California Upland — week of Aug 2 · Pheasant guide is live, dove sprint starts
Hey from California Upland.
Thirty days to September 1. August is when the Sacramento Valley starts writing the dove opener map — the safflower outside Williams should be cutting about now, and which fields come down over the next three weeks decides where the birds stack up on opening morning. We’ll be watching the cutting the way other people watch a pennant race, because that’s what dove scouting mostly is in August: crop calendars, irrigation schedules, and first-light drives with the windows down. Peter has Alan on the early-morning-only rotation at Quail Point this month — planted-bird work wrapped by eight, water pan before the crate, because a three-year-old cocker’s enthusiasm does not read a thermometer. Matt is dogless until the Brittany pup arrives in spring, so his August is clays, shell math, and windshield time on the valley grain edges. The Cache Creek hills and the Berryessa country we scout in spring can wait until October — this month belongs to the valley floor.
From the field. Yesterday morning the fifth and final cornerstone went live: The California Pheasant Hunting Guide. Five pillar pages in five weeks — Valley Quail, Chukar, Dove, Mountain Quail, and now Pheasant — each one the page we’d hand a new California hunter for the bird they’re chasing, each refreshed every July before its season. If you subscribed sometime this spring, that’s the shelf to bookmark: one page per bird, kept current, everything else we write hanging off it. The arc is done, and the sprint starts now: from today through September 14 we publish four times a week — Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday — everything pointed at the dove opener. Field prep, nonlead ammo, regulations, vests, camping, dog heat strategy, one recipe, and the last-minute checklist, in roughly the order you’ll need them. September 1 is the day more Californians go upland hunting at once than any other date on the calendar, and the four weeks in front of it are when planning has to turn into errands. One more new thing: starting this Wednesday, subscribers get Field Notes between Sundays — 300 words, one place, one thing one of us actually saw that week. No links, no lessons, just conditions. It’s the note we’d text a friend, sent to the whole list. First one is Matt’s, from the Yolo Bypass dove fields.
What we published this week:
→ Where the Birds are — interactive species map showing CDFW harvest information (to start). Read →
→ Patterning Nonlead Steel for California Upland — what a pattern board actually tells you about steel 6s and 7s before you buy a case, and how to run the test in an afternoon. Read →
What we’re working on:
· Tuesday — Sac Valley Dove Field Prep: A Pre-Opener Drive-By Method (the windshield-scouting system for the last four weeks before opener — what to look for at 40 mph and when to stop and glass). · Wednesday — Nonlead Shot for Dove: What Works at 25 Yards (the gauge-and-load answer for the shots dove hunting actually offers — buy your shells before the shelves thin out). · Friday — Imperial Valley Dove: Why SoCal Has the Best Opener in the State (Peter’s planning case for the long drive south — bird numbers, heat, and the motel math).
Thirty days. Sharpen something every week — a habit, a swing, a plan — and the morning takes care of itself. If a piece lands, hit reply.
Out the door, — Matt & Peter
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