California Mule Deer (hybrid) Central Sierra/Neveda Mountains.

Now that’s a freaking buck! Let me see if I have video of him 🧐. I found a giant 3x3 4 years ago. But idk if he had eyeguards that big.

Edit: Nope different buck. The left G4 on the one I found came out super close to the G2. Not really off the main beam.
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Similar looking country! Mine was a few years earlier I think.
 
I never hunted that far south but I know people who do. It's a tough hunt on any of the d zone tags.
 
Pulled this one of the D zones up super high in 2022. The last 2 seasons have been rough. The population is really struggling especially up high. I have an A15 (X8) tag this year and have been scouting a lot the last few weeks - places that had large groups and tons of sign 5 years ago are dead and barren now. Bear and mtn lion scat everywhere but hardly any deer. I’m also seeing blacktails but no muleys so I’m wondering if something happened to the muley population in the last couple of years?

X8 hunters last year were reporting similar experiences and the game warden here confirmed it. Not sure what it’ll take for it to turn around but definitely discouraging considering how fun it is to hunt the high sierras.

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Pulled this one of the D zones up super high in 2022. The last 2 seasons have been rough. The population is really struggling especially up high. I have an A15 (X8) tag this year and have been scouting a lot the last few weeks - places that had large groups and tons of sign 5 years ago are dead and barren now. Bear and mtn lion scat everywhere but hardly any deer. I’m also seeing blacktails but no muleys so I’m wondering if something happened to the muley population in the last couple of years?

X8 hunters last year were reporting similar experiences and the game warden here confirmed it. Not sure what it’ll take for it to turn around but definitely discouraging considering how fun it is to hunt the high sierras.

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Hell of a buck!

Yes I’ve noticed a decline as well.
 
Pulled this one of the D zones up super high in 2022. The last 2 seasons have been rough. The population is really struggling especially up high. I have an A15 (X8) tag this year and have been scouting a lot the last few weeks - places that had large groups and tons of sign 5 years ago are dead and barren now. Bear and mtn lion scat everywhere but hardly any deer. I’m also seeing blacktails but no muleys so I’m wondering if something happened to the muley population in the last couple of years?

X8 hunters last year were reporting similar experiences and the game warden here confirmed it. Not sure what it’ll take for it to turn around but definitely discouraging considering how fun it is to hunt the high sierras.

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Hear any of these while you were poking around that unit?



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Pulled this one of the D zones up super high in 2022. The last 2 seasons have been rough. The population is really struggling especially up high. I have an A15 (X8) tag this year and have been scouting a lot the last few weeks - places that had large groups and tons of sign 5 years ago are dead and barren now. Bear and mtn lion scat everywhere but hardly any deer. I’m also seeing blacktails but no muleys so I’m wondering if something happened to the muley population in the last couple of years?

X8 hunters last year were reporting similar experiences and the game warden here confirmed it. Not sure what it’ll take for it to turn around but definitely discouraging considering how fun it is to hunt the high sierras.

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I think blacktail must be a little more successful than Mule deer, like whitetail in that regard.

There's benchlegs getting killed on the border units of Nevada now and I've seen some blacktail looking deer all the way out to the edge of X5b.
 
Pulled this one of the D zones up super high in 2022. The last 2 seasons have been rough. The population is really struggling especially up high. I have an A15 (X8) tag this year and have been scouting a lot the last few weeks - places that had large groups and tons of sign 5 years ago are dead and barren now. Bear and mtn lion scat everywhere but hardly any deer. I’m also seeing blacktails but no muleys so I’m wondering if something happened to the muley population in the last couple of years?

X8 hunters last year were reporting similar experiences and the game warden here confirmed it. Not sure what it’ll take for it to turn around but definitely discouraging considering how fun it is to hunt the high sierras.

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It is noticeable and CDFW has plenty of data on it. There will be specific unit border/tag quota changes to D3-5 to address this. Probably in the next couple of years.
 
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