Anyone know of any areas to hunt near San Jose ca.?

I live in Marin. I have a few farms that I Rat on in Sonoma County. Mostly organic farmers and people I met at the farmers market. I'd start there as opposed to driving around and asking. Most birds are not for the taking here in Cali, in fact not much to hunt here at all unless you are on a large piece of private property and you are hunting 'pests'. Some of the larger hunting companies here will let you use air rifles to take down larger game($$$$). The fact is that California is probably the least friendly air rifle state in the country. With that said, there are numerous hunting ranges that allow target practice with air rifles. They are mostly outdoor ranges. I've found a lot of the indoor ranges frown on air guns in general.

Hope that helps.
 
As far as target shooting, the Sunnyvale Rod and Gun Club (sunnyvalegunclub.com) is an awesome place with good people. It's 20min from your place, up Foothill Expy (Stevens Creek from 85). They have five trap houses and a bunch of centerfire/handgun stations, then off to the side, kind of in another room, they have a bunch of rimfire/airgun benches. I think they have at least one or two benches that are theoretically just for airguns, and they have little animal silhouettes too, but that may just be for members...IDK. Public is $20/day/adult, and $5/day/kids.

For hunting, I'm interested to hear more from other members about that, because I've been looking for info on that myself. IDK what you're allowed to take with airguns in CA, but south in the Gilroy area there's some really good hog hunting. Other than that your best bet is probably getting a permission from a landowner. I know there are public lands that people hog hunt on, so maybe you can hunt smaller things there too? I'd definitely call F&G before I went ahead and did that though. :) Good luck, and looking forward to getting more info!

--jayman
 
"jay-man"As far as target shooting, the Sunnyvale Rod and Gun Club (sunnyvalegunclub.com) is an awesome place with good people. It's 20min from your place, up Foothill Expy (Stevens Creek from 85). They have five trap houses and a bunch of centerfire/handgun stations, then off to the side, kind of in another room, they have a bunch of rimfire/airgun benches. I think they have at least one or two benches that are theoretically just for airguns, and they have little animal silhouettes too, but that may just be for members...IDK. Public is $20/day/adult, and $5/day/kids.

For hunting, I'm interested to hear more from other members about that, because I've been looking for info on that myself. IDK what you're allowed to take with airguns in CA, but south in the Gilroy area there's some really good hog hunting. Other than that your best bet is probably getting a permission from a landowner. I know there are public lands that people hog hunt on, so maybe you can hunt smaller things there too? I'd definitely call F&G before I went ahead and did that though. :) Good luck, and looking forward to getting more info!

--jayman
In CA you are allowed to take all resident small game with an air rifle. You can also shoot starlings, HOSPS and ground squirrels§257. Resident Small Game Defined. "Resident small game" means the following resident game birds: Chinese spotted doves, Eurasian collared-doves, ringed turtle-doves of the family Columbidae, California quail and varieties thereof, Gambel's or desert quail, mountain quail and varieties thereof, sooty grouse and varieties thereof, ruffed grouse, sage grouse (sage hens), white-tailed ptarmigan, Hungarian partridges, red-legged partridges, including the chukar and other varieties, ring-necked pheasants and varieties, and wild turkeys of the order Galliformes; and the following game mammals: jackrabbits and varying hares (genus Lepus), cottontail rabbits, brush rabbits, pigmy rabbits (genus Sylvilagus), and tree squirrels (genus Sciurus and Tamiasciurus).
 
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Sorry to resurrect this old thread but I have the same question. I live in Cupertino and I currently do not own an airgun. I don't want to make an investment (PCP gun + scope + air tank + compressor) without knowing that I have a location where I can hunt. I would think that some area around Gilroy would be most likely, perhaps a farm or ranch. I used to hunt when I was much younger and lived in Texas. I'm retired now and looking to take up hunting again.
 
I looked at the San Luis Reservoir SRA website and they allow hunting with shotguns. I think they meant this to exclude rifles as shotguns have a limited range. By this logic it would seem that airguns would be okay.

".Hunting —Federal and state game laws apply to in-season waterfowl hunting—including licenses. Only shotguns are allowed. Hunting is not permitted within 500 feet of campgrounds, picnic areas,boat ramp areas, or dam and water structures. View hunting regulations at https://www.wildlife.ca.gov."

https://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/558/files/SanLuisReservoirFinalWebLayout2017.pdf