California Deer Hunting 2026: Zone Dates, Legal Rifles and Non-Lead Ammo

Last checked 7 October 2026 against the CDFW mammal hunting regulations and fee schedule. California deer hunting runs from early August in the A zone to late November in the D-16 zone, every hunt needs non-lead ammunition, and the rifle you take has to pass the state's assault weapon rules before it passes the game warden. This page lists the 2026 general season dates, what the regulations allow as a method of take, what licences and tags cost this year, and the cartridges that actually get used.

2026 general season dates by zone

The A zone, the coast from Santa Barbara to Mendocino, opened on 8 August and closes 20 September. Most B zones, B-1, B-2, B-3 and B-5 in the north coast ranges, run 19 September to 25 October; B-4 ran 22 August to 27 September and B-6 runs 19 September to 18 October. C-1 runs 19 September to 18 October, C-2 and C-3 to 25 October and C-4 to 4 October. In the D zones, which cover the Sierra foothills and southern California, D-3, D-4 and D-5 run 26 September to 1 November, D-6 and D-7 from 19 September to 1 November, D-8, D-9 and D-10 from 26 September to 25 October, D-11, D-13, D-14 and D-15 from 10 October to 8 November, and D-16 in the far south from 24 October to 22 November. Most X zones east of the Sierra crest run 3 to 18 October and are draw-only. Archery and additional hunts have their own windows; check the zone map and the CDFW booklet for the hunt you drew.

Licences and tags for 2026-27

The licence year runs 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. A resident hunting licence is sixty-four dollars and fifty-four cents, a nonresident licence two hundred and twenty-five dollars and forty-six cents, and a junior licence seventeen dollars and two cents. A resident first deer tag is forty-two dollars and thirty-eight cents and a second tag fifty-two dollars and ninety-two cents; a nonresident deer tag is three hundred and seventy-seven dollars and thirty-five cents. The wild pig validation is twenty-eight dollars and thirty-four cents for residents, the upland game bird validation twenty-five dollars and forty-one cents and the California duck validation forty-one dollars and four cents. Blogs still quoting sixty-two dollars and ninety cents for the licence are using last year's schedule.

What counts as a legal method of take

Section 353 of Title 14 allows deer to be taken with a centerfire rifle or pistol using soft-nose or expanding bullets, a shotgun of ten gauge or smaller firing single slugs, limited to three shells in the magazine and chamber together, a muzzleloader of at least .40 calibre, or archery gear. Rimfire cartridges are not legal for deer or any big game. Buckshot is only lawful in counties that prohibit slugs. Full-metal-jacket bullets are not expanding and are out. There is no minimum centerfire calibre in the regulation, so a .223 with a non-lead expanding bullet is legal, although most hunters go heavier.

Non-lead ammunition, no exceptions

Since 1 July 2019 every firearm hunt in California, for every species, requires certified non-lead ammunition. That means copper or copper-alloy monolithic bullets in rifles, non-lead slugs in shotguns and non-lead muzzleloader projectiles. The rule applies to deer, pigs, coyotes, rabbits and ground squirrels alike. Carrying lead ammunition in the field while hunting is itself a violation, so empty the truck of range ammunition before you leave. Non-lead ammunition still cannot ship to your door; it goes to a licensed California ammunition vendor with the standard five-dollar eligibility check, so buy it before the season rather than the night before.

Rifles that pass both tests

Your rifle must satisfy the game regulation and the state's assault weapon definition. Bolt-action and lever-action rifles have no problem. A semi-automatic centerfire rifle with a detachable magazine must be featureless, with no pistol grip, flash suppressor, folding stock or forward grip, or have a magazine fixed so it cannot be removed without disassembling the action, holding ten rounds or fewer. Magazines over ten rounds cannot be bought or brought into the state at all. We tag every rifle in the catalogue as featureless, fixed-magazine, or not available to California.

What Californians actually carry

These are observations from what sells and what hunters report, not regulation. For blacktail in the A and B zones, where shots are short and the deer are small, .243 Winchester, 6.5 Creedmoor and .308 Winchester bolt guns with copper bullets in the 85 to 150 grain range dominate. For mule deer in the X zones and the eastern D zones, where a shot can stretch past three hundred yards, .270 Winchester, 6.5 PRC, 7mm-08, .308 and .30-06 lead the field. Wild pig, which is open all year with no bag limit and only a validation required, gets everything from .308 and .30-06 bolt guns to .30-30 and .45-70 lever actions in the brush, and a featureless AR in .223 or 6.5 Grendel with copper bullets is common on ranch hogs. Shotgun-only counties and slug hunts favour a 12 gauge with a rifled barrel and copper sabot slugs. Waterfowl on the Central Valley refuges is steel or bismuth through a 12 gauge; upland birds take a 12 or 20 gauge with non-toxic shot.

Pigs, the year-round option

Wild pig season never closes and there is no bag limit. You need a hunting licence and a pig validation, and every pig taken must be reported to CDFW within sixty days. The same non-lead and method-of-take rules apply as for deer. Most pig hunting is on private ranches in the Central Coast and the foothills, so line up access before you buy a rifle for it.

Waterfowl dates for the 2026-27 season

The Balance of State, Southern California and Southern San Joaquin Valley zones run 24 October to 31 January with a seven-duck daily limit; the Northeastern zone runs 3 October to 13 January. Non-toxic shot and a plugged three-shell magazine are required.

Buying the rifle online

A hunting rifle ordered here ships to the California dealer you name, who runs the DROS, holds it for the ten-day wait and releases it with your Firearm Safety Certificate on file. If you are eighteen to twenty, a valid California hunting licence lets you buy a long gun from a dealer, which is the one exception to the twenty-one rule, so buy the licence before the rifle. Order at least three weeks before your zone opens, longer in August when dealers are busy.

Checklist before opening day

• Licence, deer tag and any validation bought for the 2026-27 year.
• Rifle in a featureless or fixed-magazine configuration if it is a semi-automatic.
• Non-lead ammunition bought through a California vendor and sighted in.
• No lead ammunition anywhere in the vehicle.
• Zone dates confirmed in the CDFW booklet for the hunt on your tag.

Hunter education and the first licence

Anyone buying a California hunting licence for the first time must complete a hunter education course and present the certificate, or show a previous hunting licence from California or another state. The course is offered as a traditional classroom session or as an online course followed by a short in-person follow-up, and CDFW keeps a calendar of sessions by county. Juniors under sixteen need the same certificate. Do this in spring; follow-up sessions fill up by August and a licence cannot be sold without the certificate number.

Shotgun-only areas and slug hunting

Several counties and specific areas restrict deer hunting to shotguns, muzzleloaders and archery, usually in the more densely settled parts of the Bay Area and the coast. In those areas a 12 or 20 gauge with a rifled barrel and copper sabot slugs is the standard setup, and a three-shell limit applies to the magazine and chamber together. Where a county prohibits slugs, buckshot of size 0 or larger is the legal alternative. The regulations booklet lists the shotgun-only areas by county and zone; if your tag is for a D zone near a city, read that list before you buy a rifle for it.

Reading the zone map

California's deer zones are drawn on county, highway and ridge boundaries, and the letter tells you the region: A for the coast, B for the north coast ranges, C for the northern Sacramento Valley foothills, D for the Sierra foothills and southern California, and X for the eastern Sierra and Great Basin. The general season tag is valid in one zone only, and some zones share a tag quota. The CDFW website has an interactive map that converts a GPS point to a zone, which is the easiest way to confirm a property is in the zone on your tag before the season opens.

Optics, lights and electronics

There is no restriction on scope magnification, rangefinders or thermal optics for deer in California, but artificial light may not be used to take deer, spotlighting is illegal, and a light mounted on the rifle is treated as such. Night vision and thermal are legal for hogs on private land in some counties under depredation rules, not under a general hunting licence, so check with the landowner and the local warden before you rely on one. Drones may not be used to locate game.