I never miss the opening day of dove season, and I used to hunt up around the Indio area for the dove opener, but for the past 4 years I've skipped California and gone to Yuma AZ for the dove opener. I've hunted deer up around Big Bear but never had any luck. Seems like I always see wild turkeys during deer season and deer during turkey season. I've seen lots of deer up around my gun club, but never when they were in season! Deer hunting in California isn't like back east. Back there I would park myself in a treestand and wait 'til one walked in range. Out here there's more work involved. The best deer hunting in California is in the X zones, most of which is on private property. If you want to hunt pigs, unless you know somebody who owns property, there's canned hunts. It's fun, but a little costly.