Sunday, August 9, 2026
Welcome back. The countdown is over. The A-zone rifle opener hit yesterday, and for the first time this year the biggest general deer season in the state is live under our boots. If you were out there this morning, you already know the difference a hard-horned buck makes. This week we pick up right where a filled tag leaves off: how to break down a hindquarter at the kitchen table by following the seams. Then we look three weeks down the road to the dove opener with the one decoy that pulls passing birds into range. We have got a velvet buck in the Showcase from one of you and a five-year-old bird dog caught on a pheasant retrieve. We are also pausing this week to celebrate a hometown crew that just made NorCal proud on the national stage. Plus a straight read on the fire and heat picture before you head back out. Let's get into it.
The Board: Crucial Dates and Deadlines
Saturday, August 8: A-zone general is OPEN. The rifle opener is behind us and the season is on. A-zone general runs August 8 to September 20, a 44-day stretch that is among the longest general deer seasons in California. One buck per tag. The first days, before pressure pushes deer nocturnal, are some of your best odds all season, so hunt hard early. Confirm your exact subzone dates and either-sex rules in the 2026 Big Game Digest before you go.
August 8: general bear came in with the deer. General bear opens concurrently with the general deer opener in A-zone, so if you are carrying a bear tag you can hunt it right now alongside your blacktail. Non-lead, no bait, no dogs, with validation and reporting mandatory.
Saturday, August 15: B-zone archery and archery bear both open. Most B zones (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6) run archery August 15 to September 6. Archery bear opens the same day across the entire bear hunt area. Confirm your exact B subzone dates in the Digest before you commit.
August 16: B-4 archery closes. The early bird of the B zones (open since July 25) shuts on the 16th. This is your last weekend for B-4 bow.
Leftover deer tags are still on the board. Unclaimed premium tags have been on first-come, first-served sale since August 2. If you struck out in the draw, this is a real second shot. Log into your CDFW online sales profile and check availability, because the good ones move fast.
Looking ahead, September 1: dove opener. First split runs September 1 to 15. Daily bag is 15 mourning and white-winged doves combined, up to 10 of which may be white-winged. Two things to grab now and not at 5 a.m. on opening morning: your free HIP validation and your Upland Game Bird Validation. More on doves as it gets closer.
Non-lead, every hunt, no exceptions. Certified non-lead ammunition is required for all hunting with a firearm anywhere in California, doves included. The right loads thin out on the shelf as each opener lands, so buy ahead while you can still pick your load.
Spotlight: Durham High Trap Team
Pictured left to right: Rowan Turnquist., Hank Simmons., Adam Simpson., Jacob Hayes., and Jake Dunlap.
We are stepping out of the field for a minute to brag on some of our own. The NorCalHunt team wants to shine the spotlight on the Durham High trap shooting team for a season worth celebrating, capped by winning the United States Open Youth Clay Shooting Sports Championships in Las Vegas. Not only did Durham win 1st in team points, but our very own Adam Simpson took the 1st place individual title at Nationals. That is a long road from Durham, CA, and a whole lot of clays broken along the way, and these young shooters earned every bit of it with the skill, focus, and discipline the sport demands. Congratulations to the whole squad, their families, and coaches Allen Cornelison and Dylan Dunlap for getting them there. Durham is proud of you, and so is NorCalHunt.
From Field to Table: Break Down a Hindquarter
Say you connected this weekend. You hung and skinned the buck at the truck (that hoist from Issue 9), kept it cold on the drive home (Issue 7), and now the whole hindquarter is sitting on your counter. Here is the good news: that big, intimidating chunk of meat is really just four or five separate muscles held together by thin sheets of silverskin. You do not need a bone saw and you do not need to be a butcher. You need a sharp knife and a willingness to follow the seams.
You will need: a thin, flexible boning or fillet knife, a clean and sanitized surface, well-chilled meat, a bowl for trim, and your game bags or vacuum bags for packaging.
The method:
Start cold and clean. Work chilled meat on a sanitized surface, and keep your hands, board, and knife clean the whole way through. Cold meat is firmer, easier to handle, and safer.
Follow the seams. The hindquarter splits into its muscle groups along natural silverskin membranes. Work your fingers and the tip of your knife into those seams and let the muscles come apart with almost no cutting. You are separating, not sawing.
Know what each piece is. The main players are the top round (inside round, the biggest and one of the better ones), the bottom round (outside round, a touch tougher), the eye of round (small and uniform), the sirloin tip or knuckle, and the top sirloin up near the hip. Down at the shank is the lower leg.
Match the cut to the plan. Top round and sirloin become steaks or a roast. Bottom round and eye of round are perfect for jerky (that recipe from Issue 9). The shank and every odd scrap go to grind or to a low, slow braise.
Shave the silverskin. Peel the silver connective tissue off each muscle before you package it. It never breaks down and cooks up like a rubber band, so angle your blade up toward the skin and shave it clean.
Package by use. Label everything, seal it, and portion your grind into flat one-pound bricks so it freezes fast and stacks like books.
Doneness and safety note: keep everything cold and clean and get it into the fridge or freezer promptly. Whole-muscle cuts like steaks and roasts eat best cooked to a warm pink, medium-rare center, but anything you grind should be cooked to an internal 160 degrees, because grinding mixes any surface bacteria all the way through. And if you saved the two tenderloins from inside the cavity, treat those like backstrap and pull them pink (Issue 8).
Gear Check: Put Motion Over Your Dove Field
MOJO Voodoo Dove
The dove opener is three weeks out, and nothing pulls passing birds like motion. Doves cue on other doves, and a spinning-wing decoy on a field edge reads as a bird dropping in to feed. Set one where you want birds to cross, and you can turn an empty field corner into a shoot.
The pick is the MOJO Voodoo Dove, the current version of the decoy that more or less invented motion dove hunting. You get a realistic body in the landing position, magnetic spinning wings (no fiddly thumb screws), a steel support pole, and up to 16 hours on 4 AA batteries, so it runs sunrise to sunset. It goes for around $45, often less per unit in a two-pack (check current pricing). Bring spare AA batteries, because the wings quit spinning before you notice.
Step-up options: run two spinners on opposite edges to work birds from more directions, or move up to the heavier-duty MOJO Elite Series dove. Floor option: a four-pack of clip-on stationary dove decoys (about $20) set on a fence wire or a bare branch builds a spread around the spinner for pocket change.
One California note worth having straight: motorized dove spinners are legal for the September dove opener. The catch is that some CDFW wildlife areas and refuges restrict electronic/motorized decoys on public land, so verify the rules for your specific ground before you set up. And non-lead shot is required for dove, statewide. On a hot opener, breast and cool your birds fast, the same cold-fast principle we covered back in Issue 7.
The Showcase
The calendar is turning fast, and this week's Showcase caught it mid-turn. Tad A. of Durham sent in a photo of a buck still carrying a full set of velvet antlers, soft and swollen and still growing. Last week we saw one raking his velvet off in the brush. Tad's buck is the before picture: the last quiet days before the antlers harden, the velvet strips, and every deer on your summer cameras turns into a different animal by the opener. If you are still running cameras, you are watching this exact clock tick down.
That is what the Showcase runs on: you. It is exclusive to subscribers, 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 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 at the end of every month subscribers vote for a Showcase winner.
Dog of the Week
Meet "Amaya" Owner: Allen C. Forest Ranch, CA
Amaya is a five-year-old German shorthaired pointer, all nose and drive in the uplands. Allen caught her on a pheasant retrieve in this week's photo, doing exactly what the breed was built for. Five seasons in, she has the job down cold, and with dove three weeks out and pheasant behind it, she has a busy fall ahead.
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.
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 how you were getting ready for your opener, and the winner was clear: locked and loaded, just counting down. Scouting and glassing, getting zeroed, and sorting gear and tags all pulled votes, but the biggest share of you had the work behind you and were simply watching the calendar tick toward your season opener. Well, the wait is over. The counting down turned into opening morning, and judging by the photos already hitting our inbox, plenty of you made it count.
This week's poll ties right to today's Field to Table. Now that the season is on and meat is coming home, where does most of your deer end up?
When you break down a deer, where does the meat go?
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
Season is open, which means somebody within a short drive of you has non-lead on the shelf, sharp knives, grinder plates, or a game processor with room on the schedule. 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 You Head Back Out
NorCal is hot and dry and the fire picture is active heading into opening week. The biggest one near our southern edge right now is the Gann Fire in Calaveras County, near New Hogan Lake. It pushed past 10,000 acres midweek with early containment lines going in, evacuation orders in place around the lake, and a suspect already arrested on suspicion of recklessly causing it. Add a triple-digit heat wave and smoke drifting in from out-of-state fires, and CAL FIRE keeps large-fire potential above normal through the summer. Conditions move fast, so check current status 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. The Gann Fire is the reminder: one careless moment can burn 10,000 acres and end in cuffs.
Watch the air. Smoke and poor air quality can roll in fast. Check the AQI before a hard climb, especially if you are packing a buck out in the heat.
Beat the heat. Hunt the first and last hour around water and shade, carry more water than you think you need, and cool any deer immediately. In this heat, a downed buck is a race.
Stay safe out there, get your gear cleaned, and we'll see you in the field.
The NorCal Hunt Team
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