North Dakota

justr_86 · Jul 2, 2009

My boss approached me about a promotion but I have to transfer from Utah to North Dakota. What is the resident hunting situation like there? What is there to hunt?

mdwsthunter · Jul 2, 2009

north dakota is better than most would think for deer hunting. the problem is drawing for resident rifle tags. you can buy bow tags over the counter. if you like the meat, you can basically buy as many doe tags as you want. there is some state land, mostly in the western half of the state. also bating is legal. hope all this helps.

the odds aren't exactly good but north dakota also has drawings for moose, elk, antelope, and muleys. its great for upland game birds, there are also a few mountin lions killed there yearly

justr_86 · Jul 3, 2009

I like to bowhunt. Muleys are my passion but whitetails look like fun too. How hard is it to get elk tags? Any over the counter for residents?

mdwsthunter · Jul 3, 2009

i'm not actually a resident but i know that elk tags are very tough to get. realistically you could get tags for whitetail, muleys, and antelope on a regular basis as long as your willing to use a bow some of the time. the other big game are all tough draws but the success rates are good if you are lucky enough to get one.
so what part of the state would you be looking at if you were to move there?

FlyFool · Jul 7, 2009

I am not an expert on ND but this is what I know. As MDW said the elk tags are hard to come by. You can hunt whitetail with a bow from labor day weekend to the end of the year. These are over the counter tags and there is no limit. There are some over the counter archery Whitetail or Muley ( you can kill one or the other) tags also but they go quick. Archery does tags you can get as many as you want. I know you can also by tags for the Indian reservation. whitey and muley. All rifle and muzzleloader tags are by draw, resident and non-resident. I have a friend that lives in western ND. Between him and his family they have between 1 and 4 gun tags each year. Some areas with better quality animals are harder to draw. They do use a point system. They get deer every year though with their bows. I hunted out there in 2006 on the general archery hunt. My first whitetail and tree stand hunt. Saw some nice whiteys. I ended up shooting the smallest buck I saw on the last day, at last light of my hunt. Best eating deer I have ever had. my wife even said I could go back because she liked the meat also. haven't been back since but plan to this year or next. I f I can figure out how to post pictures I will share some.

FlyFool · Jul 7, 2009

Here is the one I took

here are a couple others taken while I was there

olchiseltooth · Jul 8, 2009

Being from MN and right on the ND border I bow hunt over there. If you buy your archery tag before March 5 OTC you can shoot any deer, Whitey or Muley. If you wait till after March 5 you can only get a whitetail tag. The Season runs from Sept 1 to Jan 4. Lots of public out in the Badlands. It's the Little Missouri Grassland. US Forest service has graet maps of the grasslands. Alot of nice whitetails too throughout the state since its draw only for rifle season.

SHANEWA300 · Jul 27, 2009

couple nice bucks

Blackcats06 · Sep 14, 2009

Hunting in ND is hard to beat. Pheasants all over(except very northern part of state), plenty of deer, duck capital of the country. Drawing a whitetail rifle buck tag is getting harder each year but one can expect a tag every other year at the worst. Mule deer tag is more like 4-6 years and only in the western part of the state. Elk, moose, and sheep are all once in a lifetime tags, and no bonus points. Over the counter bow tags for any species. That otc bow tag allows you to take either a buck or doe of either species. Plenty of first come first serve doe tags through out the state that you can use in any legal season.

Reaper · Sep 15, 2009

LAST EDITED ON Sep-15-09 AT 06:34AM (MST)[p]I have seen some really nice bucks from there. Some of the first bow hunting videos I watched were shot in the Dakota's.

Gator · Sep 19, 2009

alot of good muley buck out toward the western side of the state. You will like it for sure.

"I have found if you go the extra mile it's Never crowded".