The Best Places to Hunt in Pima County, AZ

Pima County, Arizona is excellent for hunting. In fact, most of the state is open to hunting as long as you play by the rules. As long as you have a license (and a permit if you’re hunting big game), you should be good to go. Pima County offers some of the best places to camp in Arizona. Read on for general advice on preparing for an awesome hunting expedition.

Permits and licenses are required in most places where hunting is allowed. There are different kinds of licenses and the requirements for obtaining them vary. In certain areas, children over ten years of age can hunt with a licensed adult without being licensed themselves. Arizona has three different drawing cycles for hunt permit tags. You must have a permit in order to hunt these specific game. The three drawings are typically the beginning of February, June and October.

There are separate types of hunting designated by the state depending on the game you’re hunting: General hunt, Muzzleloader hunt, Youth-Only, HAM, Limited Weapon-Shotgun Shooting Shot Hunt, and Archery-Only hunt. Before setting out, make sure your firearm or archery choice is approved within the area and for the game you’re hunting.

Game is of course a huge factor in where you hunt. In Arizona you have lots of options as they have ten different species for big game hunting! You can hunt bear, bison, white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk, turkey, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, javelina, and mountain lion. Most of these have a limited number of permits allowed so you’ll want to decide early which game you want to hunt and get in the drawing.

The location of your hunt is also important. The state is broken down into regions and there are areas in each region that are open to hunting but also have areas that are off limits. Some of those areas are military land and others are dealing with Homeland Security issues, definitely not something you want to run into on your hunting expedition. Here’s a great link that has all those areas designated on maps that you’ll probably want to look at: http://www.eregulations.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/AZHD.pdf

Hunting takes planning ahead but if you plan and prepare right it can be a great time! Remember your plan needs to include the type of game you’re hunting, the equipment you’re hunting with, the license/permit requirements, and the rules in a given area. Once you have all your ducks in a row you’re ready to go. Happy hunting!