LAST EDITED ON Jul-20-16 AT 04:41AM (MST)[p]First off Arizona has some of the best hunting around in my opinion. Being that you will only be here for two to three years puts a limit on what hunts that you will have time to draw. Being that you'll be in the Tucson area whitetail live in most of the mountains around there and they're fun to hunt and pretty easy to get drawn for. Most of the hunters during the rifle whitetail hunts glass the deer up. A lot of the units around Tucson are good for whitetail except for maybe like unit 30a.
If you got a bow and want good odds at drawing an archery mule deer tag within three years than you might look at units 12a (Kaibab), or unit 3a/3c. Those are both quality hunts for a bow and you will see lots of deer on them. You could also buy an over the counter archery deer tag and hunt in August or December/January. During the over the counter archery deer hunts during January with either whitetail or mule deer they are rutting. Most people glass with spot and stalk or sit water for those hunts. The mule deer during those hunts usually stay in the flats while the whitetail hang on the mountains. I'm not familiar with the mule deer around Tucson but any of the units that are open are good if you get a on a high point and glass for rutting deer.
Since you like mule deer the best units for rifle are like 12a, 13a, 13b, 3a/3c. These units could take years to draw though for rifle. If you want a rifle mule deer tag and a shot at drawing in three years you might look at the units around the Flagstaff area. Units like 6a,6b,7,8,10,9,5b all have mule deer but the quality and quantity isn't as good as like the units north of the grand canyon. Around Tucson more in the flats has mule deer but I'm not too familiar with which unit is better than another down there. I seem to hear decent things about unit 42, unit 27, and unit 23 for mule deer. These units should be easier to draw than units like 13b,13a,12a, and 3a/3c.
Almost all of the elk units have good quality and quantities for elk. The most sought after units for quality bull elk are units like 23,10,9,1,3a/3c,. These units that I just mentioned could take years to draw for bull elk. Units like 7w,8,27 are also high on the list. Even units like 6a,6b,11m,7e,4a,4b,22,5a, and 5b are also quality units but the quality bulls will be a little tougher to find. All of the units that I mentioned for elk also have good quantities of cow elk in them if you wanted to hunt cow elk.
