Sunday, August 2, 2026
Welcome back. Today is a hinge in the season: this morning is the last day of Zone A archery, and next Saturday the rifle opener puts the biggest, longest deer season in the state on the board. Here is what is riding along over the next six days. We turn the back of the freezer into field food with a batch of venison jerky, square away a truck-hitch hoist so you can hang and skin a buck by yourself, and go live with the very first Showcase photo, a velvet buck one of you caught on video. Dog of the Week is a two-dog team you will want to meet, From the Field is a goose-morning reunion that stuck with the hunter who lived it, and this week's poll wants to know how you are getting ready for your opener. Let's get into it.
The Board: Crucial Dates and Deadlines
Today, August 2, is the last day of Zone A archery. The coastal blacktail archery season (July 11 to August 2) closes tonight. If you are chasing a buck with a bow, this is your last morning until the rifle season opens. After today, A-zone goes quiet for five days before the general opener.
Today, August 2: leftover premium deer tags go on sale. Unclaimed premium tags, the ones that went unpaid or unallocated after the draw, are released on a first-come, first-served basis starting the first week of August. If you struck out in the main draw, this is a real second shot at a good tag. Log into your CDFW online sales profile and check availability early, because the good ones move fast.
Saturday, August 8: Zone A general (rifle) opener. This is the big one. A-zone general runs August 8 to September 20, one of the longest general seasons in the state at 44 days. One buck per tag. Three things to handle this week, not Friday night: confirm your 2026-27 license and tags are current, pattern your certified non-lead load and get zeroed, and confirm your exact subzone dates and either-sex rules in the 2026 Big Game Digest. A-zone splits into units and you want to be standing on the right line.
Bear comes in with the deer. General bear opens concurrently with the general deer opener in zones A, B, C, D, X8, X9A, X9B, X10, and X12, so in A-zone you can carry a bear tag on the August 8 opener. Archery bear opens August 15 across the entire bear hunt area. The season runs through December 27 or closes early if the statewide harvest hits 1,700 bears (last year's take was around 1,180, so early closure is unlikely). You can hold two tags this year but take only one bear per day, and it is non-lead, no bait, no dogs, with validation and reporting mandatory.
August 15: B-zone archery opens. Most B zones (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6) run archery August 15 to September 6. B-4 opened earlier, July 25, and closes August 16. Confirm your exact B subzone dates in the Big Game Digest before you commit.
Looking ahead, September 1: dove opener, first split September 1 to 15. The scouting you do this month is the limit you fill in September.
Non-lead, every hunt, no exceptions. Certified non-lead ammunition is required for all hunting with a firearm anywhere in California. The right bullet weights thin out on the shelf as every opener approaches, so buy your rifle boxes now while you can still pick your load.
From Field to Table: Turn the Freezer Into Field Food (Venison Jerky)
Here is a two-birds move for opener week. You are about to spend long, hot days glassing ridges, which means you need food you can stuff in a pack and forget about. And you have probably still got a lean roast or two from last year taking up freezer space you are about to need. Solve both at once: turn those old hindquarter roasts into jerky. Lean venison is the ideal jerky meat, because there is almost no fat to go rancid, and a batch made this week rides in your pack all season.
You will need:
2 lbs lean venison roast (hindquarter or round), every scrap of fat and silver skin trimmed off
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar or honey
1 tbsp coarse black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
Optional heat: 1 tsp red pepper flakes or a good shot of hot sauce
The method:
Trim it hard. Fat is what turns jerky rancid, so cut away every bit of it and any silver skin. Firm the roast in the freezer for an hour or two so it slices clean, then cut strips about an eighth to a quarter inch thick. Slice with the grain for a chewy classic jerky, against the grain for a more tender bite.
Whisk the marinade together, drop the strips in, and refrigerate 6 to 24 hours. Longer means more flavor and more salt.
Pat the strips dry and lay them out so none are touching, on dehydrator trays or on oven racks set over a foil-lined sheet to catch drips.
Run a dehydrator at 160 degrees, or an oven at its lowest setting with the door cracked, for 4 to 8 hours. It is done when a strip bends and cracks but does not snap clean in half.
The safety step you do not skip with wild game: the USDA recommends jerky reach an internal 160 degrees to kill any pathogens. The easy path is to dehydrate at 160 the whole time, or to finish the dried strips in a 275-degree oven for 10 minutes. Do not shortcut this one.
Cool completely, then store airtight. It keeps for weeks in the fridge and months in the freezer. Portion a bag into your pack now so it is there on opening morning.
Gear Check: Skin It Solo at the Truck
HME Truck Hitch Game Hoist, Complete Kit
Once a buck is down and you can get a vehicle to it, the race is getting it hung, skinned, and cooling. This hoist drops into a standard 2-inch receiver on a truck, SUV, or UTV, so you do not need a tree. The kit includes a hand-crank winch, a steel gambrel, and a 360-degree swiveling shaft with a locking pin, so one person can crank a deer up, lock it, and spin it to work every side. It is rated to 400 pounds, telescopes from 74 to 102 inches, and rides on an adjustable support foot for stability on uneven ground.
It runs about $170 at Sportsman's Warehouse (check price and stock, it moves around). Pair it with the replaceable-blade knife (Issue 4) and your game bags (Issue 3): hoist, skin to shed body heat, then bag the quarters and get them on ice.
The Showcase
This week's Showcase caught the calendar turning. Connie A. of Durham sent in a clip of a young buck working the velvet off his new rack, raking it through the brush the way they do when it is ready to come off. It is one of the surest signs the season is closing in: the velvet peels, the antlers harden, and by the opener every buck on your cameras looks like a different animal. If you have been running summer cameras, you are watching the same thing play out right now.
That is exactly what we built The Showcase for, and it runs on you. Exclusive to subscribers only, so the people on this list are the only ones who see it. Grip-and-grins, a limit strap in the fog, the dog mid-retrieve, a kid's first bird, a trail-cam giant you are chasing this fall. Photo or video, if it is from your season, we want it. Every pick earns a permanent spot on our subscribers-only Showcase page at norcalhunt.com/showcase.
To get in: hit reply with your photo, 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 at the end of every month subscribers vote for a Showcase winner. Send us one to keep it rolling.
Dog of the Week
Meet "Ranger" and "Ford" Owner: Erick S.
Ranger (left, 8 years old) and Ford (right, 3 years old) are a two-dog team, pictured here backing up a late-season single-man limit. When these two are not working the blind, you will find them lounging around the house or logging as many summer days as they can up at Lake Almanor.
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 at norcalhunt.com/dogoftheweek.
From the Field: More Than a Limit
"It took longer to set out the decoys than it did to shoot our limits."
Seven old college buddies, a cold north wind across the Sacramento Valley rice, and a steel-gray sky made for geese. What started as a rare reunion turned into one of those mornings you remember for years: specks, snows, and honkers finishing over the spread wave after wave until every hunter had filled on both dark and light geese. But as contributor Chad M. found on the long drive home, the limit was not the part that stuck with him.
Read the full story on norcalhunt.com/fieldstories
Got a hunt that turned into a story? A first buck, a close call, a comedy of errors, a last hunt with an old dog? Hit reply and tell us. The best ones run right here.
Community: Help Us Build the Pack
This briefing gets sharper when we hear from you. Drop us a quick reply and tell us:
What zones do you hunt most?
What are you chasing this fall: blacktail, ducks, doves, pigs, bear?
How can we make the weekly briefing better?
Last week's poll is in. We asked for your go-to backstrap prep, and bacon-wrapped medallions took the top spot. Cast-iron seared and sliced pink, grilled whole over coals, and chicken-fried with gravy all pulled votes, but the bacon-and-toothpick crowd carried the day. If you have not tried it, consider this your inspiration to cook what your fellow NorCal hunters are swearing by: wrap a backstrap medallion in bacon, pin it with a toothpick, and grill it over medium heat until the bacon crisps and the meat is still pink in the middle.
This week's poll:
How are you preparing for your opener?
Got a hunting partner who lives 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.
Local Services: Find It Close to Home
Need hunting gear, last-minute necessities, or a shop that stocks non-lead before the opener? We keep a running list of NorCal businesses that take care of hunters, all in one place. Check out our local services page on norcalhunt.com/services, and if you run a business that belongs on it, hit reply and let us know.
Conditions: Heat and Fire, Read This Before the Opener
NorCal is dry and the fire picture is active heading into the opener. The biggest one in our backyard right now is the Biscar Fire in Lassen County. The Biscar Fire reached 69,352 acres and was 97% contained by late July. It is essentially fully suppressed with all evacuation orders lifted. CAL FIRE keeps fire potential at normal to above normal through September.
Before you load the truck:
Confirm restrictions for your exact unit. Forest Service, BLM, and CAL FIRE rules change fast and vary by district, so check your specific ground before you go.
Do not be the ignition. No sparks near dry grass, and mind your exhaust and drag chains.
Beat the heat. Hunt the first and last hour around water and shade, carry more water than you think you need, and cool any midday deer immediately.
Stay safe out there, get your gear cleaned, and we'll see you in the field.
The NorCal Hunt Team
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