--- title: California Hunting License Sales Data | Royal Gun Dogs url: https://royalgundogs.com/data/california-hunting-licenses/ business: Royal Gun Dogs trainer: Richard Gebhart (professional gun dog trainer since 2002) phone: (530) 341-4496 email: royalgundogs@yahoo.com trains_at: Hastings Island Hunting Preserve, 7758 Hastings Island Rd, Rio Vista, CA 94571 (Solano County) booking: call or text Richard directly --- - [Home](https://royalgundogs.com/) - [Data](https://royalgundogs.com/data/) - California hunting license and stamp sales # California hunting license and stamp sales California sold 242,572 hunting licenses in license year 2025, down from 287,229 in 2010, according to CDFW. Duck validations went from 67,551 to 59,229 over the same years, and upland game bird validations from 175,505 to 127,019. This page reproduces the state's own license counts for 2010 through 2025 so you can see how large the community of California bird hunters is. Every figure comes from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) License and Revenue Branch, pulled October 27, 2026. ## Sales by license year, 2010-2025 The table lists every license year from 2010 through 2025. A duck validation is the state duck stamp that waterfowl hunters buy each year; an upland game bird validation is the stamp for pheasant, chukar and similar birds. Both are reported by CDFW by license year. Sales by license year, 2010-2025 License year Hunting licenses (subtotal) Duck Validation Upland Game Bird Validation 2010 287,229 67,551 175,505 2011 282,266 67,637 173,373 2012 284,218 68,806 173,590 2013 287,841 68,095 175,616 2014 284,759 67,929 171,121 2015 281,750 66,603 160,541 2016 279,999 66,570 158,646 2017 274,661 64,531 156,449 2018 269,276 63,855 154,656 2019 258,316 61,794 145,085 2020 286,276 69,631 162,911 2021 268,841 66,686 151,574 2022 260,673 62,228 138,372 2023 261,048 63,510 136,652 2024 254,491 61,081 133,868 2025 242,572 59,229 127,019 Source: CDFW, "Hunting: Items Reported by License Year." The 2010 to 2019 figures come from the file dated October 31, 2021; the 2020 to 2025 figures come from the file dated August 31, 2026. License year 2026 is still partial and is not shown. ## What the numbers show In license year 2025, California sold about 59,000 annual duck validations and about 127,000 upland game bird validations, plus 3,341 lifetime duck validations and 3,867 lifetime upland validations (CDFW). Upland buyers outnumber duck buyers about 2.1 to 1, which is our own division of the two CDFW totals (127,019 divided by 59,229). Over the long run, hunting licenses are down 15.5 percent from 2010 to 2025, duck validations are down 12.3 percent and upland validations are down 27.6 percent. Those percentages are our arithmetic on CDFW's counts. Even so, tens of thousands of Californians still buy a duck validation every year and well over a hundred thousand buy an upland one. Waterfowl reservation applications are a separate count: 972,106 applications for license year 2025, up from 740,522 in 2010 (CDFW). ## Reading the data with care The step from 2019 to 2020 looks like a jump, but the two years come from two different CDFW files and may include reporting changes, so the long trend from 2010 to 2025 is the safer way to read the table. CDFW also notes that a $10 fee increase took effect in 2022 (AB-614). CDFW publishes sales by license type and year only. Sales by county are available on request from the License and Revenue Branch, and no county table is published, so nothing here says where in California a given buyer lives. Why a dog trainer cares: every one of these licenses belongs to a person who may hunt behind a dog. The size of that group is the context for how many California owners look for a trainer who understands both waterfowl and upland work. For where those hunters go, see the [waterfowl habitat and refuges page](https://royalgundogs.com/data/waterfowl-habitat-and-refuges/), and for this year's dates see the [2026-27 seasons page](https://royalgundogs.com/data/california-seasons-2026-27/). ### Sources (3) - California Department of Fish and Wildlife : [wildlife.ca.gov/Licensing/Statistics](https://wildlife.ca.gov/Licensing/Statistics) (checked October 27, 2026) - California Department of Fish and Wildlife : [nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=178041&inline](https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=178041&inline) (checked October 27, 2026) - California Department of Fish and Wildlife : [nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=59821&inline](https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=59821&inline) (checked October 27, 2026) ### Your trainer Richard Gebhart has trained dogs professionally since 2002, learned the Rex Carr method for Retriever Basics under Billy Sargenti, and has run and qualified at an AKC Master National. [Meet Richard](https://royalgundogs.com/richard-gebhart/) ### Related - [California hunting data](https://royalgundogs.com/data/) - [California 2026-27 waterfowl and upland seasons](https://royalgundogs.com/data/california-seasons-2026-27/) - [Waterfowl habitat and refuges in California](https://royalgundogs.com/data/waterfowl-habitat-and-refuges/) - [California hunt test calendar](https://royalgundogs.com/hunt-tests/california-calendar/) ## Questions owners ask [All questions](https://royalgundogs.com/faq/) ### How many hunting licenses did California sell in 2025? CDFW reports 242,572 hunting licenses (subtotal) for license year 2025, from the August 31, 2026 file of the License and Revenue Branch. ### How many duck validations were sold in California in 2025? CDFW reports 59,229 annual duck validations and 3,341 lifetime duck validations for license year 2025. ### Does CDFW publish license sales by county? No. CDFW publishes sales by license type and year only, and says county data is available on request from its License and Revenue Branch.