At 66 years of age with a knee replacement on the horizon I decided to use my California points on a Likely Tables Antelope hunt and an X5B Deer hunt.
A good friend and I drew the Antelope together, however; due to a detached retina he had to cancel at the last minute. I opted to hunt solo. In 5 days of scouting I had not found a lot of goats and nothing of any size. The season opened with the sky obscured by smoke and very warm conditions. I was finding a few animals but not a ton. This is super rough country with a ton of volcanic rock which is hard to travel in. I went to another part of the unit where there were no hunters and ended up taking an average buck who had a group of 13 does. The highlight was using my Pre-64 Model 70 .30-06 given to me by my father.
Another close friend and a fellow retired firefighter and I drew the X5B tag together. We opted to use a guide for this hunt. I have only done a couple of guided trips in my hunting career and this was the first for Mule Deer. In retrospect it was a wise choice. We saw bucks each day but no giants. I ended up taking a very tall 4x4 and my buddy a nice 4x3.
The one piece of advice based on this years scouting and my hunts for anyone applying in California for Antelope. Apply for the Lassen unit. The X5B tag is in the Lassen unit and I saw far more animals and a few awesome bucks during the Deer hunt.
A good friend and I drew the Antelope together, however; due to a detached retina he had to cancel at the last minute. I opted to hunt solo. In 5 days of scouting I had not found a lot of goats and nothing of any size. The season opened with the sky obscured by smoke and very warm conditions. I was finding a few animals but not a ton. This is super rough country with a ton of volcanic rock which is hard to travel in. I went to another part of the unit where there were no hunters and ended up taking an average buck who had a group of 13 does. The highlight was using my Pre-64 Model 70 .30-06 given to me by my father.
Another close friend and a fellow retired firefighter and I drew the X5B tag together. We opted to use a guide for this hunt. I have only done a couple of guided trips in my hunting career and this was the first for Mule Deer. In retrospect it was a wise choice. We saw bucks each day but no giants. I ended up taking a very tall 4x4 and my buddy a nice 4x3.
The one piece of advice based on this years scouting and my hunts for anyone applying in California for Antelope. Apply for the Lassen unit. The X5B tag is in the Lassen unit and I saw far more animals and a few awesome bucks during the Deer hunt.
