Arizona Bighorn Sheep Mule Deer Elk

Unit 28 (Gila Mountains, Eagle Creek and the Gila Box)

Arizona Hunting Guide — Bighorn Sheep, Mule Deer, Elk

Unit 28 is the Safford country of southeastern Arizona — the Gila Mountains, the Gila River corridor and the Whitlock Mountains, with Eagle Creek and Bonita Creek cutting down from the north and the Gila Box between them. It carries two kinds of bighorn: a Rocky Mountain population north of U.S. Highway 70 that is the larger of the two, and a smaller desert bighorn herd. Mule deer are spread unit-wide at low density on Game and Fish water catchments and produce exceptional bucks, and a limited-opportunity elk hunt exists along the San Carlos Reservation boundary. The unit runs over 2,200 square miles with a mix of National Forest, BLM, State Trust and large private mining holdings, so access planning matters as much as scouting.

View Draw Odds Arizona Hunting Guide

🏔️

63%

Public Land

⛰️

2,780–5,736 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 28

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Arizona Unit 28 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.

Bighorn Sheep guide Mule Deer guide Elk guide

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Access roads, campgrounds, elevation, monthly weather, stock tanks, cell coverage, and nearest-town services for Unit 28.

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Bighorn Sheep Hunting in Unit 28

Where the rams are in 28: Eagle Creek first, then Bonita Creek and the Gila Box

Unit 28 holds both Rocky Mountain and desert bighorn, and the Rocky Mountain population is the bigger of the two. They live north of U.S. Highway 70. The last survey was 2023 and AZGFD reports the population healthy.

The Eagle Creek drainage — where most of them are

The guide is unambiguous: the majority of the sheep are in Eagle Creek. Best access is the Lower Eagle Creek Pump Station Road. One complication to sort out before you go — Freeport McMoRan's Morenci copper mine holds a large block of private ground in this country, and it includes Eagle Creek. Eagle Creek itself is open to the public. For the rest of Freeport's holdings, the guide recommends contacting someone in security at the Morenci office to discuss access, and notes they won't allow entry to active mining sites.

Bonita Creek

Reached from the Safford area on either the Solomon Pass road or the Bonita Creek–Sanchez Road. The sheep sit in the broken country between Bonita Creek, Eagle Creek, the Gila Mountains and the Gila River — and as the guide puts it, the terrain is very rough, rugged and steep with access limited to a few roads.

The Gila Box

Very limited access. You either hike in from the Eagle Creek or Bonita Creek side, or you float the Gila River into it, depending on water levels. That's a genuine option here and worth considering if the river is up — it puts you into country almost nobody walks.

The canyons the agency tells you to scout

Gold Gulch, Bat Canyon, Turtle Mountain, Midnight Canyon, Horseshoe Canyon, Copperplate Canyon and Hot Springs Canyon. Those are the named spots on the map worth your preseason time, and the guide says a good deal of time spent scouting is what separates a decent ram from the best one available.

Getting around

US 191, US 70, I-10 and AZ 78 are the paved frame. Bitter Creek Road and the Gas Line Road give you graded gravel. The Black Hills Backcountry Byway, a BLM road, opens the country between US 191 and the Gila River. Safford, Thatcher, Duncan and Morenci are your services.

Unit 28 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

2,780–5,736 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 3,955 ft ; peaks can run higher.
2,230.4 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
BLM — 15%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 17%

Roughly 83% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

753 tanks
149 springs
438 stream segments
17 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: Maverick Hill (7,469 ft), Turtle Mountain (6,997 ft), Hells Hole Peak (6,909 ft), Guthrie Peak (6,569 ft)

Holding ground: Maverick Basin (6,476 ft), Hooker Gap (5,266 ft), Hells Hole (5,101 ft), Canteen Spring, Indian 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 28 bighorn: scout hard, sort the mine access, and dress for anything

Rifle success has run about 75 percent. The guide's framing is the honest one: for those lucky enough to draw a tag and willing to do some preseason preparation, this has been a very successful hunt. Both halves of that sentence matter.

The preseason is the hunt

AZGFD recommends spending a good deal of time scouting to find the best ram available, and gives you seven named canyons to start with. Treat that as a two-trip job. First trip: drive the access — the Lower Eagle Creek Pump Station Road, the Solomon Pass road, the Bonita Creek–Sanchez Road — and find out what your vehicle can actually reach. Second trip: sit above a canyon with a spotting scope for two days and count rams.

Make the Freeport phone call early

The mine's private holdings sit right across the best sheep country. Eagle Creek is open, but if your plan touches other Freeport ground, call security at the Morenci office before the season rather than at a locked gate on opening morning. Active mining sites are closed outright, and no amount of goodwill changes that.

Rough country, and what it demands

Very rough, rugged and steep, with few roads. That means two things practically. Your glassing position will be a hike, so go light and early. And a ram that falls here can fall somewhere awkward — look below the animal before you shoot, and plan on two people for the ram, cape and skull.

Weather is the wildcard

The guide warns that weather at this time of year can be very unpredictable and you need to be ready for almost anything. Unit 28 spans roughly 2,800 to 5,700 feet of elevation, and in this corner of the state a warm afternoon and a snowy morning can be the same trip. Pack layers and waterproof boots even if the forecast says otherwise.

Before you leave the field

Arizona requires a mandatory bighorn check-in with the horns plugged inside a set number of days. Know the deadline before you hunt, and get your photographs of the ram where he lies before anything else happens.

Getting in and staying out: unit 28

Named routes and what they need

I 10 — 24.6 mi · Paved (all rigs)
US 191 — 16.8 mi · Paved (all rigs)
Bitter Creek Road — 9.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
AZ 78 — 8.2 mi · Paved (all rigs)
US 70 — 7.9 mi · Paved (all rigs)
Gas Line Road — 7.7 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

Safford — 17.9 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Duncan — 19.3 mi · fuel
Thatcher — 20.8 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Morenci — 23.3 mi · fuel, lodging
Clifton — 23.8 mi · fuel, lodging

Developed camps

Owl Creek
Riverview Campground
Mountain View RV Park
Hot Well Dunes Recreation Area · Fee
Cottonwood Campground

Season weather and signal

Jan61° / 30° · 0.8" precip
Aug97° / 68° · 1.7" precip
Sep92° / 61° · 1" precip
Oct83° / 48° · 0.7" precip
Nov70° / 37° · 0.5" precip
Dec60° / 30° · 0.9" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 26% 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.

Bighorn Sheep: 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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Bighorn Sheep Success Rates

Rifle75%

Arizona desert bighorn hunters post success rates of 85–95% across all units, and Unit 28 is consistent with that range. Given the tiny tag allocation (roughly 2 tags annually on the 3-year average), every hunter is heavily scouted and guided. The unit produces mature rams with horn scores commonly in the 155–170 B&C range.

Bighorn Sheep Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Rifle — General Rifle bull/buck only (combined pool)	3	447	0.2%	—
Rifle — Late Rifle Nov bull/buck only (combined pool)	3	791	0.4%	—

Data from 2023 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

Unit 28 bighorn is a once-in-a-lifetime draw. Arizona runs bighorn through the same weighted bonus-point system as other big game — 20% of tags go to max-point holders first, and the remaining 80% run a random weighted draw. With only ~6 tags over three years and 1,228 applicants, odds per applicant run roughly 0.5%. Expect to need 15–25+ bonus points to be realistically competitive, and even then the draw is largely luck-driven. Arizona residents who harvest a bighorn are permanently excluded from applying again for that species.

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 28

Unit 28 covers the Pinaleño Mountains (Mount Graham) and surrounding Gila Valley desert country in southeast Arizona. Per AZGFD's GMU 28 page and the 2025–26 Arizona Hunting Regulations, the unit offers a mix of desert mule deer and higher-elevation sky-island habitat with strong permit allocations. Our three-year tally shows about 443 applicants against roughly 525 permits — functionally over-the-counter odds for many archery hunts and low-point odds for rifle.

Where the deer are in 28: the Gila Mountains, the Whitlocks and the Guthrie Peak canyons

Mule deer are widespread across unit 28 and lean heavily on the Game and Fish water catchments scattered through it. The 2023 survey had the population healthy. What the agency wants you to understand is the trade: the canyons and ranges here hold relatively low deer numbers but regularly produce exceptional bucks. Challenging, rewarding, and not a numbers hunt.

The Gila Mountains

Deer hold here year-round, and the guide names four key areas: Day Mine Canyon, Oliver Knoll, Solomon Pass and Turtle Mountain. Year-round residency matters for scouting — a buck you find in August is likely to still be in that country in the autumn, which isn't true everywhere in Arizona.

The Whitlock Mountains

East of Safford and south of U.S. Highway 70. Access is Haekel Road on the west side and Hackberry Ranch Road on the east. The guide points out what makes this country workable — many two-track roads and a lot of water catchments to explore. That's a lot of sign to read in a short scouting trip.

Guthrie Peak and the Gila River canyons

The country around Guthrie Peak, between U.S. Highway 191 and the Gila River, offers many canyons to hunt. The way in is the Black Hills Backcountry Byway, a BLM road. Canyon-by-canyon glassing is the method here, and there are enough of them that you can hunt the area for a week without repeating.

Elevation bands and why they matter

Unit 28 is over 2,200 square miles and spans many habitat types across a wide elevation range, which is why the agency says densities differ widely from place to place. Don't average the unit. Pick one of the three areas above, learn its water and its two-tracks, and hunt it properly.

Water is the map

With roughly 753 stock tanks and 149 springs in the unit, and deer relying on the department's catchments, water is where your scouting starts. Find the catchments with heavy fresh tracks and work outward to the bedding country above them.

Unit 28 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

2,780–5,736 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 3,955 ft ; peaks can run higher.
2,230.4 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
BLM — 15%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 17%

Roughly 83% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

753 tanks
149 springs
438 stream segments
17 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: Maverick Hill (7,469 ft), Turtle Mountain (6,997 ft), Hells Hole Peak (6,909 ft), Guthrie Peak (6,569 ft)

Holding ground: Maverick Basin (6,476 ft), Hooker Gap (5,266 ft), Hells Hole (5,101 ft), Canteen Spring, Indian Spring

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 28 deer: pick one range, learn its water, hunt the catchments

Rifle success for mule deer in 28 is about 22 percent, and the guide calls preseason scouting imperative — its word, not ours. On a unit this size with densities this variable, that's the difference between a hunt and a drive.

Narrow the unit before you hunt it

Two thousand two hundred square miles is not huntable in a week. Choose between the Gila Mountains, the Whitlocks and the Guthrie Peak canyons, and commit. Each has its own access road and its own water. Learning one properly beats sampling all three.

Hunt the catchments, but hunt them right

Deer here depend on Game and Fish water developments. Sitting water works, and the Whitlocks in particular have many catchments linked by two-track. The discipline is to choose one with fresh, heavy sign rather than one you can park at. Set up downwind with the sun behind you, and be there before light rather than at breakfast.

Glass the canyons from above

In the Gila Mountains and the Guthrie Peak country the method is canyon glassing: get on a rim before first light and work the opposite slope and the canyon bottom systematically. Mount the binoculars on a tripod. An exceptional buck in low-density country is found by someone sitting still, not by someone walking ridges.

Access, and who owns what

Unit 28 mixes National Forest, BLM, State Trust and large private mining holdings. Haekel Road, Hackberry Ranch Road, the Black Hills Backcountry Byway, Bitter Creek Road and the Gas Line Road are your main routes. Where your plan touches Freeport McMoRan ground near Morenci, call their security office before the season. Carry a map that answers the ownership question on the spot.

Getting in and staying out: unit 28

Named routes and what they need

I 10 — 24.6 mi · Paved (all rigs)
US 191 — 16.8 mi · Paved (all rigs)
Bitter Creek Road — 9.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
AZ 78 — 8.2 mi · Paved (all rigs)
US 70 — 7.9 mi · Paved (all rigs)
Gas Line Road — 7.7 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

Safford — 17.9 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Duncan — 19.3 mi · fuel
Thatcher — 20.8 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Morenci — 23.3 mi · fuel, lodging
Clifton — 23.8 mi · fuel, lodging

Developed camps

Owl Creek
Riverview Campground
Mountain View RV Park
Hot Well Dunes Recreation Area · Fee
Cottonwood Campground

Season weather and signal

Jan61° / 30° · 0.8" precip
Aug97° / 68° · 1.7" precip
Sep92° / 61° · 1" precip
Oct83° / 48° · 0.7" precip
Nov70° / 37° · 0.5" precip
Dec60° / 30° · 0.9" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 26% 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

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.

Pro Members Only

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Mule Deer Success Rates

Rifle22%

Unit 28 mule deer success runs 20–35% for rifle and 10–20% for archery per AZGFD harvest summaries. The unit's habitat variety is its strength — hunters who match elevation to season typically score at the upper end of that range.

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Rifle — General Rifle Oct either sex (combined pool)	300	573	35.1%	—
Rifle — Late Rifle Nov either sex (combined pool)	300	279	46.6%	—

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

Under Arizona's weighted bonus-point draw with 20% pass-through and hunter-education bonus, Unit 28 archery deer regularly draws with 0–1 points, and rifle hunts draw with 1–3 points. It is one of the most drawable quality deer units in southeast Arizona, making it a strong target for new applicants.

Elk Hunting in Unit 28

The 28/31/32 combined elk hunt spans the Pinaleño, Chiricahua, and Dos Cabezas ranges across southeast Arizona — a multi-range sky-island elk opportunity that covers three distinct mountain complexes on the Coronado National Forest. Elk here are low-density but well-distributed across upper conifer and oak-pine drainages. With 30 tags against 116 three-year applicants, the combined 28/31/32 elk hunt is a mid-difficulty draw with high flexibility for hunters willing to scout multiple ranges.

Where the elk are in 28: the San Carlos boundary and the northeast corner

Be clear-eyed about this one. Unit 28 is not traditional elk country. Every elk hunt here is limited-opportunity or an over-the-counter non-permit tag, and the elk that are present have walked in from somewhere else — the San Carlos Reservation, unit 27, or New Mexico.

Along the San Carlos Reservation boundary

This is the main concentration, and elk can turn up anywhere along that boundary in the Gila Mountains. The agency gives six places to start: Diamond Bar Ranch, the Fishhooks Wilderness, Day Mine Road, Markham Creek, Pima Gap and Johnny Creek. All of it is rough to very rough with limited road access, and the Fishhooks Wilderness is foot and horse only.

The northeast corner

Elk use this corner of the unit as well. The vegetation here is very thick and the guide says it can be tough to move through — which is its own kind of information. Thick cover with few roads is where an animal that walked off a reservation goes to be left alone.

The Gila River near Fort Thomas, with one hard rule

Elk are occasionally found along the Gila River near Fort Thomas. Read this part twice: the Gila River Corridor is closed for the over-the-counter non-permit hunt. If you're carrying an OTC tag, that country is not available to you.

What to expect

The guide's own warning is the right expectation to carry in: as with any limited-opportunity hunt, these can be very tough and there's a real chance you won't find any elk. Go for the country and the chance, not for a filled tag.

Unit 28 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

2,780–5,736 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 3,955 ft ; peaks can run higher.
2,230.4 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
BLM — 15%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 17%

Roughly 83% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

753 tanks
149 springs
438 stream segments
17 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: Maverick Hill (7,469 ft), Turtle Mountain (6,997 ft), Hells Hole Peak (6,909 ft), Guthrie Peak (6,569 ft)

Holding ground: Maverick Basin (6,476 ft), Hooker Gap (5,266 ft), Hells Hole (5,101 ft), Canteen Spring, Indian 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 28 elk: treat it as a tracking hunt in thick country with no guarantees

The published success figures for elk in this unit — around 25 percent rifle and 18 archery — come from the wider dataset and read generously against a hunt the agency itself describes as limited opportunity. Plan for the hunt it actually is.

Hunt sign, not spots

With elk moving in from the reservation, unit 27 or New Mexico rather than living here, the animals aren't tied to a park or a wallow you can learn in advance. That inverts the normal plan. Spend your first days cutting for fresh sign along the San Carlos boundary — Day Mine Road, Markham Creek, Pima Gap, Johnny Creek — and only settle in once you've found tracks worth following.

Thick cover changes the method

The northeast corner's vegetation is dense enough that glassing has little to offer. Still-hunting into the wind, slowly, with your ears doing as much work as your eyes, is the honest technique. Elk in thick cover are usually heard first. Early archery hunters have the advantage of a bugle to work with; later in the season you're reading tracks.

Know which tag you're holding

Limited-opportunity permit hunts and the OTC non-permit tag don't cover the same ground here. The Gila River Corridor is closed to the OTC hunt. Check your tag's area description against the unit map before you plan a morning along the river, because a legal elk and an illegal one can be standing in the same meadow depending on the paper in your pocket.

Reaching it

Rough to very rough with limited road access, in the agency's words. US 191 and AZ 78 are the paved approaches; Bitter Creek Road and the Gas Line Road are the gravel. Beyond that it's two-track and foot. The Fishhooks Wilderness takes no vehicles at all, so anything you kill in there comes out on your back.

Getting in and staying out: unit 28

Named routes and what they need

I 10 — 24.6 mi · Paved (all rigs)
US 191 — 16.8 mi · Paved (all rigs)
Bitter Creek Road — 9.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
AZ 78 — 8.2 mi · Paved (all rigs)
US 70 — 7.9 mi · Paved (all rigs)
Gas Line Road — 7.7 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

Safford — 17.9 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Duncan — 19.3 mi · fuel
Thatcher — 20.8 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Morenci — 23.3 mi · fuel, lodging
Clifton — 23.8 mi · fuel, lodging

Developed camps

Owl Creek
Riverview Campground
Mountain View RV Park
Hot Well Dunes Recreation Area · Fee
Cottonwood Campground

Season weather and signal

Jan61° / 30° · 0.8" precip
Aug97° / 68° · 1.7" precip
Sep92° / 61° · 1" precip
Oct83° / 48° · 0.7" precip
Nov70° / 37° · 0.5" precip
Dec60° / 30° · 0.9" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 26% 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

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

Rifle25%

Archery18%

Combined 28/31/32 elk hunts run 20 to 35 percent rifle success per AZGFD summaries. The low overall elk density is offset by the flexibility of three ranges. Bull quality is solid with occasional 280+ bulls, though this is not a trophy-class unit.

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Rifle — General Rifle Oct either sex (combined pool)	10	37	13.5%	—
Rifle — Early Rifle either sex (combined pool)	5	26	15.4%	—
Rifle — General Rifle Oct either sex (combined pool)	10	48	6.3%	—
Rifle — Early Rifle bull/buck only (combined pool)	1	34	2.9%	—
Rifle — Late Rifle Nov bull/buck only (combined pool)	5	13	30.8%	—
Rifle — General Rifle Oct antlerless (combined pool)	4	3	100.0%	—
Rifle — General Rifle Oct antlerless (combined pool)	4	8	50.0%	—
Rifle — Late Rifle Dec antlerless (combined pool)	25	4	100.0%	—
Rifle — General Rifle Oct antlerless (combined pool)	25	3	66.7%	—
Rifle — Early Rifle antlerless (combined pool)	17	22	40.9%	—
Rifle — Late Rifle Nov antlerless (combined pool)	17	30	33.3%	—
Early Archery — either sex (combined pool)	5	14	28.6%	—
Early Archery — either sex (combined pool)	5	14	28.6%	—
Early Archery — bull/buck only (combined pool)	3	8	12.5%	—

Open in Draw Odds Engine

Arizona uses a weighted bonus-point draw with 20 percent of tags reserved for the maximum-point applicants and 80 percent drawn through a weighted random bonus point process. A Hunter Education bonus point is awarded to applicants who complete the accredited Hunter Ed course. The 28/31/32 combined elk hunt with 30 tags against 116 three-year applicants typically draws with 3 to 7 bonus points for rifle — a realistic mid-tier target for hunters with modest point banks.

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

🛻

Trailer Access

US-70 and US-191 are paved and handle any rig size. Forest and BLM roads reaching sheep country are rough and generally not trailer-friendly — base out of Safford or Willcox.

💧

Water

Very limited in the sheep country. Fill in Safford, Pima, or Duncan. Carry 1+ gallon per person per day for extended stalks.

🛣️

Road Conditions

Highways paved. BLM and Forest roads into the Gila breaks and Galiuro rims are rough 4WD two-track with washouts. Wilderness areas are foot/horseback only.

🥾

Terrain Difficulty

Extreme. Rimrock canyons, cliff bands, loose talus, and dense catclaw brush. Expect 3,000–4,000 feet of elevation gain on a typical stalk.

👥

Hunting Pressure

Minimal. 2 tags per year means effectively no other hunters encountered.

🌦️

Weather

Sheep season runs November–December. Days 55–75°F, nights 30–45°F. Early-season monsoon runoff can leave trails muddy.

📱

Cell Service

Spotty along US-70. None in the Galiuro or Gila canyon country. Bring a satellite communicator and share daily check-in schedule.

🏘️

Nearest Town

Safford (full services — fuel, groceries, lodging, hospital). Willcox to the southwest. Duncan for the eastern Gila.

📋

Permit Notes

Bighorn tag + State Trust Land recreation permit. Coronado NF Wilderness Area rules apply in the Galiuro (no motorized/mechanized).

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Frequently Asked Questions

How many bonus points do I need for a Unit 28 bighorn tag?

There is no set threshold — Arizona's weighted random system means even max-point holders face long odds. Realistically, 15–25+ bonus points makes you competitive, but luck drives the outcome.

Do I need a guide to hunt Unit 28 bighorn?

Nonresidents are not required to hire a guide in Arizona, but the vast majority of successful sheep hunters use an outfitter. Given the once-in-a-lifetime nature of the tag and the difficult habitat, a guide is a strong investment.

Can I hunt bighorn in Arizona more than once?

No. Under AZGFD rules, once you harvest a bighorn sheep in Arizona, you are permanently excluded from applying for a bighorn tag in the state again.

When does the Swift Trail close in Unit 28?

Per Coronado NF, the Swift Trail (Hwy 366) typically closes to the upper Pinaleños in mid-November and reopens in spring. Verify exact dates with the Safford Ranger District before your trip.

Is Unit 28 a good new-hunter destination?

Yes. Draw odds are among the most accessible in Arizona, habitat variety is strong, and Safford offers full logistics support.

Can I hunt all three units on one 28/31/32 elk tag?

Yes. The combined tag is valid across GMUs 28, 31, and 32 during the hunt dates per the current Arizona Pronghorn and Elk Regulations.

Which range has the most elk?

The Pinaleños (Unit 28) hold the highest elk density of the three ranges. The Chiricahuas (Unit 31) are second, and Dos Cabezas (Unit 32) has the fewest animals but the least pressure.

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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 Desert Bighorn Sheep Management — Arizona Game and Fish Department · supports: Desert bighorn tags extremely limited, Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Sheep populations in Gila corridor, Unit 28 includes Pinaleños and Galiuro Wilderness · accessed 2026-04-17
AZGFD Draw Portal — Arizona Game and Fish Department · supports: Bighorn draw system, Max-point pass category, Unit 28 historical results · accessed 2026-04-17
Coronado National Forest — Safford Ranger District — USDA Forest Service · supports: Mt. Graham access roads, Pinaleño wilderness regulations, Dispersed camping · accessed 2026-04-17
BLM Safford Field Office — Bureau of Land Management · supports: Gila River corridor public lands, Road access and closures, Camping rules · accessed 2026-04-17
GMU 28 — Unit Landing Page — Arizona Game and Fish Department · supports: Pinaleño Mountains and Gila Valley boundary, Coronado NF coverage, Mount Graham Red Squirrel habitat overlay · accessed 2026-04-17
2025–26 Arizona Hunting Regulations — Arizona Game and Fish Department · supports: Unit 28 season dates, Permit totals by hunt number, Access restrictions near Mount Graham Observatory · accessed 2026-04-17
2026 Arizona Pronghorn and Elk Regulations — Arizona Game and Fish Department · supports: Combined 28/31/32 elk hunt structure, Tag quotas and season dates, Cross-unit access provisions · accessed 2026-04-17
GMU 31 — Unit Landing Page — Arizona Game and Fish Department · supports: Chiricahua Mountains coverage, Coronado NF jurisdiction, Wilderness overlays · accessed 2026-04-17

Unit 28 (Gila Mountains, Eagle Creek and the Gila Box)

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 28

Bighorn Sheep Hunting in Unit 28

Where the rams are in 28: Eagle Creek first, then Bonita Creek and the Gila Box

The Eagle Creek drainage — where most of them are

Bonita Creek

The Gila Box

The canyons the agency tells you to scout

Getting around

Unit 28 terrain and land status

The lay of it

Who owns the ground

Water on the ground

Named features inside the unit

How to hunt 28 bighorn: scout hard, sort the mine access, and dress for anything

Bighorn Sheep Success Rates

Bighorn Sheep Draw Odds

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 28

Where the deer are in 28: the Gila Mountains, the Whitlocks and the Guthrie Peak canyons

How to hunt 28 deer: pick one range, learn its water, hunt the catchments

Mule Deer Success Rates

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Elk Hunting in Unit 28

Where the elk are in 28: the San Carlos boundary and the northeast corner

Along the San Carlos Reservation boundary

The northeast corner

The Gila River near Fort Thomas, with one hard rule

What to expect

Unit 28 terrain and land status

The lay of it

Who owns the ground

Water on the ground

Named features inside the unit

How to hunt 28 elk: treat it as a tracking hunt in thick country with no guarantees

Elk Success Rates

Elk Draw Odds

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Explore Related Units

Unit 30A — Mule Deer

Unit 28 — Elk

Frequently Asked Questions

Free Hunt Planning Tools

Plan Your Hunt with ProHunt Pro

Sources & Verification