This is the weekend the calendar starts trading seasons on you. Dove's first split closes Tuesday, so you have two mornings left on the birds. Next weekend does the heavy lifting: B-zone general opens Saturday the 19th, and A-zone general, the longest general season in the state, closes for good Sunday the 20th. Off in the distance you can already hear the first ducks of the year, and our Dog of the Week is getting ready for exactly that. So this issue points at the buck in front of you and the freezer behind it: a ground venison dinner the whole family will eat, the cooler that keeps him from souring in this heat, and a reader's A-zone buck up top in the Showcase. We also have a new fire on the map close to home and a red flag warning you need to read before you load the truck. Let's get into it.

Tuesday, September 15: dove's first split closes. Two mornings left. The daily limit is 15 mourning and white-winged combined (no more than 10 white-winged), possession triple that, and no limit on Eurasian collared-doves. Shoot time is one half hour before sunrise to sunset. After Tuesday the birds go dark until the second split, November 14 to December 28.

Saturday, September 19: B-zone general opens. B1, B2, B3, B5, and B6 open rifle September 19 to October 25, one buck per tag. B-4 is already running its own earlier general season (August 22 to September 27), and your A-zone tag stays valid during overlap of any B-zone hunt, so you have options this weekend either way. Confirm your exact subzone lines and legal-buck rules in the 2026 Big Game Digest before you climb an unfamiliar ridge.

Sunday, September 20: A-zone general closes. This is your last weekend on the state's longest general season (August 8 to September 20), one buck per tag. Hunt water, feed, and shade at first and last light, and if you fill it, the next two sections are for you.

General bear rides with your deer tag. A-zone general bear has been open since the deer opener and runs to December 27, or closes early if the statewide take hits 1,700 bears. It is non-lead, no bait, no dogs, with tag validation, premolar submission, and reporting all mandatory. A bear tag in your pocket is a second animal on the same hunt.

Looking ahead, ducks are coming. For everyone whose dog is already whining at the back door: the Balance of State duck opener lands Saturday, October 24 (about six weeks out) and runs to January 31, 2027, with a seven-duck daily limit and species sub-limits. The Northeastern Zone opens earlier, around October 3. Now is the week to pull your California Duck Validation, your Federal Duck Stamp, and your free HIP validation, and to confirm the shoot-time tables and final regs at wildlife.ca.gov before opener.

Non-lead, every hunt, no exceptions. Certified non-lead ammunition is required for all firearm hunting anywhere in California, deer and doves alike. And a dove housekeeping reminder while the migratory rules are fresh: plug your shotgun to three shells, get written landowner permission before you hunt private ground, and stay 150 yards off any occupied dwelling.

A lot of you are about to have a freezer full of ground venison, and this is the recipe that earns its keep all winter. It is the weeknight workhorse: a rich red sauce over spaghetti that turns a pound of grind into a dinner the whole family will eat without a word about it being deer. The one trick with venison is that it is lean, almost no fat, so left alone in a pan it cooks up dry and tight. The fix is easy, and it is built into the steps below.

You will need: one pound ground venison (figure a pound for four), olive oil, one diced yellow onion, three to four cloves of garlic minced, one 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes, two tablespoons of tomato paste, a splash of stock or water, dried oregano and basil (or an Italian blend), a pinch of red pepper flakes, salt and coarse pepper, and one pound of spaghetti. Optional but worth it: a few strips of chopped bacon or a quarter pound of ground pork for fat, a splash of red wine, a pinch of sugar to balance the acid, a parmesan rind, and grated parmesan to finish.

The method:

Doneness and safety note: ground venison is the one place we set aside our usual "pink is fine" rule. Grinding folds the surface bacteria all the way through the meat, so cook ground game fully done to 160 degrees, no pink, which is different from the whole-muscle backstrap in Issue #8 that we keep rare on purpose. A long, low simmer takes care of that easily. Wear nitrile gloves when you handle raw grind, and if you ground your own off a fresh buck (Issue #10), keep it cold (Issue #7) right up until it hits the pan.

The rule never changes: on a September buck, get the meat cold and keep it cold, because a cooler that melts out by noon is working against you. The Igloo MaxCold Latitude 90-Qt. Roller Cooler is our value pick this week. Ninety quarts swallows a boned-out deer plus ice with room to spare, the foam insulation is rated to hold ice up to five days, and the all-terrain wheels and flip-up tow handle mean you roll a loaded cooler from tailgate to camp instead of wrestling a two-man lift. Tie-down points, a garden-hose drain, and a molded ruler round it out. It lists around $120 and often sells for $85 to $100, so check current pricing.

Floor option: a basic Igloo or Coleman marine cooler for $40 to $70. Step up: a roto-molded RTIC or Yeti for two to three times the money, which holds ice longer and shrugs off abuse but weighs more and has no wheels. Whatever you carry, pre-chill it overnight, pack block ice under your game bags (Issue #3), and keep it in the shade with the drain cracked so meltwater runs off the meat.

This week's feature comes from Tim B., and it is a good one: the result of a successful A-zone buck hunt, tagged and on the ground while the rest of us are still glassing. That is a fine way to close out the longest general season in the state, and the timing could not be better with A-zone shutting down next Sunday. Congratulations, Tim. That is exactly the kind of photo we love to run up top.

The Showcase is exclusive to subscribers, so the folks on this list see it first. Next week it could be yours: a first buck, a limit strap from the last of the dove field, the dog holding a bird, a velvet giant off your summer cameras, whatever your season handed you. Hit reply with your photo or clip and a sentence about it, and tell us how you want to be credited (we run first name, last initial, and town). The best one each week runs up top, and every pick earns a permanent spot on our subscribers-only Showcase page.

Meet "Gus" (Owner: Dave K., Red Bluff)

Gus is a black lab who lives for the duck blind, and with the water season still a few weeks out he has spent September dusting off his paws on doves, keeping his retrieves sharp for the mornings that matter most to him. When he is off the clock, he runs the most important job in the yard: head of squirrel patrol, keeping the back fence line honest one bushy tail at a time. A lab with a purpose is a happy lab, and Gus clearly has two.

Want your dog featured? Hit reply, send us a clean photo of your hunting partner, and give us a quick 2 to 3 sentence blurb on what they hunt and where they earn their kibble. Pointers, flushers, retrievers, and the occasional very good mutt all qualify. Missed a week? Catch up on every dog we have featured on our past Dogs of the Week page.

No new story from us this week, but the spot is warm and waiting for yours.

While you wait for the next one, go back and read the ones we have already run. There is the father who caught a folding dove out of the sky in front of his ten-year-old, the first-timer who drew into a hunt with two old brothers and left something behind in that deer, and more. Catch up on all of them on our field stories page.

Got a hunt that turned into a story? A first buck, a lucky shot, a lesson you learned the hard way with an audience? Hit reply and tell it the way you would at the tailgate, and we will clean it up. The best ones run right here.

This briefing gets sharper when we hear from you. Drop us a quick reply and tell us:

Last week's poll is in, and the winner was out for doves through the 15th. That tracks with the calendar and with this crowd: plenty of you are riding the early split right to the last morning before you swing the truck toward deer country. Well timed, because Tuesday is that last morning.

This week's poll ties right to the buck a lot of you are about to tag. When you get an animal home, how do you handle the meat?

Got a hunting partner in the foothills, the rice, or along the riverbanks? Forward this briefing and point them to norcalhunt.com. Word of mouth from real hunters is how we grow.

With bucks hitting the ground and the B-zone opener on top of us, somebody within a short drive of you has non-lead on the shelf, a bag of block ice for that cooler, or a processor with room on the schedule. We keep a running list of NorCal businesses that treat hunters right, all in one place. Check out our local services page, and if you run a shop that belongs on it, hit reply and let us know.

Fire is back on the map close to home. The Lucas Fire, burning above Upper Lake on the Lake and Mendocino county line, is around 3,500 acres and roughly 15 percent contained as of Saturday morning, with evacuations in place and part of the Mendocino National Forest's Upper Lake Ranger District closed through September 20. If your blacktail plans run near that country, they just changed. On top of it, a red flag warning covers Lake County and parts of Northern California through Monday, with gusty winds and humidity near 10 percent: critical fire weather where one careless spark starts the next big one. Before you load the truck:

Confirm closures and restrictions for your unit. Closures and burn bans change fast and vary by district. Check fire.ca.gov and with your local forest, and route around the Upper Lake Ranger District closure and the Lucas Fire if your zone runs near them.

Respect the red flag warning. Through Monday, skip the long push into dry timber, and watch the wind and the sky. Lightning and gusts are the ignition you cannot control.

Do not be the ignition you can. No sparks near dry grass, and mind your exhaust and your drag chains. On a red flag day, one careless moment costs more than it ever has.

Beat the heat. Hunt first and last light, carry more water than you think you need, and get doves on ice and any downed buck cooled fast (that cooler above) before the meat sours.

Stay safe out there, get your gear cleaned, and we'll see you in the field.

The NorCal Hunt Team

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