California Zone

[huntsd]

Wondering if anyone has any experience in this unit? I have a slammed schedule this fall and the early season dates for this tag work well for me. I'm not asking for anyone's secret spot, just general experience if they liked it, were into deer ect..?

 

[RockAndSage]

Bring a camera.

That's some of the most gorgeous country on the planet, almost all redwoods. But for deer hunting it'd be a beast. Lots of very dense timber and vegetation, lots of precipitation, and about 3/4 of it is private land.

That said, a sizable chunk of that private stuff is timber company lands, and most if not all of those timber companies do permit hunting. However, you'll want to double-check in advance, including just right before the hunt - they sometimes close them off due to fire hazard, if it's a bad drought year. You'll definitely want to use OnX, if you want to plan out a hunt.

Your best chances are probably some variant of ambush hunting. It's far more akin to hunting whitetails than muleys. I'd probably start by trying to locate some crop fields, and try to cut sign and a deer trail around that perimeter, then post up in ambush over that trail on a good spot. Same if you can find some places that have recently been logged. Logging cuts can be particularly good deer magnets, given that they produce some of the more tender and tasty new vegetation. Just verify any cuts you hunt for sign first - that landscape is so lush that cuts may not be as much of a draw as they are in other forests.

There's also more open country towards the coast and on some of those slopes, where you might actually be able to do a bit of decent glassing. That said, I'd still walk the edges of that open country at the treeline to try to find the game trails, and try to post up on a good spot near them to glass at dawn and dusk.

It won't be an easy hunt, but it may very well be one of the more enchanting ones you could go on.

 

[huntsd]

Bring a camera.

That's some of the most gorgeous country on the planet, almost all redwoods. But for deer hunting it'd be a beast. Lots of very dense timber and vegetation, lots of precipitation, and about 3/4 of it is private land.

That said, a sizable chunk of that private stuff is timber company lands, and most if not all of those timber companies do permit hunting. However, you'll want to double-check in advance, including just right before the hunt - they sometimes close them off due to fire hazard, if it's a bad drought year. You'll definitely want to use OnX, if you want to plan out a hunt.

Your best chances are probably some variant of ambush hunting. It's far more akin to hunting whitetails than muleys. I'd probably start by trying to locate some crop fields, and try to cut sign and a deer trail around that perimeter, then post up in ambush over that trail on a good spot. Same if you can find some places that have recently been logged. Logging cuts can be particularly good deer magnets, given that they produce some of the more tender and tasty new vegetation. Just verify any cuts you hunt for sign first - that landscape is so lush that cuts may not be as much of a draw as they are in other forests.

There's also more open country towards the coast and on some of those slopes, where you might actually be able to do a bit of decent glassing. That said, I'd still walk the edges of that open country at the treeline to try to find the game trails, and try to post up on a good spot near them to glass at dawn and dusk.

It won't be an easy hunt, but it may very well be one of the more enchanting ones you could go on.

Thanks for the detailed response!

 

[RockAndSage]

Thanks for the detailed response!

You're welcome, and good luck!

 

[kickemall]

Check out The Lost Coast trail that goes south from Petrolia. You’re on BLM open to hunting and a substantial amount of open ground with lots of deer but steep rugged country. But it is downhill to the beach if you kill one. Also the Kings Range which isn’t much open ground but is huntable with a decent deer population. I’m not aware of any timber company that allows hunting outside of their employees but I don’t know them all. Humboldt and Mendocino Redwood Companies do not and that’s almost all of B4 that isn’t private in Humboldt County. Good luck.

 

[RockAndSage]

Check out The Lost Coast trail that goes south from Petrolia. You’re on BLM open to hunting and a substantial amount of open ground with lots of deer but steep rugged country. But it is downhill to the beach if you kill one. Also the Kings Range which isn’t much open ground but is huntable with a decent deer population. I’m not aware of any timber company that allows hunting outside of their employees but I don’t know them all. Humboldt and Mendocino Redwood Companies do not and that’s almost all of B4 in Humboldt County. Good luck.

That's good info. I've hunted a lot of Sierra Pacific land, and was under the impression that all the lumber companies were under some sort of similar agreement with state Fish & Game for similar open-access. That's disappointing about those redwood companies.

 

[Freezing Moon]

I hunted the King Range once. It was the last weekend of rifle and I saw more hunters back there than I have ever seen in a wilderness area. Real pretty though.

 

[AME]

Grew up hunting Sierra Pacific in C and X zones. Glass clear cuts in the morning, and be willing to cover a decent amount of ground. One to two year old burns are great for feed, but it sucks rocks hiking through them. We had success generally on the edges of forest disturbance i.e. where clear cut meets uncut forest.

One thing to keep your eye on is the fire danger level. Sierra Pacific shuts hunting down at I think a level C fire danger? Not sure.

Good luck and have fun.