More than half of the deer taken annually in most of the state's 44 deer zones are not trophies. They are simply 2- and 3-year-old bucks.

Chris Stone (left) and Aaron Brooks show Stone's 4x5 archery buck from Zone D5. Photo courtesy of Chris Stone.

Of course, there are some very respectable bucks harvested in the Golden State every year. Some of those big ones are killed by lucky hunters who happen upon them. Most are the result of well-planned approaches by skilled hunters.

Overall, some zones produce far more trophy-class deer than others. For example, in the 12 zones with the highest percentage of 4-point bucks, at least 10 are familiar X zones, such as X2 (35 percent), X4 (29 percent) and X5b (49 percent). The other X zones, where 4-point bucks were taken more than 25 percent of the time are X3a, X3b, X5a, X7a, X7b, X9b and X12. Also on the list are zones D12 and D17, each of which produced big bucks at a respectable pace in 2008.

However, considering the number of tags available for the D zones, the overall percentage of success does not measure up to the majority of X zones. For example, in D12, the hunter success rate was 9 percent. But 36 percent of those deer were 4x4 or better.

Turns out, 9 percent was also the average success rate for all D zones combined.

Meanwhile, the average hunter success for any legal bucks in the 17 X zones was 32 percent, with some individual zones producing bucks between 40 percent and 50 percent of the time.

Chances were good X zone hunters killed a buck, and when they did, it was often a 4-point or better.

Many D zone hunters struggled to even shoot a buck. But if they tagged one, there also was as good a chance it was a 4-point or better.

THE BIGGEST BUCKS
Freund's 8x7
Freunds took a trophy deer in 2008 after waiting 17 years to draw a rifle tag for Zone X7a. Here's how he transformed that privilege into antlers.

A lifelong California resident, Freunds, 48, has hunted since his youth. He was somewhat familiar with X7a because he hunted there as a teenager. Thanks to those long-ago days, Freunds still had some idea of where he and his buddy, Steve Swaringen (who also had a tag), should start hunting. (Continued)

As it turned out, Swaringen saw a respectable 3x2 buck a short distance from camp on the first morning of their four-day stay, and he put his tag on it a little while later.

Meanwhile, Freunds came up short on the first day. The morning of the second day wasn't much better, but Freunds had a plan for the afternoon that seemed promising.

"I had Steve drop me off where the road skirted a long ridge, which I planned to hunt in the direction of camp," said Freunds. "I knew it would take awhile, and it might be dark before I got there, but I thought it was a place with potential -- and it was!"