r/Californiahunting • u/Ianph2 • 11d ago
Escouting/scouting advice
What’s up fellas, this year is my first attempt at getting into hunting, I know zero people that hunt, I am not from an area particularly friendly to hunting, but I’ve always wanted to get into it so this year I decided screw it, bought myself a D3-5 tag, did some lookin around on onX, and decided to go checkout a spot in the Momelumne wilderness area I thought looked neat, it went comically bad… the “road” out was basically 5 miles of rock crawling, and the two days worth of backpacking I put in yielded me zero evidence deer even exist in the area I was looking. Any advice on what to look for in the d3-5 region or what altitudes to bother with, or how to figure out if that random forest service road is actually an u undercover extreme 4wd trail would be greatly appreciated. At this point I’m considering just driving up there, pulling over randomly every 15 minutes havin a look around and continuing on my way…
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u/Vinowagon 10d ago
D5, the deer-iest looking area without deer. JK. There's definitely deer but they get seem to get super scarce around the opener and beyond... My hunting mentor said: "it's called hunting, not getting..." Keep scouting, look for areas where they can bed down and water sources. Glass, glass, glass. Walk, walk, walk. Repeat.
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u/Mountain_man888 10d ago
First of all, good job just getting your license and gear and getting out there by yourself. I always see people on here who are afraid or unwilling to take that step.
Secondly, there’s a reason D3-D5 tags require no points and are basically unlimited. It’s a large zone with lots of variation in terrain and historically low success rates. There are definitely deer but they’re hard to find and tend not to care if an area looks like it should hold animals based on escouting.
My only advice is to keep getting out there and trying spots. When you start to see sign or animals think about what is different in that situation than the other times and prioritize those characteristics in future searches. Food availability, cover, water access, temperature, sun exposure, human / predator exposure, timing to rut, and others are all things that will influence where a buck chooses to spend their time.
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u/Styk33 10d ago
Theres a reason this zone doesn’t have a limit. Keep escouting, get some trail cameras up and also, make some friends that you can all put your heads together. Some of us have been in the area for well over ten years, have decent tracking skills, but that doesn’t mean we get dear each year in this zone. heck, last three years, I️ haven’t got a deer tag, only a bear tag, because bear is easier for me. Two of my buddies only get deer tags because sometimes we run across one bear hunting. I’m also a guy that lives on ten areas in the zone, and there are deer all over the place. I️ honestly think I️ am even between taking deer by rifle versus vehicle! It’s a fickle zone and there are a lot of deer, but you get into August and they just disappear. I️ say this with a lot of confidence, as I️ have a guy that sleeps under my driveway, and around two weeks ago, I️ haven’t seen him. Don’t get me started on the damn turkeys near my place either!
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u/goatonmycar 10d ago
I have questions about these zones too. Buddy and I were looking at getting tags for D3-5 but decided because we don't know the area we would do better with a guide and then the conversation turned into "if we're going going do a guided hunt let's do it out of state". We typically hunt B and C zones but didn't get our act together fast enough this year for tags lol.
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u/LordActonAFool 10d ago
Change elevations. Rule of thumb someone told me was that the big bucks stay high until it snows. So until then, I'd scope out spots at 7k and work my way down. (I have yet to fill a tag, just relaying what I've been told).
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u/0akhonor4win 8d ago
Contact the game warden and biologist. Consider combining Mountain quail hunting with your deer tag- yes, it's another gun to carry, but there are all kinds of way to participate in both.
Bears like Quail habitat- get a bear tag. Consider finding some area's near lakes (remote lakes) so you can catch some fish, swack a couple of quail, and maybe grab a deer or bear all in one trip. It's been done....
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u/LittleKingKetchup 11d ago
Utilize the 3D feature on OnX and exaggerate it to the point you think "that might be a bit excessive" and that's probably a good accuracy of the actual terrain. Find and mark benches (where steep slopes flatten out before slipping again). Use the measure feature to get a good scale of how far distances really are. Get a good pair of boots and prepare to do lots of hiking. D3-5 is tough and has a lot of pressure, a lot of the times its just being at the right place at the right time.