I can't say what the situation with CDFW is today but before I left California for good, does and spikes were very sacred cows. Shoot one and they literally dropped the hammer on you. They did have a draw for a few antlerless tags but AFAIK, no one I knew including me ever drew one. Strong rumor back then that the Sierra Club put in for those tags and they always got them. Then, on Labor Day they had a big bar B que where all the tags were burned.
Sometime in the mid 80s my wife and I drove up to Medford Oregon to see our youngest daughter. On that drive we stopped counting the carcasses of dead deer laying alongside the road. We stopped at 100 and there was probably twice that number before we got to Medford.
FWIW, I believe California's CDFW is totally under control by the Sierra Club. I'm just happy I escaped that haven of nuts, fruits and flaked way back when. (1968)
Paul B.
