To begin with, we have both resident and migratory deer -- an important consideration, depending on where you happen to be hunting.

TROPHY DEER MIGRATION
Resident deer are always present somewhere in the general area where they live, while migratory animals divide their time between high-altitude summer range and lower wintering areas. In other words, when migration is a factor, the general rule is to hunt high early and look for deer at mid-elevations later in the season.

The first cold storms usually start the migration. But a few deer do show up early on winter range when the food supply -- perhaps an exceptional crop of acorns -- lures them down in advance of the rest.

Most of their summer range is on public land. Their mid-elevation winter range exists in a variety of settings, including private land where you’ll need to get permission to hunt.

Public-land opportunities occur on national forests, Bureau of Land Management holdings and state forests, and the private timberland that’s open to hunting.

The number of bucks taken annually, including the trophies, often depends on weather conditions. When fall storms arrive early, as happened in 2007, the total harvest of deer improves considerably.

Last year, a slightly higher percentage of mature bucks was included in the mix, simply because they were on the move with the rest of the deer. I killed a buck that was actually on a migration trail. Needless to say, I was very happy with the tall antlered 4x5.

‘07 SUCCESS STORIES
Last fall, many of the hunters I associate with experienced good hunting in a variety of zones.

One of the biggest bucks I heard of came from private property in eastern Shasta County, where Parrey Cremeans of Redding definitely made the most of his time afield.

His blacktail hybrid was a non-typical 9x9, 31 1/8 inches wide, with eye guards. Its massive rack also had bases so thick that Cremeans could barely get his hands around them.

Despite its amazing antlers, the buck didn’t score high enough to be entered in the non-typical records of B&C. However, it does rank second in the non-typical inland blacktail category in the California Records of Big Game.

Of course, Cremeans is an experienced hunter with many archery and rifle bucks to his credit. Would you expect a newcomer to deer hunting to make trophy hunting in the same C Zone look easy?

No? But Christine Tavolazzi, also of Redding, nearly did. Details are sketchy, but the gist of the story is that one afternoon in mid-October, Tavolazzi, accompanied by her 8-year-old son Geno, went hunting on a friend’s property.

While they were hiking along an open ridge, they spotted a very nice buck below them in the oaks.

“I’ve shot at bucks before,” she said, “but I always got nervous and missed. This time, things happened so fast that I didn’t have time to come unglued. When the buck suddenly started to leave, I just raised my rifle, found it in my scope and fired.”

Her buck was a beautiful 4x6 with eye guards and an outside spread of 24 inches.

“I’m still amazed I hit it. What a way to break the ice!”

The C Zones weren’t the only place where outsize bucks were taken in 2007. When Timothy Sands, a reader from Auburn, was drawn for Zone X7a, he definitely made the most of his tag. Hunting for six days with friends and by himself, Sands found his great 4x5 buck in a recovering burn area near Sierraville on Oct. 11.