Need Help Finding Deer and Elk in Your Hunt Unit?

Need Help Finding Deer, Elk, Turkey, Antelope or Other Big Game Animals in Your Arizona Hunt Unit?
The Arizona Hunting Club now has arranged a deal for its members with a service called Arizona Scouting Adventures. They are similar to a hunting guide service, but they cost a lot less and they will actually teach you how to hunt. They are instrumental in helping hunters that want to locate deer, elk, turkey, javelina, antelope, coyotes, etc., etc.

The scouting adventures are very education and teach hunters how to hunt by teaching them a great deal of information about the biology of the animals, their behavior and their habitat. Tutorials will include section on food sources, daily travel patterns, herd dynamics, animal communication, breeding/rut, seasonal herd locations, the affects of weather, and hunting strategies.

The goal of the scouting trip is to help you locate the game animal of choice and define up to three locations where you should be able to setup a hunting blind or tree stand and fill your tag on opening morning. Click here to take a tour of a recent Arizona Hunt Unit Briefing.

The cost is reasonable compared to a hunting guide, which can cost up to $5,000 for a 4-day hunt.

Arizona Scouting Adventures charges $500 for the first hunter, or $300 each for groups of two or more hunters. Click here to pay for Arizona Hunt Unit Briefing Session or to buy a copy of the Arizona Hunting Workbook.

The scouting adventures are not just for hunters. Anyone seeking to take digital photographs of wild game animals will benefit from the scouting adventures.

Instead of actively guiding the hunt for you during the hunt season, the Arizona Scouts take you on a scouting trip to your hunt unit prior to your hunt and teach you the methodology of locating animals in your hunt unit prior to the actual hunt.

Hunters receive the following hunting information and tutorials:

• Hunting in Arizona Workbook, an online 65-page workbook that teaches technical hunting skills
  
• Tutorial on game animal’s behavior patterns and preferred watering, feeding and bedding areas
  
• Tutorial on the hunt’s unit animal population, activity and preferred living locations
  
• Tutorial on game animal’s communication sounds and motions
  
• Tutorial on diagramming topographic maps, setting waypoints on a GPS and scouting a hunt unit
  
• Tutorial on finding game trails, tracks, rub/scrape lines and fresh signs in the field
  
• Tutorial on determining the best strategies for morning and evening hunts
  
• Tutorial on picking the three best hunting spots to successfully fill a hunting tag
  
• Up to 10 hours of scouting time covering three or more good locations in the hunt unit
  
• Free question and answer session via telephone pre/post hunt (can’t participate in actual hunt)
  

Required items to attend a scouting trip:

• High clearance vehicle, preferably with 4x4 drive
  
• Good hiking books
  
• Binoculars
  
• GPS unit to record hunting spots
  
• 7.5 minute quadrangle maps ($6 each at http://www.usgs.gov...)
  
• Note pad and pencil for notes
  
• Digital camera to take pictures of animals and hunting spots
  
• Camping gear
  
• Food/drinks
  
• Warm rain/snow gear for bad weather
  

Here is the schedule for a typical scouting trip:

On Friday night we set up camp in an area close to several preferred scouting areas. We will spend the Friday evening examining topographic maps and planning three areas to scout for the next day. We will also discuss animal herds, travel patterns, prevailing winds and good morning and evening hunting spots.

On Saturday morning, the first spot we will scout will be a potential intercept spot located between the game animal’s nighttime watering and feeding areas and their daytime bedding areas. The second spot we will be scouting protected feeding areas and hillside benches. The third spot usually includes a staging area where animals gather, socialize and wait for it to get dark so they can get a drink of water. The fourth spot is usually very close to the staging area. As the animals move from the staging area to the watering hole, we strive to setup at a good intercept spot in between the staging area and the water hole.

After dark, we head back to camp for a debriefing session, when hunters and the scout will determine the three best spots to hunt as well as recommend which spots will be best for morning and evening hunts. In addition, attendees can ask questions about anything that they saw, heard or experienced during the scouting trip that they would like to understand better.

The trips are extremely helpful, even for experienced hunters. The Arizona Scouts are seasoned hunters that spend a tremendous amount of time in the field and are extremely smart about where the animals are most likely to be located. They are also extremely helpful in showing hunters the best and fastest ways to access the best hunting areas in the unit.

To let you see what you will experience on a guided scouting trip, please take a virtual tour with us of a scouting trip we did for two hunters that have an October cow elk tag for Arizona Hunting Unit 5B North.