Arizona Elk 3803 — Unit 5B

General | Bull elk | 05B

What you may take
General | Bull elk | 05B (antlered)
Weapon
Rifle
Where
Unit 5B
84% public of 518,083 acres
Season (2025)
Nov 28 – Dec 4, 2025
Tags (2026)
1
for 0 first-choice applicants · nonresidents capped at 10%
Hunter success here (2025)
46%
of everyone who hunted the area

Showing nonresident results. Switch to resident

Odds by point level — 2026 draw

No first-choice applicants: 1 tag on offer in 2026 and nobody listed this hunt first. Anyone who had would have drawn.

Prior-draw probability for a first-choice nonresident applicant. 1 tags, 0 first-choice applicants. Source: 2026 M Draw Report · p. 60.

Points Your chance Applicants Drawn
0 85% 0 0
1 85% 0 0
2 85% 0 0
3 85% 0 0
4 85%
5 85% 0 0
6–10 85% the pool average — a floor for anyone holding points, since each point adds entries

Unweighted tags ÷ applicants — state did not publish pools. Arizona Game & Fish Department publishes no per-level counts for this hunt; each point adds entries (points + 1), so the pool average is a floor for anyone holding points and an overstatement for a first-year applicant. How we compute these.

What it costs (2026 nonresident fees)

Cash to apply
$175
Out of pocket if unsuccessful
$175
Total if drawn
$825
Refunded if unsuccessful
$0

At the 2026 odds, expected cost per hunt-year ranges from $856.82 (enough points to draw) to $856.82 (lowest published odds).

Nonresident hunt permit-tag application fee (per applicant, per species) · paid at application $15 source
Nonresident Combination Hunt and Fish license (only NR license valid for the draw; valid 1 year from purchase) · paid at application $160 source
Bonus point only (application fee; no tag fee) · only for a point bought without applying — an unsuccessful applicant gets the point free $15 source
Nonresident elk hunt permit-tag (charged only if drawn; booklet price $665 includes the $15 application fee) · paid if drawn $650 source

Optional, not counted above: PointGuard (optional tag-surrender insurance, per species per applicant) $10 and PointGuard Plus (optional; all eligible species for three consecutive draw cycles) $25.

Not applying this year? A point-only purchase costs $15 (Jan 13 – Feb 3, expected) and adds a point for next year's draw.

Next application window: opens Jan 13, closes Feb 3, 2027 (expected) · results ~February 23. Last cycle's schedule rolled forward — confirm when the agency publishes.

Point creep & years to draw

Insufficient history (0 of 3 draws) — a creep trend needs at least three draw years with a published drew-out level.

Seasons (2025)

Split 1: Nov 28 – Dec 4, 2025 p. 5

How this tag has hunted

Across every license type in Unit 5B, Arizona Game & Fish Department counted 642 hunters and 298 elk taken in 2025 — 46% of them killed something. Full Unit 5B profile: maps, public land, five years of harvest →

Hunters holding this license type (2025) — the rest of the area's hunters held something else:

What they hunted Hunters Harvest Success Days per animal
Type General Bull 619 284 46%
Type General Bull (Hopi) 23 14 61%

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. Source: 2025 AZ Elk Harvest Summary 2024 AZ Elk Harvest Summary

Year by year

The standard draw for nonresidents, one row per year.

Year Tags Applicants Applicants per tag Points needed Source
2026 1 0 0.0 2026 M Draw Report · p. 60
2025 2 0 0.0 2025 M Draw Report · p. 60
2024 1 0 0.0 2024 M Draw Report · p. 48
2023 1 0 0.0 2023 M Draw Report · p. 37

Other licenses valid in Unit 5B

Legal cartridges for elk in Arizona

From the Arizona hunting laws rules on file for a rifle. "Depends" means the rule turns on your specific load — check the state page.

.22-250 Remington
.223 Remington from $0.42/rd
.243 Winchester from $1.11/rd
.25-06 Remington
6.5 Creedmoor
6.5 Grendel
.270 Winchester from $0.16/rd
7mm-08 Remington
7mm Remington Magnum
.30-06 Springfield
.300 AAC Blackout from $0.56/rd
.300 Winchester Magnum from $1.25/rd
.30-30 Winchester
.308 Winchester
.338 Winchester Magnum
.350 Legend from $1.07/rd
.35 Whelen
.360 Buckhammer
.400 Legend
.444 Marlin
.450 Bushmaster from $2.00/rd
.45-70 Government from $1.97/rd
.50 Beowulf
Spot a data error on this page? Tell us.

Every report is checked against the agency source before we change anything.

How to read these numbers

Every percentage on this page is a prior-draw probability: the chance an applicant with that many points would have drawn in the draw year shown, computed from the agency's published results. It is not a forecast — quotas, applicant numbers, and point creep change every year. Every figure links to the agency document it came from. Where a state does not publish a number, we show a dash, never a zero. Hunts with fewer than five tags show counts instead of percentages. Fees show the fee year used. Read the methodology for the engine details.

Not an application service

This page is informational only. Draw rules, quotas, fees, and deadlines are set by the state agency and change by commission action — confirm everything on the agency's own site before you apply, and apply through the agency, not here. We disclaim all liability for reliance on this page.