Riverside resident Rich Chagolla shows his 160-inch California mule deer buck taken in Zone D13. Most California hunters have never seen such a big deer, much less bagged one. Photo courtesy of Jim Matthews.

The huge 160-inch California mule deer that Rich Chagolla shot in D13 actually came about because he decided to move from one vantage point to another -- something he normally doesn’t do in the daylight. When he does move, he’s as quiet as possible.

When the buck showed up during a 2005 hunt, Chagolla was in a position to act. He had hiked into deer country before dawn and spent a couple of hours glassing.

Then he decided he needed to move to a different location to glass.

“I got home from a deer hunt in Colorado on a Sunday, and I had Monday off,” he said.

He went hunting and took off Tuesday and Wednesday as well. Hiking to the backside of Stuart Mountain on a little trail, he saw a spike and a couple of does.

Chagolla went back to the same area on Tuesday, but didn’t see anything. With just one day left before he had to get back to work, he wasn’t all that confident he would get a buck that year. But he went back on Wednesday and took his trail into the area.

“While hiking, I was stopping to glass and didn’t see anything. I figured that I would head back before it got hot.

“After glassing for awhile, I decided to hike slowly back to the truck and move to another spot. That’s when I saw this deer. I must have walked by him early in the morning, and he stayed put then.”

That’s a testimony to how slowly and quietly Chagolla moves through D13!

Now, as the hunter passed down the trail, he heard the deer get up.

“I turned around, and there he was, standing there,” Chagolla said. “He had bedded right off the trail and just let me walk by the first time.”

The deer was about 100 yards away. It pays to be quiet as you go back through an area.

“The buck stood up, took a few steps and turned broadside. I got one good shot, and he walked a few steps and went down.”

It was 9:30 a.m. in Zone D13.

“I’ve taken at least one buck every year I’ve hunted D13, and some years I’ve taken two bucks,” he said.

“My daughter got a doe with a muzzleloader during the M7 hunt last year, but I didn’t get a buck. It was more fun to be with her when she took her deer than to get one myself.”

Chagolla has taken 25-inch bucks in X12, but said there are deer just as big in the D Zones.

After seeing photos of the big D13 bucks taken in past years, there seems little doubt about that.

The trick, as always, is to be well-equipped, organized and to put in the necessary time to hunt these rugged Southern California D Zones.

GET IN THE ZONE
Zone D13 spreads out over parts of five Southern California counties: San Luis Obispo, Kern, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and Ventura. The largest portion of the hunting area lies within Ventura County.

Much of this zone is rugged backcountry, interspersed with enclaves of private housing. The northern part of the Los Padres National Forest in D13 includes Frazier Park and a number of small communities.

On the east, Interstate 5 forms part of the boundary line between D13 and the D11 Los Angeles County Zone. On the south, highways 126 and 33 are the dividing line.

The Sespe Wilderness and the Sespe Condor Sanctuary are on the southwest side of the zone. Check state regulations on lead ammo here.

This steep canyon country has chaparral on its lower-elevation slopes. At higher elevations, it turns into dense scrub oak and mixed pine forest.