Strategy for Father and Son to Hunt Together

September 9, 2010

Question: I have a bow hunting question. If a father and son want to hunt together and the son has an Archery Only (AO) tag, but he doesn’t get his deer during archery season, can he then hunt with his dad who only hunts with a gun during the gun season? How could they make this work so they could both hunt together? (Doug W.)

Answer: California is one of the few states that allows two deer tags. According to DFG Lt. Todd Tognazzini, there are three options:

The first and simplest would be for the son to enjoy the benefit of an AO tag during the archery only season and then use the second tag for an area both the father and son can hunt during general season.

The second option would be to pick a zone in which they could hunt together. The son could hunt that zone during its archery season, and, if unsuccessful, join his father during rifle season with the same general zone tag for that area. During season he could use archery equipment or a rifle.

The third option would be for the son to hunt archery only during the general season and the father could go rifle hunting if he had the general tag for these areas. It is not normal for these two types of hunting to be joined because of close range requirement of archery hunting, but it would be legal.

If hunting any of the many two-deer areas in the state, they could apply for a second deer tag for a common zone and hunt together with the second tag. The archery only tag designation only applies to the first deer tag application.

AO tags allow hunting with archery equipment during the archery and general seasons in A, B and D zones. An AO tag may be used by military personnel only for Additional Hunt G10. (To hunt during an X zone archery season, the hunter must have an Area-Specific Archery Hunt tag.) Rifles, pistols, revolvers or crossbows may not be possessed when hunting with an AO deer tag except as otherwise provided.