I wish you luck Shannon! I can’t tell you where to go but I can tell you some things to do that will, in my opinion, increase your chances of success on public land in any zone in Southern California. You need to get away from people and areas that are getting trampled every weekend by hunters. To give you an idea: I left my truck at 540 (which in my opinion was a little late), and hiked 2.5 miles to my glassing spot. The buck I found on Saturday morning was 1-1.5 miles as the crow flies and about 3 miles by foot from me (so a total of 5.5-6 miles from the truck). This was the only deer I saw on the opener. Pick a hill to sit on and glass, glass, glass. Buy the best optics you can afford and use them. Every year people get lucky road hunting or shooting something close to the truck. That’s great and it’s nice to take advantage of those opportunities when they come but in my opinion it’s not going to fill tags consistently. If you have any questions about tactics or equipment or deer behavior feel free to ask!