Jason_W
Member
I really want to get back into small game and maybe take up waterfowl.
I've had the misfortune of moving from one crappy state for deer hunting to another. I grew up in Vermont, and then moved to Maine, and now I'm in the worst of the three so far, California.
I was reading up and I learned that the deer seasons here start in July or August and end, intentionally, just before the start of the rut. Existing outdoors throughout most of California from June-November can only be described as raw hell. How do you keep meat from spoiling when temps are in the 90s and 100s? Antlerless deer are off limits (of course) and the real slap in the face is how seasons are timed to miss the rut. Screw that!
Deer hunting was also mostly an exercise in futility back home as well, but I pretty much lived in the woods back there, so hunting was a simple as grabbing a gun and wandering out of the yard and into the woods. My dad and I used to call it taking our guns for a walk. There was no real money investment involved, so the the fact that we weren't going to get a deer didn't matter. It was still a nice walk in the woods.
Unless I find myself living in one of those areas where there are so many deer the state is practically begging you to shoot a dozen does for every buck, I'm not interested.
On the plus side, there seems to be an abundance of small game out here. There are so many turkeys that they're a nuisance in populated areas, I see quail and dove everywhere, and apparently, the ungodly valley I'm stuck in is right under one of the biggest waterfowl flyways in the nation. So, glass is half full?
Food for thought: here's a list of the 10 worst states for deer hunting. I've lived in two of them. Not sure how California isn't on that list.
http://www.wideopenspaces.com/top-10-worst-deer-hunting-states/
I've had the misfortune of moving from one crappy state for deer hunting to another. I grew up in Vermont, and then moved to Maine, and now I'm in the worst of the three so far, California.
I was reading up and I learned that the deer seasons here start in July or August and end, intentionally, just before the start of the rut. Existing outdoors throughout most of California from June-November can only be described as raw hell. How do you keep meat from spoiling when temps are in the 90s and 100s? Antlerless deer are off limits (of course) and the real slap in the face is how seasons are timed to miss the rut. Screw that!
Deer hunting was also mostly an exercise in futility back home as well, but I pretty much lived in the woods back there, so hunting was a simple as grabbing a gun and wandering out of the yard and into the woods. My dad and I used to call it taking our guns for a walk. There was no real money investment involved, so the the fact that we weren't going to get a deer didn't matter. It was still a nice walk in the woods.
Unless I find myself living in one of those areas where there are so many deer the state is practically begging you to shoot a dozen does for every buck, I'm not interested.
On the plus side, there seems to be an abundance of small game out here. There are so many turkeys that they're a nuisance in populated areas, I see quail and dove everywhere, and apparently, the ungodly valley I'm stuck in is right under one of the biggest waterfowl flyways in the nation. So, glass is half full?
Food for thought: here's a list of the 10 worst states for deer hunting. I've lived in two of them. Not sure how California isn't on that list.
http://www.wideopenspaces.com/top-10-worst-deer-hunting-states/