Forum rules
Welcome to the Leverguns.Com General Discussions Forum. This is a high-class place so act respectable. We discuss most anything here other than politics... politely.
Please post political post in the new Politics forum.
I worked in northern California for 11 years. I used to bring home two coastal bucks each and every year. Less lucky in the Sierras but a couple nice trophies taken in Carson-Iceberg Wilderness of Alpine County. Deer hunting rifle season for A Zone (coastal mts) opened first Saturday of AUG for rifle. My friend and I hunted Bureau of Reclamation lands adjacent to a large reservoir. We "camped out" on his Dad's boat and hunted early morning. Usually, by 10 AM we had our bucks down, skinned, quartered, and covered with ice in large coolers. Remainder of day was spent waterskiing. It doesn't get much better than that.
Coastal deer are smallish compared to Sierra bucks. These two bucks weighed about 140 lbs each. But just the right size for carrying out quartered animal on a pack frame in just one trip.
These two California bucks didn't have armor-plating that morning. Savage 99 in .308 clobbered two bucks with two shots. What a morning!
Photo was e-copied from an older glossy picture taken in 1993. That's me when I was a younger man.
Jack
Fire Up the Grill - Hunting is NOT Catch & Release!
Hunted in CA for about 10 years. Took me 6 years to decide I was capable of getting into the woods in camo w/o going nuts after coming from VN the last time, took about 5 deer in that time. 3 forked horns and a 3X4 that field dressed @ ~175lbs.
Took one outta D-9, the 3X4 outta X-10 and two outta the Bridgeport area and one outta the Mount Lassen NF. All were Coastal Blacktails, but varied greatly in size. The forky I took from Orange County (Cleveland NF) was the smallest @ ~90lbs and was the toughest to get out. About 3oo yards down a 12% grade, no trails or anything. Good thing I was still in shape and able to carry it! Went from jacket & longhandles in the morning to t-shirt in the afternoon.
Always wanted to hunt bear up near Shasta, but...
Edited: to add pic of that 3X4, (my partners forky is on the left).
Last edited by Griff on Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:03 am, edited 1 time in total.
Griff,
SASS/CMSA #93
NRA Patron
GUSA #93
There is a fine line between hobby & obsession! AND... I'm over it!!
No I ain't ready, but let's do it anyway!
t.r.
Nice bucks. Any two bucks in one year is a feat in Cali. It sounds like you were dialed into a nice setup. I hope to be so lucky someday. I'm one deer for 8 years in Cali But that's OK, I'm still getting them in other states just fine.
scr83jp wrote:There have been sizeable Mule deer taken from the eastern Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County .
Those are transplanted Rocky Mtn Mulies. And yes, they are "full size." But SSHHHHH!! It's getting exceedingly difficult to "draw" there and it will likely soon be an X zone.
I used to hunt a D zone near Sequoia NF, d-7? I also hunted an X zone right outside Truckee. The d zones were great but the X zone was always a winner. That was some good times and fellowship with friends.
MikeS.
Master Mason
Worshipful Master of Triluminar Lodge 117
Jefferson county, WV.
I envy you guys the nice field photos but did not expect to get a deer on the last day of the season. This one I saw before he saw me. He didn't check his calendar.
I'd say he weighed about 120-130 lbs, I dragged him about 3 miles, which nearly finished me off. Next time I hope to be a little better prepared.
"I'll tell you what living is. You get up when you feel like it. You fry yourself some eggs. You see what kind of a day it is."
Its been a lot of years since I hunted these coastal deer. But used to be that I'd see a dozen or more does for every buck. This results from decades of no doe seasons in the region.
The deer in higher elevations of Plumas and Alpine counties are much larger. We saw a couple truley magnificent bucks at Lassen Nat'l Park. I took my largest west coast buck on eastern side of Sierras. Less than 10 miles from Markleeville. Because of tail shape and coloration, my theory is that some genes were donated from Nevada desert deer.
I'll dig through my old photos to see if I can share more California deer photos taken with lever rifles.
TR
Fire Up the Grill - Hunting is NOT Catch & Release!
I live in Modoc County and all of it is X-zone and all deer tags are drawn. However, some of the finest deer hunting in CA is in the C-zones which cover parts of Siskiyou, Shasta, Tehama, Butte, Lassen, and Plumas Counties. C-zone tags are walk-in over the counter tags that are first come first served until they run out. No drawings -- just walk in and buy a tag.
For you guys down in San Diego, there are many many deer there. Out in the area of Julian, Ramona, and then a little further North over towards Jacumba you can hardly turn around without seeing a deer. I believe parts of that area are walk-in tags too -- or at least they used to be.
71fan wrote:t.r.
Nice bucks. Any two bucks in one year is a feat in Cali. It sounds like you were dialed into a nice setup. I hope to be so lucky someday. I'm one deer for 8 years in Cali But that's OK, I'm still getting them in other states just fine.
scr83jp wrote:There have been sizeable Mule deer taken from the eastern Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County .
Those are transplanted Rocky Mtn Mulies. And yes, they are "full size." But SSHHHHH!! It's getting exceedingly difficult to "draw" there and it will likely soon be an X zone.
I know all about it since I live in the county & have hunted it but with the modified Pref Point system when I put in for points I can't get drawn as a second choice.With rain populations of quail,chukar,cottontails & jacks explode,in 05 small game populations were huge.I only have to drive I 10 to SR62 out thru 29 palms then take amboy road to national trails out old 66 to essex .That's the short cut to laughlin told all of LE guys I worked with about that route.They started using it ,lots of canadian tagged cars use it to get to laughlin from the palm desert area.
Modoc ED wrote:For you guys down in San Diego, there are many many deer there. Out in the area of Julian, Ramona, and then a little further North over towards Jacumba you can hardly turn around without seeing a deer. I believe parts of that area are walk-in tags too -- or at least they used to be.
Huh. Well I don't know what I've been doing for eight years. And the reported 5% success rate....
Jacumba is southeast of Julian and Ramona toward the desert along I-8. Are you thinking of Palomar? There are a few more deer up that direction, or so we've been told.
Next time you're down our way I'd love to visit some of your old haunts with you, because we sure aren't finding them and we have a LOT of time in the field in all the areas you mentioned. Oh they're here, to be sure, but there are not a lot of them and surely nobody's tripping over them. And of course we'd bring a few leverguns and find some BLM land to perforate.
Last edited by 71fan on Thu Apr 17, 2008 11:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
scr83jp wrote:I know all about it since I live in the county & have hunted it but with the modified Pref Point system when I put in for points I can't get drawn as a second choice.With rain populations of quail,chukar,cottontails & jacks explode,in 05 small game populations were huge.I only have to drive I 10 to SR62 out thru 29 palms then take amboy road to national trails out old 66 to essex .That's the short cut to laughlin told all of LE guys I worked with about that route.They started using it ,lots of canadian tagged cars use it to get to laughlin from the palm desert area.
Yep. We drew D17 as 2nd choice for several years, then last year nothing. And the over-the-counter tags sold out before the draw?? It's screwy. Well, as soon as I draw my G3 tag I'll just start buying D17 over-the-counter and forget the draw
Modoc ED wrote:I live in Modoc County and all of it is X-zone and all deer tags are drawn. However, some of the finest deer hunting in CA is in the C-zones which cover parts of Siskiyou, Shasta, Tehama, Butte, Lassen, and Plumas Counties. C-zone tags are walk-in over the counter tags that are first come first served until they run out. No drawings -- just walk in and buy a tag.
For you guys down in San Diego, there are many many deer there. Out in the area of Julian, Ramona, and then a little further North over towards Jacumba you can hardly turn around without seeing a deer. I believe parts of that area are walk-in tags too -- or at least they used to be.
There are a ton of deer here on Pendleton. I see them all the time. I just never see them when it is season and have a gun in hand.
Jeremy
GySgt USMC Ret
To err is human, To forgive is devine, Neither of which is Marine Corps policy Semper Fidelis
My friend John F. took this photo and sent it to me. Its from the Yolla Bolly Wlderness. I've never hiked into this rugged country but I'm already day dreaming about a back pack hunt there.
What's a non-resident buck license go for these days?
TR
Fire Up the Grill - Hunting is NOT Catch & Release!
scr83jp wrote:I know all about it since I live in the county & have hunted it but with the modified Pref Point system when I put in for points I can't get drawn as a second choice.With rain populations of quail,chukar,cottontails & jacks explode,in 05 small game populations were huge.I only have to drive I 10 to SR62 out thru 29 palms then take amboy road to national trails out old 66 to essex .That's the short cut to laughlin told all of LE guys I worked with about that route.They started using it ,lots of canadian tagged cars use it to get to laughlin from the palm desert area.
Yep. We drew D17 as 2nd choice for several years, then last year nothing. And the over-the-counter tags sold out before the draw?? It's screwy. Well, as soon as I draw my G3 tag I'll just start buying D17 over-the-counter and forget the draw
I've been trying for G3 w/o success so did a friend for 25 years & gave up,Sonke Mastrup told us in a stakeholder meeting in San Bernardino one of the biologists had been trying for a long time w/o success.I read about a hunting party in Western Outdoor News drawn w/o PP's first time for G3 the zone with 70 bucks per 100 does & only 35 tags a year.This year I'm tagged for an anterless elk hunt at the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation .I checked with a hunter in Ft Jones about their successful Marble Mtn Elk hunt with horses & guide it was $5000 plus the tag,The San Carlos Anterless Elk tag at $620 plus $1000 for the guide is more reasonable,I'm not a head hunter.A Bull tag on the Rez is $30,000,Desert Big Horn Sheep tag $75,000 & 2 Rocky Mtn Sheep tags go for $45,000 apiece,they have Coues whitetail deer $4000,black bear spring & fall,javelina,turkeys. Mule Deer are only for tribal members.I was the assigned SB Co Prob Officer to the Morongo Desert area:Morongo Valley,Yucca Valley,Joshua Tree,Sunfair,Twentynine Palms & Big Bear for 12 yrs so I learned a heck of a lot about the whereabouts of prime hunting areas which I shared with other Prob Officers in the SB office.My degree is wildlife mgt biologist so I retained the info I learned in the desert.A couple of yrs ago on another forum I asked a chukar hunter where he was getting his birds & informed I know the area very well but he ignored me so I listed an area & got an immediate response to remove that location ,I pinpointed his honey hole & ignored his request.If you want some info about that area it's free!
The next time you drive out I8 just before the Jacumba exit (the one where the two gas stations are before you go down the hill) look back over your left shoulder and you should see a camp ground. Get off at the Jacumba exit and make your way back to that camp ground. We used to camp there and we'd see several deer beyond the back of the camp ground while we were hiking, etc..
Don't forget Alpine. Used to be lots of deer between there and Julian and East of there too. Go over to old 94 and head down toward Barrets Junction (just beyond the Tecate Mexico turn off). Too bad they developed around Otay Lake (Upper and Lower) and built the Olympic Center there. Used to be plenty of deer there too. I took two nice bucks there around 1985 and 1986.
The "South Bay Rod and Gun Club" is between Barrets Junction and Otay Lake on Marion Road. Stop in there and talk to some of the guys. Even when the range was busy on a week end we almost always saw deer on the perimeter of the range. Check out the area between the range parking lot and Otay Lake (lower).
Oh, there used to be a great restaurant at Barrets Junction that had all the Catfish you could eat. Stop in if it's still there -- great chow.
But that's OK, I'm still getting them in other states just fine. 
