Arizona Deer — Unit 38M

Arizona Unit 38M covers 491,119 acres and lies 4 miles north-west of Tucson and 16 miles south of Oro Valley. 32% of it is public land, mostly state trust land (20%) and national park (4%). In 2025, 366 people hunted deer here and took 29 — 8% of them killed something.

All deer success (2025):8% Public land:32% Size:491,119 acres

Your chance of drawing here

Arizona Game & Fish Department has not offered a deer license in Unit 38M in any draw we hold. It has a page because the agency still publishes harvest for it — the Arizona deer hunts that are on offer are drawn elsewhere.

The country

Tucson Sierra Vista Eloy Safford Queen Creek
Unit 38M within Arizona
32 33 34A 34B 36A 36C 37A Tucson Oro Valley Sahuarita Benson
Unit 38M and its neighbours
Zoomable USGS topo, aerial imagery and shaded relief, with the neighboring areas drawn on.

Boundaries are drawn for orientation only — the written boundary description in the regulations governs.

Who owns the ground

  • Private 330,996 ac · 67%
  • State trust land 95,785 ac · 20%
  • National Park Service 21,661 ac · 4%
  • County or city land 20,432 ac · 4%
  • Department of Defense 10,473 ac · 2%
  • Bureau of Reclamation 4,177 ac · 1%
  • BLM 3,869 ac · 1%
  • Tribal 2,305 ac · 0%
  • Other public 1,293 ac · 0%
  • National Forest 62 ac · 0%
  • State land 60 ac · 0%

Source: BLM AZ Surface Management Agency (Polygon)

How the hunting has gone

What Arizona Game & Fish Department publishes for this area after each season — harvest statistics for everyone who hunted it, not draw odds and not a forecast. Arizona Game & Fish Department publishes these per hunt rather than per unit; the rows below add its own figures together, since a hunter holds one tag for the species in a season. Arizona's figures come from AZGFD's post-season hunter questionnaire - survey estimates carrying a 90% confidence interval and a return count, not a census of animals checked in.

All deer

Season Hunters Harvest Success
2025 366 29 8%
2024 208 26 13%
2023 193 32 17%
2022 330 19 6%
2021 435 94 22%
2020 377 71 19%
2019 310 29 9%
2018 386 49 13%

Mule Deer

Season Hunters Harvest Success
2025 28
2024 24
2023 32
2022 19
2021 89
2020 67
2019 29
2018 44

White-tailed Deer

Season Hunters Harvest Success
2025 1
2024 2
2021 5
2020 4
2018 5

What people carried (2025 harvest)

  • Archery 58 · 100% · 366 hunters, 16% success

What the agency says about the area

Unit 38M – Beginning at the junction of I-10 and Tangerine Rd. (Exit 240); southeast on I-10 to Avra Valley Rd. (Exit 242); west on Avra Valley Rd. to Sandario Rd.; south on Sandario Rd. to the San Xavier Indian Reservation boundary; south and east along the reservation boundary to I-19; south on I-19 to Sahuarita Rd. (Exit 75); east on Sahuarita Rd. to AZ Hwy 83; north on AZ Hwy 83 to I-10 (Exit 281); east on I-10…

Source: Arizona Game and Fish Laws and Rules Book (July 23, 2026 edition; A.R.S. Title 17 + A.A.C. Title 12, Chapter 4)

Boundary: AZ Game and Fish Hunt Units (AZGFD ArcGIS feature service, layer 0)

Harvest: 2025 AZ Over-the-Counter Archery Deer Harvest Summary

Harvest: 2024 AZ Over-the-Counter Archery Deer Harvest Summary

Harvest: 2023 AZ Over-the-Counter Archery Deer Harvest Summary

How we compute draw odds · All Arizona deer hunts