Unit 7E (07E)

Arizona Hunting Guide — Elk

Unit 07E is a popular northern Arizona elk hunt area in the Coconino country, managed under AZGFD hunt guidelines. Tag quotas are set annually based on population surveys, harvest objectives, and habitat conditions. Draws use Arizona's weighted random bonus point system.

View Draw Odds Arizona Hunting Guide

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4,702–8,574 ft

Sampled elevation

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Elk guide

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Access roads, campgrounds, elevation, monthly weather, stock tanks, cell coverage, and nearest-town services for Unit 7E.

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Elk Hunting in Unit 7E

Where the Elk Are in 7E: Hochderffer Hills, Maverick Butte and the Wilderness Water

AZGFD's GMU 7 guide, dated April 4, 2025, puts the highest elk densities in the ponderosa pine above the pinyon-juniper. That's your starting elevation band. The same guide says elk aren't typically found in the open, low-elevation grasslands north and east of the Peaks. Skip those.

Hochderffer Hills and Hart Prairie

Hochderffer Hills tops out at 9,156 feet, and it's the only name on both AZGFD's early and late 7 East lists. We'd treat it as the anchor of the unit. Hart Prairie sits on the early list too. Both are in the pine belt the guide describes. Burned ground matters here as well. The herd was knocked back between 2011 and 2019 to protect new aspen in the Shultz fire scar, and the guide says elk still favor burns for post-fire forage. Look at the Schultz Peak side (10,026 feet) for that scar.

Early-season water: Reese Tank, CO Bar Tank, Lockett Meadow

AZGFD's early 7 East list also names Reese Tank, CO Bar Tank, Chapel Mountain, Maverick Butte and Lockett Meadow. Lockett Meadow Spring is on the unit's spring list, and Lockett Meadow Tank is on the guide's wilderness-edge list. The unit has 108 tanks and 30 springs, so there's plenty of water on paper. Stick to the named ones first.

Late-season ground: Maverick Butte, Missouri Bill Hill, Saddle Mountain, White Horse Hills

For the late hunts the guide shifts you to Maverick Butte (7,643 feet), Missouri Bill Hill (7,413), Babbitt Lake, Saddle Mountain (8,854), White Horse Hills (9,063), Chapel Mountain and Hochderffer Hills again. Several of these are summits, which suits the late-season glassing the guide recommends. Maverick Butte and Chapel Mountain make both lists, so they're your two-season scouting bets.

The Kachina Wilderness edge

The guide's early wilderness list: Reese Tank, Lockett Meadow Tank, Lenox Trick Tank, 89 Mesa Trick Tank, Schultz Tank, High Tank, Freidlein Tank, Alfa Fia Tank and Bismark Lake. Water inside the wilderness is scarce. High Tank is the only source within the hunt area, so elk generally come out to drink. Look for game trails running from the wilderness to the water.

Getting there

Land is 60 percent national forest, 8 percent state trust and 32 percent private or other. Know where the fence lines are before you glass a likely hillside. US 180 is paved for 20.8 miles through the unit. CR 395 and CR 505 are graded gravel that a 2WD rig and small trailer can handle. FS 00420 and FS 6005 are high-clearance. The packet doesn't say which named areas those roads reach, so match them against the Motor Vehicle Use Map.

Unit 7E terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

4,702–8,574 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 6,200 ft ; peaks can run higher.
915.5 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 32%

Roughly 68% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

108 tanks
30 springs
785 stream segments
3 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: Humphreys Peak (12,620 ft), Fremont Peak (11,933 ft), Rees Peak (11,450 ft), Schultz Peak (10,026 ft)

Holding ground: Doyle Saddle (11,373 ft), Hart Prairie (8,554 ft), Interior Valley (8,456 ft), Bar Doney Well, Raspberry 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 7E: Bugles Early, Glass Late, Watch the Water

AZGFD's own guide says to change tactics between early and late seasons. We agree. Treat them as two different hunts.

Early season: find the bull by ear

The guide says bulls are typically still vocal early, and listening is a great way to locate herds. Work Hochderffer Hills, Hart Prairie and the Chapel Mountain country at first and last light. Cover ground by road or trail, stop often, and listen before you commit to a drainage. The guide also notes elk move long distances to areas where summer rains improved forage, so a good hillside last year doesn't guarantee elk this year. Check recent green-up before you settle in.

Late season: climb and glass

Once the bulls quiet down, the guide's advice is to get on high points with binoculars and a spotting scope. The packet lists glassing summits all over 7E: Saddle Mountain (8,854 feet), White Horse Hills (9,063), Hochderffer Hills (9,156), Maverick Butte (7,643) and Missouri Bill Hill (7,413). Sit a point, cover the burns and meadows below, and let the elk show themselves. Don't push through timber hoping to bump one.

Sitting the water near the wilderness

In the early hunts, tanks are your best bet around the Kachina Wilderness. Because the wilderness holds almost no water, elk have to leave it to drink. Start at a tank like Reese or Lockett Meadow and look at the trails leading in. Fresh tracks on those trails tell you more than a lone bugle will.

Wilderness rules and hunt-area boundaries

If you hold a 7 East tag, you may hunt inside the Kachina Peaks Wilderness Hunt Area. Kachina permit holders can't hunt outside it. There's no motorized travel inside. AZGFD lists the Kachina, Weatherford, Inner Basin, Humphreys, Aubineau and Bear Jaw trails plus the Waterline trail as the main routes, and calls them good scouting ground before the hunt. The Inner Basin isn't wilderness but is part of the hunt area. The boundary is the elevations above the Water Line trail. The wilderness is well marked, but AZGFD recommends a smartphone mapping app to confirm where you are.

Retrieval and what to expect

On national forest land in GMU 7, only elk can be retrieved by motor. That doesn't apply to other game, so don't carry that assumption over to a deer or bear. Motor use must stay on designated routes on the Motor Vehicle Use Map. Plan your pack-out from the wilderness on foot.

The packet lists success rates of 25 percent for rifle, 22 for muzzleloader and 18 for archery. AZGFD says the herd is below historic levels, and hunter pressure has been cut because success was trending down. Expect long days of glassing or listening with few elk. Build a plan around named water and high points, and you'll make the most of that.

Getting in and staying out: unit 7E

Named routes and what they need

US 180 — 20.8 mi · Paved (all rigs)
CR 395 — 12.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
CR 505 — 11.3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
I 40;US 180 — 6.7 mi · Paved (all rigs)
FS 00420 — 3.9 mi · High-clearance
FS 6005 — 3.8 mi · High-clearance

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

Timberline-Fernwood — 11.3 mi · fuel
Doney Park — 15.2 mi · fuel, groceries
Mountain View Ranches — 16.6 mi · no services listed
Fort Valley — 17.9 mi · lodging
Flagstaff — 20.1 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging, gear

Developed camps

Lockett Meadow Campground
Hart's Prairie
Unnamed camp site · Free
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan45° / 17° · 1.2" precip
Aug84° / 53° · 2.8" precip
Sep78° / 46° · 1.5" precip
Oct67° / 34° · 1.2" precip
Nov55° / 24° · 0.8" precip
Dec45° / 17° · 1.4" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 21% 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.

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

Unit 07E elk success tends to be strong for both rifle and archery hunters. Review the AZGFD annual hunt arizona report for the latest unit-level harvest statistics and weapon-specific success rates.

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Rifle — Late Rifle Dec bull/buck only (combined pool)	400	661	35.6%	—
Rifle — General Rifle Oct antlerless (combined pool)	30	40	47.5%	—
Rifle — Late Rifle Dec antlerless (combined pool)	200	157	54.1%	—
Rifle — Late Rifle Nov bull/buck only (combined pool)	400	683	27.7%	—
Rifle — Early Rifle bull/buck only (combined pool)	25	1,323	1.4%	—
Muzzleloader — General Muzzleloader Oct bull/buck only (combined pool)	5	50	2.0%	—
Muzzleloader — Early Muzzleloader bull/buck only (combined pool)	5	36	0.0%	—
Early Archery — bull/buck only (combined pool)	130	498	14.7%	—
Late Archery Nov — bull/buck only (combined pool)	55	36	55.6%	—
Early Archery — antlerless (combined pool)	55	15	100.0%	—

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

Arizona uses a weighted random bonus point draw for elk. Each bonus point adds an additional random number to your application. Residents receive 90 percent of tags.

Unit Logistics & Expectations

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Frequently Asked Questions

How does the Unit 07E elk draw work?

AZGFD uses a weighted random bonus point draw; each bonus point adds an additional random number, improving but not guaranteeing odds. Residents get 90 percent of tags.

When are the elk seasons in Unit 07E?

Arizona elk seasons run from late August archery through late fall rifle and muzzleloader hunts. Confirm specific dates in the current AZGFD regulations.

Free Hunt Planning Tools

🎰 Arizona Draw Odds Unit-level tag success rates 📅 Application Timeline Deadlines for all 9 states 🦌 Rut Forecast Peak rut timing by species 💰 Hunt Cost Calculator Budget your entire hunt

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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, Permit 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, Draw outcomes · accessed 2026-04-17