Our season is winding up out here in CA. This weekend closes it down for the year. The storms should start sending the deer down from the high country to the foothills & lower elevations fairly soon. The wilderness areas will become a frozen, inaccessible wasteland until Spring.
I've been feeling pretty disheartened by my lack of success this season. Then I ran the numbers & things weren't looking half bad.
Total days hunted: 4.5 (2.5 backpacking, 1 full day, 2 half-days).
Nights spent in the woods: 3.
Total deer encounters: 7.
Range of deer encounters: 7-100+ yards.
Total stalks: 2 (one was a doe, the other I never could tell before I was busted).
Confirmed legal bucks: 0.
For only 4.5 days of hunting, I'm now feeling a bit better about my season. I figure an average of 1.5 deer encounters per day of hunting isn't half bad and I've learned a heck of a lot more about this area than last year when I took my buck on the hike up to my camp.
Thankfully, I was also drawn for a late season coastal hunt on an either sex tag. Another 3-4 days in a remote canyon full of deer and turkey should offer some memories if not a little meat for the freezer.
To all of you who are in the thick of your seasons or just gearing up, I wish you the best of luck and the fondest of memories.
Sounds pretty good!
I remember when I started back in the early 70's. I hunted every weekend of the season (my hunting spot was 120 miles away), even when in college. I averaged 1 bow range opportunity per season (in Indiana). I killed a deer, for the first 9 years, once every 3 years.
It was plenty to start me on a life devoted, after God and Family, to bowhunting.
Hope you have good luck in your late season!
Bisch
Sounds like some good days there! Good luck in the late season.
When I hear about your season winding down, it reminds me how blessed we are here in Ohio with approximately 4.5 months of deer season, the vast majority of which is archery.
Again, best of luck in your late season adventure!!
QuoteOriginally posted by IndaTimber:
Sounds like some good days there! Good luck in the late season.
When I hear about your season winding down, it reminds me how blessed we are here in Ohio with approximately 4.5 months of deer season, the vast majority of which is archery.
Again, best of luck in your late season adventure!!
4.5 months is blessed, indeed!
QuoteOriginally posted by YosemiteSam:
QuoteOriginally posted by IndaTimber:
Sounds like some good days there! Good luck in the late season.
When I hear about your season winding down, it reminds me how blessed we are here in Ohio with approximately 4.5 months of deer season, the vast majority of which is archery.
Again, best of luck in your late season adventure!!
4.5 months is blessed, indeed! [/b]
I know and our gun season is basically one week, there is an extra weekend later in the year and a 3 day (I believe) muzzle loader season. The rest is archery.
QuoteOriginally posted by IndaTimber:
QuoteOriginally posted by YosemiteSam:
[qb] QuoteOriginally posted by IndaTimber:
[qb] I know and our gun season is basically one week, there is an extra weekend later in the year and a 3 day (I believe) muzzle loader season. The rest is archery. [/b]
I've wondered if such a change would improve the deer population around here. Between development and the drought, the state population is down about 40%. Personally, I'd be fine with a 3-5 year moratorium on deer or a primitive method only (archery, muzzleloader) for a time to help rebuild populations. But, alas, the game ranches would cry foul and bureaucrats are what they are. Besides, the last thing you want a CA bureaucrat or politician to look at is hunting or firearms regulations. Once they get started...
The deer population has declined right along with the Mtn lion population increasing here in Ca. Throw in coyotes, and lost habitat and its a triple whammy against the deer.
Have you ever wondered why there are very few deer in the remote areas but once you stat getting back close to town you have more deer? Its predators.
FWIW, my buddy had a pet goat killed by a lion on his porch...he had to twist the GW's arm to get a hound guy in there....that caught the lion 400yds from his house. The houndsman told him he has killed 30 lions in 2 years within 30 miles of his house [up near sonora] but the F&G doesn't want the gen public to know.
Another buddy with a ranch above Vacaville said they had been pleading with the F&G to clean out some of the lions as the deer pop was tanking. The DFG took 20 lions out of one area there near his ranch...and now 2 yrs later they are seeing more deer.
You can't manage an ecosystem....with one predator getting a free pass. Its unfortunate that it will take someones kid to get eaten before they take it serious. [actually a kid was grabbed from a trail down in LA a yr ago]