Overview: The opening of the Unit 7&9 bear hunt was moved from late to early October in 2006. This was to be consistent with some other bear hunts and new bear hunt guidelines, but the female harvest objective for both combined units has remained at 1 female. Units 7&9 do not have large populations of bear. In the last 5 years, 8 bears have been harvested (4 males and 4 females) and the female quota was reached in  2007 and 2008. Half the bears harvested in the last 5 years were taken in 2008, in which the most females were ever harvested at 3 last year.
 
Areas: In the fall, male bears can range over wide areas and may occur in any forested or woody habitat in the unit. Most bear sign; however, will likely be located near the San Francisco Peaks, Kendrick Mountain, and Sitgreaves Mountain. Generally speaking, bears in Unit 7 are not tied to a localized food source, but feed over a wide area. The main reason for this is that there are few stands of Gamble oaks. Thus bears often feed on ants, beetles, and grubs in decayed logs and under rocks or on green forbs/grasses that are widely distributed. If you locate an area where a bear is active, try predator calling or sitting at waters sources visited by bears. Also, you may want to buy a bear tag just in case you happen to run into one while hunting something else.
SPECIAL REGULATION: All successful bear hunters must contact the department within 48 hours of harvest and present the head, hide and attached proof of sex within 10 days. Refer to the Hunting Regulations for details.

Elk

NOTE: ALL ELK HUNTS IN UNIT 7 ARE DESIGNATED EITHER 7W (West) OR 7E (EAST).
Overview: Elk occur throughout most all of the habitat types in Unit 7. Typically, they are not found in open low elevation grasslands north and east of the Peaks. During most of the hunts, elk are on summer range. The highest densities of elk on summer range are usually at elevations above the pinion-juniper habitat type. However, elk are sensitive to food availability and will move to lower elevations if summer rains improve forage conditions there. Burned areas appeal to elk, but the animals usually abandon such open sites before or after the first day of the hunts.
Elk will normally stay on summer range until significant snowfall (18-24”), pushes them out onto the winter range on the western and northern portions of the unit. The bulls usually can be found earlier on the winter range than cows in response to forage switching due to cured out grass on the summer range.  

Due to concerns over aspen regeneration in Unit 7, and particularly 7-E, elk densities have been reduced over the past 12 years. Due to reduced elk densities in 7-E, the lowest number of tags ever given in 7-E occurred in 2006, but has been creeping up again due to higher calf crops and above guideline bull ratios. Conversely, the highest number of tags for 7-W  occurred in 2006 Overall bull permits were dropped in 2009, from a lower trend in bull ratios and the rotating in of the early rifle bull hunt.  

Areas:
7-E: Areas to scout out include the Hochderffer Hills, White Horse Hills, Saddle Mountain and west and north of Maverick Butte. Additionally, elk can be found in areas from Maverick Butte east to O’Leary Mountain. Good elk densities can be found along the edge of the Kachina Peaks Wilderness. As stated above, with the current lower elk densities in 7-E, scouting prior to your hunt will be key in being successful.
7-W: Government Prairie,  Sitgreaves Mountain, Slate Mountain and Kendrick Mountain, out on the lower elevation hills to the west and the southwest corner of the unit near Williams are good places to start. Again, scouting prior to your hunt will be key in being successful.

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Mule Deer

Overview: Mule deer occur throughout Unit 7 except in the lowest and most open grasslands. Since the early to mid 1990’s the deer numbers and hunt successes have declined. However, the 2005 hunt reversed that trend with a more than doubling of the hunt success and harvest. Additionally, the fawn crops in ‘04 and ’05 were over 50% and were the 2 highest years since 1990. Most of the harvested bucks in ’05 and ’06 were 1-2 year olds, reflecting these 2 high fawn crops. Fawn crops have remained about average since and hunt success has remained in the upper range of or above guidelines since. For this reason a junior’s only hunt was added this year in October.

The archery harvest in Unit 7 has been above guidelines in 3 of the last 5 years. In the last 3 years, archers averaged 23% of the total harvest. For this reason the archery deer hunt was added to the draw in 2008. With less hunters in the field during the 2008 archery season, archery hunt success tripled. For this reason archery permits were cut in half from 800 to 400 permits in 2009 in an attempt to lower the total archery harvest to under guidelines at 20% of the total deer taken in Unit 7,  

Areas: The first day or two of the hunt, deer densities will be highest on the burns north and east of the San Francisco Peaks like White Horse Hills, Saddle Mountain and the Hochderffer Hills. Conversely, hunter densities are also highest there. The pinion-juniper habitats at lower elevations throughout the unit contain some mature animals, but their densities are  lower than the higher elevations, a Mature bucks also occur at higher elevations on the San Francisco Peaks and Kendrick Mountain, but again, lower densities of bucks and thicker vegetation make hunting difficult.

Most years, snow during the hunt will not be deep enough to drive animals to lower elevations. However,  deer will move to winter range if temperatures fall to the low teens prior to the hunt.

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Merriam's Turkey

Overview: Wild turkeys occur throughout the ponderosa pine forest, mixed conifer and spruce-fir forests in summer and into early fall (including the spring and fall seasons). Meadows and the edges of grasslands are important to hens with poults seeking insects and for turkeys seeking green herbaceous vegetation when mast is in short supply. The primary mast species in Unit 7 are ponderosa pine, juniper, and pinion pine. Unlike other turkey units around Flagstaff, oaks trees are scarce in Unit 7. When ponderosa pine seed is abundant, the birds can be found throughout the fairly extensive Ponderosa stands in the unit.

The ’03 and ’05 poult crops were higher than the previous 12 years. The ’07 and ’08 harvests were the highest in Unit 7 going back to 1990. Hunt successes have been at or higher than the state wide averages since 2006. These poult crops, higher hunt successes and an increase in turkeys seen by archery elk hunters the last couple years indicate an increased turkey population in Unit 7 over the previous 10-12 years. Areas: Most gobblers will be found around the three dominant mountains in the unit: Sitgreaves Mountain, Kendrick Mountain, and the San Francisco Peaks. Another place to check for gobblers is the southwest comer of the unit near Williams, Slate Mountain, Wildcat Hill and north of Slate Lakes. In early spring, the gobblers will often travel to higher elevations where snow covers more than 50% of the ground. If roads are closed because of road conditions, do not hesitate to park and hike in to hunt in the spring. The closure of roads can improve your chances for getting a gobbler by reducing interference with other hunters driving the roads.

In the fall, try most any of the mature Ponderosa stand areas especially close to mountain bases and canyons and the edges of all the mountain meadows.