have bow.....best advice to hunt CA for public land!!! hunt with a bow and rifle....buy a good pair of boats, and expect more traffic then you will ever imagine.....bow hunters out here have great advantage and good success if you know what you are doing....the PL east of san fran is very good,,,i would go to a local gov't office (or web site) but a NF/BLM book showing the counties surrounding san fran....elk in ca, unless your girlfriend/ wife to be is going to be bringing home some serious bacon is almost not feesable, best luck to go out of state for that one...but we do have good mulies in the ranges and some great blacktails in coast and valley....you can go to F&G's web site and look for F&G land that public to hunt on and should be perty good for hunting....dfg.ca.gov......good luck!