Unit 1/2B/2C (Unit 1 with 2B and 2C)

Arizona Hunting Guide — Elk

Some unit 1 elk hunts extend into units 2B and 2C, and this is one of them. Unit 1 is the Apache-Sitgreaves high country around Springerville and Alpine, with elk at both high and low elevations and hunts running August to December; 2B and 2C are the lower, flatter checkerboard country north and east of St. Johns, managed as limited-opportunity hunts whose goal is to reduce the resident elk population. Expect very low success on the 2B and 2C ground and no trophy expectations there. The land status is the thing to plan around: alternating private, State Trust and BLM sections where hunting is legal on the public ones but access across private ground is not guaranteed.

View Draw Odds Arizona Hunting Guide

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7,391–9,286 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 1/2B/2C

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Arizona Unit 1/2B/2C guide around your hunt: three ranked spots with morning, afternoon and evening plays, a day-by-day plan, topo maps with every pin numbered, a camp and access plan, the legal and retrieval rules for this unit, shot discipline, a meat-care and pack-out plan, and a pre-trip checklist. Every coordinate sits on land recorded as public.

Elk guide

Free accounts get one report a year with the top spot unlocked. ProHunt Pro includes unlimited reports, all three spots, the full camp plan, and GPX/KML downloads for onX and Google Earth. Prefer to see one first? Open the builder and pick any unit.

Elk Hunting in Unit 1/2B/2C

Where the elk are: unit 1's high country, and the 2B/2C flats

First, confirm what you drew. Some unit 1 hunts are restricted to specific hunt areas and some include units 2B and 2C. Your permit prints the hunt unit and, where it applies, the herd unit. Hunting outside the hunt-area boundary carries consequences, so read the district boundary section of the regulations.

Unit 1 — where the elk are, by season

Elk distribution in unit 1 varies with the time of year and the weather, and animals use both high and low elevations. In drought years they concentrate where there's water and green feed. For the early hunts in September and the first part of October, the agency's area list is: Escudilla Mountain, the Loco Knoll area, the Black River area, Kettle Holes, Centerfire Creek, Burro Mountain, the Greens Peak area, Mineral Creek, St. Peter's Dome, the Mexican Hay Lake area, Milligan Valley, Juan Garcia Mountain, the Sipe White Mountain Wildlife Area and the Pole Knoll area.

The early-season picture

Archery antlerless and bull hunts run concurrently from about mid-September to the first of October, with elk spread through the unit at both low and high elevations. Bulls are starting to bugle and will generally come to calls. The early firearms bull hunt begins the day after the archery hunts end, with bulls still rutting and good opportunity, in the same areas.

Unit 2B — low density, hard access

Elk habitat is intermixed through most of 2B. The northern portion, between the Salt Lake Road east of St. Johns and the Navajo Reservation's New Lands, has low elk density, limited access, and some ground currently closed to hunting. The southern portion, between the Salt Lake Road and Highway 60, generally holds more elk — but access from Highway 191 is almost non-existent. Come in off Highway 60 or the Salt Lake Road, between which numerous roads crisscross the country.

Unit 2C

Better access than either 2A or 2B, with a strip of mostly State Trust land along the southern border and checkerboard elsewhere. The southern half is where most hunting happens.

The land status, in plain terms

Alternating sections of private with State Trust, or private with BLM. Hunting is legal on all State Trust and BLM land; access to it is not guaranteed, and you need permission to cross private ground to reach it. Some ranches have been closed in the past.

Unit 1/2B/2C terrain and land status

Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up · figures are for GMU 1

The lay of it

7,391–9,286 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 8,398 ft ; peaks can run higher.
843.1 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 32%

Roughly 68% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

722 tanks
374 springs
299 stream segments
39 lakes

Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Escudilla Mountain (10,916 ft), Profanity Ridge (10,533 ft), Greens Peak (10,125 ft), Burro Mountain (9,855 ft)

Holding ground: Terry Flat (9,678 ft), Pat Sink (9,317 ft), Rudd Knoll Pit (9,300 ft), Ceadro Spring, Flowing Well

Every one of these was tested against the unit polygon before it went on the map. They are starting points, not agency recommendations.

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How to hunt it: call bulls in unit 1, and treat the 2B/2C ground as a reduction hunt

Two different hunts under one tag. Unit 1's high country is real elk hunting with 25 percent rifle and 18 percent archery success. The 2B and 2C ground is a limited-opportunity population-reduction hunt where the agency expects success to be very low.

In unit 1, hunt the rut

Mid-September to the first week of October, bulls are bugling and will generally come to calls. That's your best window and the areas are the same for archery and the early firearms hunt. Get above a drainage before light, locate a bugling bull, and close with the wind. In drought years, start at water and green feed rather than at elevation.

In 2B and 2C, hunt access rather than animals

Set expectations: this is a reduction hunt, success varies greatly and is expected to be very low, and you shouldn't expect trophy bulls. The winning move is solving access — identify the State Trust and BLM sections you can legally reach off Highway 60 and the Salt Lake Road, and get permission for the private ground between.

Scout, because it changes the odds

The agency says scouting the unit before the hunt will increase your chances on the limited-opportunity ground. On checkerboard country, that scouting is half about elk sign and half about which gate is open this year.

The off-road rule that matters most

The most common landowner complaint in these units is off-road driving. It is illegal to drive off-road with any vehicle, ATVs included, on State and BLM land, and criminal charges can follow for damage to private ground. Your OHV needs a decal if it weighs under 1,800 pounds and will be ridden on State or Federal land. This is the behaviour that keeps 2B and 2C open at all.

Mind the reservation boundaries

The Navajo Reservation's New Lands are not always posted, and neither are the Zuni sections in the area. Neither is open on a state permit. Know where you are.

Getting in and staying out: unit 1/2B/2C

Figures are for GMU 1

Named routes and what they need

AZ 260 — 14.3 mi · Paved (all rigs)
US 60 — 12 mi · Paved (all rigs)
FR 249 — 11.6 mi · High-clearance
US 180;US 191 — 9 mi · Paved (all rigs)
FR 8249 — 6.8 mi · High-clearance
CR 3123 — 6.3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)

Ratings come from road data, not from a drive this season. Check current conditions with the managing office before you commit a trailer.

Nearest services

Eagar — 7.7 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Springerville — 9.3 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Alpine — 16.9 mi · lodging
Hondah — 30.9 mi · no services listed
Pinetop Country Club — 31.2 mi · no services listed

Developed camps

Benny Creek Campground · reservable
Brookchar Campground — 13 sites · Fee · reservable
Cutthroat Campground — 18 sites · Fee · reservable
Gabaldon Horse Camp
Grayling Campground — 23 sites · Fee · reservable

Season weather and signal

Jan44° / 14° · 1.2" precip
Aug75° / 46° · 4.3" precip
Sep71° / 41° · 2.2" precip
Oct63° / 30° · 1.2" precip
Nov53° / 21° · 1" precip
Dec44° / 14° · 0.9" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 15% of the unit. Plan on being out of contact and tell someone your route.

Arizona rules that decide your day

Summarised from AZGFD regulations. They change — read the current regulations and your permit-tag before you hunt.

Legal shooting hours

Big game may be taken only during daylight hours — from sunrise to sunset. Check the sunrise and sunset times for your unit, not for Phoenix.

Motorized retrieval

Arizona permits motorized big-game retrieval only where the unit's travel-management decision allows it, and in several units only for elk. Where it is allowed it means one vehicle, one trip, within one mile of a road shown open on the Motor Vehicle Use Map — never inside a quiet area, a wilderness or a closed area. Pull the MVUM for your ranger district and confirm before you shoot somewhere you cannot carry an animal out of.

Tagging

Sign your tag before you go afield and attach it to the animal immediately after the kill. Hunters aged 10–13 must carry their Hunter Education card with the licence and tag.

Leaving meat

Leaving edible meat in the field is illegal. Edible meat means the four quarters and the loins at a minimum.

Where you may not shoot

Occupied structures — No shooting within a quarter mile of an occupied farmhouse, cabin, lodge or building without the owner's permission. That rules out shooting toward most lakeside cabin tracts.
Campsites and developed areas — Forest Service rules prohibit discharging a firearm within 150 yards of a residence, building, campsite, developed recreation site or occupied area.
Roads and water — No shooting from a vehicle, and no shooting on, across or into a road. No shooting across a body of water adjacent to a Forest road.

Elk: where to put the shot

Broadside or quartering away, on the back edge of the front leg about a third of the way up the body. That is lungs, and on a quartering-away angle it picks up the far shoulder.

Shots to refuse

No straight-on and no straight-away shots. An elk's chest is deep and the margin is small.
Nothing standing behind or overlapping the animal you picked. A pass-through kills the elk behind it too.
Your maximum range is the farthest you have put three shots in a paper plate off the sticks you are actually carrying. Not the farthest you have ever hit anything.
Scope on 3–4x. A herd fills a 12x field of view and you lose the animal you picked.

Identification:On an antlerless tag, legal means no antler of any kind through the skin. A spike looks exactly like a cow until it turns its head. If you can't see the head, don't shoot.

Plan the carry: roughly 150– 220 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — two to four large coolers, plus bagged ice from town. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Elk Success Rates

The 01/02B/02C combined elk hunt produces some of Arizona's highest success rates — typically 50–70% for rifle hunters and 20–35% for archery. The broad combined-unit geography gives hunters flexibility to locate animals across a huge landscape. Bull quality is exceptional; 340–380+ class bulls are taken annually.

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Rifle — Early Rifle bull/buck only (combined pool)	35	11,739	0.3%	—
Rifle — Late Rifle Dec bull/buck only (combined pool)	250	4,150	3.7%	—
Rifle — Late Rifle Dec antlerless (combined pool)	350	1,065	19.5%	—
Rifle — Late Rifle Nov bull/buck only (combined pool)	225	4,715	2.4%	—
Early Archery — bull/buck only (combined pool)	225	5,909	2.9%	—
Late Archery Nov — bull/buck only (combined pool)	30	106	11.3%	—
Early Archery — antlerless (combined pool)	75	160	24.4%	—
Muzzleloader — Early Muzzleloader bull/buck only (combined pool)	35	2,309	1.1%	—

Data from 2025 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number. This agency publishes no point thresholds, so the Pts column stays blank and these are pool odds, not what a point total draws.

Open in Draw Odds Engine

With over 42,000 cumulative applicants, this is Arizona's most competed elk draw. Expect to accumulate 20–30+ bonus points before drawing — patience is the strategy. Apply every year without fail. The loyalty bonus (consecutive application streak) provides a meaningful edge in the random component of Arizona's draw.

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

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Water

Strong for Arizona — the White Mountains receive more precipitation than other Arizona units. Springs, stock tanks, and headwater streams throughout.

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Road Conditions

Highways 191 and 260 are paved main arteries. Forest roads range from graded gravel to rough two-track. 4WD recommended for most backcountry access.

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Terrain Difficulty

Moderate to difficult. Rolling high-mountain terrain at 7,000–9,500 ft elevation. The vast size of the combined unit demands physical fitness.

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Weather

September highs 50–70°F with afternoon thunderstorm risk. October brings frost and potential early snow above 8,000 ft.

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Cell Service

Limited — coverage near Springerville and Alpine only. Satellite communicator essential for backcountry access.

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Nearest Town

Springerville/Eagar (fuel, groceries, lodging) and Alpine (limited services). Show Low 45 min west for additional services.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How many bonus points do I need to draw the 01/02B/02C elk tag in Arizona?

Most successful applicants hold 20–30+ bonus points. Arizona's draw uses a random component with bonus point weighting — maximum points improve odds significantly but do not guarantee a tag. Apply every year and never miss an application cycle.

What makes the 01/02B/02C combined unit different from Unit 1 alone?

The combined hunt area merges GMUs 1, 2B, and 2C, giving the tag holder access to a much broader hunting landscape — from the high meadow parks near Alpine south to the lower ponderosa country bordering the Fort Apache Reservation. More habitat diversity means more flexibility in locating animals.

Free Hunt Planning Tools

🎰 Arizona Draw Odds Unit-level tag success rates 📅 Application Timeline Deadlines for all 9 states 🦌 Rut Forecast Peak rut timing by species 💰 Hunt Cost Calculator Budget your entire hunt

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Sources & Verification

Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-04-18.

AZGFD Big Game Draw — Arizona Game and Fish Department · supports: Applicant counts, Draw odds, Season structure · accessed 2026-04-18