Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game California Antelope....FINALLY!

I have been putting in for this draw for almost 50 years and finally drew. Got Zone 5, Big Valley. Wish me luck!!

Congratulations!

I understand your joy, too. I'm a native Nevadan, and it took me 47 years to draw a resident bull elk tag.

Now the hard part is over, smack a good one!

I'm still trying!

Congratulations!

OMG 50 years!! I have only been trying 12 which means I will be 99 years old if it takes me another 38 years

Probably won't be that bad. My first 25 or 30 years was before the bonus point system. Really torqued us old guys when they made us start at point 1 with all the youngsters. Thought the least they could do might be to kick down a point for each decade you could prove you had been trying.

Congratulations!

That gives me hope for finally drawing a Montana moose or bighorn ram tag. Both are closing in on 40 years now....

Congratulations! I hope you kill a big one.

Congratulations, TH Bailey. When I lived in Los Angeles, I put in for 12 years and was finally pulled for Unit 4, Lassen County area. My hunting partner and I had put in together as a party-of-two. That was his first year putting in for antelope and he was drawn with me. Talk about beginner's luck!!

We killed two really nice bucks south and east of Aden. Stayed out in the BLM land over toward Rattlesnake Mountain. Had a few drinks at the bar at Ravendale. We had a great time and great hunt.

I hope you kill a big buck.

L.W.

Congratulatins ! Took me 16 yrs. to get my tag in 1988. Still trying for another.
Be sure to attend to optional DFW orientation meeting in Alturas the day before the season opens. Lots of good information. That information includes maps of your zone and just where the Pronghorn are concentrated in that zone. They also provide information on judging heads, estimating range and where one can usually get permission to hunt private land. E

Very true. Here is an interesting story about when my partner and I, and a bunch of other hunters attended the DFG orientation meeting in Alturas. This was in 1981, long before there was any such thing as a "cell phone."

The orientation at the Alturas H.S. gym was given by a couple of F&G game wardens. Also there on the stage was a very attentive and serious looking Lassen Deputy Sheriff. After the game wardens finished, the Deputy got up and explained some of the laws regarding trespass, etc. He then said, "All you hunters from Unit Four, meet me outside when this is over."

About nine or ten of us went out to meet him. This Deputy looked like the perfect picture of a USMC Gunnery Sgt.

He said to us, "You'll probably be camped out in the Madeline Plains area or Observation peak area. That's BLM land and is very remote and lonely country. There have been a bunch of hippies and outlaw bikers who have moved into some of those secluded canyons out there where there are springs. They're squatters. They're from San Francisco and Los Angeles. They grow weed and deal other forms of dope, doing some stealing from local ranchers and campers and raising Hell. There have been three murders in this area recently and several assaults."

One of the hunters asked, "How do we know who they are?"

The Deputy answered without hesitation. "If they look like pukes, they are pukes."

Another hunter asked, "What should we do if they come around?"

The Deputy said, "You're out there all by yourself. Do not let them in your camp for any reason whatsoever."

I said, "Deputy, are you saying what I think you're saying?"

He looked me in the eye and stated emphatically, "Do. Not. Let. Them. In. Your. Camp."

Another hunter said, "What if they try to come into camp and we have to ... uh... do something?"

The Deputy said, "After you finish what you have to do, you go into Ravendale or Madeline and call the Sheriff's Office. I'll come take care of things."

He was as serious as a heart attack, I assure you.

Later, my partner and I were camped way out there, near the Nevada border. Using our binoculars we saw some bikers in the distance coming out of a secluded canyon, but never had any run ins with anyone. Mighty glad we didn't, too.

I have no idea what the situation is there now. As I said, that was 1981, back before "political correctness" was the rule.

L.W.

Yippee! Have fun, be safe. I'm sure it'll be worth the wait.

Congrats again,

Geno

Luck.

Sounds like a puke tag was a fairly easy draw...........

Thanks very much. But:

Luck??? I'll tell you what luck is. When my youngest turned 13 (he is now 33) he drew a general antelope tag his first year in, and got a beauty. Back then (before the point system) the rule was a ten year wait before a successful tag drawer could put in again. The next year I looked at the regs closely and saw there was an exception, the ten year rule did not apply to putting in for a junior hunt. I put him in for the Ashe Creek Wildlife Area junior hunt and the little bugger drew tag #1 of the five tags drawn. Two tags in two years. I should have been buying him lottery tickets. That Ashe Creek hunt was special. The other four kids all shot the first thing they saw the first day. The refuge was closed to all public use save the junior hunt for the remainder of the week, and my boy and I were it. We stalked the biggest buck on the refuge four times in the next three days before we got him, and that was luck. We started the last stalk and saw the herd was headed our way, we were between them and an alfalfa field. We stayed put and he crossed about 70 yards from our hide.

I'm looking forward to hunting the same areas again after all these years.

Thanks to all for the advice and encouragement.

TH Bailey, is Zone 5 in Modoc County? I moved from Calif., in 1997 and gave away all my F&G regs, maps, topo and BLM maps. Can't remember just where Zone 5 is, although I remember fairly well where Zone 4, Lassen County, was when we hunted there in 1981.

L.W.

Yeah, on 299 from Redding to Alturas Zone 5 starts at about Fall River Mills on the west and goes to Adin and Canby on the east, with 299 running roughly in the middle of it. That Ashe Creek area is in the middle of it.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CCgQFjAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fnrm.dfg.ca.gov%2FFileHandler.ashx%3FDocumentID%3D83064&ei=Ir2MVaeSN4r0oAT02IKIDg&usg=AFQjCNFvRthTw00v-yTSzDzMUL5nT8pdsw&bvm=bv.96782255,bs.1,d.aWw&cad=rjt

Thanks, T H Bailey. Now I recall.

Have a good hunt and kill a nice buck.

L.W.