jtatarin

I live in Orange County, CA in the "concrete forest" so the only huntable land I have access to is the national forest, more specifically the cleveland national forest. During all the turkey scouting and hiking ive done over the past several weeks I have seen a ton of deer on the public land where I hunt gobblers. Virtually all the deer I have seen have been fairly small does, I have seen ONE decent sized buck in the area (but on private land) That's the main problem I've had hunting California because there is so much private land within national forest limits! And of course most of the wildlife prefers these areas. Anyways I've never hunted deer before so I'm trying to do as much "early preparation" as possible in order to make my hunt as successful as possible. The area I plan on hunting has a few tag options. One being the general season which starts a bit later, you can use a rifle but you must take a forked buck. The other is an either sex archery tag which starts a bit earlier and lasts longer. Since I've seen a lot of does in the area would it be better for me to try and take a doe as my first deer? Or just get a general rifle tag?

Also, I was doing some reading on food plots has anyone ever planted foodplots on public land? Is planting seeded footplots considered baiting which I know is not legal in CA? I've seen does grazing in grassy fields that border denser cover, I was thinking if I hike back in there and plant some clover seeds maybe that will bring in a buck? I was also thinking about putting a trail camera in these areas, but I have heard horror stories of them being stolen etc. Is there anyway I can hide a camera or chain it to a tree?