Unit 29 gets hammered in the early hunts. If you can glass from the roads so can everyone else, which is what most people do. The rut dosen't kick in usually until after Christmas anyway, but I saw a nice old buck with does in early November and heard from a friend that he saw something similar about the same time. The whole unit is good, but steep and you have to work hard for a nice buck unless you get lucky, which happens. Seems like most people hit Pinery Canyon and on the Portal side of the road. I hunted it in the early December hunt last year and camped out all but 2 days (9 days) and finally my brother and I shot meat bucks after seeing nothing but small bucks. Without scouting it the best strategy is to find hard steep spots and climb a couple miles away from roads where there's water on the map. Water is everywhere now but the summer was dry. With the rut you may get lucky. I lived in SE Arizona and hunted this area 46 years. Never shot a booner, but shot some good bucks there. I wish I had hunted for trophies when I was younger. You might be surprised at the deer in the thick stuff. With the few tags and the rut some of those hard hunted areas will likely start getting the older smarter survivor bucks starting to chase the does.
