Arizona Mule Deer Bison

Unit 12AE

Arizona Hunting Guide — Mule Deer, Bison

Unit 12AE is part of Arizona's Game Management Unit system on the Arizona Strip / Kaibab Plateau region, managed by the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD). Mule deer tags here are awarded through AZGFD's weighted-random bonus-point draw, where applicants accumulate bonus points that increase their odds each year they apply without drawing. AZGFD publishes hunt guidelines, regulations, and draw results annually; applicants should review the current hunt booklet for season dates, weapon types, and unit boundary notes before applying.

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Public Land

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 12AE

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Arizona Unit 12AE 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.

Mule Deer guide Bison guide

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Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 12AE

Where to find mule deer in 12AE: high ridges early, rim points and lower country late

First, a caveat. AZGFD's unit guide covers 12A as a whole, the Kaibab Plateau, and doesn't break out 12AE by drainage or road. It also says the odds of meeting an older buck are "just about equal almost anywhere on the plateau." So we're working from the named terrain in our data and the agency's seasonal advice. We won't invent road numbers for you. Get the Kaibab National Forest Motor Vehicle Use Map before you go.

Telephone Hill, V T Hill and Cane Ridge

These are the highest named glassing spots we have: Telephone Hill at 8,852 feet, V T Hill at 8,817, Cane Ridge at 8,815 and Two Springs Ridge at 8,800. Tater Ridge (8,733) and Dry Park Apron (8,742) sit just below them. The guide calls this herd "extremely migratory" and says deer stay at higher elevations until real snow pushes them off. If you're hunting early, start up here. All of it is public land in Coconino County.

The rim points: Oquer, Lost, Riggs and Moquitch

Red Point (8,633) and Dog Point (8,442) step down toward the rim country. Below them are a string of cliff-class points: Tater Point (8,152), Lost Point (8,105), Oquer Point (8,089), Riggs Point (7,975), Road Hollow Point (7,933), Moquitch Point (7,866) and the Middle, South and North Oak Points (7,854 to 7,919). We like these as lookouts over canyon heads, which is the unroaded country the guide says bucks retreat into as pressure builds. Burnt Corral Ridge, Burnt Corral Rim and Burnt Corral Apron (7,878 to 8,013) give you more vantage points in the same elevation band.

Springs to mark on your map

The plateau is often dry in archery season, and the guide says to hunt areas with waterholes. Our data lists Willow, Rock, Slide, Oak, White, Box Elder, Riggs, Sowats, Pigeon, Wildband, Mourning Dove, Indian Hollow and Warm Springs, plus Upper Cottonwood Spring. We can't tell you which ones are flowing in your year. Scout them, and look for travel corridors above and below rather than sitting on the water itself.

Early versus late, and what to skip

Skip pinyon/juniper early unless it has snowed. Deer won't be there. Late, it flips. If frost has cured the summer forage and cold has arrived, the guide sends you to pinyon/juniper and farther out into sage and open canyon country. No snow yet? Hunt it like the early season.

One more number: our success figures show 22 percent for rifle and 18 percent for muzzleloader. The agency's plateau-wide narrative cites 40 to 60 percent over the last decade. Plan for the lower figure.

Unit 12AE terrain and land status

Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Telephone Hill (8,852 ft), V T Hill (8,817 ft), Cane Ridge (8,815 ft), Two Springs Ridge (8,800 ft)

Holding ground: Marble Sinkhole (8,923 ft), Crystal Spring Apron (8,868 ft), De Motte Park (8,745 ft), Wildband Spring, Indian Hollow Spring

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

How to hunt 12AE mule deer: first light, water, and patient glassing

Be set up before shooting light

AZGFD's guide is blunt on this: big bucks are often bedded within minutes of sunrise. Be in position at first light, not walking in. As the season goes on, deer get more nocturnal and spend more time in thick aspen, mixed conifer and unroaded canyons. Don't expect to find them standing in the open at ten in the morning.

Water and salt in archery season

Early and dry, water is the play. The guide suggests hunting near waterholes, not on them. Tree stands up or down canyon from a spring cut down on the territorial arguments with other hunters. Salt licks work the same way. Walk and stalk if scouting shows a bachelor herd. Once frost supplies moisture, deer drink in the dark and waterhole hunting fades. Switch to travel corridors and the hardest-to-reach ground you can get to.

If you're on a nonpermit archery tag, you must report your deer within 48 hours at azgfd.gov/ArcheryDeerReport or by phone at 623-236-7961. The unit closes at sundown on the Wednesday after the harvest limit is reached, so check before every hunt.

Late hunt: sit on a point and glass

This is the classic open-country hunt. Pick a rim point like Oquer, Lost or Riggs, or a ridge like Burnt Corral or Cane, that overlooks big expanses. Then sit. The guide describes glassing "until you feel like your eyes are going to fall out," and then doing it for nine more days. Bring a spotting scope and practice with a flat-shooting rifle at long range. If the deer are low, glassing pays off.

Pray for snow, as the guide does. It pushes deer down to winter range. Without it, hunt like early season and wait.

Retrieval, weather and gear

Read this before you pull the trigger. Motorized retrieval of deer is not permitted on national forest lands in 12A. Only elk and bison can be retrieved by motor. Plan every shot with a pack-out in mind, and stay on designated roads shown on the MVUM.

Weather swings hard. The guide describes 80 degrees one day and snow the next. On the late hunt, carry four-wheel drive, chains, a shovel and a winch. Don't take shortcuts; they usually take longer.

A realistic day

Up in the dark. Glass from a high point at first light. Move to the next vantage point and sit. Late hunters should plan on hours of stillness. Bucks get warier all season, so go where other hunters won't.

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.

Mule Deer: 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.

Shots to refuse

Nothing behind or overlapping the animal you picked.
Your maximum range is the farthest you have shot a three-shot group into a paper plate from the rest you are carrying.
Pass the shot you are talking yourself into.

Plan the carry: roughly 40– 120 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — two large coolers. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Mule Deer Success Rates

Rifle22%

Muzzleloader18%

AZGFD publishes harvest and success rate data annually through its hunt reports. Success rates vary by weapon type (general rifle, archery, muzzleloader) and season timing, so compare the specific hunt number you drew against the relevant AZGFD report before planning tactics.

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Rifle — General Rifle Oct bull/buck only (combined pool)	60	758	4.9%	—
Rifle — Late Rifle Nov bull/buck only (combined pool)	15	147	4.8%	—
Rifle — General Rifle Oct either sex (combined pool)	60	758	4.9%	—
Rifle — Late Rifle Nov either sex (combined pool)	15	795	1.5%	—
Muzzleloader — Late Muzzleloader Nov bull/buck only (combined pool)	15	136	5.9%	—
Muzzleloader — Late Muzzleloader Nov either sex (combined pool)	15	147	4.8%	—

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

Arizona uses a weighted-random bonus-point draw. Each bonus point adds an extra application to the random pool, so odds improve gradually with points but are never guaranteed even at the top of the point ladder. Review the AZGFD draw results page for the most recent year of odds by hunt number.

Bison Hunting in Unit 12AE

The 12AE bison hunt is a highly coveted once-in-a-lifetime opportunity on the House Rock Valley / North Kaibab country, managed under AZGFD hunt guidelines. Bison tag quotas are extremely limited and set annually based on population management objectives. Draws use Arizona's weighted random bonus point system.

Where to Start Looking for Bison in 12AE: High Glassing Points and Spring Country

Let's be straight about what we have. The agency guide in our packet is AZGFD's GMU 12A document, dated April 5, 2025. It doesn't break out 12AE, and it doesn't name a single bison range, road or herd location. So we can't tell you where the animals were last week. What we can give you is the terrain: every landform below is public land in Coconino County, and all of it sits on the high plateau between roughly 7,850 and 8,850 feet. Confirm that the 12A guide's rules carry over to 12AE before you rely on them.

Telephone Hill, V T Hill and Cane Ridge

These are the top of the unit. Telephone Hill (8,852 ft), V T Hill (8,817) and Cane Ridge (8,815) are the highest named glassing spots we have. We'd start here on day one. Climb early, look down into the country below, and spend a morning sorting out which direction the open ground lies before you commit to a drainage.

Two Springs Ridge, Dry Park Apron and Tater Ridge

Two Springs Ridge (8,800), Dry Park Apron (8,742) and Tater Ridge (8,733) make up the next tier. The name Dry Park Apron suggests an open slope below a park, and open ground is what you want when you're looking for something as big as a bison. That's our read on the name, not an agency statement. Tater Point (8,152) is a cliff point in the same neighborhood by name. Use it as a lower vantage if the ridge above is socked in.

The rim points around 8,000 feet

Several cliff-class points sit lower and give you edge-of-plateau views: Red Point (8,633), Dog Point (8,442), Lost Point (8,105), Oquer Point (8,089), Riggs Point (7,975), Road Hollow Point (7,933) and Moquitch Point (7,866). The Oak Points (North, Middle and South, 7,854 to 7,919 ft) belong in the same group. Burnt Corral Ridge (8,013), Burnt Corral Rim (7,904) and Burnt Corral Apron (7,878) give you a ridge, a rim and a slope in one spot. Boundary Ridge, Saddle Mountain, Big Ridge, Fence Ridge, Cooper Ridge and Buck Ridge fill in the middle elevations.

Springs to put on your map

The packet lists these springs, with no locations or flow information: Wildband, Willow, Indian Hollow, Warm Springs, Rock, Slide, Mourning Dove, Oak, White, Box Elder, Riggs, Sowats, Upper Cottonwood and Pigeon. Riggs Spring and Riggs Point share a name, as do Oak Spring and the Oak Points. That's a lead worth checking on a map, not proof they sit together. We'd plot all fourteen on your mapping app before you leave town, then see which cluster near the glassing points above.

Early versus late season, and which country to skip, are things the packet doesn't answer. Call the AZGFD regional office and ask.

Unit 12AE terrain and land status

Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Telephone Hill (8,852 ft), V T Hill (8,817 ft), Cane Ridge (8,815 ft), Two Springs Ridge (8,800 ft)

Holding ground: Marble Sinkhole (8,923 ft), Crystal Spring Apron (8,868 ft), De Motte Park (8,745 ft), Wildband Spring, Indian Hollow Spring

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

How to Hunt Bison in 12AE: Glass From the Ridges, Then Plan the Retrieval

The packet's one hard number is a 90 percent rifle success rate. It doesn't give a year, a permit count or a hunter count behind it, so treat it as a sign the hunt is very doable, not a promise. It gives us nothing on archery or other weapons, so we won't pretend to know how they differ here.

Glass first, walk second

Bison are big and dark, and on open ground they show up at long range. Pick one of the high points, such as Telephone Hill, V T Hill or Cane Ridge, and be set up at first light. Spend the first hour on the open slopes and the edges of parks. Then work down the ridge system: Two Springs Ridge, Tater Ridge, then the rim points. Don't burn a day driving from point to point without sitting behind glass. Once you find animals, note the route in and the route out before you move.

Use the springs as a checklist

Fourteen springs are named for the unit, and we can't say which hold water or which bison use. Check the ones closest to your glassing point. Fresh tracks and droppings at a spring tell you more than a map does. If a spring is dry or untouched, cross it off and move on.

Retrieval is the real planning problem

This is the packet's key regulation. The Kaibab National Forest Travel Management Rule allows motorized use only on designated roads, trails and areas shown on the Motor Vehicle Use Map. The 12A guide says only motorized retrieval of elk and bison is permitted on national forest lands in that unit. Other big game doesn't get that allowance. That's a significant advantage for a hunter with a bison tag, but only if you follow the MVUM. Get the free map from a Forest Service office before you go, and call Kaibab National Forest to confirm how the rule applies in 12AE specifically. A bison is a lot of meat, so plan for the pack-out or the truck before you pull the trigger.

A realistic day

Up before light. Glass from a high point until the sun is well up, then relocate to the next ridge or rim point. Midday, check springs and open slopes near where you've spotted sign. Evening, glass again. Stay flexible about where you set up each morning, since the packet doesn't tell you where the animals are.

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

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.

Bison: where to put the shot

Broadside, straight up the front leg and a third into the body — behind the heavy shoulder hump, not into it.

Shots to refuse

Nothing marginal. A wounded bison goes a long way and the recovery is enormous.
Have a plan for the pack-out before the shot. This is the heaviest animal you will ever field-dress.
Shoot from a solid rest at a standing animal, inside 200 yards.

Plan the carry: roughly 300– 700 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — a trailer, a chest freezer or a processor on standby — coolers will not cover it. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Bison Success Rates

Rifle90%

Arizona bison hunts typically produce very high success rates given careful management. Review the AZGFD annual hunt arizona report for current 12AE harvest statistics.

Bison Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Rifle — Late Rifle Dec either sex (combined pool)	2	54	0.0%	—

Open in Draw Odds Engine

12AE bison is a once-in-a-lifetime tag and among the harder draws in Arizona. The weighted random bonus point system rewards long-term point building. Residents receive 90 percent of tags.

Unit Logistics & Expectations

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do I apply for a Unit 12AE mule deer tag?

Apply through the AZGFD online draw portal during the posted application window. Unit 12AE mule deer tags are awarded through Arizona's weighted-random bonus-point draw. Review the current AZGFD Hunt Guidelines before you apply.

How does Arizona's bonus-point system work?

Each year you apply and are unsuccessful, you accumulate a bonus point. In the draw, your bonus points create additional random entries, improving your odds over time. The system is weighted-random, not a pure point-based preference system.

Is the 12AE bison tag once-in-a-lifetime?

Arizona bison tags are typically once-in-a-lifetime. Verify current rules in the AZGFD hunt regulations before applying.

How hard is the 12AE bison draw?

Very competitive. Plan on building bonus points for many years under the weighted random system to have a realistic chance.

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Sources & Verification

Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-04-17.

AZGFD Hunt Guidelines — Arizona Game and Fish Department · supports: Hunt guidelines, Permit allocation policy, Unit management objectives · accessed 2026-04-17
AZGFD Hunt Regulations — Arizona Game and Fish Department · supports: Season dates, Legal weapons, Bag limits · accessed 2026-04-17
AZGFD Draw Results & Bonus Points — Arizona Game and Fish Department · supports: Draw results, Bonus point totals, Historical draw data · accessed 2026-04-17