Arizona Best Times to Hunt

The Arizona calendar runs in the Phoenix timezone (America/Phoenix). Major and minor periods on this page are already shifted to local AZ time, so you can match them directly against your sunrise and sunset. Skip daylight saving time and you skip half the timing headaches that bother neighboring states — except for one quirk: the Navajo Nation does observe it, so units 5A and 5B can be an hour off from the rest of the state for half the year. Coues whitetail hunters in 33, 34A, 35A operate on a December-into-January rut clock that defies the November expectations most newcomers bring with them. Strip and Kaibab muleys cruise the same late window. Elk archery in mid-September catches bugling bulls in the high country before the November rifle hunts shift into post-rut feeding. One non-obvious factor: bright moonlit nights in the desert push javelina and quail into pre-dawn movement instead of the classic last-light bump, so plan accordingly.

Skip daylight saving time and you skip half the timing headaches that bother neighboring states — except for one quirk: the Navajo Nation does observe it, so units 5A and 5B can be an hour off from the rest of the state for half the year. Coues whitetail hunters in 33, 34A, 35A operate on a December-into-January rut clock that defies the November expectations most newcomers bring with them. Strip and Kaibab muleys cruise the same late window. Elk archery in mid-September catches bugling bulls in the high country before the November rifle hunts shift into post-rut feeding. One non-obvious factor: bright moonlit nights in the desert push javelina and quail into pre-dawn movement instead of the classic last-light bump, so plan accordingly.