Unit 5BS/6A (Mormon Lake, Happy Jack and Hutch Mountain)

Two strong elk units joined into one hunt area. The 5B guide says there is no part of 5B South that isn't elk habitat and that elk can be found just about everywhere; the 6A guide puts about a fifth of Arizona's elk hunting opportunity in that unit and notes that older-age-class bulls are taken there regularly.

Early season in 5B South

Most hunters work the vicinity of Hutch Mountain, Pine Mountain and Duke Tank Mesa. Hutch Mountain shows at 8,508 feet on our terrain layer with Pine Mountain at 7,986. The agency's advice for anyone wanting to get away from others is pointed: look at areas without a popular name on the map.

The Mormon Lake basin in 6A

Early in the season elk spend their days on the Mormon Lake bed, and the youth hunters usually break them up and disperse them into the country around the lake. For the general antlerless hunt the Pine Grove Quiet Area is a good place to look, and the Rattlesnake Quiet Area usually holds bulls all year. Motorized travel in the Pine Grove Quiet Area and on the Mormon Lake bed is prohibited for any reason — if you kill an elk there, you pack it out.

Happy Jack and Clint's Well

The Happy Jack and Clint's Well country, along with the areas surrounding Mormon Lake, are named as good places to start. That's the southern end of 6A either side of Lake Mary Road.

Late season, and where bulls go

In 5B South it takes a lot of snow to move elk to lower ground; a couple of inches in the high country doesn't mean they've left, it just makes them easier to track. For bulls in the late season look for security — low road density, such as the country between the Sawmill Hills and Tremaine Lake, which is also 5B South's lowest ground and may act as a staging area between summer and winter range. In 6A, when nights stay below freezing for long stretches the grasses go dormant and elk work down to the Apache Maid and Cedar Flat country.

The parks and the open ground

Named openings inside this hunt area include Mule Park at 7,565 feet, Coyote Basin at 7,441, Bargaman Park at 7,403, Diversion Park at 7,341 and The Park at 7,151. Elk feed on the flats at night and work to the drainages at sunrise — those parks are the feed.

Rifle success in this country runs around 25 percent and archery 18. Two pieces of agency advice matter more than any map here.

The retrieval rules, because they decide your morning

On national forest land in GMU 5B, motorized retrieval of wildlife — including elk — is not permitted at all. In 6A, motorized retrieval is permitted for elk only, within a mile of a road open on the Motor Vehicle Use Map, and never in the Pine Grove or Rattlesnake Quiet Areas, in wilderness, or on the Mormon Lake bed. Work out which side of the unit line you're standing on, and pick your hunt by how far you can carry a quarter.

Let other hunters push them to you

The single best tactical line in the 5B guide: in areas of high hunting pressure elk get pushed around, and by sitting on or near an escape trail you can let others push them to you. In 6A the equivalent is the trail between the lake meadows and the timber. Hunt the exit, not the feed.

Elk key on the noise of vehicles

AZGFD notes an elk can hear an OHV from up to half a mile and will avoid areas where it hears one. That's the argument for walking in and for hunting low-road-density country — the quiet areas hold animals precisely because of it.

The daily pattern

Elk feed on the open flats at night, work toward the drainages as the sun comes up, then bed. Find the larger canyons first and then concentrate on the smaller drainages feeding into them. Be on a high point with your glass up before the sun clears the horizon — the agency is explicit that this means being there before first light.

Scout late, not early

The 6A guide's view is blunt: scouting months in advance does little good because elk move around. Put your time in the week or two before the hunt, mark high points on your GPS, and walk to them in the dark on opening morning.

Water is a weak bet in a wet year

Stock tanks are abundant through this country. When they're full, elk aren't tied to any one of them — sit water only where you find heavy fresh tracks. And remember nobody owns a tank: the agency has seen conflicts over "whose" water escalate to criminal charges.