Hey from California Upland.
Nine days to September 1. This is the week the season stops being a plan and starts being errands: HIP validation, the upland stamp, ice, sunscreen, and whatever nonlead you still need — seasonal wisdom says the valley-town shelves get picked over from here, so if you’re short on steel 7s, this week is the week, not next week. It’s also the last real scouting window. One more first-light drive past the fields you’ve been watching all month settles the argument between your two best options better than any amount of August theorizing — the birds on the wires at 6:15 will tell you which field won the cutting-schedule lottery. Peter’s tapering Alan like the little cocker’s got a race coming, which he does — lighter sessions at Quail Point, full rest days, nails done, pads checked, crate fan tested before it matters. Matt’s version of tapering is standing in the garage re-counting shell boxes he has already counted. Nine days does strange things to serious people.
From the field. This morning we published the piece this whole week orbits: The Last-Minute Opener Checklist — every errand, document, and piece of kit for the next nine days, in the order to handle them, so nothing surfaces for the first time at 4:30 a.m. on September 1. It’s deliberately boring. The checklist’s whole job is to make opening morning boring in every way except the one that counts — no license drama, no missing shells, no dry dog bowl, just you, a field you chose on purpose, and the first gray birds coming off the roost. Print it, stick it on the fridge, argue with it by reply. Read →
What we published this week:
→ California Dove Regulations 2026-27: HIP, Limits, Lead-Free Zones — the current CDFW rules in one place: licenses, HIP validation, the upland stamp, bag limits, shooting hours, and the statewide nonlead requirement. If you only handle one errand from this digest, handle this one — it’s the only item on the list with a warden attached. Read →
→ Opener Morning Loadout: Vest, Shells, Water, Dog — the truck-bed manifest, item by item: what rides where, the shell-and-water math a real opener actually burns, and the dog station for those of you whose truck bed isn’t missing its best feature. Read →
→ Where to Camp Opener Weekend: Sac Valley CDFW Areas — the wildlife-area camping picture for anyone turning opener into a weekend: the rules that differ area to area, shade honesty, and the early-arrival math that decides whether you sleep or circle. Read →
What we’re working on:
· Tuesday — Dove Tacos: A 30-Minute Recipe for Opener Night (our first Recipe post ever — the meal Matt cooks the night of September 1, with honest quantities: eight to twelve doves feeds two hunters properly).
· Wednesday — The Pre-Dawn Loadout Reel(the 4:30 a.m. truck ritual, scripted shot by shot for Instagram, plus the companion checklist explaining what every shot is actually about).
· Friday — Heat, Shade, and Water Strategy: Don’t Cook Your Dog on Sept 1 (Peter’s protocol for the opener’s most important job — the quit-early math, the shade plan, and the signs that end the hunt on the spot).
Also Wednesday: Peter has the Field Notes slot from the Cache Creek country — the late-August look at the cover we’ll all care about again come October.
One more Friday thing: the first Reader Mail lands this Friday morning — heat protocols for opening day, the sunflower-versus-safflower question from south of the delta, and first-trip nerves for the Imperial Valley. If you’ve got a question of your own, hit reply this week and it may make next month’s edition.
If a piece lands, hit reply.
Out the door, — Matt & Peter
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