The most wonderful time of the year….. A zone general 😆

[Sea Wolf]

That may be true. Come to think of it I’ve killed a buck with only 1 eye guard also.

I've definitely seen the single eye guard before.

Yeah, I'm fascinated. Would love to see research / numbers on that. Pity the CA hunter report doesn't ask about eye-guards, if it did, it would generate a great data set. Where I hunt, pretty sure almost everything over a fork has eyeguards (although I see precious few of those ) and a lot of forks have them too.

That'd be a very interesting statistic. In my area, it seems to me that most have eye guards. But here is an example if one that is totally absent. He did have one longer popcorn kernel that I joked was a tiny eye guard

 

[OutHeavy]

Congratulations to everyone with big bucks! Are you all passing up shots on smaller bucks, or just happening upon bigger ones? All I've seen this season (and just about every season) are forkies (public land only, north half of the zone).

You ever see those stories about someone who wins the lottery and then shows up all over the local news? Then they get mobbed by "friends" and family all looking to help the lucky winner with his/her fortune only to have the winner lose everything they had and wish they'd never won to begin with? Yeah, it's kinda like that. Keep playing the lottery, brother. You gotta be in it to win it.

 

[yellowbeard]

You ever see those stories about someone who wins the lottery and then shows up all over the local news? Then they get mobbed by "friends" and family all looking to help the lucky winner with his/her fortune only to have the winner lose everything they had and wish they'd never won to begin with? Yeah, it's kinda like that. Keep playing the lottery, brother. You gotta be in it to win it.

You're implying that it's luck, which I guess makes sense this early in the season (unless these people all have honey-holes full of big bucks). Later in the season passing up on forkies is where it will pay off for patient people I suppose?

 

[Sea Wolf]

(unless these people all have honey-holes full of big bucks).

 

[Loco4dux]

Eye guard thing is strange. I usually hunt a relatively small area (vastly different from the area I posted earlier in this thread, strong eye guard gene there).
Some Bucks don’t grow eye guards, some do, one buck I’ve been watching this year has one eye guard, another has none.
Years passed, eye guards vary, for the last 20 years. My good pal @Muley Buck son killed the one with none the other day see picture below. Great first buck for him! See second picture of buck I killed a couple years ago monster eye guards 3x3 and split on one side.

 

[megamonster805]

One of my better A zone deer, south. Terrible picture but he’s 18in wide. Water was scarce and it seemed to concentrate the deer. I saw 21 does opening day and killed this one the second day of the season. View attachment 317610nice deer for southern a zone

 

[Muley Buck]

Eye guard thing is strange. I usually hunt a relatively small area (vastly different from the area I posted earlier in this thread, strong eye guard gene there).
Some Bucks don’t grow eye guards, some do, one buck I’ve been watching this year has one eye guard, another has none.
Years passed, eye guards vary, for the last 20 years. My good pal @Muley Buck son killed the one with none the other day see picture below. Great first buck for him! See second picture of buck I killed a couple years ago monster eye guards 3x3 and split on one side.

So awesome, and thank you for all your help on that! I sure do like that long eye guard buck. Although, you may have bested him this year.

 

[Azone]

You're implying that it's luck, which I guess makes sense this early in the season (unless these people all have honey-holes full of big bucks). Later in the season passing up on forkies is where it will pay off for patient people I suppose?

With the season not ending till the 25th of September this year I’m betting there will definitely be some bigger bucks getting caught off guard chasing does. Hopefully no heat waves and fire closures occur between now and then.
Patients and persistence are a must, I’ve always defined the deer hunting out in my areas as hours of boredom followed by seconds of sheer chaos. You think you have it all figured out and the deer do something different.

 

[Azone]

Eye guard thing is strange. I usually hunt a relatively small area (vastly different from the area I posted earlier in this thread, strong eye guard gene there).
Some Bucks don’t grow eye guards, some do, one buck I’ve been watching this year has one eye guard, another has none.
Years passed, eye guards vary, for the last 20 years. My good pal @Muley Buck son killed the one with none the other day see picture below. Great first buck for him! See second picture of buck I killed a couple years ago monster eye guards 3x3 and split on one side.

That three pointer definitely has some impressive eye guards.
Most of the bucks I’ve killed haven’t had eye guards.

 

[Loco4dux]

Late season this year for sure will get some big bucks killed.

 

[Cahunter805]

Late season this year for sure will get some big bucks killed.

I sure hope you’re right. I’ve already taken the days off work!
I think it was 2017 the last time the season went late and we saw quite a few bucks chasing does.

 

[iseebucks]

With the season not ending till the 25th of September this year I’m betting there will definitely be some bigger bucks getting caught off guard chasing does. Hopefully no heat waves and fire closures occur between now and then.
Patients and persistence are a must, I’ve always defined the deer hunting out in my areas as hours of boredom followed by seconds of sheer chaos. You think you have it all figured out and the deer do something different.

Actually it ends September 26th, even better. I think this is the latest date that A zone can possibly end,

 

[Azone]

Actually it ends September 26th, even better. I think this is the latest date that A zone can possibly end,

Fat fingers and typing on an iPhone, my bad. The 26th is correct and this is the latest possible date for it to end.

 

[lpmitch]

Ventura County A Zone public land buck down.

 

[yellowbeard]

Ventura County A Zone public land buck down.

Why eat mountain house when you have a tasty looking deer head to cook up? Congrats on the nice buck!

 

[JNDEER]

Slim pickings out there with what little public land is available.

 

[Muley Buck]

Good looking buck, he looks nice and clean.

 

[JNDEER]

Good looking buck, he looks nice and clean.

Not a tick or flea on him. Had a good amount of fat too.- will eat real nice

 

[Muley Buck]

Not a tick or flea on him. Had a good amount of fat too.- will eat real nice

Excellent! The buck my son killed this season was the same way. Not a tick on him. It blew me away, I could hardly believe it.

 

[Azone]

That should be some great venison, congrats on the buck. I shot a spike fork stag a few years back and he was very tasty.