The clock is ticking down toward Arizona’s elk and antelope draw deadline at 11:59 PM on February 6th. Many applicants are quietly biding their time (see procrastination) until just before the deadline to finalize their applications. While you are daydreaming about that giant desert buck or bull, we will provide a few details to mull over until the last minute.

First, Arizona’s draw webpage is notoriously unreliable. There hasn’t been a server crash on the day of the deadline for a few years, but there was a time when this was common place. Veteran Arizona applicants get their applications submitted a few days before February 6th to avoid a technical issue creating a snafu. 

Along these same lines, the application process is not as streamlined and efficient as most other states. There is no shopping cart option that allows you to add multiple applications and checkout at once. A separate application has to be submitted for every hunter for every species. You will have to enter your social security number three times per application. You must know your hunting license number. Each application takes 5-7 minutes, plan accordingly, especially if you need to submit multiple applicants for multiple species.

Second, remember that Arizona has a 365 day hunting license. The advantage of this is that if you plan properly you can apply for species more than once with a single license. The disadvantage is that licenses often end up expiring at odd times, usually around the draw deadline. Be mindful of when your license expires, IT MUST BE VALID ON THE DEADLINE (2/6), or your application will be rejected. I’ve learned this lesson the hard way. Again, having multiple applicants can complicate this, especially if you don’t purchase all of your licenses at the same time.

Third, once you submit an application it cannot be changed. Even if you realize you have made a mistake before the draw even occurs, the department will not allow you to modify or withdraw the application. Again, I know this from personal experience. For this reason I always purchase point guard (or point guard plus) which allows me to return a tag before the season opens and have bonus points restored as if I had not been drawn this year. For $5 it’s cheap insurance for points that can take years to build up.

Good luck in the draw and be sure to login to TagHub for full analysis of every Western State.