Arizona Bighorn Sheep Mule Deer

Unit 37A

Arizona Hunting Guide — Bighorn Sheep, Mule Deer

Unit 37A is a southeast Arizona desert bighorn sheep hunt area, managed under AZGFD hunt guidelines. Sheep tag quotas are extremely limited and set annually based on population surveys. Draws use Arizona's weighted random bonus point system.

View Draw Odds Arizona Hunting Guide

🏔️

18%

Public Land

⛰️

1,485–3,844 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 37A

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Arizona Unit 37A 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

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Logistics & Planning Guide →

Access roads, campgrounds, elevation, monthly weather, stock tanks, cell coverage, and nearest-town services for Unit 37A.

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Bighorn Sheep Hunting in Unit 37A

Where to Start Looking in 37A: Silver Bell, Ragged Top and the Pinal Side

First, the caveat. AZGFD's 2022 unit guide for 37A has no sheep section. It doesn't name drainages, no sheep areas, no travel notes. So we won't pretend to hand you a honey hole. What the data does give us is a list of named summits and ranges, a road network and a few named water sources. Here's how we'd use them.

Silver Bell Mountains and Ragged Top

This is where we'd put the first scouting days. The Silver Bell Mountains and Silver Bell Peak top out at 4,226 feet, and Ragged Top sits at 3,875. Both are in Pima County. Wolcott Peak (3,248), Martina Mountain (3,978) and Dobbs Buttes (3,658) round out the cluster. Broken, rocky desert ranges that rise out of flat bottoms are what a sheep hunter wants to look at. The packet doesn't say where sheep actually live, so we treat these as glassing platforms and let the optics do the confirming.

The Pinal County side: Newman Peak, Falcon Divide, Picacho

Across the county line, the packet lists Newman Peak (4,495), Falcon Divide (4,084), the Picacho Mountains (4,504) and Jeffords Peak (4,688). Smaller relief shows up at Three Buttes, Chief Butte, Owl Head Buttes and the Durham Hills, all roughly 3,150 to 3,350 feet.

Here's a wrinkle. The unit's elevation range runs from 1,485 to 3,844 feet. Jeffords Peak and several others top that, which tells us they sit on or past the boundary. Don't plan a route off the name alone. Load the unit boundary on your mapping app and check each peak first.

Water: Cottonwood Spring, Cochie Spring and the wells

The packet names Cottonwood Spring, Cochie Spring, Beers Well and Black Tank Well. It doesn't place them, and its water count shows zero springs, so the two don't agree. It also counts 37 tanks. Treat every one as a lead to confirm on the map, not a promise of wet ground. In low desert country, water is where we'd build the plan once a basin looks promising.

Access and ownership

The ownership layer reads 100 percent "Private / Other," yet the same data flags every named landform as public. Those two facts don't match. Sort it out on a land-status map before you walk anywhere. Trailheads and roads that reach the unit include:

AZ 86, paved, with two boundary crossings
South Sandario Road and AZ 286, paved
South Sierrita Mountain Road, paved county road
Garcia Ranch Road, West Donaldson Ranch Road, San Pedro Road and West Los Reales Road, all graded gravel that a 2WD truck can handle

Red Rock, Avra Valley, Marana and Picture Rocks are the nearby towns. The packet lists no campgrounds, so plan on staying in town or camping off-unit.

Unit 37A terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

1,485–3,844 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 2,072 ft ; peaks can run higher.
1,675.6 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.

Who owns the ground

Private / Other — 100%

Roughly 0% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

37 tanks
90 stream segments
9 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: Jeffords Peak (4,688 ft), Tortolita Mountains (4,610 ft), Picacho Mountains (4,504 ft), Silver Bell Peak (4,226 ft)

Holding ground: Fresnal Canyon (3,079 ft), Parker Canyon (3,050 ft), Aguirre Pass (2,703 ft), Cottonwood Spring, Beers Well

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 37A When the Guide Gives You Little

The agency guide is thin here, so this part is built from the terrain and our own habits. Treat it as a plan to test, not gospel.

Glass from the peaks you can reach

Every named summit in the packet is tagged as a glassing spot. Pick one with a view of the broken country around it. Silver Bell Peak, Ragged Top and Newman Peak are the first we'd check. Be on the glass before first light, work slow, and grid each slope in sections. Sheep in rough desert country are easy to look past. Stop and scan again before moving. Midday heat usually pushes animals into shade, so plan on a long sit rather than a long hike.

Use water to narrow the search

Between the 37 tanks, the named springs and the wells, there's a lot of possible water in this unit. Don't sit one blind. Pick two or three sources close to a ridge you can glass, then check each one early and late. If you find tracks or droppings, you've got something worth the sit. If you don't, move on by the second morning.

Confirm land status before you commit

The ownership data is a mess, and that matters more than any tactic. Private ground in this unit means you need permission, and a ridge that looks open on a screen may not be. Settle it before the season, not on opening morning. A rancher you've called ahead is a lot better than one you meet at a fence.

Weapons and what to expect

The packet shows a 75 percent rifle success rate. That's strong, but it doesn't give the sample size or the year, and it says nothing about archery or other weapons. We'd read it as a sign that hunters who find sheep usually get the shot, not a guarantee. Don't build a plan around a number you can't verify.

A realistic day

Drive a gravel road such as Garcia Ranch Road or West Donaldson Ranch Road in the dark, hike to your glassing point, and glass until the heat shuts things down. Rest in shade, then glass again as the afternoon cools. Spend the first days finding sheep, not chasing them. Before you go, read the current regulations for retrieval rules, any area closures and the species you're allowed to take, since this packet doesn't cover them.

Getting in and staying out: unit 37A

Named routes and what they need

AZ 86 — 3 mi · Paved (all rigs)
Garcia Ranch Road — 2.2 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
West Donaldson Ranch Road — 1.6 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
San Pedro Road — 1.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
West Los Reales Road — 1 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

Red Rock — 4.5 mi · no services listed
Avra Valley — 7.8 mi · fuel, groceries
Marana — 11.9 mi · fuel
Picture Rocks — 17 mi · fuel, groceries
Eloy — 18.5 mi · fuel, groceries

Season weather and signal

Jan67° / 40° · 1" precip
Aug103° / 77° · 1.8" precip
Sep99° / 71° · 0.9" precip
Oct89° / 59° · 0.5" precip
Nov77° / 47° · 0.5" precip
Dec66° / 39° · 1.1" 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 sheep hunts typically produce very high success rates. Review the AZGFD annual hunt arizona report for current Unit 37A harvest statistics.

Bighorn Sheep Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Rifle — General Rifle bull/buck only (combined pool)	2	785	0.3%	—
Rifle — Late Rifle Dec bull/buck only (combined pool)	2	800	0.0%	—
Rifle — Late Rifle Nov bull/buck only (combined pool)	2	463	0.0%	—

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

Sheep tags in Unit 37A are among the hardest draws in Arizona. The weighted random bonus point system gives more points more random numbers. Residents receive 90 percent of sheep tags.

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 37A

GMU 37A is the low desert between Tucson and Marana — the Silver Bell Mountains and Samaniego Hills, the Tortolitas, the Picacho Mountains and the Waterman and Sawtooth ranges, in Pima and Pinal counties. The unit runs from about 1,485 feet on the Santa Cruz flats to 3,844 feet, with a mean near 2,072, so this is saguaro, ocotillo and palo verde country with oak-chaparral only in pockets on the higher benches. AZGFD rates the Silver Bell and Samaniego ground the strongest deer country in the unit and calls it easy to access with fair numbers for low desert.

Where the deer are in 37A: Silverbells, Samaniegos and the washes at the foot of each range

Start with the bad news, because AZGFD's own unit guide leads with it. Desert mule deer are sparse across 37A, and the guide says it will take several years of above-average rainfall to bring numbers back. It was written in May 2022, so check current conditions. We'd plan on finding fewer deer than the map suggests. The unit is low desert, running from about 1,485 feet to 3,844 feet with a mean near 2,072.

Silverbell Mountains and Samaniego Hills

This is the strongest area, and the guide calls it easy to access with fair numbers for low desert. It recommends hunting the arroyos and flats around the Silverbells and hunting throughout the Samaniego Hills. Reach it from I-10 exit 226 on Redrock Road, or from Avra Valley Road at exit 242. Hunting is allowed in the recently established Ironwood National Monument, as the guide words it. Silver Bell Peak tops out at 4,226 feet. The Samaniego Hills are low, about 2,671 feet.

Roskruge Mountains

The guide also rates the Roskruge deer population as fair. The catch is the Tohono O'Odham Indian Reservation, which runs east to west through the middle of the range and forms the unit's western boundary. Carry a map and know where you are. Access is from Ajo Highway near Three Points, or from Mile Wide Road west of Sandario.

Sawtooth, Tortolita and Picacho country

These are the lower-odds areas. The Sawtooths hold a small deer population, and the guide says the foothills give the best success. Take Sunland Gin Road south from I-10 exit 200. For the north side, go in from the Harmon/Lamb intersection. Or follow Sunland Gin around to the east side and come in from the south.

Tortolita deer prefer the desert cover in the flats over the mountain itself. Private land is scattered along the south and west sides, and firearms can't be discharged there. Access points are:

The Pima/Pinal county line in Catalina on Highway 79
Milepost 97 on Highway 79
The I-10 frontage road at the Marana exit
Park Link Drive at the Red Rock exit

The Picacho Mountains have some deer on the east and south sides, in the canyons and washes. The C.A.P. canal can restrict access. The guide lists Deep Well Ranch Road from the east, Houser Road off Highway 87 from the west, and Pecan Road from the south. Railroad construction blocked the I-10 frontage road two miles north of the Picacho Dairy Queen when the guide was written.

One data flag: the land-ownership layer we have lists the whole unit as "Private / Other." That doesn't match the guide, which sends hunters to public ground. Verify parcel lines on a current map before you commit to a drainage.

Unit 37A terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

1,485–3,844 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 2,072 ft ; peaks can run higher.
1,675.6 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.

Who owns the ground

Private / Other — 100%

Roughly 0% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

37 tanks
90 stream segments
9 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: Jeffords Peak (4,688 ft), Tortolita Mountains (4,610 ft), Picacho Mountains (4,504 ft), Silver Bell Peak (4,226 ft)

Holding ground: Fresnal Canyon (3,079 ft), Parker Canyon (3,050 ft), Aguirre Pass (2,703 ft), Cottonwood Spring, Beers Well

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 37A's sparse desert mule deer: scout early, glass washes, cover ground

AZGFD's guide is blunt: locating deer will be difficult, and preseason scouting and lots of glassing are necessary. We agree. The rifle success figure in our data is 22 percent. We have no archery or other weapon-specific numbers for this unit, so we won't guess at them.

Glass the big washes first

The guide's one tactical pointer is to look for deer in large washes close to the main mountain ranges. That gives you a pattern: find the wash mouths at the base of the Silverbells, Roskruges or Picachos, then glass them from above. Get on a high point at first light and work the wash edges and the flats methodically. Sparse deer means long gaps between sightings, so be patient and don't burn out your optics time in the first hour. The packet tags Silver Bell Peak (4,226 ft), Ragged Top (3,875 ft) and the Samaniego Hills as glassing spots. Some of these may sit near or outside the boundary, so confirm on your map.

Silverbells and Samaniegos: the easy first look

Both are easy to reach, so expect company. Walk the arroyos and flats around the Silverbells, then move through the Samaniego Hills rather than parking on one spot. We'd scout here first, because the guide's "fair for low desert" is the best it offers. Take Redrock Road from exit 226 or Avra Valley Road from exit 242.

Tortolita flats and private-land boundaries

In the Tortolitas, don't climb the mountain looking for deer. The guide says they favor desert cover on the flats. Private land along the south and west sides bars firearms discharge, so stay clear of those edges. The Highway 79 and Marana-exit access points are your entries. Picacho hunters should check canal and railroad access before driving out, since both have cut off routes.

Water and feed

Our data counts 37 tanks and 9 lakes in the unit, and none are tied to a specific location. The map also names Cottonwood Spring, Cochie Spring, Beers Well and Black Tank Well. The packet doesn't say where they are or whether they hold water. Mark them on your map, then confirm in person while scouting. Given how dry this unit runs, any reliable water is worth a look, but we wouldn't build a plan around one without seeing it first.

A realistic day looks like this. Be glassing at first light. Cover washes and flats on foot between sits. Use access roads to reposition, not to hunt from the truck. Expect many empty hours. The tag pays off for people who've put in the scouting days.

Getting in and staying out: unit 37A

Named routes and what they need

AZ 86 — 3 mi · Paved (all rigs)
Garcia Ranch Road — 2.2 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
West Donaldson Ranch Road — 1.6 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
San Pedro Road — 1.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
West Los Reales Road — 1 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

Red Rock — 4.5 mi · no services listed
Avra Valley — 7.8 mi · fuel, groceries
Marana — 11.9 mi · fuel
Picture Rocks — 17 mi · fuel, groceries
Eloy — 18.5 mi · fuel, groceries

Season weather and signal

Jan67° / 40° · 1" precip
Aug103° / 77° · 1.8" precip
Sep99° / 71° · 0.9" precip
Oct89° / 59° · 0.5" precip
Nov77° / 47° · 0.5" precip
Dec66° / 39° · 1.1" 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.

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Mule Deer Success Rates

Rifle22%

Unit 37A rifle hunters average 18-28% success across recent years, with archery running 10-15%. The unit produces the occasional trophy desert buck each season, but most filled tags are 120-140 class mature deer. Solid mid-volume opportunity for hunters willing to cover rough country.

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Rifle — Late Rifle Nov bull/buck only (combined pool)	175	341	36.4%	—
Rifle — Late Rifle Dec bull/buck only (combined pool)	15	976	1.4%	—
Rifle — General Rifle Oct bull/buck only (combined pool)	175	464	28.0%	—
Rifle — General Rifle Oct either sex (combined pool)	175	464	28.0%	—
Rifle — Late Rifle Nov either sex (combined pool)	175	341	36.4%	—

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 draws Unit 37A tags via the weighted bonus-point system with Hunter Education bonus. With ~1,344 recent 3-year applicants against ~340 tags, low-to-mid-point applicants (2-5 bonus points) draw regularly, especially on the HAM and archery hunt codes. Never skip a year — loyalty bonus points compound for this unit.

Unit Logistics & Expectations

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Unit 37A bighorn sheep once-in-a-lifetime?

Arizona desert bighorn sheep is typically once-in-a-lifetime. Verify current rules in the AZGFD hunt regulations before applying.

How competitive is the Unit 37A sheep draw?

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

What bonus point level draws Unit 37A mule deer?

Low-to-mid-point applicants (2-5 bonus points) draw 37A regularly, especially on HAM and archery codes. October general rifle typically requires a few more points depending on the year's tag allocation.

How hot is October in Unit 37A?

Expect daytime highs of 75-85°F during early October, cooling to the 60s by late month. Plan water and hydration accordingly — this is still desert country at 4,000-5,000 ft on the hunt-able ridges.

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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 structure, Sheep tag allocations · accessed 2026-04-17
AZGFD Hunt Regulations — Arizona Game and Fish Department · supports: Season dates, Unit boundaries · accessed 2026-04-17
AZGFD Draw Results & Bonus Points — Arizona Game and Fish Department · supports: Bonus point balances, Sheep draw outcomes · accessed 2026-04-17
GMU 37A — Unit Landing Page — Arizona Game and Fish Department · supports: Unit boundary, Desert mule deer habitat, Access notes · accessed 2026-04-17
2026 Arizona Hunting Regulations — Arizona Game and Fish Department · supports: Deer hunt structure, Tag allocations, Season dates · accessed 2026-04-17
Coronado National Forest — Safford Ranger District — USDA Forest Service · supports: Road status, MVUM, Dispersed camping regs · accessed 2026-04-17

Unit 37A

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 37A

Bighorn Sheep Hunting in Unit 37A

Where to Start Looking in 37A: Silver Bell, Ragged Top and the Pinal Side

Silver Bell Mountains and Ragged Top

The Pinal County side: Newman Peak, Falcon Divide, Picacho

Water: Cottonwood Spring, Cochie Spring and the wells

Access and ownership

Unit 37A terrain and land status

The lay of it

Who owns the ground

Water on the ground

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt 37A When the Guide Gives You Little

Bighorn Sheep Success Rates

Bighorn Sheep Draw Odds

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 37A

Where the deer are in 37A: Silverbells, Samaniegos and the washes at the foot of each range

Silverbell Mountains and Samaniego Hills

Roskruge Mountains

Sawtooth, Tortolita and Picacho country

Unit 37A terrain and land status

The lay of it

Who owns the ground

Water on the ground

Named features inside the unit

How to hunt 37A's sparse desert mule deer: scout early, glass washes, cover ground

Mule Deer Success Rates

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Explore Related Units

Unit 37B — Mule Deer

Unit 32 — Mule Deer

Frequently Asked Questions

Free Hunt Planning Tools

Plan Your Hunt with ProHunt Pro

Sources & Verification