Question?????????

[Arise_Kill_Eat_Acts10:13]

One of my favorite things to do in January is drift the Owens river (just north of Tinemaha res.) jump shooting ducks. You and your friends can fill up a freezer real fast.

Anyhoo…Every time we do this we see TONS of deer on both sides of the Owens. I am relatively new to the Big Game arena & I am more failure w/ Wyoming laws and zones (w/ Elk & Pronghorn) than my home state Ca. w/ Deer. I don’t have a clue what zone this would be. I have also heard that hunting Deer on the east side of the river is prohibited in this area. Before I call F&G I thought I would give this a try and see if anyone knows this area, hunted it before for deer & and can perhaps give me the “in’s and out’s” of where to begin w/ this venture.

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[Backcountry]

Howdy Acts...

Boy, that drift shooting for ducks sounds FUN! As for the deer, I bet you see some big ones (tell us, how big?) along the river that time of year.

From a quick glace at the zone map, it looks like that area along the Owens River is in zone X9C (western boundary is Hwy 395)... it should be legally huntable on both public land and private land (with permission of course).

I will tell you with near 90% certainty, when deer season is open in X9C (Oct. 16 to Nov. 7 this year) most of the bucks you see in January will still be a few miles to the west at higher elevation in zones X9B or X10. Until the snows have really started the deer don't migrate to lower elevation. Every few years there are some bigger storms in late September and early October and that would be the time to hunt X9C as the bucks pour out of the mountains to their wintering grounds.

From the draw statistics page, if you put X9C or X10 as your first choice you will get the tag (X9B is a different story with much poorer draw odds).

If you plan to be duck hunting that area when deer season is open, it probably wouldn't hurt to go ahead and get a tag in case the area gets some weather. I'd go ahead and call the DFG and try to talk to the biologist that studies that area too and see what he thinks... or, next time you are up in Bishop or Big Pine, try to talk to some of the locals.

Disclaimer: I've never hunted that area (although I've backpacked extensively in the Sierras to the west: e.g., Palisades), nor did I stay in a Holiday Inn last night.

Cheers, Backcountry

 

[Arise_Kill_Eat_Acts10:13]

Back –

What you said makes perfect sense because we don’t see many deer in Oct. Nov.. Usually we see them in Dec. & Jan. after a good snowstorm. So my potential deer honey hole may just be a camping & duck outing. The volume of deer we see in Jan. is significant enough to at least get a tag and hope for a few big storms in Oct.

As for the size - They are pretty small. I have never seen any sizable bucks. I’m sure the big ones are at higher elevations still. Time to get the wheels in motion and see if I can make this happen.

Thanks so much for your feedback!!

 

[BigTuna]

Acts,
You must see and incredible amount of Tule Elk during your drift also. That area, at least during the 2003 season, held the largest bull in the Owens Valley. Most all the land in that area belongs to Los Angeles Dept. Water and Power. OK to hunt and fish, no over night camping.

 

[Arise_Kill_Eat_Acts10:13]

Lots of Tule Elk - Yes. The problemo is getting a tag for them. One night we were sleeping in our tents (2 am) and a entire heard went right through our camp. I thought it was an earth quake.

We have been overnight camping there for the past 10 years. Never a problem w/ F&G.