Arizona Elk — Unit 16A
Arizona Unit 16A covers 1,580,165 acres and lies 28 miles east of Lake Havasu City and 40 miles south of Kingman. 81% of it is public land, mostly BLM (75%) and state trust land (5%). In 2025, 14 people hunted elk here and took 10 — 71% of them killed something. The 2026 draw put up 8 tags here for 11 first-choice applicants.
Your chance of drawing here
Every elk license type on offer in Unit 16A, with the prior-draw chance for a first-choice nonresident applicant. Type your points in to see your own number.
Chances are from the 2026 draw (the most recent) for a first-choice nonresident. "Points needed" = the cut in the last draw.
Simple view Odds at every point level-
3112 MUZZLELOADER ELK | Any elk | 16A (excluding Mohave County Park Lands) 6 tags · 23 applicants · needed 11 pts2% Point builder 5% as 2nd choice
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6% Point builder 8% as 2nd choice
| Hunt | Your odds (0 pts) | As 2nd choice | Points needed | Tags / applicants | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3112 ↗ MUZZLELOADER ELK | Any elk | 16A (excluding Mohave County Park Lands) Muzzleloader | 2% Point builder | 5% | 11 −4 since 2025 | 6 / 23 | Sep 25 – Oct 15, 2026 |
| 3189 ↗ ARCHERY-ONLY ELK | Any elk | 16A (excluding Mohave County Park Lands) Archery | 6% Point builder | 8% | — | 8 / 11 | Sep 4–24, 2026 |
What these columns mean
- Your odds —
- the share of applicants at your point level who drew this tag in the 2026 draw. Not a forecast: quotas and demand move every year.
- The badge —
- plain language for that number. Likely draw 75% or better · Real chance 40%+ · Long shot 15%+ · Point builder below that, so you are applying mainly to bank a point · Undersubscribed means fewer first-choice applicants than tags, so everyone who applied drew.
- As 2nd choice —
- Arizona lets you name more than one hunt on the application. Miss on your first choice and you go into the pot for whatever tags are left, alongside everyone else's second choices. Points never help a lower choice, so this number is the same whatever you have banked — it is usually worth naming a hunt that goes undersubscribed.
- Points needed —
- the lowest point total that still got a tag in the 2026 draw, and how that cut has moved since the earliest draw we hold.
- Tags / applicants —
- tags on offer and first-choice applicants for them, as the agency published them. Under five tags we print counts instead of a percentage, because one applicant either way swings it.
What it costs to apply (2026 nonresident fees)
| License | Up front | Gone if you miss | If you draw |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per application | $175 | $175 | $825 |
Application window: opens Jan 13, closes Feb 3, 2027 (expected). Full fee breakdown.
Other licenses valid in Unit 16A
Not in the table above because they had no result in the 2026 draw.
The country
Boundaries are drawn for orientation only — the written boundary description in the regulations governs.
Who owns the ground
- BLM 1,180,380 ac · 75%
- Private 299,197 ac · 19%
- State trust land 82,336 ac · 5%
- Department of Defense 10,399 ac · 1%
- Bureau of Reclamation 3,053 ac · 0%
- National Wildlife Refuge 2,540 ac · 0%
- Other public 2,241 ac · 0%
- State land 16 ac · 0%
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.
| Season | Hunters | Harvest | Success |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 14 | 10 | 71% |
| 2024 | 14 | 5 | 36% |
| 2023 | 6 | 5 | 83% |
| 2022 | 7 | 7 | 100% |
| 2021 | 6 | 5 | 83% |
| 2020 | 7 | 8 | 100% |
| 2019 | 7 | 7 | 100% |
| 2018 | 3 | 3 | 100% |
| 2017 | 6 | 3 | 50% |
What people carried (2025 harvest)
- Archery 6 · 60% · 8 hunters, 75% success
- Firearm 4 · 40% · 6 hunters, 67% success
What the agency says about the area
Unit 16A – Beginning at Kingman on I-40 (Exit 48); south and west on I-40 to U.S. Hwy 95 (Exit 9); southerly on U.S. Hwy 95 to the Bill Williams River; easterly along the Bill Williams and Santa Maria rivers to U.S. Hwy 93; north on U.S. Hwy 93 to I-40 (Exit 71); west on I-40 to Kingman (Exit 48).
Boundary: AZ Game and Fish Hunt Units (AZGFD ArcGIS feature service, layer 0)
Harvest: 2025 AZ Elk Harvest Summary
Harvest: 2024 AZ Elk Harvest Summary
Harvest: 2023 AZ Elk Harvest Summary