Ladas wrote:
I'm envious you are allowed to go after a buck without first having bagged a couple does.
It's been at least 10yrs since I've seen any doe tags offered up in the the hunt application listings, We used have choices for antlered muley, muley doe, antlered white tail, white tale doe, and a very limited any deer option. Az doesn't have the over population problem of some other states. Our game and fish department. is very active in areas of population management, whether is based on maintaining, curtailing or promote populations of the different species in the state.
I believe they are working on increasing the deer population overall, more does equals more breeders, one buck can bang a whole lot of does.
you have to apply for a hunt for each species, you select five choices, choices are arranged by dates and areas. so for instance this year I put in for 1- Unit 8 muley late hunt, 2-unit 9 muley late hunt, 3-unit 10 Whitetail mid season, 4-unit 9 unit 8 late hunt, 5-unit 34a mid season.
It works the same for elk, Antelope, havelina.
I only selected unit 34a as my last choice as I have a small house in Rio Rico that is located inside the hunt area. It was a given if didn't get drawn for my other choices I would get a tag for 34a, very few people like to hunt down there due to the immigration situation there are often tags left over for the southern AZ units.
Since I didn't fill my Tag I contacted G&F and they said they would allow me (for a small fee) to exchange my tag for the mid December hunt in the same unit as they have about 150 tags left over.
It's a complex process involving draws, hunter points, unit, and time of hunt. It all has to do with animal populations and regions.