2026 Fall Draw Comparison

[AZCoueser]

I've benefitted from helpful info on this forum and wanted to try to give back.  There was another thread where people were asking about changes in the 2026 Fall regs versus 2025.  I decided to put together an analysis that looks at the changes.  I tried to be pretty thorough, but please let me know if I need to make any corrections.

**Deer**

Deer saw a lot of changes between 2025 and 2026.  Bottom line: Expect tighter draw odds in 2026.  Across 208 continuing hunt opportunities, 96 saw permit cuts (totaling −3,265 permits) while only 18 saw increases (+560 permits). 

Coues: The late-October general season in units 34–36 took broad cuts, and the overall Coues deer permit pool is down over 1,800 tags (−10.6%).

Muley: Also down, especially in units 22, 23, 28, and 30A. Unit 8 and Units 7 & 9 are the bright spots. Units 12A/12B saw modest gains. Unit 8 mule deer is the standout gainer (+100 permits). Units 12A/12B and the north-central units (1, 4A/4B) also saw modest permit increases. Units 7 & 9, already the largest single general deer opportunity in the state, went up slightly to 1,200.

2025 vs 2026 Permits by Permit Type (Deer)

Deer Units with the Biggest Permit Cuts

 

**Turkey**

Tighter across most units except Unit 12A, which gained 100 tags. Turkey Limited Weapon in 2025 had 3,650 turkey permits versus 3,275 in 2026 (-375 permits).

**Bighorn sheep**

Canyon Lake will undergo a major drawdown starting September 16, 2026, for approximately 16 weeks. A majority of the huntable area in Desert Hunt Area in Unit 22 and for Unit 24B North for desert bighorn sheep will be restricted until the maintenance is completed.

Net +4 permits overall. The real structural change is the early/late season split added in units 40B Tinajas Altas, 41 East, and 44B South — more timing windows but lower per-window permit counts. Unit 37A went from 1 permit (east of I-10) to 3 permits (north of I-10). "East of I-10" is the same thing as "North of I-10" and I'm not sure why G&F changed the terminology. South of I-10 (or West of I-10 in 2025 terms) stayed flat at 6 permits. Unit 41 East consolidated permits from 5 permits, one hunt in 2025 to 5 permits across two hunts in 2026. Unit 44B had a similiar consolidation. Unit 15D took a cut from 5 permits to 3 permits. 

**Javelina**

Minor cuts, no dramatic changes.

**Bison**

Minor cuts, no dramatic changes.

**Sandhill Crane**

Unchanged at 1,020 permits total. The January window was consolidated from 4 windows (30 permits each) to 3 windows (40 permits each) — same total tags, one fewer draw opportunity.

 

 

[PRDATR]

Thanks for doing this.

[Chef]

This is great.

[trphyhntr]

That’s sucks about 37a ram. They had a good thing going there. 

[AZCoueser]

11 minutes ago, trphyhntr said:

That’s sucks about 37a ram. They had a good thing going there. 

From the perspective of less competition before?

[trphyhntr]

4 minutes ago, AZCoueser said:

From the perspective of less competition before?

From the perspective that 3 tags is a lot of ram tags. Should knock off the age class nicely in 2 years