Planning a First Trip to San Diego County Quail Country: The Closure Map Comes First
San Diego County holds California quail on hundreds of thousands of acres of public land, and stacks four layers of closures and restrictions on top of it. A planning guide that starts with the legal map, not the birds.
Hunting the Overlap: Sooty Grouse, Band-Tails, and Quail in the High Sierra in September
Three days hunting sooty grouse near Hope Valley, two empty ones, and a band tailed pigeon Peter shot on the last afternoon.
California Public Land Designations: Where Upland Hunting Is Legal, Restricted, or Closed
The map app shows you green. Green is not a designation. What BLM, national forest, national monument, state wildlife area, refuge, and state park each actually mean for a shotgun — and the two-minute check that settles it before you drive.
The Hill You Don't Climb: Off-Road Driving Skills for California Hunting Access
Two one-day classes at Hollister Hills changed how we get to birds — and, more often, how we decide not to. Trail spotting, hill aborts, left-foot braking, and treating the rig like it has to bring you home.
The California Mountain Quail Hunting Guide: Where, When, and How to Hunt Oreortyx pictus, the West's Most Overlooked Upland Bird
The pillar guide to California mountain quail — the chaparral-and-conifer mid-elevation country from the Trinity Alps to the Los Padres, the calling cadence, the running habit, and the early-season opener almost nobody hunts on purpose. Refreshed each July.
Sooty Grouse Spring Scouting in NorCal: Hooting, Habitat, and a Plan for Fall
NorCal sooty grouse spring scouting peaks in May when males hoot from Douglas-fir ridgelines — how to locate the birds now and bank waypoints for fall.