Hunting Deer

We hope this guide will help deer hunters by encouraging a greater understanding of the various subspecies of mule deer found in California and explaining effective hunting techniques for various situations and conditions encountered throughout the state during general and special deer seasons.

When most hunters discuss the deer they hunt they normally talk about mule deer or blacktails without any elaboration except, perhaps, for noting the size of the last buck they killed or failed to get. That’s not surprising. Most of us simply do not have the expertise of a big game biologist nor do we need to know the most minute details about the deer we encounter. On the other hand, it’s a good idea for hunters to have a basic understanding of the deer in California. While you may not be able to identify each and every subspecies (there is some overlap in several areas), at least you’ll know that there are recognizable differences in the deer that reside in the various geographical regions. According to the DFG, six subspecies of mule deer are found in California: Columbian blacktailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus), Rocky Mountain mule deer (O.h. hemionus), California mule deer (O.h. californicus), Inyo mule deer (O.h. inyoensis), burro mule deer (O.h. eremicus), and southern mule deer (O.h. fuliginatus). Deer of one sort or another occupy roughly 88,000 square miles of habitat or 56 percent of the land in California. Some of the state’s deer herds are resident animals that spend their entire lives in a particular area where everything they need in the way of food, cover, and water is available all year. Other herds are migratory. That is, they range high into the mountains during the summer and migrate down to winter range in the fall. Summer range for migratory deer is usually high in elevation (from 5,000 to 10,000 feet), under public ownership, and is typically vast. By contrast, lower-elevation winter range, some public and some private, is more limited in scope and more susceptible to the type of alterations chapter 1: The Deer of California (particularly human development) that may make it unsuitable for deer. Simply put, the amount and quality of winter range generally determines the size, health, and future of many of the state’s deer herds. It is interesting how much the basic habits of deer in California differ from region to region from the type of preferred habitat to the general The most numerous deer in California are Columbian black-tailed deer which range throughout the coastal mountains and along the west slope of the Cascade-Sierra Nevada Range.

herd movements within that habitat. Additionally, the breeding season, or rut, occurs at slightly different times from north to south. Depending on the geographical area involved, the rut may take place anywhere from October (coastal mountains) through January (southern deserts). These factors are all taken into consideration, along with several other factors, when seasons and quotas are set by the Fish and Game Commission. The most numerous deer in California are columbian black-tailed deer. They range throughout the coastal mountains from Oregon roughly to Santa Barbara, and along the west slope of the Cascade-Sierra Nevada range to Calaveras County, and south along the foothills of the Sierra Nevada to Mariposa County. The second most abundant subspecies of deer in the state is the california mule deer. They are Rocky Mountain mule deer are the biggest deer in California and the third most abundant subspecies. found along the west slope of the Sierra Nevada from Sierra County south into Kern County and from northern Orange County to San Benito and Monterey counties. California mule deer also are found in the Tehachapi, San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains. rocky mountain mule deer are the largest deer in California and the third most abundant subspecies. Rocky Mountain mule deer range throughout the West and spill over into the Golden State in Modoc, Lassen, Shasta and Siskiyou counties.

they are also found along the east slope of the CascadeSierra Nevada chain to southern Mono County. Some Rocky Mountain mule deer were transplanted from Modoc County to parts of the desert mountains in San Bernardino County in 1948, where they still eke out an existence today. southern mule deer occupy portions of San Diego, Orange and western Riverside counties while the inyo mule deer (which may soon be classified differently based on new information) reside in Inyo, southern Mono and northeastern Kern counties. burro mule deer (which have been combined with the desert mule deer, O.h. crooki) inhabit the southeastern deserts in San Bernardino, Riverside and Imperial counties, especially along the California and Arizona sides of the Colorado River. From a hunter’s perspective, the easiest way to identify the subspecies of deer that’s harvested is to match the hunt location with the known general range of each subspecies (see range and tail pattern illustrations on pages 6 and 8 respectively). At the risk of confusion, it should be noted that the deer themselves have trouble recognizing one another, or perhaps they don’t care. Except for the desert areas, ranges often overlap and where they do it is inevitable that the various subspecies will interbreed. Thus, the buck of your dreams may very well be a hybrid. As a general rule, adult Rocky Mountain mule deer have the largest antlers and weigh the most of the six subspecies. There are exceptions, but characteristically pure strain black-tailed deer are the smallest of the various subspecies in California. While the die is cast genetically as to an individual animal’s features, ultimately its body and antler size, and growth rate (within the framework of a particular subspecies) are determined by the quality of the habitat in which it lives. Studies (including a recent study of captive deer) have shown that deer that do not have a nutritious food supply will not develop on par with deer that have access to optimum high quality forage.
other deer? You may have heard some hunters talk of hunting blue deer or red deer as if they’re unique subspecies but that is not the case. What these hunters are seeing are deer before and after they shed their summer and winter coats (or pelage). In the summer, mule deer are reddish-brown and black-tailed deer are even a bit redder. By contrast, a mule deer’s winter coat is grayish-brown while a black-tailed deer’s coat varies from warm brown to gray-brown. It’s reasonable to assume that a graybrown deer could appear to have a hint of blue (to some folks) given the right conditions—thus the term blue deer comes into play. One more thing. Contrary to what you might have read or heard, there are no free-roaming whitetailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in California, which isn’t to say that there never have been. DFG records show that in the past there have been occasional sightings of whitetails in the northeast portion of the state. They have never become established here, however, and the last confirmed sighting was more than 50 years ago. So, while there are some white-tailed deer in portions of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and several other western states, you won’t find them in the Golden State. california's deer population: In the 2000 Environmental Document on Deer Hunting, the DFG estimates that the total population of deer in California is more than 511,000 animals. That is fewer deer than were estimated to be present in the 1950s, perhaps, but probably more than there were prior to the mid-1800s. The California Gold Rush of 1849 marked the beginning of a dramatic change in California. According to one study, the greatest initial effect on deer was from market hunting to supply venison for mining camps. In 1852, it was said that there were human occupants on every gravel bar of the Trinity River from Salyer to Carville. Similar congregations were present in the Mother Lode region and even on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada. Miners shot deer for meat year-round and deer range was altered by logging, grazing, burning and clearing. Some of the changes ultimately benefited the deer but the initial impacts caused a decline in overall numbers. Historic game laws, hunting license requirements, and restrictions on hunting contributed to the increase of deer first noted between 1910 and 1920. In effect, legislation and enforcement allowed the deer to benefit from the improved habitat created by the intrusions of man, including the large-scale burning and logging mentioned above. More recently, however, improved fire suppression techniques have reduced the amount of deer habitat that had previously been open. At the same time, human activity has usurped prime deer habitat for agricultural uses, subdivisions, freeways, reservoirs and shopping centers.