NonResAdventurist

Joined the site to hopefully gain a little insight from others with knowledge to share. I got lucky being pulled as a non-resident for Unit 9 and am extremely excited. I was fortunate enough that my dad started accruing BP's for me when I was younger and I kept it going every year, I believe after 18 I finally hit. I guess I can say I'm not new to the game, I'm just new to the playing field and am looking for a little guidance. I've hunted SD,ND,CO and Mexico before for antelope, mulies, elk etc. but this AZ hunt will be my first time stepping foot anywhere in your state besides the airport. This likely is a once in a lifetime tag for me, and I already know I will get the responses of "hire a guide". While that is something I ordinarily would do I don't think it's going to be in the cards for me this year, the budget is going to be a little tight because the day I found out I drew is the same day the wife told me kid numero uno is on the way! Big mixture of emotions there. With that being said, I will be coming to hunt unit 9 and don't mind going the DIY route. I'm not looking to steal spots, just some general vicinities I can key start with when I show up a few days early to scout. I'm guessing between guides and the other 30ish residents with tags I'll be behind as it is going into it so I'd appreciate any help I can get. I'm thinking I'll likely need to have multiple goats spotted that I'd be willing to pull the trigger on too based on the amount of other people who are hunting the unit. If I'm way off with my thinking here I apologize for my ignorance. It's been a few years since I've had a trip out of state planned and I love every minute of the preparation and research almost as much as actually having my boots on the ground with the gun in my hand. Thank you in advance!

First just wanted to thank @Tight Guy for being a primary contact with knowledge of the specific hunt. Others also were kind enough to share info with me and I’m very appreciative of it all. Being from Wisconsin my knowledge of hunting in AZ was extremely limited. I did have a flight booked to get a scouting mission in prior to season but due to a death in the family I had to switch my flight out to be at the funeral. That left only 3 days prior to the hunt open for me to scout. Long story short I put on almost 800 miles in 3 days, driving/glassing/driving/glassing until my right foot was about to fall off and my eyes couldn’t stay open anymore. Ran into a few hunters scouting and the reports were all similar... not much being spotted at all. One hunter had spoken to the biologist for the area and he was told this would be a great year to have used point guard (not encouraging to hear). I spent 6 hours between an AM and PM on top of the dog knobs glassing and never glassed up a single goat. I spotted 1 buck around 75” on day 1 of scouting and never found a bigger buck the entire time. Opening morning I went to where I knew he was hanging out and glasses him up right away. He was on private working his way to public and I was set up to intercept him when I had a couple elk hunters on atv’s come through. That idea ended up a bust. Went to a few other areas where I had seen some goats that I couldn’t get clear views of while scouting but found hunters in the general area of all of them. I’m not the kind of guy to intrude on others, regardless of if they’re after the same general animals or not. While scouting I did find a nice water source that had lots of goat sign all around it, no fresh tire tracks within 3 miles of it but never glasses up a goat. I decided to just go with it and spend the rest of my day in that area. About a mile out I spotted a white patch between some cattle out in the distance, pulled up the binos and saw a buck with a handful of ladies. I wanted to get a better look and began the long stalk with a strong crosswind and the sun at my back. 2 hours later I managed to get within 125 yards. It was an awesome stalk I’ll never forget and when I got there I realized I hadn’t seen much worth shooting and this would be a great memory, regardless of if he’s a wall hanger or not. Dropped him there and for him on ice within 45mins. Definitely not the biggest antelope in the world, in fact I’ve shot larger, but based on what I’d seen and heard he was big enough for me. Very large body, very small horns. His teeth were just about gone and his balls had shriveled up to almost the size of marbles. I’m guessing he’s very old but I’m not positive. Either way, awesome hunt and great memory! Thanks again everyone! Hope some true giants get dropped this year!

I alpreciate the help guys, it’s refreshing to see people helping people when it comes to hunting.

Thanks for the info and I definitely will consider a guide. As of right now I’m planning on giving myself 2 full days of scouting minimum, probably more. My main concern if I went the DIY route would be not knowing what the population density is like. Researching seems that people say most of AZ is managed for quality over quantity which is great but it makes me wonder if that then means more miles of scouting to find them. Obviously whatever it takes I’ll make happen. If I did go solo, would there be any areas to camp?