The most wonderful time of the year….. A zone general 😆

[Cahunter805]

Ah hell, I'll bite. My wife says I'm having separation issues with this one. Attaching a couple pics of trailcam pics. Have not measured the total height yet...head is in the freezer until my buddy gets time to help me do a euro on it.

These are all from one cam. I have a few other cameras on trails leading to this water source, but the pics aren't as clear.View attachment 318204

Awesome pics and glad you were able to put him on the ground. He looks like a good old mature buck.

 

[Azone]

Good hunt with a good friend and that will take care of tag number one.

 

[Sea Wolf]

Nice buck! North or south?

 

[Loco4dux]

Shot this buck as he went full speed from his bed on Monday at ~30 yards while still hunting through some thick stuff in Mendocino county after a brutal couple of hunting days. Unfortunately I think he broke his 5th point on the right side on his initial fall down the mountain and then he broke his back point on his left when I had to let him go down while we were both sliding down a chute. Steep steep. Good times.

 

[Cahunter805]

View attachment 318503
Good hunt with a good friend and that will take care of tag number one.

Awesome buck. How wide was he?

 

[Cahunter805]

View attachment 318544
View attachment 318549
Shot this buck as he went full speed from his bed on Monday at ~30 yards while still hunting through some thick stuff in Mendocino county after a brutal couple of hunting days. Unfortunately I think he broke his 5th point on the right side on his initial fall down the mountain and then he broke his back point on his left when I had to let him go down while we were both sliding down a chute. Steep steep. Good times.

Heck of a buck!! Congrats on a stud!

 

[Azone]

Awesome buck. How wide was he?

Good old fashioned trick photography. A hair under 17, only 12 1/2 tall.

 

[Cahunter805]

Good old fashioned trick photography. A hair under 17, only 12 1/2 tall.

Nothing wrong with that!

 

[jfs82]

You all are making me jealous.

 

[Azone]

Nice buck! North or south?

South

 

[Sea Wolf]

Got my buddy on his first buck yesterday.

 

[jfs82]

Went out yesterday, sat the first few hours at a dry creekbed some some promising looking hillsides. eventually I started a 5 hour still hunt. On the way back down I saw one area where the creek-bed had some deep standing water pools but it was inaccessible on private or I would've sat there till dark. Saw 5 does and no bucks.

 

[Fling-One]

Nice bucks. Headed up to B zone next year!

 

[yellowbeard]

Congratulations to everyone with big bucks! Are you all passing up shots on smaller bucks, or just happening upon bigger ones? All I've seen this season (and just about every season) are forkies (public land only, north half of the zone).

I got this little one on Sunday, I'll take what I can get to fill the freezer. He was frolicking in a meadow with two does. Kill at 7:45pm, not back to the car until after midnight, then 3.5 hour drive home

 

[yellowbeard]

Got my buddy on his first buck yesterday.

Congratulations. Crazy no eye-guards on a three pointer. Any idea what the orange is at the base of the antlers?

 

[Sea Wolf]

I think it's wood pulp. It looks like he was rubbing his velvet off on some sapwood of some kind and hit a little aggressive on it.

 

[Cahunter805]

Congratulations. Crazy no eye-guards on a three pointer. Any idea what the orange is at the base of the antlers?

There are many bucks that never grow eye guards. It’s all in the genetics. I’ve seen old mature bucks with no eyeguards and also a spike fork with little eyeguards.

 

[Sea Wolf]

There are many bucks that never grow eye guards. It’s all in the genetics. I’ve seen old mature bucks with no eyeguards and also a spike fork with little eyeguards.

I've heard people say that no eye guards are bad genetics. I could see why from an evolution standpoint.

 

[Cahunter805]

I've heard people say that no eye guards are bad genetics. I could see why from an evolution standpoint.

That may be true. Come to think of it I’ve killed a buck with only 1 eye guard also.

 

[yellowbeard]

There are many bucks that never grow eye guards. It’s all in the genetics. I’ve seen old mature bucks with no eyeguards and also a spike fork with little eyeguards.

Yeah, I'm fascinated. Would love to see research / numbers on that. Pity the CA hunter report doesn't ask about eye-guards, if it did, it would generate a great data set. Where I hunt, pretty sure almost everything over a fork has eyeguards (although I see precious few of those ) and a lot of forks have them too.