NEW TO CALIFORNIA GOT SOME QUESTIONS

[Kemper Bowhunter]

New to California, coming from Mississippi on a forced military march if you will. Love to bowhunt and others. Need some explaining on how the system works here for tags. Mainly looking at hogs and mulies. Stationed in San Diego and wondering where some good places to hunt may lie. I know I have to give the tree stand up and pretty much start fresh. All help appreciated.

 

[Cal hunter]

Dont know much about that area but welcome to the best hunting site on the web Im sure you will get some info on here

 

[One Track]

Kemper:

Welcome. Don't give up the treestand too soon. You can hunt Mt. Laguna, Mt. Palomar and other areas for deer with the bow. Treestands are popular in these areas. Get a Cleveland National Forest map from a Ranger station. Just get out and do some drivin', and hikin', and find that public land, and look for sign. There are more deer in San Diego than you might think. The archery tag is A22. You can get that over the counter. The closest place to hog hunt is Tejon Ranch, about a 3 to 4 hour drive. But, you have to pay for that. Otherwise, it's twice that far to public land hog hunting.

Brent

 

[outdoorplay]

Pigs.......Pasa Robles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Tehachapi/Kern, there's a good start.

mulies,

aaaaammmm wwwweeeellllllll in the desert

welcome to JHO

Mike

 

[Bowrange]

Kemper,

Quick edit post here so I'm not repeating, let's just say my first post totally agreed with One Track (as usual)

Although some are a good drive, several military bases offer hunting access limited to military personnel.

Where in Mississippi are you from? I'll be in Robinsonville and Biloxi next week.

 

[Bishop]

Welcome to JHO. One Track's right about San Diego county. You may also want to check with Camp Pendleton about their hunts, and Vandenburg Air Base (4-5 hrs from Diego) has military only pig hunts.

 

[larrysogla]

As posted by military active & retired, Vandenberg AFB is a hotspot for hogs & also for deer during season. Camp Pendleton is also good for deer during season. Fort Hunter Liggett & Camp Roberts are also good hogs & deer military hunts. I would prefer going inside the Military bases for deer as I have witnessed extremely dangerous deer hunts/deer drives on non-military public hunting areas on several occasions. The public hunting grounds are being populated by more & more rude & undisciplined folks. One hunter was even shot & killed by unidentified person/s in the Carrizo Plains Nat. Monument during deer season. 'Nuff said. God Bless.

 

[Kemper Bowhunter]

Thanks guys for the generous and swift replies. Cool about the use of tree stands out here. Gonna have my bow shipped out here in the next few weeks. Was at Meridian NAS for 3 years and experienced some of the best deer hunting the state had to offer. The 400 acre lease I was a member of and the surrounding clubs had a historical trend of producing 140 class bucks or higher. Usually a couple on a club per season. The whitetails are pretty prolific down there. If you ever get down that way, the NAS is a decent place to hunt as well. 6000 acres of hunting available with an outlying field that has another 2000 acres. Each have food plots established for winter. Lots of older bucks with big racks. Lots of meat deer as well. Relatively cheap to hunt with some base requirements(hunter safety course,
base permit, hunting license and a safety brief). If you like turkeys thats the place as well. Mossy Oak did a show there. Can't wait to get after them here, but starting fresh like a newbie to the ways of the west. Thanks all.

 

[BDB]

The good news is you have almost a year to read up on the deer draws before next years draw, it will probably take that long to figure it out, lots of fun. I was a newbie here from the East cost about 4 years ago. It will take you a while to figure out all of the rules, seasons and areas to hunt. JHO is always a good place to ask questions and get some good answers. Welcome to the site

 

[socalgunrep21]

Hey Kemper,
Let me know when you get your bow out here and we'll get together and shoot. I might even take to the Laguna's and show you around, you'll just have to be blindfolded...hee-hee-hee.....

Bryan