You can hunt with a single dog in CA for deer. There is some nuance to the rule, like it can’t be during archery season, so check your regs for more details. With that said, this dog didn’t play any part in the hunt, even though it would have been perfectly legal to do so. I just brought him...
That country is exactly what I most often find the bucks in. That particular spot isn’t to far from the trailhead (about 2 miles) but it’s so far down in elevation the backside of the mountain it keeps the pressure lower. It was about a 1,400-1,600 foot gain in elevation out. It does get nastier...
I’m my opinion that’s a very good southern CA buck. I don’t claim to have ever dabbled in deer hunting in Southern CA. I try to stay as far away from that place as possible, always.
I know people that hunt them down that way and for a new guy coming in it’s probably some of the toughest...
I try to be conservative with animal weights because a new person to bear hunting might think the bear I shot weighed 500 pounds. They always look much much bigger alive. I might have seen one 500+ lb bear my entire life, I thought it was a cow at first glance.
With that said - we did weigh...
Haha, not this weekend. I have to work the dogs on some quail and grouse to get ready for an upcoming hunt.
I’ll probably have to slip away during the week although it’s beginning to seem like I may not be able to go back out for myself at all.
If I can I most likely will go to an entirely...
We took the opposite paths. I grew up in Lakehead (we’d shop in dreadful Redding), and moved to the middle Klamath. There was some other paths along the way but I may never move again.
Well you may be one of few people on this board who have ever been to or heard of the town where I live. I’m in Orleans. California has its shenanigans but my home is a world apart. I can access 3 major wilderness areas without barely being on a paved road. My wife wants to stay in California...
I was like that in the past - totally understand the logic of not sharing on the World Wide Web.
Many of the best hunters will never be known and they want to keep it that way. Some of the biggest blacktail I’ve seen killed will never see the internet. My old boss was/is a hell of a hunter...
This is the story of a blacktail buck I recently killed here in the North Coast of California.
Really the story starts with this thread.
Between taking other hunters out, children, dogs, and life I was able to find one weekend where I could do what I like to do best. Chase big blacktail...
Isn't this a story about a bear hunt?
We had to head out that afternoon on the 4th day and get some work done at home and regroup for a couple days. Just as we got to the truck, a rain storm blew in and it was completely blown out. On the drive home I was explaining to my buddy how I found...
Howdy Folks,
This is a long one.
It's been a busy season taking guests on various hunts from Roosevelt elk, to Columbian black-tailed deer and bear. This is the story of a couple bears recently killed in CA. Hopefully I'll have time in a different post for a recent blacktail buck story. Still...
On Thursday I tested my French Brittany pup in the NAVHDA Natural Ability test.
Not new to hunting dogs but it was my first time as a handler in a test. I used to have the attitude like many - I just want hunting dogs that can get me on game day in and day out. I don't need to test. However, I...
You've been given some good advice. To reiterate, there are elk and there are hunters. The McCall zone is huge, I've only been in a small portion of it. The elk seem to know exactly where the roads and trails are, it's also my opinion that they know where someone could see them from roads or...
Right on! It sounds like you did just the right amount of training. How great a feeling to get a better score than expected.
I've been training two pups, a French Brit (9 months) and a Drahthaar (7 months). The Brit pup has her NA test mid-August. The Draht is in the German system so it won't...
The folks who grow up in snake country seem to be less worried about snakes. It's like upland hunters who come from the upper midwest with their dogs and think a rattler is under every bush. Some don't even want to run dogs out of fear. I have yet to have a dog get bit and there is a very...
I will have to agree with 88man. Beef is the meat that tastes different. We almost never eat beef in my household and it was the same way growing up. I found out later that my father never prepared it because it would make him sick. I thought he was BSing me but one day while I was visiting I...
That's interesting. I joke with my wife that I think something is wrong with my tastebuds because spicy food does not effect me like it seems to with many people, and my tolerance has grown significantly in recent time. Also I'll eat practically anything. I never bothered to research if I was...
I've spent some time a little south of you in Amador, El Dorado, Alpine, and Calaveras Counties. Gray squirrels are practically anywhere where there is forests. If my focus is on squirrels I like to target big oaks and pines with sparse understory. Practically any lower elevation (below 4K feet)...
That's a good point.
Haha. Asking for photographic proof would have seemed a bit rude considering the fellow invited us to his ranch for a drink. I really wouldn't be shocked to see a grizzly in the Frank so I didn't find the story that unbelievable. I'm more surprised they aren't there than...