C4 high, or down lower.

[884runner]

My group hunted around Chester last year and it seemed as though most deer were lower. We live about 6 hours away and no time to scout. Not looking for spots as we have hunted C4 and g1 before and have some knowledge of the areas. Just looking for info as to wether the deer are still up around Chester or have moved down. Thanks.

 

[ak_o_sniper]

I would look around the Butte Meadows area. There always seems to be deer in the area, only thing is, it's all SPI land. I'm not sure if you can hunt it anymore, used to be really good behind their locked gates.

 

[FreeRange]

You can still hunt SPI lands, unless there's a specific closure, but across the board hunting is OK. No camping, no motorcycles behind locked gates, no fires etc...

 

[FreeRange]

884Runner your PM's are disabled, you should enable them.

 

[framzit23]

Last year we had early rain and cold that started the migration a little early. This year there has been a little movement due to bow season but a lot of deer are still higher up. Find water within short distance of good groceries and you should have a good shot at setting some deer

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[884runner]

Enabled PMs.
Thanks for the info. We were a little off guard last year. Didn't think the little weather they had was enough to move the deer down but was wrong. Didn't want to make the same mistake again.

 

[framzit23]

We also has some decent thunder storms during bow season last year that helped push some deer. None of that this year and the weather still looks warm and sunny till opener.

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[Cal Kellogg]

I've been hunting there yearly first with family and then alone for the past 40 plus years... This is what I've observed...By late September or early October a lot of the deer will have abandoned the high country in favor of the middle elevation (4000 to 6000 foot) dark timber. When the acorns start falling the deer will move in and adopt a largely nocturnal livestyle. You can catch them out early and late, but overall they stay hidden in thick stuff and the hunting is tough.

The deer are waiting for weather to push them lower. The weather has a two fold effect...Yes cold storms do push the deer lower looking for warmer conditions, however its the explosion of shoots, clover and grass that the rain creates at lower elevations that really draw the deer down. That low green feed is so rich....

At the first major storm of fall, and it doesn't even have to be that intense, deer will move down. If the season is open when that happens, get into the woods within hours of the start of the rain and position yourself in the lowest reaches of the national forest at 3500 to 4000 feet...Deer movement during these early storms can be intense, but it will often turn off as quick as it turned on....It's when we are lucky enough to get snow storms during the season that we get a real tidal wave of deer coming down....The late season C's (d2b...I think...Now G1) opened on October 20 in 1984....36 hours before the season opened two feet of snow fell on Lassen and the upper elevation areas...The deer pushed out of the high country in mass...My family tagged out with 5 bucks 90 minutes on opening morning...

Pray for snow...!...Hope for rain!!!

 

[vogel002]

Great Insight

 

[hks95134]

I've been hunting there yearly first with family and then alone for the past 40 plus years... This is what I've observed...By late September or early October a lot of the deer will have abandoned the high country in favor of the middle elevation (4000 to 6000 foot) dark timber. When the acorns start falling the deer will move in and adopt a largely nocturnal livestyle. You can catch them out early and late, but overall they stay hidden in thick stuff and the hunting is tough.

The deer are waiting for weather to push them lower. The weather has a two fold effect...Yes cold storms do push the deer lower looking for warmer conditions, however its the explosion of shoots, clover and grass that the rain creates at lower elevations that really draw the deer down. That low green feed is so rich....

At the first major storm of fall, and it doesn't even have to be that intense, deer will move down. If the season is open when that happens, get into the woods within hours of the start of the rain and position yourself in the lowest reaches of the national forest at 3500 to 4000 feet...Deer movement during these early storms can be intense, but it will often turn off as quick as it turned on....It's when we are lucky enough to get snow storms during the season that we get a real tidal wave of deer coming down....The late season C's (d2b...I think...Now G1) opened on October 20 in 1984....36 hours before the season opened two feet of snow fell on Lassen and the upper elevation areas...The deer pushed out of the high country in mass...My family tagged out with 5 bucks 90 minutes on opening morning...

Pray for snow...!...Hope for rain!!!

My own observations as well.

Generally the bucks stay as high as they can until something pushes them down.

The late summer drying of springs also drives them down.

 

[EliteGame530]

I see rain coming for 2 days this week in shingletown. Will this start the migration?

 

[MQ]

While I can't really say how the deer will react, the fact that this rain is associated with the hurricane down south, and the fact that the temps will remain warm during this event, makes me think that it will not start a migration (any more than a couple days of thunderstorms would). My 2 pennies....

 

[MULEY51]

While I can't really say how the deer will react, the fact that this rain is associated with the hurricane down south, and the fact that the temps will remain warm during this event, makes me think that it will not start a migration (any more than a couple days of thunderstorms would). My 2 pennies....

Tend to agree with MQ. A COLD sustained rain, or snow, usually gets them going, but the warm rain just makes them hunker down a bit. JMHO

 

[Cal Kellogg]

Yep the colder the rain the better...We got that little shot of weather last year on the Monday of the G-1 season....I checked a Caltrans camera near Chester...When I saw the road covered with snow, I dropped everything and headed to the woods....I saw 5 bucks on Tuesday and tagged one. The rain stopped midday on Tuesday...I stayed in the area for a few more days trying to find a bear....The deer activity slowed down just as quickly as it started when the weather stopped and it got warmer...There were lots of bucks killed that Tuesday and then the success rate tapered off.... The best scenario for a massive migration is warm fair weather that gives way to a cold 2 to 3 day snow storm...I've caught the weather just right up there a number of time....October 28, 2000 we had a big pre opening day storm....On opening morning my dad killed his best 4 x 4 and I knocked off a 27 inch 3 x 3...We saw more than 70 deer in half a morning of hunting... The same morning the guys at the check in station at the Tehama Wildlife area observed a group of more than 100 deer walk past the check in..... Come On Snow!....I predicting that snow will fall in the California high country within the next 5 weeks....