Show Notes
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On this bonus episode of The Western Rookie Podcast, Brian covers the upcoming application deadlines for elk and antelope hunting in Arizona. He explains the unique draw system in Arizona, the impact of weather conditions on elk hunting, and provides insights into antelope hunting in the state. The episode concludes with tips on how to navigate the application process and resources available for hunters.
Application Deadline:
February 4th at 11:59 Pm AZT
State Application Website:
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Show Transcript
Brian Krebs (00:01.612)
Welcome back to another Western rookie bonus episode brought to you by go hunt. This is our go hunt bonus series, which means there is another application deadline coming up. And today we are going to be covering the Arizona elk and antelope applications. These are due by February 4th at 1159 PM Arizona time. Obviously we always recommend don't wait till the last minute, but next Wednesday,
February 4th is the deadline if you want to apply for elk in Arizona, for antelope in Arizona, or buy your elk and antelope points. This is also the deadline for your points, so don't forget, even if you're not planning on hunting in Arizona this year, if you build points in Arizona, you need to do an application for points only. Now, the draw system in Arizona is a little bit confusing.
It uses a modified point system. They call them bonus points, but what happens is a portion of the tags, typically 20%, are allocated to those who have the highest points. So that's kind of a preference point system. So 20%, they go for the preference point system. The rest of the points go into a weighted bonus point lottery, which means the more points you have, the better chances you have of drawing a tag, but it's still random, which means everyone has a chance, even people with zero points.
Not a very good chance, but there's still a chance. That makes Arizona a good state to apply for for anyone. It also makes it a great mid to long term state, and we'll get into the reasons why later. You can apply with groups up to four in Arizona for elk or antelope, and we do want to cover the elk and the antelope specifically. So let's dive into the elk. Arizona is still one of the top three states in terms of quality and trophy potential for their elk herd.
A lot of their units have amazing bowls. They manage a lot of their units for that trophy class, that real high quality experience. And since everyone technically has a chance to draw a tag, it's a really good state to apply and swing for the fences. It's an early application. We get the results before some of the deadlines to withdraw in other states. Like we talked about Wyoming last time, you had to apply by January 31st, but you have until May to
Brian Krebs (02:24.778)
withdraw your application. So this is a good one. You can apply for a conservative tag in Wyoming like the general and then swing for the fences in Arizona. That being said, there are a lot of good units in the seven to 12 point range with higher draw odds that you can start to plan on. These can be great units for your mid or long term application strategy that we talk about all the time. Your short term states, the Wyoming's, the Montana's, the Colorado's. You got your mid term states that can also be Colorado.
It could be Arizona, it could be New Mexico, or your long term if you're really going for trophy potential, Arizona definitely fits in that category as well. There are going to be more rifle late season tags in Arizona this year. I believe they're adding about 220 late season rifle tags to the state, which means there's going to be more opportunity, but there's also going to be a little bit more pressure. So we're going to see some shifting point creep. We're going to be seeing some shifting.
harvest success rates, but more opportunity, more chance for you to get out and go hunting. The best units in Arizona are still one, nine, 10, 23. These are the units you dream of. These are the units that have amazing bulls, great experiences. I've got some stats we're going to talk about in a minute, but these are still going to be the top units. And that's not going to change much with these new tags.
What could change, what you might want to think about and consider before applying in Arizona is the weather conditions. Now, these southern states, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, southern Colorado, they really rely on winter moisture for antler production. These are dry states. They don't get a lot of precipitation. They don't get a lot of vegetation growth throughout the summer. They rely on that snow and that winter moisture to put food on the ground.
This year, the 2024-2025 winter, so far, we're seeing a little bit more drought than we have in the last few years. I wouldn't say it's severe, portions are severe. Overall, I'd say it's a mild to moderate drought in Arizona. So we may not see the antler growth we've seen the last two years. The last two winters, we've had decent snow in Arizona, and we've seen some pretty good antler growth across the state. So that might be something to consider. Now,
Brian Krebs (04:51.062)
There's two ways you can consider this. If you're looking for trophies only, if you're looking for boon and Crockett, if you want to hit that notch, if you're looking to chase phenomenal bowls, maybe this is a year to sit on the sidelines, build another point, wait for a better moisture winner. A lot can change between now and September, October, but you could play it safe. The other hand, if you don't really care about that top end potential, you just want a great experience, you want a great hunt.
great bold cow ratios, intense rut. Maybe this is the year you jump in because some other folks might be pulling out and you get a little bit better chance of drawing. So there's two ways you can play that, depends on what your goals are. Personally, I would rather use the points, draw the tag and go hunting. Because like we talk about, building points can be risky because the next five years could be a drought and all of a sudden you're just sitting on a bunch of points and you're not able to get out and use them. So.
I always lean on apply, draw the tag, have a great hunt rather than wait for the perfect storm, the stars to align. And when that happens, a lot of people are going to also jump in. So there's always a risk to be played there, but I wanted to make sure you were aware the weather conditions, the winter weather conditions really impact growth potential of these bulls down south. In the north, doesn't happen as much.
They typically get more snow anyway and they typically get a little bit more rain in the summer. So it's really unique to the Southwest United States. Now, that being said, there is a season choice for almost every weapon type. They have the early rifle, the early archery, the early muzzleloader, then they have the late rifle, the late muzzleloader and the late archery hunts. So no matter what your style of hunting is, they have an option for you, which makes it really unique in Arizona. A lot of different
units and tags do have rut hunting as an option as the season dates. So that's really exciting. Sometimes the rut can be incredible in Arizona from what I've heard. But it takes you you'll want to think through this a little bit. So the early season units are the units where you're going to see the magic happen. You're going to see the rut in full swing. You're going to see really low hunting pressure. You're going to get a lot of good quality experiences, but they're incredibly hard to draw those.
Brian Krebs (07:11.906)
those tags. On the flip side, the late season hunts are much easier to draw. However, there's lots of hunting pressure. A lot of people comment that they were shocked by the amount of hunting pressure. There's a Arizona is known for a lot of broken bowls in the late season, they they have an intense rut. These bulls fight hard, a lot of them get busted up. And they're harder to find, they move off into their sanctuary areas because they've been pressured because they've done the rut.
and they don't migrate, means they really hide. So that being said, you definitely want to think through, do you want to swing for the fences, get one of those early season units, but potentially have to wait longer to draw? Or do you want to hunt more often, but you're going to have to hunt differently, you're going to have to put in a lot more work. That's something for you to decide. I would love to have the early season archery tag though, and have some of those bulls bugling in my face. That's just the way I would go. Now,
Some of the top units, I wanted to throw out some statistics here. These units, the top units in Arizona are what dreams are made of. We're looking at 380 plus potential bulls with 60 to 95 % success rates. I cannot imagine hunting a unit that has 380 inch to 400 inch bulls and
people are showing a 95 % success rate. That is incredible. Now, obviously that doesn't mean all 95 % of those people are shooting 380 inch bowls. It just goes to show that this is a phenomenal elk state. Arizona, still one of the top three when it comes to elk quality. So that being said, we got the elk covered. Let's jump into antelope. What does antelope hunting in Arizona look like? Antelope
in Arizona are struggling. A lot of the recent droughts going back five, six years have impacted the antelope populations. The last couple years that moisture we talked about did help. It contributed to less winter kill. However, as a whole, Arizona is still not known for giant robust populations of antelope. It's not Wyoming. That being said, Arizona still offers a chance at an 80
Brian Krebs (09:35.156)
inch buck. But I want to emphasize chance because most people are still going to be tagging that average caliber buck 6570 inches. And so it makes you wonder is the points required to draw the Arizona analog tag going to be worth it. Most of the units are random only the top units are random only they're less than 1 % draw odds. It's really hard to draw the tag. So
Is it worth applying? Is it worth building points? That answer for you probably depends on how much you love antelope. If you're an antelope fanatic, if you're a Randy Neuberg and you cannot get enough antelope hunting and you love chasing big antelope, probably worth throwing your hat in the list of contenders. However, if you are not already buying an Arizona hunting license or building points for other species,
Probably not worth the $160 hunting fee and the $15 app fee to apply if you're already building points for elk if you're already applying for elk Maybe not the end of the world to throw in your $15 to apply for antelope and see if you drop but if you do draw plan on putting in a lot of work plan on doing a lot of scouting and plan on having reasonable expectations for what that hunt is just because it takes a lot of points to draw
doesn't mean there are booner bucks behind every sage bush. So that being said, let's jump into some of the stats that Arizona Antelope is currently seeing. Right now, again, like the elk, some of these top units in Arizona are still what dreams are made of. 80 inch bucks or larger with 70 to even 100, that's right, 100 % success rates. The kicker is those units have
extremely low odds. I'm talking random only with less than a quarter percent chance of drawing. So that being said, if you got the application already pulled up 15 bucks, you could draw a pretty cool antelope tag, but don't plan on it. And if you do draw, keep those expectations in check because it's not going to be booners behind every bush. There are out there though. That's the kicker. When we went to Wyoming,
Brian Krebs (11:56.086)
We didn't see a true, I think we might've seen one buck that got close to Booner out of 1200 antelope. A lot of them were just 65 to 70 inch bucks and that's okay. I mean, that's the unit I knew we were going to. I wanted to go to a unit that had a lot of antelope and that had good public land and good access and a good first hunt for me and my wife doing our first antelope hunt together. However, in Arizona, you might not get that. You might not get that 80 inches everywhere type hunt that you're hoping for.
for that many points. So that's the wrap up, Arizona elk and antelope. And remember, once again, this is your deadline to build points as well. So if you ever want to hunt elk or antelope in Arizona, do an application by your points. And I'm going share a little secret. I believe in Arizona, you can use your hunting license two years in a row because the hunting license used to last 360 days, which means if you applied on the February 3rd,
this year, build your points, next year on February 2nd, you still have an active hunting license that you can use to build your points and you just kind of have to skip every other year of having to buy that hunting license. So keep that in mind when you do your Arizona application. Now, if you liked this episode and you like getting these reminders and you want to make sure you don't miss any applications in the entire West, whether it's for tags, whether it's for limited entry, whether it's for
trophy units or whether it's bonus point and preference point deadline reminders, go check out the Western Rookie application calendar. It's a free calendar that I put together. We've been talking about it this spring that you can download and you can import every reminder across the West. don't have to import them all. You can pick the ones, the specific ones you want, or you can get them all in one shot. Either way, it's my way of helping you try to remember every single application.
that's on your radar. There's a lot of them. It's like 79, 80 different applications and point periods that you have to try to remember on your own and it just gets unsustainable. I've been putting them in my calendar for years and now we finally have a free product that lets anybody download them, throw them in their calendar. They show up as free meeting reminders. They're five days ahead of the deadline. It gives you plenty of time to plan out your application. They're free, like I said, so they're not going to interfere with your work meetings. People can still book over that same time slot.
Brian Krebs (14:22.008)
They also show up as private. So if you work in a big company and you got some anti-hunters there, unfortunately it happens. We all know it. People aren't going to be seeing what you're doing. It'll show up as private appointment. It'll look like you're calling your doctor or getting an update from the dentist. And they have the links for all of the game agencies. if Arizona Alkananelope shows up like it's going to this week for the people that have already downloaded it, they can open that up, click the link, go right over to Arizona Game and Fish, do their application.
It's a great system. People have been loving it. And like I said, completely free over at WesternRookie.com. So head over there, get that calendar. And when you do, consider checking out Go Hunt. They'd help us do this show. They help support us. They help support you more than anyone else out there. They are on your team for helping you get more tags, fill more tags, and have better experiences out West. So go check out why we love Go Hunt Insider so much and consider signing up. And if you do, use the code Western.
you're gonna get $50 of free gear shop credit. I have $50 in my gear shop right now that I need to go figure out what I wanna get. I think I might be getting new gators with those, because my old gators, I've worn them out and I need new ones. So no matter what you do, use the code Western, get your $50 of free credit at the gear shop. Thanks for listening. We'll be back on Tuesday with another full episode of the Western Rookie Podcast. Thanks for being here, folks.
