Author Topic: 2018 Deer Season - it fast approaches!  (Read 3538 times)

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kneedownnate

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2018 Deer Season - it fast approaches!
« on: Jun 07, 2018, 07:04:51 AM »
1st I have to say, go get your tags if you hunt in commifornia, cause you know they go fast!

I haven't scouted for deer in years, usually due to lack of available time or conflict of interest (usually salmon fishing), but I have decided to change that this year for a couple reasons.  1- I am old and out of shape, 2- I have been wanting to check out an area bordering the trinity alps for at least 15 years, just never turned left to check it out when out that way.  That will change this year.

I had plans to head out there early this morning, but work yesterday changed that.  I had to work out in the shop for several hours yesterday and didn't feel good going into it, only came out worse on the other end.  I just don't have it in me to go at it like I wanted today but, I do have plans to fish nearby and am going to at least take a little walk through the area to see how much it resembles what I see on google earth and see if it may hold any bruisers...

So what are your plans this year?
RIP KYOTA

You can go through life being scared of the possible, or you can have a little fun and tease the inevitable.

Give a man venison, he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to hunt Blacktail, he'll be frustrated for life!

redneckcustoms13

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Re: 2018 Deer Season - it fast approaches!
« Reply #1 on: Jun 07, 2018, 07:55:31 AM »
Deer season for me starts in November. I mainly hunt the river swamp close to me. I'll hunt it year round for hogs and pay attention to deer trails and tracks. I have a few deer come up in the yard but prefer not to shoot them.
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ryantowry_81

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Re: 2018 Deer Season - it fast approaches!
« Reply #2 on: Jun 07, 2018, 09:36:49 AM »
I just purchased my tag last week. I wanted to put in for some draw tags as well but I don't have that kind of money to gamble right now.

I try to hunt the d3-d5 tag every year but work usually gets in the way. I did get out with my boss two seasons ago and he got a nice 4x4 but I have yet to get lucky in this state in the last 6 years I have lived here. I am ok with that though, I am more in it for a good excuse to get out and explore new country.

kneedownnate [OP]

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Re: 2018 Deer Season - it fast approaches!
« Reply #3 on: Jun 07, 2018, 08:08:42 PM »
Pretty much what I have said for years.  If I get one, great, otherwise I am happy to walk around the woods with an excellent excuse to carry a gun.
I didn’t make it as far as the area I wanted to scout but did stop to fish in several spots.  I was surprised to see elk tracks in all but one spot, though it was loaded with trout and light with smallies, so it panned out :gap:
RIP KYOTA

You can go through life being scared of the possible, or you can have a little fun and tease the inevitable.

Give a man venison, he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to hunt Blacktail, he'll be frustrated for life!

kneedownnate [OP]

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Re: 2018 Deer Season - it fast approaches!
« Reply #4 on: Jun 07, 2018, 08:16:41 PM »
Deer season for me starts in November

Lucky!  Most our bow seasons start in august, one starts in july.  Rifle seasons start mid to late september, except for one which starts in august.  Nothing quite like killing a deer in the first hour of the day and sweating off your ass by the time you have it hung to skin.  Just grab a hand full of hide and bees and hope you don’t get stung or bit
RIP KYOTA

You can go through life being scared of the possible, or you can have a little fun and tease the inevitable.

Give a man venison, he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to hunt Blacktail, he'll be frustrated for life!

:)bestgen4runner

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Re: 2018 Deer Season - it fast approaches!
« Reply #5 on: Jun 07, 2018, 10:28:00 PM »
Washington hunter
Tags in the drawer next to Me. Waiting to find out if I pulled any special permits. Should find out in the next week or so. I think I am going to go black powder this year.  :crossed:
I am 1/5th of Perfect Fit
SqWADoosh [04:19 PM]: *sigh* I guess Chris is right and I just need to wait until I'm in a place where I have a tow rig and trailer before I get this caliber of truck
Mudder [08:28 PM]:   not try to be a jerk, but are you serious bestgen?
Prismo [06:11 PM]:   Done, time to relax or as Bestgen says....FREEDOM!
HogCanyonHopper [06:54 PM]:   I like my little rod. it gets the job done
H8PVMNT [03:30 PM]: I can go both ways.

kneedownnate [OP]

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Re: 2018 Deer Season - it fast approaches!
« Reply #6 on: Oct 10, 2018, 10:11:07 PM »
Anybody have any luck?  A lot of our hunting areas around here got scorched this summer, like over 300,000 acres, but some folks are still pulling out some absolute bruisers!  I've seen quite a few pics of absolutely huge blacktails coming out of norcal this year.

That said, I've had a rough go of it this year.  On the one hand, I finally hunted an area around the top end of the trinity alps that I've been wanting to for many years.  More signs of cows than humans, though one richard did break the lock at the trailhead and drive up there, but no deer.  Pretty remote country with minimal human contact, and the only thing I could find were some grouse that were nearly as surprised to see me as I was to see them.  I hunted up there 2 or 3 days so far and am going to focus a couple more in that area.  There's a ridge across the valley I really want to find a way to so I can glass the basin between it and the mountain behind it.  Looks like really thick brush though, and it's really steep country, so I may hold off on that till next spring so I can start beating down a trail well before the season.

I have had a few days where I saw several deer, mostly in the burned out areas, and finally saw my first bear of the year the other day.  I was turning around on a road that's never open, mostly cause I was worried they'd sneak behind me and lock the gate, saw a black blob about 250-300 yards uphill from me and knew it was a bear.  Threw the truck in park, jumped out to get a better view and, sure enough, there's a bear making his way across the cut.  Started whistling at him and got his attention right as he crossed a log, stopping broadside to see what was making such a racket, then I thought "shoot, I shoulda grabbed the gun so I could scope him out to see how big he is".  By the time I grabbed the rifle from the truck, he was little more than random black blobs behind brush and downed trees.  Still, I was stoked to see him and am hoping to see several more this year...  I also found a decent condition 3 point skull/rack that had been partially chewed on by the rodents.

I've had some customers come in and share pics of what they've killed this year, one of which was a friend who said "we set up deer camp, but it turned into bear camp!" as he showed me 2 nice chocolate/blond bears laid out across 2 adjoined picnic benches.  I said, "you're lucky, that's some of the best meat you can get!", and he smiled, started shaking his head and said, "yea, I just found that out!"  Turns out like so many, he believed the stories of bear meat being gamey, oily and tasting bad, but that night he cooked up the backstraps and was blown away by how good it tasted and how great the quality of meat was.

All that said, if you know me, you know I could only care about 1% if I get a deer or not.  I just love being out there and exploring during one of my favorite times of the year, and just hope the right opportunity presents itself.  My joints don't really allow me to do much of this stuff anymore anyway, and I know at some point I will be relegated to road hunting, but this year has been surprisingly good to me.  First couple times I went out for birds left me pretty sore and beat up, but the last few times I went out deer hunting I came back feeling much better and had quicker recovery times.
RIP KYOTA

You can go through life being scared of the possible, or you can have a little fun and tease the inevitable.

Give a man venison, he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to hunt Blacktail, he'll be frustrated for life!

:)bestgen4runner

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Re: 2018 Deer Season - it fast approaches!
« Reply #7 on: Oct 12, 2018, 12:11:43 PM »
Washington hunter
Tags in the drawer next to Me. Waiting to find out if I pulled any special permits. Should find out in the next week or so. I think I am going to go black powder this year.  :crossed:
So My Boy and I both pulled Doe tags this year. :willynilly:
This means the area We hunt will be open for any Deer. I made three scouting trips happen in the last month so I am feeling very confident.
Hitting the road today at 2:30, can't wait to be up in the hills.
4 people in our hunting group this year.
I will update You guys as the days go by.
Wish Me luck! 
I am 1/5th of Perfect Fit
SqWADoosh [04:19 PM]: *sigh* I guess Chris is right and I just need to wait until I'm in a place where I have a tow rig and trailer before I get this caliber of truck
Mudder [08:28 PM]:   not try to be a jerk, but are you serious bestgen?
Prismo [06:11 PM]:   Done, time to relax or as Bestgen says....FREEDOM!
HogCanyonHopper [06:54 PM]:   I like my little rod. it gets the job done
H8PVMNT [03:30 PM]: I can go both ways.

mudmaster

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Re: 2018 Deer Season - it fast approaches!
« Reply #8 on: Oct 12, 2018, 01:45:12 PM »
Good luck to Bambie
Time to go wheelin!

OVRAROK

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Re: 2018 Deer Season - it fast approaches!
« Reply #9 on: Oct 12, 2018, 01:50:06 PM »
So My Boy and I both pulled Doe tags this year. :willynilly:
This means the area We hunt will be open for any Deer. I made three scouting trips happen in the last month so I am feeling very confident.
Hitting the road today at 2:30, can't wait to be up in the hills.
4 people in our hunting group this year.
I will update You guys as the days go by.
Wish Me luck! 

Good luck....
Even the most primitive society, has an intimate respect for the insane.

kneedownnate [OP]

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Re: 2018 Deer Season - it fast approaches!
« Reply #10 on: Oct 14, 2018, 07:02:13 PM »
Spent the better half of the day hunting in another part of the carr fire today.  I have only hunted the area a couple times since the 90s, mostly cause it had become far too overgrown to see anything, but I had a notion the fire might have fixed that.  It mostly had.

Where other burn areas were full of signs of life, this was nearly void of it.  It’s decomposed granite and is very easy to see tracks, but all I saw for hours were a coyote track and a set of bear tracks, though pushing back into a couple valleys produced what looked like some small animal tracks (fox?), more bear tracks, and another buck skull/rack.

This one was newer and fresher than the 3 point but had been scorched by the fire.  It was a 4x4 with eye guards that measured 19” wide and 15” tall.  Pretty much the buck I knew was in the area but had never seen.  I was again stoked to find it, though it’s always a little bittersweet.  I just appreciate that the buck had probably spread some good genetics through the area and will go back at least once more before the end of the season.

With so much area opened up due to the fire, I was able to get into spots I hadn’t been able to access since the 90s and found a couple nice bowl type areas where I would really like to set a few blinds for bow season.  I will probably start going in after the season is over and start prepping the area to maintain the easy access
RIP KYOTA

You can go through life being scared of the possible, or you can have a little fun and tease the inevitable.

Give a man venison, he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to hunt Blacktail, he'll be frustrated for life!

:)bestgen4runner

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Re: 2018 Deer Season - it fast approaches!
« Reply #11 on: Oct 14, 2018, 08:40:20 PM »
Day and 1/2 of hunting in the books so far. No Deer spotted yet. Back to work until next weekend.
Then it’s 6 days straight of hunting.
I am 1/5th of Perfect Fit
SqWADoosh [04:19 PM]: *sigh* I guess Chris is right and I just need to wait until I'm in a place where I have a tow rig and trailer before I get this caliber of truck
Mudder [08:28 PM]:   not try to be a jerk, but are you serious bestgen?
Prismo [06:11 PM]:   Done, time to relax or as Bestgen says....FREEDOM!
HogCanyonHopper [06:54 PM]:   I like my little rod. it gets the job done
H8PVMNT [03:30 PM]: I can go both ways.

 
 
 
 
 

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