Got My Deer Tag!

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
A couple days ago I received this year's deer tag in my preferred Zone (CA D-14). The DFW site showed them as sold out, but I asked anyway and darned if I didn't get one.

Moral of the story--In Kalifornistan, take nothing for granted or at face value when dealing with the apparatchiki in Sacramento (AKA, Pyongyang West--the only thing missing is crummy missiles).
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
A couple days ago I received this year's deer tag in my preferred Zone (CA D-14). The DFW site showed them as sold out, but I asked anyway and darned if I didn't get one.

Moral of the story--In Kalifornistan, take nothing for granted or at face value when dealing with the apparatchiki in Sacramento (AKA, Pyongyang West--the only thing missing is crummy missiles).
Are you allowed to actually kill a deer in California or are you only allowed to hunt for one? I picture a Prius driving suburban Mom calling the EMTs for a car hit deer and doing CPR on it until they get there.
 

richhodg66

Well-Known Member
Congrats. Blessed to live in a state where a guy can generally buy at least a buck and a doe tag over the counter, some regions of the state you can get more. We eat a good amount of venison each year.
 

Winelover

North Central Arkansas
Lifetime fishing & hunting license when you turn 65 years old. Current limits per license in my zone. Only tag application/lottery is for Elk.

Limit – Five deer, no more than two bucks, which may include:

  • Two antlered bucks with archery, muzzleloader or modern gun,
  • Five antlerless with archery,
  • Three antlerless with muzzleloader and modern gun combined.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Are you allowed to actually kill a deer in California or are you only allowed to hunt for one? I picture a Prius driving suburban Mom calling the EMTs for a car hit deer and doing CPR on it until they get there.
Not to steal Al's thunder, but your comment reminded me of a story. I had a car deer accident call once. Was riding with another guy that day for some reason. We got there and it's Mom and The Kids in the ubiquitous mini-van that had hit Bambi. So the other Trooper starts taking the info and I walk back 75 yards or so to where Bambi is lying in the ditch. The deer was obviously mortally injured, with broken legs, innards showing, etc. So I draw and put the poor thing down. HOLY CRAP!!! Mom starts screaming!!!!!! Apparently she thought we were going to wrap the deer up in a blanket and take it to a vet!!! She was PO'd to the max.

People are strange.
 

richhodg66

Well-Known Member
I passed a deer sitting off the side of the road with it's head up and alert in broad daylight a few years ago. Ran my errand and it was still there when I came back an hour or so later, so I crept up on the shoulder of the road to check on it, poor thing tried to get up and run on at least a couple of broken legs, so I backed off and called the sheriff's deputy out. The guy came out, absolutely professional, checked the deer same as I had to make sure, filled out the paperwork and called in he was gonna shoot (real close to houses and other buildings, maybe 200 yards). Calmly walked close and as the deer tried to get up and move off, thrashing, he drew, aimed and fired in one smooth motion and drilled it straight through the head, instant kill. I was honestly impresssed by this cop's ability to shoot. I'd have a lot rather seen that deer get up and run off healthy, but at least it didn't suffer long.

Wife and kids came up on one a few years later after dark, called the sherriff and this guy didn't do so well, she said he seemed irritated and ended up having to shoot it several times. Wife was upset though she's no tree hugger.

I have gotten to where I'm real slow to kill anything anymore without a pretty good reason, I can kind of see me giving up hunting in the next few years other than just using it as an excuse to get in the woods. Along those lines, I have REALLY begun to get upset by seeing anything killed in a road. Such an unnatural state of events and no doubt caused damage to the driver's car and can also possibly cause injury to the driver. And for every one you see, no telling how many wandered off to die slowly.
 

Dimner

Named Man
Not to steal Al's thunder, but your comment reminded me of a story. I had a car deer accident call once. Was riding with another guy that day for some reason. We got there and it's Mom and The Kids in the ubiquitous mini-van that had hit Bambi. So the other Trooper starts taking the info and I walk back 75 yards or so to where Bambi is lying in the ditch. The deer was obviously mortally injured, with broken legs, innards showing, etc. So I draw and put the poor thing down. HOLY CRAP!!! Mom starts screaming!!!!!! Apparently she thought we were going to wrap the deer up in a blanket and take it to a vet!!! She was PO'd to the max.

People are strange.

When I was... I think 28 a buck hit my car one day on the way home from work. Truly hit my car in a spazzed run through 6 lanes of traffic. Broke his neck on the spot. A true gift as far as road kill goes. Only damage to the neck. The rest pristine for eating.

Now, I grew up in a non hunting and a non gun shooting family. Every male had or did serve in the army. So they all had enough of guns in their off time. No hunting frame of mind I think was due to Grandpa. I would assume that sitting and freezing in the Ardennes for a month, he was not about to go out and sit in the morning in Michigan in November.

So back to when I'm 28, this buck commits suicide on my car. I had always wanted to hunt, but as I mentioned, had not come to the realization (yet) that I could figure it out myself. So I was giddy for this buck. Not to mention that this buck messed up my car. The deputy on the scene asked if I wanted to have him contact the DNR for a kill tag so I could keep the deer. If not, he had 3 other officers that were all lined up for some venison.

Well, my dear wife... Literally a mom in a mini van, with my 4 year old boy shows up. She puts the kibosh on the whole thing. She doesn't want to deal with it or even knows how to begin. How are we going to clean it? (an officer said she would show me) How are we going to butcher it? (there are a dozen deer processors in the area), how are we going to transport it? (I glanced at the mini van, which had the rear bench removed).

To this day, each year when I bring home one or more deer to butcher and package (i don't take it to a processor), she always says. "If I let you keep that first buck, maybe we wouldn't have to go through this each fall... "
 

Jeff H

NW Ohio
Are you allowed to actually kill a deer in California or are you only allowed to hunt for one? I picture a Prius driving suburban Mom calling the EMTs for a car hit deer and doing CPR on it until they get there.

Oddly enough, this happened in Alabama - I'd moved there from California.

I worked in a building full of civilian government service employees with one other GI. One day, the MPs called me and said this lady from my office hit a deer and asked if I'd come help. SURE! The other GI and I knocked off early and headed out to where she'd hit the deer. The medium-sized doe in the ditch didn't look too bad - dead, but not mangled. The lady from the office was very quiet.

I rolled up my sleeves, went down in the ditch, got out my pocket knife and leaned over the doe and heard THUNK! I turned to see that the lady had fainted and fell onto the hood of her car and was just coming out of it as one of the MPs grabbed her. At that point, she was nearly beside herself. I thought she wanted me to field dress it so she could take it home!

The other GI and I took it to his house and we made summer sausage the rest of the afternoon. One other lady at the office, who's husband was a butcher ran out and got us some beef fat from his shop to mix in.

I never figured out why the lady that hit the deer called me, because she didn't look me in t he eye again in the remainder of my stint on that post. She was born and raised in Alabama, so I assumed,... I learned a lot about what assumptions to not make about people whiel I was in the Army.

I'm about where @richhodg66 is on hunting any more. Just two of us here and we don't eat a lot, so it's not worth the effort to drag something out of the woods, but I have no qualms about going out and sitting there with a rifle or revolver as if I were actually hunting.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I passed a deer sitting off the side of the road with it's head up and alert in broad daylight a few years ago. Ran my errand and it was still there when I came back an hour or so later, so I crept up on the shoulder of the road to check on it, poor thing tried to get up and run on at least a couple of broken legs, so I backed off and called the sheriff's deputy out. The guy came out, absolutely professional, checked the deer same as I had to make sure, filled out the paperwork and called in he was gonna shoot (real close to houses and other buildings, maybe 200 yards). Calmly walked close and as the deer tried to get up and move off, thrashing, he drew, aimed and fired in one smooth motion and drilled it straight through the head, instant kill. I was honestly impresssed by this cop's ability to shoot. I'd have a lot rather seen that deer get up and run off healthy, but at least it didn't suffer long.

Wife and kids came up on one a few years later after dark, called the sherriff and this guy didn't do so well, she said he seemed irritated and ended up having to shoot it several times. Wife was upset though she's no tree hugger.

I have gotten to where I'm real slow to kill anything anymore without a pretty good reason, I can kind of see me giving up hunting in the next few years other than just using it as an excuse to get in the woods. Along those lines, I have REALLY begun to get upset by seeing anything killed in a road. Such an unnatural state of events and no doubt caused damage to the driver's car and can also possibly cause injury to the driver. And for every one you see, no telling how many wandered off to die slowly.
Girl I used to work with was infamous for her marksmanship. Most Troopers, male or female, would use 1 or maybe 2 rounds to put down a deer, exceptions being the one dragging itself through the swamp that you couldn't get within flashlight beam of at night. Those would use up a lot of ammo! Anyway, this girl, pardon me, female/lady/whatever would routinely use 6 or 8 rounds to put down a deer. Long story/short- she was body shooting them because she couldn't, "...look into their big brown eyes and shoot them in the head!!!" So she'd body shoot an already suffering deer with a 9mm with that crappy FBI sub-sonic trash ammo repeatedly until it finally gave up the ghost. The Gold Dot ammo was better, but she still used 7-8 rounds because Bambi didn't die instantly. And she didn't know squat about anatomy on a deer, so she'd pretty much aim at 'the big part" and let fly. Amazing, but true.
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
When I was... I think 28 a buck hit my car one day on the way home from work. Truly hit my car in a spazzed run through 6 lanes of traffic. Broke his neck on the spot. A true gift as far as road kill goes. Only damage to the neck. The rest pristine for eating.

Now, I grew up in a non hunting and a non gun shooting family. Every male had or did serve in the army. So they all had enough of guns in their off time. No hunting frame of mind I think was due to Grandpa. I would assume that sitting and freezing in the Ardennes for a month, he was not about to go out and sit in the morning in Michigan in November.

So back to when I'm 28, this buck commits suicide on my car. I had always wanted to hunt, but as I mentioned, had not come to the realization (yet) that I could figure it out myself. So I was giddy for this buck. Not to mention that this buck messed up my car. The deputy on the scene asked if I wanted to have him contact the DNR for a kill tag so I could keep the deer. If not, he had 3 other officers that were all lined up for some venison.

Well, my dear wife... Literally a mom in a mini van, with my 4 year old boy shows up. She puts the kibosh on the whole thing. She doesn't want to deal with it or even knows how to begin. How are we going to clean it? (an officer said she would show me) How are we going to butcher it? (there are a dozen deer processors in the area), how are we going to transport it? (I glanced at the mini van, which had the rear bench removed).

To this day, each year when I bring home one or more deer to butcher and package (i don't take it to a processor), she always says. "If I let you keep that first buck, maybe we wouldn't have to go through this each fall... "
It's 3:30AM on a warm summe night and we get a call for a car/deer accident just north of Long Lake NY. We show up and a log truck, tractor and trailer, had schmucked this doe and done enough damage to the truck that he actually called it in so his insurance would cover it. The weird part is there's this local guy there and he wants the deer. In NY if you hit a deer you can get a deer tag for it or gift it to someone and the trucker was fine with the guy getting it. So I said sure, lets go tag it. So I walk back to tag the deer, only the deer is like 15 feet long now because it went under the tractors front tire, both sets of drivers and all 3 sets of the tri-axle trailer. The paunch and bowels have exploded all over everything, every bone appears to be broken and sticking out at odd angles through the skin, the head is mashed flat and the hips are in 2 pieces and covered in deer crap. I looked at the guy and said, "Are you sure you want that thing?!!!" Oh yeah, he did. I stuck a tag on the ear and he started gathering up that mess. He was happy as could be. Couldn't have been 2 lbs of clean, un-tenderized by the tires meat left on that carcass but he put it in his truck and drove off. The weirdest part was wondering who in heavens name would be up at 3:30AM listening to the scanner in the first place?!!!!
 

glassparman

"OK, OK, I'm going as fast as I don't want to go!"
"Pyongyang West"

Now that's funny! Spent some time in the 2nd ID up by the DMZ back in 1984.

Good on ya for the tags! Make sure you get one!

Pictures . . .

Mike
 

L Ross

Well-Known Member
One year as a Sergeant on the night shift, on the Sunday after the deer opener, I got a call about a crippled deer in the median on the Interstate that someone wanted to claim. When I got there two men that had been hunting unsuccessfully told me there was a doe in the median with its back legs broken. They asked me if I wanted them to shoot it. I explained that since we were in the City limits I could not legally let them fire a gun. They were so disappointed I decided to have a little fun with them. It's like 1 am and I grab the shotgun because the deer is dragging itself with its front legs right down the middle of the median. I put a slug in the chamber and when traffic allowed I put one in the back of the head from about 20 yards as the poor doe dragged itself. I turned to the men and said with a straight face, "I didn't think double aught in the ass would put a deer down like that." As I walked back to my unmarked I heard some grumbling and the guys walked over to the doe. They were looking it over when I walked back up with a Mag-Lite. When they saw both ears hanging down like a Beagle's and the whole top of the skull missing, one of them asked if I hunted. I said I did but was stuck working Opening Weekend because as a new Sergeant I didn't have enough seniority to get off. We all had a good laugh over the buckshot comment and they left happy.