I got out on my first SoCal tag this past weekend. We have done quite a bit of scouting and prep work in this area over the last two years. Last year I was really excited to go hunt this area after what I had found scouting and was really disappointed when it was closed due to a fire for the entire season. When the area reopened this spring we got back in there and did some more scouting and consistently found good bucks every time we went.
Friday we packed in 6 miles in the early evening as the storm cleared and finished the last two miles in the dark. It was cold and windy with temps in the 30’s. I was hoping that the storm would have dropped a couple inches of snow on the mountain at the upper elevations but the precipitation all fell in the form of rain. We brought a tent and cold weather gear as the forecast was for possible precip on Friday night with highs in the low 40’s and lows in the 30’s all weekend. We set up camp in the dark and then went to retrieve the water and some other gear I had stashed the previous weekend. After all the chores were done we settled in and had our freeze dried meals and a few sips of whiskey before crawling into our sleeping bags for the night.
We got up in the dark and made some oatmeal and coffee and made our way to our glassing knob. While the wind was blowing pretty hard, we were sheltered from it on our knob and were glassing down the mountain into an area that was pretty well sheltered too. So we felt we still had a good chance of finding some deer.
For the first hour we didn’t see much movement. Then I found a pretty, symmetrical 3 point that I had seen in the same area the week before. He was a young deer that I wasn’t interested in shooting and neither was Daryl. We kept an eye on him but kept looking. A little later in the morning, maybe around 1030 I found a big group of deer hanging out in the morning sun about a mile away. We saw that a boy and his dad were moving toward them on the ridge they were on, but hadn’t seen them yet. We could see one small legal buck with a bunch of does and watched to see what would happen. Unfortunately for those hunters they spooked the whole group and the deer moved off the ridge and down into the canyon where we usually see deer. In all likelihood, this is where the deer were headed anyway as they were moving off of the barren, sunny south facing slope and down into the canyon where there is bedding cover. As the group moved down into the canyon they picked up a few more bucks and we could see that there were two good bucks. One appeared to be just a big fork, but the other one had obviously good mass with some extra points and looked like a nice mature buck. After I got a look at him through the spotter I felt that I would probably try and take this buck if I got an opportunity.
The whole group of deer followed the script and did exactly as we have seen the deer in this area do every time we have been there. They side hilled and fed toward their usual bedding area, and as it became clear that they would give us an opportunity I decided to make my move. I told Daryl to stay up on the glassing knob and to put the orange hat on if the deer busted out. I then packed up my stuff and and proceeded to make my way down the mountain. We were glassing from high on the mountain and I needed to drop approximately 1500 feet to get into position. It is very steep and rugged terrain and it took me about 90 minutes to do, moving slowly the last few hundred yards as I could periodically see the deer as I moved through the trees. We had been down in this drainage before and had previously picked out a location that we thought would be a good spot to shoot from. I made my way to it and got set up prone with my bipod. I ranged the area where all the deer were and it was right at 200 yards. At first all I could see were does milling around feeding. But then I noticed a small buck moving down the hill toward the does. Then I saw the big fork that my target buck had been running with. I saw that he actually had a third point on his left side and considered shooting him but quickly decided against it. He wasn’t what I had come down the hill for and these deer had no idea I was there. I knew the bigger buck would show eventually. Sure enough, a few minutes later I saw him step out from behind a tree. I had already loaded a round in the chamber and I pushed the safety off as I could see he was about to step into the open. I didn’t have to wait long, he stepped out and quickly was perfectly broadside and I squeezed off a shot. He hunched up and staggered backward and I knew he was hit good. Since he was still on his feet and I had no one with me to spot, I decided to keep shooting until he was down. I fired again and hit, and he started moving a little faster but stumbling and then stopped one more time and I squeezed another one off for insurance. I really don’t think he needed either of the follow up shots but my rule, especially when I’m by myself, is to keep shooting until they’re down. He fell after the third shot and I stayed on him for some time after that. When I was sure he was dead, I got my Inreach out and sent a message to Daryl that he was dead and to pack up camp and take the trail around the mountain to the ridge opposite of me above the deer. He could drop all of our camp gear and any other heavy stuff and come down to me with a light pack to help get the meat out. I made my way over to the deer and took some pictures, tagged the deer, and started cutting it up.
By the time Daryl got to me I was just about done taking the deer apart. I gave him a front and hind quarter and the bag of grind meat, and I took a front and hind quarter, the backstraps and tenderloins, and the head. We made our way up to the gear he had dropped, loaded that in our packs and then kept going up to the trail. We considered hoofing it back to the truck that night but it was dark right as we reached the trail and we decided we might as well just spend the night on the mountain and have a casual packout the next morning. We laid the meat bags out on some boulders and made camp, ate and finished off the whiskey. There was a little bit of cell service at that camp and we were able to send some messages out to friends and family. We woke up with the gray light and got up an watched the sunrise and casually took camp down after eating breakfast. We took our time loading our packs as they would be quite heavy and we started hiking at around 830. I drank the last of my water before we started knowing that it was all downhill and we’d be able to get some water at a little stream about 1.5 miles down the trail. We took a nice break at the stream and I drank a full liter before we continued on. We got back to the trailhead at 1030, having covered the 4 miles in 2 hours with a long break, which was pretty good considering what our packs weighed. I had left a piece of pizza and some beer in the cooler and nothing could have been better at that moment!
I was thinking about where the closest place to get my tag co-signed was as we were driving down the dirt road when we came around the corner and there was a game warden coming up the road! Perfect timing. I asked him if he could sign my tag, and of course he said yes. He checked all of our stuff, including our licenses, tags, guns, ammo, and the cooler. He was a really nice young guy and we ended up talking to him for about 30 minutes about the hunt, and local success rates and what he’d been ticketing people for. It was a super positive experience and a very convenient way to get my tag signed and get us on the road back home.
It was great to start the SoCal season off with some success, especially after the frustration of not getting to hunt this area last year. I hope you all have a great season and find some nice bucks! Good luck!
Friday we packed in 6 miles in the early evening as the storm cleared and finished the last two miles in the dark. It was cold and windy with temps in the 30’s. I was hoping that the storm would have dropped a couple inches of snow on the mountain at the upper elevations but the precipitation all fell in the form of rain. We brought a tent and cold weather gear as the forecast was for possible precip on Friday night with highs in the low 40’s and lows in the 30’s all weekend. We set up camp in the dark and then went to retrieve the water and some other gear I had stashed the previous weekend. After all the chores were done we settled in and had our freeze dried meals and a few sips of whiskey before crawling into our sleeping bags for the night.
We got up in the dark and made some oatmeal and coffee and made our way to our glassing knob. While the wind was blowing pretty hard, we were sheltered from it on our knob and were glassing down the mountain into an area that was pretty well sheltered too. So we felt we still had a good chance of finding some deer.
For the first hour we didn’t see much movement. Then I found a pretty, symmetrical 3 point that I had seen in the same area the week before. He was a young deer that I wasn’t interested in shooting and neither was Daryl. We kept an eye on him but kept looking. A little later in the morning, maybe around 1030 I found a big group of deer hanging out in the morning sun about a mile away. We saw that a boy and his dad were moving toward them on the ridge they were on, but hadn’t seen them yet. We could see one small legal buck with a bunch of does and watched to see what would happen. Unfortunately for those hunters they spooked the whole group and the deer moved off the ridge and down into the canyon where we usually see deer. In all likelihood, this is where the deer were headed anyway as they were moving off of the barren, sunny south facing slope and down into the canyon where there is bedding cover. As the group moved down into the canyon they picked up a few more bucks and we could see that there were two good bucks. One appeared to be just a big fork, but the other one had obviously good mass with some extra points and looked like a nice mature buck. After I got a look at him through the spotter I felt that I would probably try and take this buck if I got an opportunity.
The whole group of deer followed the script and did exactly as we have seen the deer in this area do every time we have been there. They side hilled and fed toward their usual bedding area, and as it became clear that they would give us an opportunity I decided to make my move. I told Daryl to stay up on the glassing knob and to put the orange hat on if the deer busted out. I then packed up my stuff and and proceeded to make my way down the mountain. We were glassing from high on the mountain and I needed to drop approximately 1500 feet to get into position. It is very steep and rugged terrain and it took me about 90 minutes to do, moving slowly the last few hundred yards as I could periodically see the deer as I moved through the trees. We had been down in this drainage before and had previously picked out a location that we thought would be a good spot to shoot from. I made my way to it and got set up prone with my bipod. I ranged the area where all the deer were and it was right at 200 yards. At first all I could see were does milling around feeding. But then I noticed a small buck moving down the hill toward the does. Then I saw the big fork that my target buck had been running with. I saw that he actually had a third point on his left side and considered shooting him but quickly decided against it. He wasn’t what I had come down the hill for and these deer had no idea I was there. I knew the bigger buck would show eventually. Sure enough, a few minutes later I saw him step out from behind a tree. I had already loaded a round in the chamber and I pushed the safety off as I could see he was about to step into the open. I didn’t have to wait long, he stepped out and quickly was perfectly broadside and I squeezed off a shot. He hunched up and staggered backward and I knew he was hit good. Since he was still on his feet and I had no one with me to spot, I decided to keep shooting until he was down. I fired again and hit, and he started moving a little faster but stumbling and then stopped one more time and I squeezed another one off for insurance. I really don’t think he needed either of the follow up shots but my rule, especially when I’m by myself, is to keep shooting until they’re down. He fell after the third shot and I stayed on him for some time after that. When I was sure he was dead, I got my Inreach out and sent a message to Daryl that he was dead and to pack up camp and take the trail around the mountain to the ridge opposite of me above the deer. He could drop all of our camp gear and any other heavy stuff and come down to me with a light pack to help get the meat out. I made my way over to the deer and took some pictures, tagged the deer, and started cutting it up.
By the time Daryl got to me I was just about done taking the deer apart. I gave him a front and hind quarter and the bag of grind meat, and I took a front and hind quarter, the backstraps and tenderloins, and the head. We made our way up to the gear he had dropped, loaded that in our packs and then kept going up to the trail. We considered hoofing it back to the truck that night but it was dark right as we reached the trail and we decided we might as well just spend the night on the mountain and have a casual packout the next morning. We laid the meat bags out on some boulders and made camp, ate and finished off the whiskey. There was a little bit of cell service at that camp and we were able to send some messages out to friends and family. We woke up with the gray light and got up an watched the sunrise and casually took camp down after eating breakfast. We took our time loading our packs as they would be quite heavy and we started hiking at around 830. I drank the last of my water before we started knowing that it was all downhill and we’d be able to get some water at a little stream about 1.5 miles down the trail. We took a nice break at the stream and I drank a full liter before we continued on. We got back to the trailhead at 1030, having covered the 4 miles in 2 hours with a long break, which was pretty good considering what our packs weighed. I had left a piece of pizza and some beer in the cooler and nothing could have been better at that moment!
I was thinking about where the closest place to get my tag co-signed was as we were driving down the dirt road when we came around the corner and there was a game warden coming up the road! Perfect timing. I asked him if he could sign my tag, and of course he said yes. He checked all of our stuff, including our licenses, tags, guns, ammo, and the cooler. He was a really nice young guy and we ended up talking to him for about 30 minutes about the hunt, and local success rates and what he’d been ticketing people for. It was a super positive experience and a very convenient way to get my tag signed and get us on the road back home.
It was great to start the SoCal season off with some success, especially after the frustration of not getting to hunt this area last year. I hope you all have a great season and find some nice bucks! Good luck!
