Unit 20C (Weaver, Date Creek and McCloud Mountains)

Deer are in most areas of 20C though densities vary a lot. The highest densities go with the Weaver, Date Creek and McCloud Mountains.

The cover problem, and the agency's answer

The mountains here are covered with dense stands of shrub live oak and wait-a-minute bush, with patches of more open desert grassland mixed in. Deer use both. But hunters should focus attention on the more open areas to improve their chances of glassing and then stalking — in that brush, a deer you can't see is a deer you can't hunt.

The desert, for a bigger buck

The unit also takes in lower Mohave and Sonoran desert. Hunters who know that country are sometimes rewarded with larger, more mature bucks than anywhere else in the unit — while deer densities there are the lowest in 20C. That's the trade: fewer deer, better deer.

The eastern Weaver Mountains

Those areas east of Highway 89 are reached via the Wagoner/Crown King Road at Highway 89 milepost 289, then the Zonia Mine Road where the pavement begins. Read this carefully: unless you have permission from private landowners, there is no further access to 20C off the paved Wagoner/Crown King Road.

The Whitehead Ranch Road

From the Zonia Mine Road, turn right on the unmarked Whitehead Ranch Road about half a mile before a locked gate at the mine. The road twists to Sourgrass Flats, where the thick chaparral opens into grassland — then past Sourgrass the terrain steepens and the brush closes in again. It continues several miles before ending at another locked gate on private property. There are few side roads, so hunters will have to walk and glass from hilltops to find game.

The Stanton–Octave Road

The other way into the Weavers, at Highway 89 milepost 269. It runs along the base of the mountain and accesses BLM and State Trust land.

Rifle success for mule deer in 20C runs about 22 percent. The brush is the problem and the open patches are the solution.

Hunt the openings inside the brush

Shrub live oak and wait-a-minute bush defeat glassing entirely. The grassland patches mixed into it do not. So locate those openings during scouting — Sourgrass Flats is the named example — and plan your mornings around glassing them from above rather than pushing through cover.

Walk and glass from hilltops

The Whitehead Ranch Road has few side roads, so the agency says plainly that hunters will have to walk and glass from hilltops. That's the method for most of this unit: park, climb, sit, glass, move to the next hilltop.

Consider the desert for a mature buck

Lowest densities in the unit but sometimes the largest bucks. If you'd rather hunt for one good animal than see several, the lower Mohave and Sonoran desert country is the gamble — and it needs familiarity, so scout it before you commit a season to it.

Solve access before the season

Two locked gates on the Zonia Mine and Whitehead Ranch routes, and no access off the paved Wagoner/Crown King Road without landowner permission. The Stanton–Octave Road off milepost 269 reaches BLM and State Trust ground. Map which blocks you can legally reach, and ask permission where you can't.

Turn around where the road ends

Both main roads finish at locked private gates. Don't force or go around them — that's how the remaining access disappears. Park short, walk, and hunt the public ground behind you.

Timing

This is warm country. Hunt the first and last hours hard in the early seasons, and expect more daylight movement as temperatures drop later in the year.