Chagolla hunts California mule deer, a subspecies that is usually a bit smaller than its Rocky Mountain counterpart in other parts of the West.

California Bowmen Hunters is the state’s record-keeper for archery hunting. The group considers these deer “Pacific Hybrids” and contends that the mule deer in much of Southern California are really hybrids of Rocky Mountain mule deer and blacktails.

Whatever the real truth about the genetic heritage of these Southern California deer, they do come a bit smaller than Rocky Mountain mule deer. Chagolla’s huge 160-point buck, just one of many of that size taken in D13, is astonishing when you consider it was shot within an hour or so of downtown Los Angeles.

3. Scent, Camo
Many hunters in this hot, dry area are extremely careful about controlling their scent.

A number of excellent bowhunters we’ve talked to about hunting D-Zone insist on changing their clothing at least twice on the way into a hunt area. Chagolla doesn’t bother. He relies instead on paying close attention to the shifting winds while moving to and from hunting areas.

“I don’t worry about camouflage or scent control,” he said. “I do pay close attention to the wind. I don’t carry wind indicators like the bowhunters do, I just reach down and pick up light materials and use them to judge the wind’s direction and strength.

“One thing I don’t do is get down in canyons where the wind can alert deer. The wind whirls around in canyons and gives you away.

“I stay up high, and I don’t move unless I have to.”

When he penetrates good deer country without being detected and is well away from roads and other people, Chagolla concentrates on using a sound tactic for searching for deer.

He gets in a high position where he can see a lot of country and stays there, using high-quality optics, like 10x42 binoculars, to spot bucks before they spot him.

“I move into an area as quietly as I can, usually before daylight, and use good binoculars to glass for bucks. Whenever I move, I do it as quietly as possible,” said the hunter.

Most of the areas he’s had success in were burned in the 2006 Day Fire. Recently, he has been hunting behind Alamo Mountain, to get up on top and hunt the big canyons there.

“I had to go to some different areas last season that I used to hunt as a kid, because the areas I had been hunting recently were all charred by the fire,” said Chagolla.

“We hiked a lot of the area this year, and actually the burns are already coming back pretty good.”

WILDFIRE 2006
The huge Day Fire began on Labor Day 2006 and charred some 160,000 acres of D13 habitat.

Much of the zone was closed during the 2006 season and stayed closed through the spring. But a majority of it is expected to be open by the start of this year’s hunt. For updates, check out www.fs.fed.us/r5/lospadres.

Burn maps show that much of the Day Fire was patchy and hopscotched from spot to spot, creating open areas adjacent to good cover -- which ultimately will benefit the deer population.

“Based on what I’ve seen from both ground travel and flyovers, it looks as though the Day Fire was a good burn for wildlife,” said Rebecca Barbosa, a DFG biologist who looks after deer and other large game in the Ventura County area.

“It created a good mosaic, which is what we like to see.”

Barbosa said that Los Padres National Forest officials are interested in improving habitat for bighorn sheep, which might also help deer.

All told, Zone D13 deer hunters have a lot to look forward to. One of the smaller zones within Southern California, Zone D13 covers parts of five counties, but most of the deer habitat is in Ventura County and the extreme western edge of Los Angeles County.

The Los Padres National Forest map shows the area well. The Angeles National Forest map shows the small portion of D13 that lies within Los Angeles Country along Interstate 5 and south of Pyramid Lake.

As noted, D13 shares a common season with D11 (Los Angeles) and D15 (Orange County) zones. Hunters with a tag for any of the zones may hunt in all three during the season.