher friend of mine set trail cams at several drinkers trying to locate cows and he shared pics with me. One drinker had a pic of 3 younger lions at one time and the next night another older female. We killed one young lion in there last fall which was prior to him setting the cameras up so that was 5 that were living in that particular canyon prior. 

I think that my area got wrecked by lions. I know people cope and say that a lot but when you go from seeing good bucks to nothing and finding deadheads and glassing lions. You’re gonna start thinking crazy 

[NOTAGS]

Buy a lion tag, always.  We hunted a different area in36a this year from last for muley, saw way less deer, one decent  buck whose resting in my freezer…last year in a different area we saw 20-30 deer a day but no decent bucks.. 

[millerpe1327]

just finished the second coues hunt in 36b. it was tough for sure but think it was more heat and moon related. that being said still had 30-40 deer days every day. almost everything was 1.5 year old spikes/forkies. think our total count was about 35 bucks over the 7 days. deer were really up feeding and moving about 9-1030 in the morning and the last hour of light and it was getting better later into the hunt as the moon was rising later. Still think we are struggling from the 21 drought for a missing age class of bucks.

[Shawn]

39 minutes ago, millerpe1327 said:

just finished the second coues hunt in 36b. it was tough for sure but think it was more heat and moon related. that being said still had 30-40 deer days every day. almost everything was 1.5 year old spikes/forkies. think our total count was about 35 bucks over the 7 days. deer were really up feeding and moving about 9-1030 in the morning and the last hour of light and it was getting better later into the hunt as the moon was rising later. Still think we are struggling from the 21 drought for a missing age class of bucks.

I think you hit the nail on the head with that Drought but pretty sure it was 2020.  I think we're feeling that big time right now. I know the areas I hunted in 2020 I did not see a single fawn.