You’re most likely to encounter a blacktail buck of true trophy proportions in these three California counties.
January 23, 2019
By Cal Kellogg
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Check out this video to learn how to manage your small track of land to bag your trophy buck.
MENDOCINO COUNTY
Mendocino County is the second-most productive trophy-buck area from 2013 to 2017, with a total of 17 B&C bucks harvested and reported. Like Humboldt County, Mendocino County carries some outstanding public-land hunting across more than 100,000 acres. The county also offers access to world-class blacktail hunting on large coastal ranches. Some of these ranches are part of the PLM program. Many offer extended seasons and solid trophy-deer management strategies. The way the seasons break down in Mendocino County, it is possible to deer hunt for more than 60 days if you take part in the 20-plus-day archery season and the 40-plus-day rifle season.
If low cost, reasonably easy access hunting is what you’re after in Mendocino County, the Mendocino National Forest is the place to go. Its mountains are steep, heavily timbered and brushy, and a web of roads offer access deep into the forest; but if you want to hang your tag on a trophy, plan to invest in sweat equity. Hike to areas other hunters are unwilling to access and you’ll be well on your way to success.
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Mendocino County deer hunters also can approach great wilderness outings across the Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness. Motorized vehicles are prohibited in the massive 152,000-acre wilderness area, and some of the biggest blacktails on the planet call the Yolla Bolly home. Much of the area is arid and steep. Visibility is good at high elevations but limited in the valleys. Spike a camp, get clear of hunting pressure, and break out the binoculars. Odds shift in your favor if you can be in the backcountry when it rains.
When you absolutely must get that chance at a real-world Mendocino County trophy blacktail, look no farther than Lockwood Hunting Services headquartered in Hopland. With access to many thousands of acres in A zone in Mendocino County, Lockwood hunts take place in classic, coastal blacktail habitat consisting of heavily vegetated canyons and gullies punctuating grass and oak highlands. Hunting pressure on Lockwood’s properties is low, and harvest is selective. You’ll absolutely see deer when hunting Tim’s ranches and there is an outstanding chance of seeing one or more fully mature 5- to 7-year-old bucks. Lockwood’s prices range upward of $5,500 for a five-day fully outfitted hunt.
TRINITY COUNTY
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Trinity County takes up the “rear” among California’s top-3 record-book producing counties, with 11 B&C bucks reported between 2013 and 2017, but Trinity County really gets my heart pumping when I think of trophy blacktails. The Trinity Alps Wilderness produces epic deer-hunting opportunities.Encompassing more than 500,000 acres of prime blacktail habitat — including alpine lakes, 9,000-foot summits, and more valleys choked with dark timber than you can contemplate — the Trinity Alps is the ultimate chessboard for testing your wits against a record-book blacktail. You’ll need strong legs for these hunts, and a packhorse or two can be a real boon. The wilderness boasts more than 600 miles of trail and a total elevation swing of nearly 7,000 vertical feet!
Speaking of horses, the folks at Coffee Creek Ranch in Trinity Center offer a couple pack-string-styled service, beginning at $200 per day, to access remote parts of the B-2 deer-hunting zone in the Trinity Alps. On a dunnage trip, the packer or cowboy takes your gear into a designated spot and drops it off. He returns on a given date to pack the gear back out. You are responsible for hiking into and out of your camp, but you’ll have zero gear to carry; and if you score, you won’t have to pack the meat back to the truck on your back. The second option is called a spot trip: The cowboy hauls both you and your gear into the back country and returns to haul you, your gear your trophy back to civilization.
McBroom & Company Packers and Guides in Sawyers Bar offers what may just be the ultimate trophy blacktail adventure. Not only will they utilize a pack-string to transport you and your gear into the Trintity Alps, they will also stick around to guide you, ranging upward of $3,000 a week. This isn’t a ranch hunt, where you’re trying to drop the hammer on a buck that has never experienced real pressure. Instead, you’ll be in the heart of one of the West Coast’s epic wilderness areas, hunting trophy bucks that know they are on the menu. And you’ll be getting one-on-one instruction and advice from a backwoods guide with a ton of local knowledge.
Deer Hunters/Hikers Beware: Pot Grows Not Worth Any Risk
Humboldt and Mendocino counties lead the nation in marijuana cultivation. Both recreational and medical marijuana are now legal in California, but you can’t assume you won’t run into dangerous illegal cartel-operated marijuana grows while hiking/hunting the forests of Humboldt and Mendocino counties.
Marijuana is still illegal in much of the country. As long as this is the case, cartels will set up operations on California’s public lands, polluting waterways, killing wildlife and threatening hikers and hunters all in an attempt to grow, cultivate and export marijuana to jurisdictions where it remains illegal.
How do you avoid running into a “pot grow” protected by cartel members armed with AK 47s? Common sense is your best resource. Keep your eyes open and look for signs of activity in remote areas. In the backcountry, tarps, barrels, garbage and sections of black irrigation hose are tip-offs that you might have stumbled on a grow.
As a general rule, pot growers don’t want a confrontation. At the first sign of pot-grow activity, immediately back out of the area and report what you saw to any law-enforcement authority.
Marijuana growers — like mountain lions, camp-destroying bears and rattlesnakes — represent a challenge hunters need to avoid and/or overcome when hunting in northwest California.
