Upland Game Bird Hunting in California: General Information

Hunting Upland birds in California such as dove, quail, pheasants, and chukar can be a difficult task, especially if you are attempting to hunt them on public land. In this blog I will be addressing locations and tactics for hunting on public land and some private land that may help you locate these birds and be a successful hunter. You would be surprised at the amount of huntable land within driving distance of where ever you may live in California. To tell the truth until I became a bird hunting addict I didn’t know either, but over the years I have found some wonderful places to hunt that I will share with you.

Norcal Hunter Upland Bird Hunting in California

Its that time. Time to start planning the best year of upland bird hunting that anyone could ever have in California. You can approach this in several ways, you can tell yourself that Upland Bird hunting California sucks and there is no reason to go. I hear this all the time and I call B.S. on that! Going hunting is like going to the gym, you can find thousands of excuses not to go, especially if you are becoming frustrated with the results.

Instead think positive and give my approach a try. I am going to brag a little bit and say that I have been a very successful upland bird hunter and almost all my hunting has been in California. If you plan it right and you have the time and the gas money you can easily bag doves, band-tailed, pigeons, blue and ruffed grouse, pheasants, quail, turkeys and chukars all in California. And if you are willing to put in for a sage grouse permit in Oregon or Nevada you can bag one of those almost every year.

Its understandable why so many people give up on bird hunting in California. First and foremost are the fuel costs. Most folks don’t live within a reasonable distance of a decent place to hunt unless its crowded public land and it just doesn’t make sense to spend 60 bucks on fuel to go shoot a limit of doves (15) or a limit of Band Tailed Pigeon of which you can only shoot two. But if you look around and do your research you can usually find a huntable population of upland birds within a reasonable drive from just about anywhere in California.

The second roadblock to successful upland hunting in California is a combination of accessibility and knowing where the birds are located. You can have all the accessibility in the world but if there are no birds, it’s pointless. And the same goes for having birds but no access.

By the time we are done with this section on upland bird hunting I will cover a bunch of areas that you can go and where I personally know there are birds. Its up to you to find them and if you go to one of my spots and you can't find the birds or if you want a little more direction just click on the “contact me” link on the main page and send me a message and I will help you out.

I will be honest with you, I love bird hunting and I’m not going to give away my own personal secret spots, but I will get close.