How to APPLY for DEER HUNTING in CALIFORNIA!! CA TAGS/ZONES/HUNTS

what's up everyone welcome back to the channel if you are new to hunting or if you're new to hunting in california or if you're a seasoned hunter and you just want to know more about tags and applications and the whole process in california this is the video for you [Music] so the focus of this video is going to be on deer hunting because deer hunting is the most popular big game animal in the state so there are elk opportunities and bear and pigs coyotes but deer are by far the most popular big game animal in the state and there's a pretty simple explanation of that deer are the most populous big game animal in the state and they far outnumber elk bears pigs even so it provides a lot more opportunities for hunters before we get started i want to put a disclaimer out there it is absolutely mandatory that you do your own research when it comes to the laws and regulations around hunting so videos like this facebook forums groups talking to guys who have experience in the field those are all great resources but at the end of the day you're responsible for knowing the laws changes to laws so it's absolutely crucial that you do your own research now speaking of that every year the department of fish and wildlife puts out the hunter's guidebook or hunter's manual and it talks about statistics it talks about hunting zones changes in laws i highly recommend you go if you're new to hunting that's a good place to start you want to go review laws and take a look at the different zones and the regulations so you definitely need to do your own homework i'll provide a link to the california department of fish and wildlife website and their archive of all the manuals the 2022 one hasn't come out yet but you can take a look at 2021 and then for the last several years the pdf versions are online so the link to that will be below so let's get into the video now every state is a little bit different so it's really important to know how california breaks it down so for example in arkansas i have family in arkansas i've hunted there a few times you buy one document and it's your hunting license and included with that license are multiple deer tags turkey tags and i believe a bear tag it's all included so you make one purchase and you get all the tags included so it's it's one document in california you buy a hunting license and this allows you to purchase tags for the big game animal you want to hunt or in some cases like coyotes it allows you to hunt coyotes so before you do anything you have to buy your hunting license this makes you a legal hunter and you have to purchase a hunting license every year you only need to purchase one so you don't have to purchase one for each species in other states a hunting license is what you purchase to hunt that animal well in california you just purchase a license to hunt think of it like that once you've purchased your hunting license then you can go purchase the tag for the animal you want to hunt so your license when you get your license it's not valid until you sign it and we've i've had game wardens check my hunting license to make sure it's signed so it has to be signed for it to be valid [Music] so before you get into the tag purchasing process assuming you've already purchased your hunting license like we talked about it's important to understand what a hunting zone is so in some states you'll see what are called hunting units or wildlife management areas or game management areas or game management units you see a lot of different terminology surrounding what is basically a specific geographical area and you buy a tag or in other states a license to hunt that specific unit or area or zone really it's just a geographical area that you're allowed to hunt in california those hunting areas are called zones so there are 44 deer hunting zones in the state of california a zone is by far the largest and then you have your b zones c zones d zones and x zones so let's take a look at the map right here and i'll kind of break it down a little bit further for you now these are laid out in a pretty specific way your x zones are your premium zones so every single x zone is a drawing only zone and i'll talk about drawing only zones a little bit later so primarily your mule deer populations in the state are in x zones you can find some mule deer and sea zones and d zones but your opportunities at a trophy animal or trophy by state classifications you're going to find those in your x zones [Music] so now that we've taken a look at the overall map of california and all of its zones we need to break it down a little more and talk about over-the-counter versus a drawing tag versus a premium tag so there's three different tag designations in the state so let's talk about over-the-counter so there is a little bit of a misconception when it comes to over-the-counter in some states over-the-counter means you can buy it over the counter literally like it says and it's unlimited in california we have a tag quota and what that means is each zone that can be purchased over the counter meaning you don't have to apply and be drawn like in a lottery system for that tag every tag that's sold over the counter like that there's a tag quota meaning there's an overall number of tags that once that number is reached no more tags are sold for that zone so let's use a zone for example every year and this is a good place to stop and remind you that these tag quotas can change and they do change depending up on population numbers hunter activity and so forth so that's why it's important to double check your manual every year in a zone there are 65 000 tags sold now tags go on sale every year on april 15th so you can go purchase your deer tags once that 65 000 tag allotment is sold they're gone that's it and b zones i believe there are 30 something thousand tags sold the same with d three through five which is one tag even though it's three units it's one tag that you buy it's 30 33 or 35 000 somewhere around there so those are tagged quotas now the reason that's important is for two reasons number one if you have a specific zone you want to hunt that's an over the counter it's in your best interest to purchase that tag as soon as possible because once that quota is reached then you're no longer able to purchase that tag and most zones in california eventually sell out sometimes they'll sell out during the season so once the season's already started um or sometimes they'll sell out a month or two or three in advance so that brings up the discussion of a premium tag so now let's talk about what a premium tag is so not to be confused with a drawing only tag a premium tag is actually an over-the-counter tag that the previous year was all the tag quota was reached to break that down a little further let's just use our a zone for an example if in 2021 the tag quota for a zone was reached on june 30th then this year 2022 this license year that tag becomes a premium tag and you have to apply for that tag in the drawing system so and you're only allowed one premium tag per year a little side note california allows hunters to purchase two deer tags but you can only have one premium tag or one drawing tag so that's the difference between a premium and an over the counter now a drawing only tag is just like it says it's always a drawing only tag and hunters have to use the lottery and preference point system to get that tag [Music] so let's talk about the preference point system in california when you're filling out your tag application for your drawing only tags or you go to purchase your tags you have three choices you can you can designate on that application process so the first choice that you provide is what decides your preference points whether you receive one whether you use the preference points you have stored or whether you receive one if you don't get drawn so for example let's break this down if you decide you want to hunt x1 which is always a drawing only zone you're going to put that as your first choice on your first deer tag application then if you don't get drawn for x1 then you will receive a preference point even if your second choice was also a drawing you'd actually get drawn for that tag you will not burn your preference points if you get drawn for that second choice so that's why it's so important to make sure you put your first choice always first so that's a perfect segue into strategy when you're in the process of building up points and you're trying to decide how to use your points uh when to hunt over the counter and you're trying to create like a plan for your hunts that's where that first choice in your application comes in really handy so going back to our x1 example let's just say that you um are interested in hunting the c zones so c zones are a drawing only tag like we talked about you have a much higher statistical chance of drawing a c zone tag a general tag then you do an x1 tag so what you would do is you would put x1 as your first choice and you would put the c one through four or the c general tag as your second choice if you don't get drawn for x1 and you do get drawn for c zones you still get a preference point so the preference point system is based on the first choice only so it allows hunters to actually get drawn for other hunts while still gaining their preference points and growing their preference point pool so it's a pretty cool way to go about it so definitely use all three choices when you go to apply for your tags now if you've researched over-the-counter spots and you have some over-the-counter hunts that you want to do while at the same time applying for your premium hunts and building up your preference points what you want to do is you put your premium hunt first so yeah you probably have especially if you're starting out you're going to have a really low statistical chance of drawing that tag but that's okay so if you don't get drawn then you're going to gain that preference point and then in your choice number two you can put something where you have a better statistical chance like we talked about the c zone or maybe an archery hunt something like that and on your third choice you put your over the counter tag so let's just lay it out again if you wanted to hunt exo and that's like your target zone that you want to hunt your premium hunt you've scoped it out you've scouted it you've seen there's big bucks in the area that's your dream hunt so you're going to put x1 as your first choice then you can put that c zone as your second choice which have a much higher statistical chance of drawing it even with no points and then your third choice let's just say you have some spots in a zone that you want to hunt well since a zone is an over-the-counter tag you're gonna get that if you don't get drawn for x1 or your c-zone general tag you will get that a tag so you would still get your preference point while still getting to hunt so it's a pretty cool system and in california you're allowed two deer tags so the first tag is what you're gonna use to apply for your drawing uh for your premium hunts or your drawing only hunts your second tag is an over the counter tag so you can use this for an archery only or your a zone b zone d zones so you have a lot of options you can use for that second tag but this allows hunters to go harvest two deer which is pretty unique in a lot of western states you're only allowed one tag so it's a pretty cool opportunity to get out and harvest two animals now let's break down the preference point drawing system a little bit further for most drawing only hunts a certain percentage of those tags the majority of those tags are provided in the preference point system drawing so most of those tags are going to go to people with the highest preference points there is a small number of tags for each drawing only hunt that are given on a random draw system so for example if there are a hundred tags there's a handful of tags that are given on a random draw so even though you have maybe no points you still have even those really small you have a chance of still drawing an amazing tag so definitely still apply now the preference point system is pretty straightforward the more points you have the more likely your chances of drawing a premium tag now california is really impacted so most hunts especially your rifle hunts in drawing only zones are extremely impacted and oftentimes you're going to wait a decade or more building points to be able to hunt that zone but the flip side of that coin the positive is that there are a lot of over-the-counter opportunities that you can take advantage of while you're building your points and waiting for that hunt of a lifetime in california this is especially true with elk hunting because we don't have a huge elk population so hunting opportunities are really limited in fact several of the elk hunts in california they're given anywhere from one to five to ten tags there's just not that many given if you look at statistics at drawing odds you have pretty much less than one percent of drawing a lot of those tags until you get to 20 plus points so you're going to wait a couple decades before you get a really solid shot at drawing that tag however like i said tags are still allotted on a random draw system every year so yeah it's playing the lottery that's what it is it's a lottery system but you still have a small statistical chance and every year you don't get drawn is a year that you're building points let's talk about the the deer hunts so we talked about the deer zones the hunting zones it's important to break down the hunts within those zones or the hunts uh in specific areas like within a zone so here's what i mean by that in addition to the lettered zone so a b c d and x zones you're gonna see hunt numbers so you're gonna see a zone and you're gonna see a hunts and those are very different so what are those hunts a hunts are archery hunts so an ao tag is an archery only tag which is an over the counter tag but your a numbered tag so a1 a2 a3 and so forth those are specific archery drawing only hunts so if you apply for that tag and you get drawn you're allowed to hunt the archery season in that premium zone now there are less archery hunters than there are rifle hunters which is pretty standard across the board so you have a higher statistical chance of drawing an a hunt than you do a general season hunt so every x zone and the c zones they have an archery specific hunt so if you want to hunt archery you have to apply for that a tag that corresponds to that zone for example the c zones that's the a1 tag and then when you get further down that list of numbers so for example a21 a22 a23 those are specific hunts in specific areas like the a30 tag is the kovalo buck hunt that falls within the b zones it's a late season hunt it's a specialty hunt it's during the rut um and so it's a it's a premium tag and it's within a defined geographical area that falls within a zone so you don't get to hunt the whole zone it's a pretty specific region so when you start getting deeper into your the hunts that you want to apply for it's important that you understand the geographical boundaries of the hunt that you're going for so the way it's broken down is a1 through 20 our zone specific archery tags like i said a1 is your c one through four that you can hunt a two a three a four those are zone specific but once you get down that list beyond a 20 then it's area specific tags that have a specific geographical area that's not defined by the zone within which that area is if that makes sense so the next category of drawing only tags are the g tags now g is for general so these are general season or general methods tags and a lot of these just like in those archery ones we talked about they have specific hunting areas that may be a lot smaller than an entire zone it's just a small region that you're allowed to hunt there are some caveats to that like the g1 hunt is zone c4 but late season so you get to hunt the c4 zone um late season during the rut it's a pretty cool tag but a lot of those hunts like i said break down into small geographical areas that you're allowed to hunt with general methods the next category are apprentice tags or j for junior so they're designated j and then a number now these just like it sounds they're for juniors for kids and it's really cool opportunities if you have kids that you're trying to take hunting it's great to start young get them out in the field and these are great opportunities that they can get out and get a premium hunt there's some there's some doe tags available which we don't have a lot of those in california so take advantage of them juniors finally you'll see m tags now an m tag is a muzzle loader so these are pretty self-explanatory that the letter kind of tells you what kind of hunt it is your m or muzzleloader tags again are followed by a number and they're pretty specific in their geographical boundaries now on the the california department fish and wildlife website you can click on any one of these hunts and it'll take you to a pdf and it'll show you a map with the exact boundaries of the hunting area so you definitely want to research where you're going to hunt when the season is and the specific geographical region so the last thing i want to talk about with all these hunts and zones are season dates now this is really really important because it's easy to get in trouble with this because there are different season dates and sometimes they don't seem to make sense so every hunting zone has a specific season that you can hunt with your over-the-counter hunts when you buy a tag so let's go back to using a zone for example when you buy an a zone tag you're allowed to hunt the archery season and the general method season but it's important that you pay attention to the season dates so the reason i chose a zone for example is because a zone is the earliest deer season to open in california it opens around mid-july so it's brutal hot in most parts of the zone but that's beside the point and hunters can hunt with archery equipment until early august or so and then in mid august to mid-september is the general method season so you can hunt with a rifle or a bow if you choose most of the over-the-counter hunts however start in mid-august or so usually the third saturday in august with your archery season and then the third saturday in september for rifle season it's really important to pay attention to your dates another good example is are the b-zones so when you buy a b-zone tag it allows you to hunt all six of the b zones so a huge geographical area but there's one variance in the season dates and that's zone b4 zone b4 uh pretty much aligns with the a zone in terms of the season dates so it starts earlier and it ends earlier so you don't want to get caught in b-zone after the general season is closed and you're out hunting with your rifle so you have to pay attention to the season dates and the same thing with your a tags j tags m tags they have a specific date range that you can hunt just like any other hunting area across the country in california it's not across the board so in some states your deer hunting season it's it's statewide and it's a specific date range for the entire state um like arkansas we talked about arkansas earlier it opens in i believe it's september and runs into february so it's crazy long but but it's across the whole state those the open dates um your archery season opens in september and then you have your rifle season in november but in california it's different it's it's specific to the hunt and specific to the zone so make sure you're paying attention to the season dates when you're planning your hunts and when you're actually out in the field hunting and one more thing about season dates if you have an over-the-counter tag make sure that you don't hunt in that time gap between archery season and general season usually it's about a week so if you're out in the field hunting and you're in that you know six seven day span between the close of archery and your general season open you're gonna get in trouble so pay attention those open and closing dates and that gap between your archery and general season [Music] so the last thing i want to talk to you about before we end this video is your tag so if you harvest a deer by law when you get to that animal you have to immediately fill out that tag and attach it to the animals antlers and then once you get out of your hunting area you've packed out the animal or you put it in the truck or whatever as soon as possible so you have to take your tag to an authority to have that validated now there are a lot of resources in terms of authorities that you can take it to you can take it to a law enforcement officer of course a game warden postal employees are on there so anybody working for fire the fire department so there's a lot of options that you can take your deer tag to to get it validated there's a lot of authorities listed i like to keep a zip tie in my pack so i can punch the zip tie through the top of the tag and then just zip it around the antlers and i'm good to go so i know it's secure i know it's not going to fall off so once that tag is signed off by an authority they review the information they take a look at the animal and antlers then you still have to fill out a harvest report a harvest report has to be filled out every year whether you harvest an animal or not and if you don't do it by a certain date i believe it's in january then the next time you go to purchase a tag there's a fine that's attached to the cost of the tag i believe it's 20 something dollars so it's really important to remember to first of all fill out your tag because that's a requirement by law but second of all make sure you fill out your harvest report or it's going to cost you money the next season when you go to buy your tax [Music] i want to break down a couple of laws for you that are really important and they're kind of unique to california and so i want to throw these in here as a little caveat because i don't want you to get sighted in the field i'm sure you don't either and i promise if you run into a game warrant they're going to check for this stuff so like we mentioned earlier in the video your your hunting license has to be signed so if you don't sign that license it's not considered valid so you are there for a hunter in the field who's not licensed to hunt that's how it's looked at by law enforcement the second thing is if you're archery hunting so if you're hunting with archery equipment during archery season you're not allowed to carry a firearm and i promise you gabe warrens will check for this we've been checked for this several times you're not allowed to carry a firearm does that present some risk yes it does it does so if you shoot a bear or if there's a mountain lion that confronts you you are only going to have your archery equipment but that is the law in california so definitely leave your firearms at home when you're archery hunting because you're gonna get checked for it eventually and it is against the law to carry firearms during archery season now one last law i want to leave you with is regarding antlers on a buck in california there's very few doe hunting opportunities so i'm not going to talk about those but for bucks the law is the deer has to be a forked horn at least on one side for it to be legal and the general kind of rule of thumb is that if you can hang a ring off the fork it's legal but the legal terminology is a little more clear than that the fork has to be in the upper third of the antler so an eye guard does not count and yes that does happen i've seen a buck that i believe had a genetic deficiency that had spikes that were a good 12 inches tall with eye guards and everything but no forks so that i guard in the lower third of the antler does not count as a fork so the law defines a fork as a branch antler in the upper third of the antler so my advice to you is don't leave any room for doubt so if you see a buck that has the tiniest of forks at the top just leave it alone it'll it's in your best interest i'm not one of those guys that says you have to shoot the biggest buck out there and i'm not anti-forked horn bucks or you know go harvest your game you work for it you're hunting it however make sure that you leave no room for air when it comes to that fort because that it has to be a fork torn buck at least on one side for it to be legal so when you're looking at your antlers if you can't tell if it's a fork just leave it alone because again that deer has to be validated it has to be seen by an authority in order for your tag to be validated so if you're not sure if it's a fort torn it's not move on so thank you everyone for watching the video i hope this was helpful we appreciate your support we appreciate you watching the channel if you're not already subscribed please subscribe and give us a like leave us a comment we love to hear from you we have a lot of exciting content coming this year and we will see you on the next one

Channel: CACCIA Outdoors

Views: 23,366

Keywords: Hunting, Outdoors, CACCIA Outdoors, California, Hunting In California, Northern California Hunting, DEER HUNTING, Rifle, Hunting Rifle, Archery, Scouting, Hunting Locations, california deer hunting 2021, california deer hunting zones map 2021, california hunting, hunting tips, new hunter, california big game drawing, california deer hunting, california deer hunting zone, mule deer hunting 2021, mule deer hunting, new hunter x hunter, california hunting 2022, california hunting laws

Id: dam9DXVVoa4

Length: 26min 42sec (1602 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 18 2022