Migration, the rut, and a few other questions from a beginner.

T

TheHiker

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My brother and I, both first time deer hunters will be hunting D3 in CA here in about a week. We've put in time at the range, on google earth, and in the field hoping to have a successful hunt (although we realize the odds are against us). My concern is that we have scouted a couple of places mostly between 4000 and 7000 ft and this past week, the cabin where we'll be staying at got about 8" of snow. The deer we'll be hunting are migratory and so I'm a little concerned that we may need to scrap the places we scouted and look lower.

Question 2 is does anyone know when the rut is in the CA sierras? I just wanted to know if we're going to have much luck seeing deer in the middle of the day, or if we should focus on morning and evening.

Finally, any last minute tips? We'll be primarily finding a high open spot, glassing, and then stalking. Maybe some still hunting, too. As it's our first trip, we're not out for any trophies, just want to fill a tag or two and catch the fever. Thanks.
 
Rut, in N. Sierras mid- to late Nov. Some deer will move at the 1st snow but this early not all. Snow after the 20th will move almost all deer. Some will go all the way to the winter range but some will hang up in holding areas. Also go to DFG website and lookup deer hunt info.

from the "Heartland of Wyoming"
 
I spoke with my brother today, and he says that the snow has all but melted, so I think we should still be okay with our higher elevation spots. They're expecting another storm to blow through our first day up there, and so I think I'm going to do some serious scouting on the choke points as I think if the storm is big enough, we'll probably catch a fair number of them moving down in elevation. Thanks for the help.
 
I have hunted California from 20 years and have had some late season tags. The pre rut will generally start around the 1st of dec give or take a few days in the sierras. Then it just gets hotter from there. It also depends what region you are in. Some of the true mulies tend to start much earlier. I think you are ok where your as far as elevation. You will find bucks, maybe not the big boys!It has to be one hell of storm for consecutive days to get those big boys to move out.
 

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