John Massie took this southern mule deer near Julian on the D16 season's opening day. The heavy forkhorn, measuring 21 inches on the outside, was with a small herd of four does and three younger bucks. Photo courtesy of John Massie.

San Diego County's D16 Zone is having a comeback of sorts. For decades, it was typical D-Zone country, with too much mature habitat, yielding little in the way of good deer food. Much of its lower elevations was choked with dense chaparral that kept deer at bay.

That changed in 2002 and 2003. Huge wildfires swept large portions of San Diego County.

Twenty-two people died in the wind-driven blazes that claimed hundreds of homes, and thousands of acres of land were scorched.

Out of this tragedy came some minor good. Much of the land that was burned is now full of fresh growth.

The last couple of deer seasons have shown modest increases in hunter-success rates, and most hunters report seeing more deer now than before the fires opened up so much country.

28:100
"Condition-wise, the deer are in really good shape," said Randy Botta, the area deer biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game.

Botta monitors the health and habits of San Diego County deer with an on-going radio-collar tracking program. He said after the fires, the area had good rain in 2006, and some of the burns recovered so quickly that they probably have only a couple more years of productive deer use.

But lack of rainfall in the winter of 2006-07 will have an impact, he said.

Surveys have shown an increased number of does with twins -- especially in the burned areas.

The deer here have quite a bit of fat on them, and recruitment is good.

Surveys in December showed roughly 28 bucks per 100 does. "That's quite surprising," said Botta.

"A lot of those bucks were spike bucks, indicating good recruitment from the previous years following the fires. A few were big bucks, but the majority were young bucks."

They also found about 55 fawns per 100 does, and more than 60 fawns per 100 does in some of the burned areas.

Most, but certainly not all of San Diego County's good deer habitat lies within the Cleveland National Forest, and in some large Bureau of Land Management holdings.

VARIED HUNT
D16 is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and dense urban and suburban crowding on the west.

On the east, giant Anza-Borrego State Park is the border, and on the north, Riverside County. Baja is to the south.

The county has a surprising amount of huntable land. In addition to public land in the national forest and the BLM's McCain Valley National Wildlife Area, there is substantial private ranch property -- some of which is open to hunting.

The hunts in San Diego are more varied than in most of Southern California's D Zones. For starters, there's the D16 Zone hunt, with 3,000 tags available. In county where a 6 or 7 percent success rate is considered good, D16 had 12 percent success last year.

Does that still seem low? You have to consider that the real deer hunters in D16 usually get their buck, and the others -- who road-hunt or otherwise don't expend the time and energy -- do not.

The D16 Zone hunt runs from Sept. 1 through 23 for archers, then resumes on Oct. 27 until Nov. 25 for centerfire rifle hunters.

There are two additional firearms special hunts in San Diego County, not counting hunts held on the sprawling Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, which occupies a big chunk of northwestern San Diego County.

G13 HUNT
San Diego County's G13 antlerless hunt has 300 tags, and is unique in D-Zone hunting: All other special hunts in Southern California's D Zones are either buck-only, or either-sex.

The G13 hunt begins Oct. 27 and runs through Nov. 8.

A large number of San Diego County hunters will put in for a G13 hunt as their first tag, then hope to draw a D16 hunt tag as well, so that they can hunt both bucks and does. Last year, the G13 hunt had a 21 percent success rate, the DFG estimated.

M6 TAGS OFTEN AVAILABLE
There is also a muzzle-loading rifle hunt. M6 is small and doesn't get many hunters. It has only 80 tags available, and sometimes does not fill its quota. Hunter-success rates have been historically very low. In 2006, it was just 8 percent. M6 hunt dates are Dec. 15 through 31.