Unit 41E (Eagletail Mountains and Picacho Hills)
Arizona Hunting Guide — Bighorn Sheep
Unit 41 splits its bighorn hunts into east and west. 41 East is the Eagletail Mountains and the Picacho Hills, with Saddle Mountain alongside them, in the low desert between Interstate 10 and Interstate 8 west of Buckeye. The Eagletails have long produced good rams; the herd crashed there for no clear reason in the late 1960s and early 1970s and AZGFD transplanted two groups of sheep in during the early 1980s to augment what was left. The three-year average score for rams taken in 41 East is 161. Most of the Eagletails sit inside the Eagletail Mountains Wilderness, which keeps vehicles out entirely, so this is a walk-in hunt reached off the El Paso gas line road.
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Bighorn Sheep Hunting in Unit 41E
Unit 41 splits its bighorn hunts into east and west. 41 East is the Eagletail Mountains and the Picacho Hills, with Saddle Mountain alongside them, in the low desert between Interstate 10 and Interstate 8 west of Buckeye. The Eagletails have long produced good rams; the herd crashed there for no clear reason in the late 1960s and early 1970s and AZGFD transplanted two groups of sheep in during the early 1980s to augment what was left. The three-year average score for rams taken in 41 East is 161. Most of the Eagletails sit inside the Eagletail Mountains Wilderness, which keeps vehicles out entirely, so this is a walk-in hunt reached off the El Paso gas line road.
Where the rams are in 41 East: the Eagletails, the Picacho Hills and Saddle Mountain
41 East is three ranges, and the agency gives named tank-to-tank stretches for each. Rams here have averaged 161 over three years. The last survey in the Eagletails came in below both the ten-year and three-year averages, which is worth knowing when you set your expectations.
The Eagletail Mountains
Bighorn are found throughout the range. The favoured stretch runs from the Anvil Tank area in the middle of the mountains west to the Triple Eye Tank area at the west end. That's your primary scouting line. Most of the Eagletails lie inside the Eagletail Mountains Wilderness and vehicles are prohibited inside it — contact the BLM Yuma District Office for the full wilderness rules before you go.
Getting to the Eagletails
Take I-10 west of Buckeye to the Harquahala Valley exit 81, south to Courthouse–Centennial Road, then west along Centennial to the El Paso natural gas line road. From the gas line road a number of spurs run to the wilderness boundary. The alternative is I-10 to the Hovatter Road exit 53, south of the CAP canal, then southeast from the next junction to the gas line road and east to the south-running spurs.
The Picacho Hills
They look small from the road and they aren't empty — the agency says a good population of bighorn lives there, found throughout the range. The favoured stretch runs from the Picacho Tanks area on the southeast side to Bucket Tank at the northwest end. Access is the Harquahala Valley Road south from I-10 to Baseline Road, west on Baseline to 543rd Avenue and the gas line road, then about ten miles south. From the south, take the Agua Caliente–Sentinel Road north from I-8 exit 87, to the railroad, north on 571st Avenue to Butterfield Road, west one mile, then north on 579th Avenue and the gas line road about ten miles.
Saddle Mountain
The population here is stable but increasingly cut off from the surrounding ranges by human encroachment and development. AZGFD specifically encourages sheep hunters not to overlook scouting it. There's one department wildlife water on the east side of the range, which on a mountain this isolated makes it the obvious place to start.
Water, which is the whole map
Notice what every one of the agency's recommendations has in common: it's a tank. Anvil Tank, Triple Eye Tank, Picacho Tanks, Bucket Tank, the Saddle Mountain water. In desert this low — the unit bottoms out near 400 feet — sheep organise their lives around a handful of reliable waters, and so should your glassing positions.
Unit 41E terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
Named features inside the unit
Glass from: Eagletail Peak (3,163 ft), Saddle Mountain (2,947 ft), Anvil Mountain (2,758 ft), Courthouse Rock (2,535 ft)
Holding ground: Apache Box (1,221 ft), Copper Valley (1,159 ft), Nottbusch Valley (1,119 ft)
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 41 East: park at the wilderness line, glass the tanks, and carry it out
Bighorn Sheep Success Rates
Bighorn Sheep Draw Odds
| Season | Tags | Applicants | Draw % | Pts (n/p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rifle — General Rifle bull/buck only (combined pool) | 3 | 502 | 0.4% | — |
| Rifle — Late Rifle Dec bull/buck only (combined pool) | 5 | 968 | 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 EngineUnit 41E bighorn is a once-in-a-lifetime draw. With ~6 tags over three years and 1,142 applicants, odds per applicant run around 0.5%. Arizona's weighted bonus-point system routes 20% of tags to max-point holders first; the other 80% go to a random weighted draw. Expect 15–25+ bonus points to be realistically competitive. Arizona residents who take a bighorn in any unit become permanently ineligible to apply for bighorn again.
Unit Logistics & Expectations
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Unit 41E compare to Kofa (41W) for bighorn?
Can I camp in the Eagletail Wilderness?
How long should a 41E sheep hunt be?
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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: Unit 41E sheep population, Eagletail and New Water Mountain herds, Once-in-a-lifetime tag, Multi-thousand-foot canyon relief · accessed 2026-04-17
- AZGFD Draw Portal — Arizona Game and Fish Department · supports: Bighorn draw rules, 41E historical odds, Tag allocation · accessed 2026-04-17
- BLM Yuma Field Office — Bureau of Land Management · supports: Eagletail Mountains Wilderness, New Water Mountains Wilderness, Access roads · accessed 2026-04-17
- BLM Lake Havasu Field Office — Bureau of Land Management · supports: Northern access points, Travel management, Dispersed camping · accessed 2026-04-17