Upland Bird Hunting in California

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.

The pillar planning guide to California chukar — the Eastern Sierra, the Modoc Plateau, and the Mojave ranges; water as the limiting resource, escape cover, the narrow elevation band that holds birds in October, and the boots and lungs the east side asks for. Refreshed each year.

Peter sat down with Ryan Lynton on The Upland Social: coming back to bird hunting after two decades away, hunting behind a cocker spaniel, and how much public land California has.

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.

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.