California leads nation in deer hunting
By James Swan
AP photoSummer is not officially with us yet, but if you are itching to go deer hunting, consider coming to California. We may not have the largest deer herd — half a million — but we have a big variety, coastal blacktails and six subspecies of muleys found on roughly 56 percent of the state.
What the Golden State can boast about are the earliest deer seasons in the U.S. In the "A-Zone," which encompasses the Coastal Mountains from just north of Los Angeles all the way up to Mendocino County, Archery season begins July 11 and runs through Aug. 2. A week later, the regular season kicks in, Aug. 8-Sept. 20.
This is largely private land, but there are public lands open to deer hunting in Colusa, Fresno, Lake, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Yolo Counties. The Los Padres National Forest is the most popular public land in the A zone. Success for archers runs around 10 percent.
If you don't bag a buck in the A-Zone archery season, anyone holding an "Archery-Only" tag can also hunt the majority of the B Zone and D Zones, which do have a fair amount of public land — Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity, Klamath, and Six Rivers National Forests — and that season runs Aug.15-Sept. 6.
According to Ken Mayer, former California Department of Fish and Game deer expert (now Director of Nevada Fish and Wildlife) the B-Zone is the "deer factory" of California. Traditionally some of the biggest deer in the state come from the Yolla Bolla-Middle Eel Wilderness of the Mendocino and Shasta-Trinity National Forests, if you are willing to pack in. The success rate for archers in B and D runs around 19 percent.
So, before the regular season gets going in other states, you could have nearly two months of warm-up deer hunting in the Golden State.
I must confess that when I moved to California from Washington, where archery season does not start until Sept. 1, the idea of going deer hunting in July felt funny because many of aspects of nature associated with deer hunting that I grew up with in the Midwest and then later knew in the Pacific Northwest were missing.
Hunting in July and August in California means that mid-day temperatures are often triple digits, unless you are right along the coast where the fog flows in and cools things down, and that means you've found a place to hunt on private land. It takes some adjusting to go deer hunting when wildflowers are blooming and it's very dry in the woods. Bucks were in the velvet and mosquitoes and yellow jackets are at their peak.
When I got settled here, one of the first questions I asked was "Why is deer season so early?"
The answer is really two-fold. One, it's been that way for awhile and hunters who show up at stakeholder meetings say they have gotten used to it and scheduled vacation time around a summer hunt. And two, by hunting early you hunt longer than you would if you hunted the rut, which begins in October along the coast.
When in Rome...
Warm weather hunting requires some adjustments. Instead of bug-repellent (I have yet to find one that does not have odor) and heavy camou masks that make you sweat, use fine mesh head nets. Much cooler and gets bug repellent and camou needs all in one.
This is siesta hunting — you hunt morning and evening. Do something else mid-day, unless you are along the coast and a cool fog moves in. Fishing is great.
Water is important to your success. Especially when it's hot, deer will be drawn to water, although they may not drink until darkness falls.
In most other places, deer head for swamps when hunting season kicks in. There are not that many swamps out here, and when it's hot the swamps may be the warmest places with the most insects.
So, California deer seek out cool places in mid-day, and may spend most of the day bedded down, but more often than not, they go up. Especially in the high country, deer day beds are on mountain tops, where the wind cools things and helps keep the bugs away.
In California, the deer in the mountains are migratory. If a good early storm kicks in, they stream down out of the high country moving as much as 10 miles a day, which can make for some exciting hunting if you are located along their migration routes.
If you get a deer, cool it quickly. Immerse it in a stream is a good strategy. A game bag is also essential to keep flies and yellow jackets off the meat.
If you are hunting along the coast and lower elevations, also get a pig tag. The wild pigs are most abundant along the coast, and they can be way bigger than the deer. You won't find wild pigs way up in the mountains. Not enough food for them.
If you really want a long deer season, Los Angeles' either-sex archery season runs Sept. 26-Dec. 31. The success rate is not huge at 8 percent, but if meat is all you want from hunting, stalk the meat department at Costco.
The hunting license season in California runs from July 1-June 30 the following year. All Big Game Hunting License applications must be received by 5 p.m. on June 2 at the DFG's License and Revenue Branch in Sacramento. Online information on seasons and licenses. Some areas do not fill their quotas in the draw, and so you can purchase licenses over the counter at regional DFG offices.
You can also read an excellent online guide to California deer hunting, produced by Department of Game and Fish.
If you feel drawn to hunt deer in California, a couple things to remember: be careful with fires and set a good ethical example, for you will be hunting at the height of the tourist season. And if you are going to hunt in the condor zone, no lead bullets, like it or not.
In many places of the country, people use the phrase "Don't sweat the small stuff." When you go hunting deer in California you may sweat a lot, but then what's it worth to be the first deer hunters in the U.S. every year.
James Swan — who has appeared in more than a dozen feature films, including "Murder in the First" and "Star Trek: First Contact," as well as the television series "Nash Bridges," "Midnight Caller" and "Modern Marvels" — is the author of the book "In Defense of Hunting." Click to purchase a copy. To learn more about Swan, visit his Web site.
