It used to be the weekends were the hot times, but Mulcahy said a lot of hunters are now giving the zone a week or two and staying out in camps, hunting hard.

BURRO DEER
Though the deer of D12 are commonly called burro deer, they're really just desert mule deer. The "burro" name probably comes from the fact they are generally smaller in body size than Rocky Mountain or even California's coastal mule deer.

Their diminutive size is a result of their desert home. But they are not as tiny, by any means, as the Coues deer found in Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico. That tiny whitetail deer is much smaller.

In some cases, hunters in the D12 and D17 zones to the north have taken some really larger deer -- but the "burro deer" name continues.

The big challenge in hunting D12 is not trying to figure out if the deer there are different. It's in trying to figure out the desert. You would think that the key to hunting any desert deer would simply be to locate a water source -- of extreme importance in hunting most critters in arid country -- and then just waiting around for the deer to show up.

"Setting up on water doesn't work here," said Johnny Gibson, a local hunter who has taken a number of D12 bucks.

Gibson said that water is important, but not critical to hunter success. "You have to keep moving to locate fresh tracks or see deer."

Gibson has been hunting here since her was a kid.

"I've been pretty successful and have killed some pretty good bucks here," he said. "The big key is to do a lot of pre-scouting. You have to locate pockets of deer."

Gibson made the point that D12 is a big zone, and not every part of it has deer. Hunters with good 4x4 vehicles or quads need to cover a lot of ground to locate deer that move large distances depending on weather and water factors.

"We scout water holes and resting areas. The water is critical. If we get monsoon rains that fill up the natural water holes, the deer will spread out. But if we don't get the rain, they will cluster around the guzzlers."

THE WATER FACTOR
Many hunters who normally hunt in less arid areas of the West have little experience with how water in the desert works. All of California's deserts have natural water sources.

There are springs of all shapes and sizes in desert environments. Some flow year 'round; others may flow for only a few months in spring, or intermittently following the occasional rains that pelt desert regions.

In much of the desert, man has made serious efforts to upgrade springs for both cattle and wild animals like deer and bighorn sheep.

Man-made water sources that collect rain and store it in tanks underground are known as "guzzlers." These have been installed in many places in the deserts of the Southwest to provide extra water for wildlife.

These water sources are often a bone of contention between sportsmen and so-called environmentalists who think they should be removed from the desert, despite the disastrous effect this would have on wild populations of all kinds.

"We have lots of animals out here that use the water we provide," said Leon Lesicka, water coordinator for Desert Wildlife Unlimited, a habitat and conservation group based in Imperial County. They build and maintain guzzlers for both upland birds and big game in the D12 Zone.

"We had good rains, and we had good forage," said Lesicka. "And for this year, we didn't get much rain. But the forage and the habitat still look pretty good.

"You have to be in the right place at the right time to find these deer," he said. "Everybody I talked to this year said last year was the best deer hunting they had ever seen in D12 -- not that everybody got a deer, but they were seeing lots of deer. I have a friend who took his eight-year-old daughter out, and they saw 32 deer!"

Two basic weather systems provide water for deer and other animals in D12. Both are highly variable. The desert gets much of its moisture in January and February, but there is also a significant chance of thunderstorms in July and August.

These summer storms, known as the Arizona monsoon, begin when moist air is drawn up from the Gulf of California into Arizona, California and New Mexico. When little rain falls in the summer, hunters can concentrate their efforts on known water sources and along the ever-present Colorado River. But even a modest amount of rain in the summer could spread deer out across the zone, wherever there is water available.

SCOUT FOR POCKETS
Bill Presley, an export hay dealer from Brawley, has been hunting the D12 area for deer since 1996.

"I am successful every year at seeing deer, and I've killed two out there," he said. "But I am selective. I am looking for the really big bucks." He said the monsoon is a big factor. "You need to scout to see where the water is. You also need to look for those deep canyons and cuts where they find cover. Guys who just want to ride down the road in their jeeps aren't going to score," said the hunter. "You need to get off the roads and find where they hide."

Presley also said hunters need to look for tracks and sign to indicate where the deer are feeding.