Arizona (6A)

[az_runner]

I'm sure you guys can provide some insight here...

So, I spent he past few days up in Arizona 6A east of Sedona (I-17 and 179) trying to fill a OTC deer tag. We found just an insane amount of recent deer tracks, but only saw one small buck for a few seconds and my buddy almost hit a large doe with his truck. Outside of those two mentioned sightings, we saw nothing else the entire time. We got back about 4 miles from the main road out there and into pretty remote country that no others were even close to or probably willing to hike to and glassed dozens of ridges, basins and flats with nice optics.

My question is do the deer out there actually head to lower elevations or move around during the start of an Arizona "cold front"?  The mornings started out about 28/30 degrees and leveled off in the 60s each day. I just thought this whole thing was so strange as the tracks were so thick and crossing all over the place in one large area. Hunting up there is nothing like 36C and thought I would try my luck up north a bit, but was left scratching my head on this one.

[HuntHarder]

IMO the deer do not migrate to lower elevations rather they go where the does are.   I always find it interesting that on average, the further I hike into oblivian, the number of animals I see goes down.  I swear the animals almost like the challenge of eluding us.    

[az_runner]

Yeah, we didn't think they were heading down either. I'm guessing we just glassed over some of that really think crap that where they must have been bedded down hard.  We even tried to stir them up by creeping though the thickets down low, at one point I did hear some take off from a finger over from me. That still leaves some really low numbers for all the miles and lack of encounters in my eyes or maybe from our short experience out there. I'm may try to get some cameras out there if time allows before the 15th or just try to learn how things work out there for August. With a few weeks left it's probably better to spend time in a little more open county and let the optics have a better chance of getting on to something. 

 

[mattys281]

Deer are never evenly distributed over an area.  Even in really good areas they’ll normally be found in pockets.   If you were to look at a huge piece of land, 90% is just fly over country, they pass through and may browse along the way but don’t spend significant time in it and usually have a million different trails they can use to get from point a to point b.  
 

you have to keep going until you find the pockets they like, but even then they’re not there everyday.  I’ve had spots where I get deer on cam all day for several days in a row, then they’re gone anywhere from several days to over a week then they show back up again.  If you’re seeing lots of sign it’s worth checking back several times.  They may just not be there now because they’re somewhere else on their loop at the moment.  I’ve had to sit in a tree stand for more than three days before I ever saw a buck quite a few times.  
 

whether you’re ambush hunting or glassing, you still have to find their core areas and then invest enough time for them to produce.

[CouesPursuit]

I agree with both of the posts above.  

 

Also, I do believe coues (especially does) have a 1 square mile home range, it just is rarely anything like a square and it changes/ranges over time based on food, water and cover (pressure for bucks).

 

Not sure if this part is relevant but expanding a bit on Matt's post, one place I have been hunting lately had 50 deer/sqmi in one area and 2 deer for the next 2 miles directly adjacent. You would think their is a fringe but it very much a specific habitat change. And that line changed seasonally because of the aspect. 

[az_runner]

Thanks guys.  I'll probably get out there a few more times with my oldest son. The kid just took his Hunters Education class and can start putting in for big game. My goal is to put him on some deer in 6a or 22 by Fall and not have to bring him to that mess so close to the border in the 36(s). I did a solo hunt and tagged out on a deer down south last year and can say my senses where even a bit too high for me to enjoy myself, much rather having my 11 yr old son back there with me.

[StickFlicker]

I'm not sure what you classify as an "insane" amount of tracks, but I've often found that extremely high numbers of "deer" tracks in an area eventually turns out to be domestic sheep (especially when all the old tracks were probably washed-away a couple of weeks ago by rain).  A number of times in unit 6B, 8, 10, 21 and others, I thought I'd found great deer areas, only to run into a big heard of domestic sheep within a day or two...

[az_runner]

Oh for sure, so you could see what the rain just about all but washed away in places though there were dozens of fresh tracks crossing all over the place in more than one area. You know, I never really thought about sheep around there though I'm sure that is very possible. The tracks were more of single and a few multiple sets. I would expect sheep to be a bit more grouped and may even ravage the area more. Then again I know little about deer and shat about sheep.

I'll get a cam out there and update this. Now that I think about it there are for sure some ranches within a reasonable distance.

 

[azbirdhunter88]

Have you considered a different area but still some what close to where your hunting? 

[az_runner]

I have one or two more spots out there before I wash my hands with 6A for awhile. I just liked the thought of a short drive from my house for OTC and the high number of youth deer tags for my son. I've hunted the general rifle pig hunt out there years back when I couldn't make it down south and it was a circus... even way back from the roads in places. I plan to get out every weekend for the rest of January for OTC, so I may even take it out to 22 or the 5s.

[azbirdhunter88]

Or the far end of 21? Lots of deer still there. 

[az_runner]

Funny you mention that as I'm heading out there this weekend for a few hours.

[az_runner]

Well I never got back out to 6a to leave those cams but did put some miles and hours in the very southern edge of the unit and top of 21 last week. I've come to the realization that I’m a magnet for fawns and does. I can’t even count how many I have seen over the past 6 months. I think the buck that I tagged down south last year was gender confused and hanging with a group of does. I’m easily amused and probably shouldn’t have spent an hour on my last glassing session just watching this doe the other day, but then I would have missed a massive bald eagle that came and hung out in a tree just over the canyon I was glassing.

 

I now have two full days this month to fill my OTC or I’ll have to wait until later in the year. I’ll probably spend the last of this month just on short day trips going after one of those fancy city bucks that hide in the fringes just north of Phoenix.  

[knothead]

With regard to mule deer and 6a my experience has been the closer you are to cabins, homes or civilization the high number of deer you will see.  I've often thought it was odd the further I get away from people and civilization the more mule deer I should see but I don't.  Like already mentioned, I usually see less mule deer in remote places.

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

Don't forget AZ deer numbers are pretty low across the state and if you are used to other states they are super low. An area with a lot of sign can be just 4 or 5 deer passing by multiple times over weeks making one think there are 15 or 20 close by. Like said above game in AZ tends to be in pockets as well. After running some cameras over time you start to realize the same few deer show up over a few square miles and you can get a rough guess of numbers in that area