Catalina Island Mulies
Mule Deer
There is a proposal to kill hundreds of over populated mule deer on Catalina Island using helicopter-mounted sharpshooters with AR 15 rifles.
"Catalina’s deer population, which is at 8x – 10x the density of the mainland, is suffering while also devastating our fragile ecosystem as they attempt to survive," the Catalina Island Conservancy stated in its restoration plan."
Of course nobody has considered allowing bowhunters to help reduce the deer population. It is California, after all.....
You can hunt Catalina for deer
How do you go about hunting Catalina? I know they killed off all the pigs and goats a while ago.
"You can hunt Catalina for deer"
Then perhaps they should raise the number of deere hunters are allowed to kill??
Knew about the feral domestic goats (I think it was Howard Hilled who bowhunted goats there), but didn't realize there were mule deer there... Were the deer native, or did somebody ship them from the mainland once upon a time?
Good grief. Do some research, boys.
When we hunted the islands before the nature conservancy eradicated the Spanish goats and feral hogs, you could actually add a deer hunt. I have a few friends who actually arrowed a few bucks on the island.
Now that the pigs and goats are gone, it’s probably not as popular, but it is still doable.
Here’s just one outfit that set them up.
"Good grief do some research boys." Wouldn't have the same affect. It wouldn't allow for the weekly nonsensical rant.
LOL!!!!! sundowner don't go away mad.....just.....well you know.
Geeze, you guys are like kindergarteners...
I just did a little "research"... Mule deer were not native to the island, neither were the goats, boar, and bison... Yes, there are bison on the island...
Zbone.....this thread was started by the OP in the spirit of a kindergartener.
"California mule deer were introduced to Santa Catalina Island in 1929 and in the 1930s in cooperation with the California Department of Fish and Game"
https://www.islapedia.com/index.php?title=*_Deer:_Santa_Catalina_Island
Those bison were no joke……and not afraid of humans at all. I hated encountering them while chasing hogs or goats.
Some of the Channel islands off the coast of Ventura use to have Elk on them. Typical liberals had to wipe them out because real Americans want them there for food. There were sheep and goats as well. You could see them on the cliffs when you were fishing around the islands. Damn shame what they've done.
I spent a lot of my childhood and teen years on Catalina scuba diving and hiking the back country, but never hunted it.
You can hunt it, but there's a reason it's not hunted sufficiently to control numbers.
To make a long story short:
-The deer are small. -The island is essentially all private property that you can jump through some hoops to get access to. -The season is closed for the rut. -The archery season is in the middle of summer when the deer are nocturnal. -You have to take a boat from the armpit of Los Angeles to get there - it's an all-day affair between commuting to the harbor, to getting on the boat, to getting off the boat, and then getting home is another full day. -Hotels in Avalon are expensive. -The deer are no where near Avalon, for the most part. There are some roads, but there's no car rental and you can't just rent a golf cart and drive them. This is a back-country hunt. -Water is a big problem in the winter and a huge problem in the summer. -Above all else, the island is rugged and it's a shitty place to hunt.
Not many people are going to go through the hassle of going to Catalina to hunt elusive mule deer does and tiny bucks, so the population is high.
They could certainly make hunting there easier and more hunter-friendly, but most people aren't going to huff it miles on foot with a pack for this kind of hunt when they could have a better hunt for bigger deer elsewhere with easier logistics.
Looks like a fun hunt. The last photos that outfitter posted was from 2015 though.
Chuck Adam's did alot of hunts there I bowhunted there in the early 70s. Western Bowhunter magazine, always had hunt stories. I started my career with the State Forestry. Surfed at Trestles, hunts on islands, wild fires kept us busy Great memories. At one time Calif had it all. I enjoyed my early career days there.
Well, at least they want to kill the deer instead of paying to trap all of them and perform permanent contraceptive, and let them go again. Or try to give the does birth control pills or darts like other animal rights activists want.
The residents have a petition with 18,000 names protesting the killing if the overpopulated deer.
I'd go there to shoot a mulie in a heartbeat. I wouldn't care if they were big or not, would be fun just to take a trip and hunting something I've never hunted. It would also be cool to put something new in the freezer. So there is a market, it just has to be available.
I'm the same Catscratch, I'd go in a minute...
I just started bowhunting when I found about pig hunts there. I reached out to an outfitter there and he told me the sad story of them wiping out the goats and pigs. I've thought about what could have been a lot over the years.
I could care less about the trophy potential too. Hunting the island combined with the views of the ocean and maybe after spend some time in San Diego would be a great trip.
Some more info. Looks like bowhunting is open to the public. would take a lot to figure out the logistics.
https://catalinaconservancy.org/resources/permits/hunting-permits/
Looks like they are going to hire White Buffalo to cull some deer. That decision is not without some opposition however. It is CA after all.
Traditional Bowhunters next issue is going to have an article in it about hunting deer on Catalina Island. Its an article about TJ's hunt from a couple of years ago.
