Species Hunted: Mule Deer (Kaibab genetics)
Area: Santa Rosa Island, California
Outfitter: Multiple Use Managers M.U.M.
Guide: Gordon Long
Hunt dates: October 29 – November 2, 2007
I booked this hunt at the Safari Club convention in 2004. The outfitter’s waiting list is long and the first available hunt date would be in 2007.
I have been hunting mule deer for over twenty years. All fair chase hunts on public and private lands including Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Colorado and California. I promised the hunting gods, if I ever were to quit hunting mule deer, it would be after I took a 30 incher. I’ve taken some real nice deer but I haven’t found a 30 incher. I figured with Santa Rosa Island’s reputation of producing some monster bucks, that this was the place to go to fulfill that dream.
Santa Rosa Island is now owned by the U.S. federal government. Its previous owner had owned the island since 1902 and sold it to the U.S. government in 1986. As part of the agreement, non-native game and stock animals are to be removed from the island by 2011. The last cattle were shipped off the island in 1998. The National Park Service permits the former landowners to lease hunting rights for non-native Kaibab Mule Deer and Roosevelt Elk hunts The National Park Service requires the use of only non-lead ammo. This is a trend I see affecting the entire state of California in the not so distant future. The eradication of the deer and elk by 2011 is still being appealed, but for now, it looks like the end of hunting is near.
The island itself is the second largest of the Channel Islands off the coast of California, Santa Catalina Island being the most familiar. Santa Rosa is just over 53,000 acres and located 26 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara. We accessed the island via Channel Islands Aviation, the exclusive service to fly onto the dirt strip there. The thirty minute charter flight in a twin prop from Camarillo Airport seemed pricy, especially since 5 hunters shared the flight.
The island is beautiful and a step back in time to California’s undeveloped landscape. The terrain is rolling hills and steep canyons with the highest elevation around 1,500 ft. The only structures besides the park service buildings are a few old cow camp cabins, a picturesque old farm house and out buildings from which we based our hunt.
My husband was able to accompany me due to a last minute cancellation/opening. After we arrived about 2:00 PM, we check the zero of our rifles and scouted until dark. We couldn’t wait until the next morning to start our hunt.
As Murphy’s Law goes with hunting, we woke up to fierce winds. Of course, since our hunt was only 3 days long, we bundled up and ignored the weather. My husband and his guide dropped Gordy and I off at the top of steep canyon and we, after a 3 hour “death march” we a rendezvoused at an old cow camp cabin at the edge of the ocean. We saw three nice bucks enroute, but none were the 30 incher I was looking for. Along our hike we could hear sea lions roaring in the distance. A real weird sound when you’re hunting deer.
After an oceanside picnic lunch we continued our quest. My husband stalked a big 4x4 buck down a dry creek bed as I watched and video taped from the ridge above. The deer never came out and we all figured that he must have bedded down in the sage scrub brush lining the walls of the cut and was holed up because of the wind.
Just before dark, we located and glassed a big buck in the distance that looked like what I was after. We wouldn’t have enough light to make a stalk, so decided this would be the first place we started in the morning.
It was a beautiful morning. No wind. We followed our plan and again spotted the buck on the flats just below a ridge line about 1000 yards away from us. We conspired to maneuver around behind the ridge and make a stalk to come up behind the area where he was feeding. But before we got to the ridge we bumped into a big 4x4 not 50 yards away, standing very calmly, looking at us. This buck offered the perfect opportunity for my husband, who suffers from macular degeneration. I knew that shooting in this area, so near to the other buck, would jeopardize my stalk, but I calculated with another hunting day left, we would have time to let things calm down and possibly catch him feeding on the flats either later in the afternoon or the next day. We just couldn’t pass up this opportunity. My husband took the deer, which turned out to be a 27 incher. We did photos, gutted and harvested the meat.
We broke for lunch to let the area calm down. I can’t describe how beautiful it was to enjoy a picnic lunch overlooking the Pacific Ocean, air temperature just warm enough to take a short nap in the green grass. However, during our lunch break, the weatherman was using Murphy’s Law again. A heavy fog rolled in. By the time we made it back to where we figured the other deer might be, we couldn’t see 20 feet in front of our face. We drove to other areas on the island, where the fog hadn’t slinked up and over the island canyons yet, but we didn’t see anything worth pursuing. All I could hope was that the next day, the fog would be gone. It wasn’t.
We drove the rough dirt roads in search of sunlight and visibility more than a few feet. This was our last full hunting day and I was now concerned that I would even get a nice buck, let alone a 30 incher. Around 10:00 AM, while glassing from the top of a canyon in the middle of the island, a buck appeared on the ridge line behind us at 100 yards. It was a 5x5 with eye guards, but a 25 inch spread. I decided not to let this opportunity go by. So I slowly slipped back to the pick-up truck about 25 yards away to grab my rifle. The deer had been patiently watching us and about the time I reached the truck he started to move out. I took my shot. He lunged and disappeared behind the ridge. We followed a heavy blood trail to the top edge of the canyon. And thankfully, the only tree in the area kept the deer from falling 500 yards down the canyon.
