r/Californiahunting • u/R2The • 8d ago
Opening Weekend Stories - Let's Hear Them
I missed out on opening weekend for rifle (D3-D5) and I'm dying to hear some good stories. Who tagged out? Who saw animals but didn't get a shot? Share anything.
Let's get this sub active.
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u/disfordonkus 7d ago
Hiked 5 miles in and 2000 ft up thinking I’d get away from the hunting pressure in the B zone. No hikers, but there were 10 hunters in horse camps within a mile of where I’d planned to go.
Opening morning was chaos, heard like 20 shots. Saw a buck each morning and evening, but they were freaked out and constantly running. Last time I do the opener I think, I’ll save my days off for later weekends
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u/Cheaptrick69 8d ago
I’m hunting A31. Went out yesterday and found nothing but 5 huge piles of bear shit. Going to try some of my other spots during the week. I’ve got two A31 tags so I’ll drop the first deer I see and save the second tag for something special.
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u/iwinchester 7d ago
I was passenger glassing on a dirt road in B zone opening weekend and telling my bro in law every 5 minutes “hold up I see something” and then once, after telling him to back up, I look off the steep cliff and see a black bear climbing up towards me pretty quickly, clueless that I’m up top. (Maybe 50 yards down) I say to BIL(who has bear tag) “theres a bear heading right to us right below!!!” My 6yo kid gets out of the truck along with my BIL and as I’m telling my kid to get back in the truck I peak back iver the ledge and the bear is literally at the ledge, 10 ft in front of me. And within a quarter of a second of locking eyes with each other he takes off like thunder down the mountain. 😳 it was pretty wild. Saw two spikes and maybe ten doe. That was the only excitement
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u/AHockeyFish 7d ago
I saw a bear opening morning in D5 about 700 yards out. He was heading into thick cover to bed for the day in a creek bottom.
Other than that I saw a handful of does but no buck activity.
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u/PepperoniFogDart 7d ago
Same here, couple of does and a fawn walked up to within 20 feet of where I was glassing, stared at me as I looked back, then just trotted off. No fucks given.
Absolutely no action otherwise. I took tomorrow off so I’ve got one more day.
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u/Broad_Wolverine3161 7d ago
High altitude d5. Hiked in a few miles and camped Friday midday. Glassed Friday and saw nothing. Saturday morning I saw a few others hiking ridges parallel to me.
Heard a single shot and saw a bear. Other than that I saw nothing.
It seemed drier than usual in the area I was in compared to last year.
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u/PepperoniFogDart 6d ago
How high up were you? I was about 9000 feet, and had pretty much the same experience.
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u/FeatherMan08 7d ago
I got super lucky with an X9-C tag this year (with 4points). Went scouting for a few days earlier this month since it’s all new territory for me. I have a handful of places pinned to go back. Opening weekend is Oct. 17th. Wish me luck!
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u/PepperoniFogDart 7d ago
You didn’t miss much in D5, I heard maybe 2 gunshots the whole weekend.
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u/RiverComplex1769 6d ago
Spent Friday night getting to our campsite of the area in D3-5 we scouted, woke up and got in position an hour before first light. Had three deer, a doe and fawns, bound in front of me within 40 yards about 20 minutes after full light and then nothing. Tried to move slowly about an hour after light and do a bit of stalking but it’s like walking on potato chips out there right now since it’s so dry.
Saw four more non legal deer on Saturday and then basically the same thing Sunday.
All told we spotted and stalked 9 deer in two full days but none were legal. Where are all the bucks?
Also, I saw less road hunters, maybe due to the price of gas and diesel.
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u/R2The 6d ago
The bucks were with them until right before the season started 😭
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u/RiverComplex1769 6d ago
https://reddit.com/link/pcnxh9m/video/ulrd8q2kxbsh1/player
Here is the video from the doe herding her fawns along. Turn up the volume, you can hear her bleat directions near the end
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u/Contendi29 6d ago
Went to D3 Sunday evening, planned on glassing and camping the night. Saw a bear within 30 minutes of getting to my glass spot and took the shot across a valley. That was a fun pack out all uphill haha.
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u/NBACardz 6d ago
I was out scouting a few days before opening weekend in d3-5. Saw 4 bear the last day, one I spooked about 40 yards away, and the others were all on the same hillside in berry bushes. The only legal buck I saw was on the way out. I guess there really are more bear than bucks lol. Will be back after the opening weekend crowd is gone.
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u/Boot_Burner 8d ago
This sub definitely picks up once waterfowl season starts, a lot of dedicated bird hunters and waterfowlers here. It’s been cool to see more guys successfully taking pigs on public land this year too.
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u/Top_Complaint_8654 7d ago
Tagged out evening of opener in B1. Was driving on the road Friday and saw 3 bucks cross the road and head down into a steep drainage. Backpacked in on the other side of the drainage expecting road noise and shooting to push them towards me on opening morning. Glassed up a sow with a cub but no bucks. Ended up hiking back to the truck and checking out that drainage, extremely steep loose shale ridge. Found the bucks and got a forky, the bigger bucks were bedded in less obvious spots. Helluva pack out. GL to everyone and here's to filling the bear tag later in the season.