B Zone Chatter 2020

[jfs82]

Heading North Friday for a Friday afternoon through Monday afternoon trip. Bear tag and deer tag in hand. Not at all the area I scouted or planned on but so be it, I'm happy to go either way.

 

[MeatBuck]

Should be headed back up tomorrow sometime myself. Barring any nonsense at work or otherwise that is.

 

[PVHunter]

Good luck to you both. Hopefully that new moon works in your favor over the weekend. I wanted to get out there tomorrow, but I may have to wait and play hookie mid-week next week.

 

[mod700]

Should be headed back up tomorrow sometime myself. Barring any nonsense at work or otherwise that is.

Did you check your rifle's zero after the last lost buck?,,, possible windage shift?.. sometimes overlooked after a miss, or weak hit,
Mike

 

[Sockeye Fisher]

Cool experience

 

[MeatBuck]

Did you check your rifle's zero after the last lost buck?,,, possible windage shift?.. sometimes overlooked after a miss, or weak hit,
Mike

No. Not that it isn’t possible but I treat my gun like a baby. Even double padded the gun case and it rides in my bed(not truck bed but cot) to and from hunts so no way it was bumped or knocked around. Haven’t fallen or bumped it on anything all season.

 

[MeatBuck]

Hunted the same area Friday through Sunday without seeing a single deer. Put on 6+,7+, and 5 miles those days. Glassed some of the best looking stuff around as well as still hunted big timber where I saw all the sign while chasing the cripple. Finally heard a deer blow yesterday afternoon. Was the closest thing to seeing one. Fresh tracks and ripped trails through most of the area. In three trips I only saw deer the second trip and that was the weekend of the rain. Goes to show that this spot was all about the weather.
Did see a sow and cub and a pine marten.
Closing out b6 without a buck but learned a new area and had my opportunities.
No idea if I’ll get out again or where but it’s back to the maps when I get home, try to put together one last hunt before the end.

 

[jfs82]

Was in the Shasta Trinity Nat'l Forest for the weekend. Spent Friday driving and looking for a decent spot to set up and hunt. Found a spot up high in altitude and began unpacking, then got a ranger telling us that the area would be evacuated so we repacked and headed about another hour til I found a spot I really liked the look of. Very different than the Mendo area I'm used to. Extremely steep and not a ton of open glassing area that you could actually reach if you saw something off in the distance. New spot had tons of sign and one day I set up on a game trail on a transition from thick conifer to manzanita and oak. A sow with two cubs came about twenty mins after setting up and passed about 30 yards away. An hour later a doe, then nothing the rest of the day. Next day I sat halfway up a big hill looking across it. Found four does but never saw a buck sniffing around them. Drove a bit at night to get signal to call the women and my buddies wife passed on some bad family news so we left early losing out on the last planned day.

A few pics of the area we hunted, one of the does I found on the second day.

 

[3pointer]

My boys wrapping up Bzone with a bang , couple public land studs the last few days , top buck bomber 23in 3x3 , bottom buck a 22 1/2 in 4x3 grey ghost , old buck !! Man I wish I would’ve held out but hey glad we all tagged out !! We are all off to Idaho on Thursday

 

[Jfjfrye]

Is there a D zone chatter about thread?

 

[MeatBuck]

Is there a D zone chatter about thread?

Maybe check the mule deer forums?

 

[MeatBuck]

Headed back up this morning for the remainder. Throwing darts at the map again, hope it works out.

 

[flytrue]

B zones close Sunday, right?

 

[jfs82]

B zones close Sunday, right?

Yes.

 

[jfs82]

Headed back up this morning for the remainder. Throwing darts at the map again, hope it works out.

Wish I could join you in that. Goodluck.

 

[MeatBuck]

B zones close Sunday, right?

The remaining open b zones close Sunday.

 

[3pointer]

Headed back up this morning for the remainder. Throwing darts at the map again, hope it works out.

Best of luck man , keep on grinding

 

[MeatBuck]

Hit a new spot. Spent the first two and a half days figuring out where I needed to be focusing my glassing. Hit it early and got to spot at daylight this morning. Glassed up a few does by 9 when I finally spotted a buck nosing a doe at 720. Shot twice. Both times I got blown out by recoil and couldn’t see the impact. Not sure why it blew me out of scope but all I could figure was the position I was in on the rocks wasn’t ideal and my brake (which blows out the sides) was really close to a rock on one side. Maybe that was the reason, idk. It was getting windy but was at my back where I was. Who knows which way it was blowing across the canyon though.
(In the process of the shooting I managed to pop an applesauce cup inside my pack. That’s a mess I’ll be cleaning up tomorrow.)
After the second shot the buck ran over the ridge top but the three does didn’t. They stayed and milled around. I held my position until the does finally started to work downhill about an hour later. Figured if the buck wasn’t dead he’d be coming back over to find his girl and sure enough he did. I watched the buck return to his does and did not appear hit. I just sat and watched him walk downhill out of sight. Didn’t feel like I could make the last shot he presented so I held off.
The whole morning I spent freezing my ass off on that rocky bluff. Got sweaty on walk in and once wind started I never got warm again. Was noon when I finally had it with the shivers and my body ached from being perched on the rocks in the same position since daylight. Didn’t feel confident that I could make a long shot in that wind especially as cold as I was. The country was too big for that much wind so I still hunted and did some work on the trail as I headed back towards my truck. Drove around to a different glassing spot but didn’t see anything but the wind blowing. Did see a buck off the freeway after sundown on the ride home. Private land of course.
So no buck for me this year. Gonna have to go shoot in some windy conditions to get comfortable with doing it at long distance that way next year I can make that shot. Guess I’ll be chasing the hogs to make up for no deer meat. Can (hopefully) get some practice in shooting at those too.
Was good to have to find new spots. Next year I’ll have more options that I know can produce bucks if I do my part. Even if my spots in the burn area are dicked or still closed I can still confidently hit these places and in the meanwhile pray for a rainy B zone 2021.

 

[pattimusprime22]

Saw this beauty yesterday along the coast. Seems like I only see bucks like this when I'm not hunting...

 

[Pro953]

Oh my! That is a very cool looking buck. Was he at least on property legal to hunt so we can all live with some false hope!


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