North Dakota Deer Lottery Held, Antlerless Licenses Remain

North Dakota’s deer gun lottery has been held and individual results are available online at the State Game and Fish Department’s website, gf.nd.gov.

More than 1,600 antlerless deer gun licenses remain. Only resident applicants who were unsuccessful in the first lottery can apply for remaining licenses.

The first lottery application process – deer gun, muzzleloader, youth and landowner – had more than 102,000 applicants, and over 51,000 were unsuccessful.

An option for unsuccessful applicants to apply online for remaining licenses will be available Aug. 3. Paper applications for remaining licenses will be mailed to individuals the week of Aug. 1. The deadline for applying is Aug. 24.

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North Dakota 2015 Deer Season Summarized

A total of 39,470 North Dakota deer hunters took approximately 26,700 deer during the 2015 deer gun hunting season, according to a post-season survey conducted by the State Game and Fish Department.

Game and Fish made available 43,275 deer gun licenses last year. Overall hunter success was 68 percent, with each hunter spending an average of 4.3 days in the field.

Hunter success for antlered white-tailed deer was 70 percent, and antlerless whitetail was 64 percent.

Mule deer buck success was 86 percent. No mule deer doe licenses were issued in 2015.

Hunters with any-antlered or any-antlerless licenses generally harvest white-tailed deer, as these licenses are predominantly in units with mostly whitetails. Buck hunters had a success rate of 75 percent, while doe hunters had a success rate of 67 percent.

A total of 826 muzzleloader licenses were issued in 2015, and 745 hunters that participated harvested 348 white-tailed deer (194 antlered, 154 antlerless). Hunter success was 47 percent, with each hunter spending an average of 5.9 days in the field.

A record 25,703 archery licenses (23,710 resident, 1,993 nonresident) were issued in 2015. In total, 21,680 bow hunters harvested 7,527 deer (6,777 whitetails, 750 mule deer), for a success rate of 35 percent. Bucks accounted for 75 percent of the deer harvested with a bow. Archers spent an average of 10.7 days afield.

In addition, 4,004 youth licenses were issued in 2015. During the youth season, 3,487 hunters harvested 1,832 deer (393 bucks, 1,439 does). Hunter success was 52 percent, and each hunter spent an average of 2.9 days in the field. Youth hunters in the regular deer gun season harvested an additional 240 deer (196 bucks, 44 does) for an overall success rate of 59 percent.

The department is in the process of determining recommendations for licenses in the 2016 deer proclamation. The proclamation will be sent to the governor’s office for approval in late April.

In addition to harvest rates and winter aerial surveys, the department monitors a number of other population indices to determine license numbers, including depredation reports, hunter observations, input at advisory board meetings, and comments from the public, landowners and department field staff.

North Dakota Agencies Prohibit Hunting over Bait

Hunters are reminded that hunting big game over bait is prohibited on all state owned or managed wildlife management areas, all U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service national wildlife refuges and waterfowl production areas, U.S. Forest Service national grasslands, and all North Dakota state school, state park and state forest service lands.

The governor’s proclamation relating to chronic wasting disease also includes a provision that prohibits hunting big game over bait on both public and private land in deer unit 3C west of the Missouri River, and all of units 3E1, 3E2, 3F1 and 3F2.

In addition, any firearms, equipment or accessories used by hunters on Private Land Open To Sportsmen acreage may not be left unattended and must be removed when the hunter leaves the area. This includes, but is not limited to, guns, blinds, stands, baits, scents and decoys. This means a hunter cannot place bait on PLOTS prior to or during the season and leave it there. Any bait would have to be brought to the PLOTS tract by the hunter the same day and taken out by the hunter the same day he/she leaves.

Hunting over bait is defined as the placement and/or use of baits for attracting big game and other wildlife to a specific location for the purpose of hunting. Bait, in this case, includes grain, seed, mineral, salt, fruit, vegetable nut, hay, any naturally derived scent or lure, or any other natural or manufactured food placed by an individual. Bait does not include agricultural practices, gardens, wildlife food plots, agricultural crops, livestock feeds, fruit or vegetables in their natural location such as apples on or under an apple tree, or unharvested food or vegetables in a garden.

North Dakota Deer Archery Season Opens Sept. 4

North Dakota’s deer archery season opens Friday, Sept. 4 at noon, and bowhunters are reminded that deer bow licenses and accompanying tags are only available through electronic purchase.

Bowhunters can buy a license online at the State Game and Fish Department website, gf.nd.gov; by calling 800-406-6409; or at license vendors in counties that are linked to the Game and Fish Department’s online licensing system. Hunters who purchase bow licenses at an online vendor will receive a tag at the time of purchase; otherwise, hunters who purchase their license over the phone or personal computer should allow for several days to receive their tag in the mail.

Bowhunters must follow all regulations of the managing agency when using tree stands on public hunting areas, including displaying the owner’s name, address and telephone number on tree stands left unattended on Game and Fish wildlife management areas.

In addition, hunting big game over bait is prohibited on both public and private land in deer unit 3C west of the Missouri River, and all of units 3E1, 3E2, 3F1 and 3F2.

The archery season is open through Jan. 3, 2016. Hunters should refer to the 2015 deer hunting guide for season information and regulations.

PLOTS Guide Available Online - North Dakota

The North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s Private Land Open To Sportsmen Guide for 2015 is now available online at the Department’s website, gf.nd.gov. In addition, PLOTS Guides will be available at most license vendors throughout the state in early September.

The guide will feature about 730,000 PLOTS acres. Because the guide is printed in mid-August, some PLOTS tracts highlighted in the guide may have been removed from the program since the time of printing. There will also be some PLOTS tracts where the habitat and condition of the tract will have changed significantly. Conversely, Game and Fish may have added new tracts to the program after the guide went to press.

To minimize possible confusion, Game and Fish will update PLOTS map sheets weekly on its website.

The PLOTS Guide features maps highlighting these walk-in areas, identified in the field by inverted triangular yellow signs, as well as other public lands.

The guides are free, and will be available at county auditor offices and license vendors in the state; by walk-in at the Game and Fish Department’s Bismarck office; and at district offices in Riverdale, Harvey (Lonetree), Williston, Dickinson, Jamestown and Devils Lake.

The guides are not available to mail, so hunters will have to pick one up at a local vendor, or print individual maps from the website.

North Dakota Deer Lottery Held, Antlerless Licenses Remain

North Dakota’s deer gun lottery has been held and individual results are available online at the State Game and Fish Department’s website, gf.nd.gov.

More than 1,400 antlerless deer gun licenses remain. Only resident applicants who were unsuccessful in the first lottery can apply for remaining licenses.

The first lottery application process – deer gun, muzzleloader, youth and landowner – had more than 95,000 applicants, and over 51,000 were unsuccessful.

An option for unsuccessful applicants to apply online for remaining licenses will be available Aug. 5. Paper applications for remaining licenses will be mailed to individuals Aug. 10. The deadline for applying is Sept. 2.

Remaining Deer Gun Licenses

(B = Any Antlerless    D = Antlerless Whitetail)

Unit	Type	Available
3E2	D	150
3F1	D	219
3F2	B	287
3F2	D	683
4F	D	120

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North Dakota Deer Hunting: July 1 Application Deadline for NDDOCR Archery Hunt

 White-tailed deer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An experimental antlerless deer archery season will open this fall on the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation land south of Bismarck.

Interested hunters must apply for an access permit from NDDOCR at www.nd.gov/docr (under the Archery Hunt header) before receiving a license. The deadline for applying is July 1 at 4 p.m. Only 25 access permits will be issued.

A maximum of 75 antlerless deer licenses will be available from the North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s Bismarck office. Each access permit holder can purchase up to three antlerless white-tailed deer licenses.

Other details, including areas open to hunting, is determined by the NDDOCR. For more information, refer to the NDDOCR website.

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Game and Fish to Recommend One Deer License in 2015

A new plan under consideration by the State Game and Fish Department would allow North Dakota

deer hunters only one license per year, starting with the 2015 season.
The preferred license distribution plan is the result of a declining deer population and continuing high license demand. “This year we had about 30,000 people who applied for a deer gun license and didn’t get one in the lottery,” said Game and Fish wildlife division chief Jeb Williams. “This new system will give more people an opportunity to hunt deer each year, compared to our current system.”
To gather input on possible changes, Game and Fish held a series of public deer management meetings across the state last winter. Hundreds of people attended these meetings, and many more interested hunters and landowners also provided written or verbal comments on how Game and Fish might manage deer license distribution, given the low population of both whitetail and mule deer in much of the state.
Following the deer management meetings, potential changes were also discussed at the spring round of public Game and Fish advisory board meetings held around the state.
“After evaluating all the input we received last winter,” Williams said, “the general feedback we heard is that hunters understand there is no longer enough licenses so that everyone can get one for the gun season, but at the same time, they don’t feel the current system is equitably distributing licenses, since some hunters can get two or even three licenses when thousands of hunters get none.”
To begin to address that inequity, Game and Fish’s preferred option for 2015 is to limit each hunter to one deer license per year. Williams said that still doesn’t guarantee that every gun hunter who applies in the lottery will get a deer license, but it will eliminate the possibility of someone getting multiple licenses.
If deer populations rebound substantially, Williams said the way licenses are allocated could return to the current system. “However, we are dealing with two dynamics that will make it difficult to do so anytime soon,” Williams added. “We have a deer herd that has been trending downward for several years, and we also have a growing population of people who possibly are interested in North Dakota’s hunting and fishing opportunities.”
In the preferred option, a hunter who is successful in the deer gun lottery would not be able to purchase a bow license or receive a muzzleloader license. However, as a way to provide additional bowhunting recreation, a hunter with a lottery gun license could also hunt with a bow any time during the open archery season, but only for the deer and unit specified on the license.
Resident hunters who apply in the deer gun lottery and do not receive a license, will still be able to purchase a bow license that is valid statewide for any deer.
“This is one of those things that we heard from people who like to hunt with both gun and bow,” Williams said. “They wanted to be able to apply for a gun license, and if they didn’t get one, they could still get a bow license. At the same time, if they did draw a gun license, they wanted a chance to hunt that deer with a bow during the archery season as well.
“We know it’s not the same as having both a gun and a bow license,” Williams added, “but we feel it’s a fair compromise while we work toward rebuilding our deer herd.”
Another part of the preferred option is that hunters would be able to apply simultaneously for the deer gun and muzzleloader lotteries. The application would allow choice of a preference, so if the hunter’s name is drawn and both muzzleloader and deer gun licenses are available at that time, the computer would issue the hunter’s preferred license.
In such cases, the computer would then remove the hunter’s name from the other lottery. Also in that case, Williams said a hunter would maintain the accumulated bonus points for the application that was removed from the lottery.
In addition, Williams said hunters will not lose any bonus points if they choose not to apply for a particular license.
Youth hunters under age 16 would be exempt under the preferred option, and could get a bow license as well as a deer gun or youth season license.
Gratis license holders could hunt in any open season on their own land, but may only get one license per year.

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North Dakota Deer Gun Application Deadline is June 5

North Dakota deer hunters are reminded the deadline for submitting applications for the 2013 gun season is June 5. Hunters are encouraged to apply online at the State Game and Fish Department website, gf.nd.gov.

The deadline applies to muzzleloader, regular gun, gratis and nonresident landowner, and youth antlered mule deer applications (specifically for antlered mule deer in units 3B1, 3B2, and 4A-4F).

Gratis applications received on or before the regular deer gun lottery application deadline (June 5) will be issued an any-legal-deer license. Gratis applications received after the deadline will be issued based on licenses remaining after the lottery –generally only antlerless licenses remain.

The deadline for regular statewide youth licenses is Sept. 1.

North Dakota Hunting Guide and Outfitter Test

The next guide and outfitter written examination is Aug. 4 at 1 p.m. at the North Dakota Game and Fish Department office in Bismarck. The test is given periodically to anyone interested in becoming a hunting guide or outfitter in the state.

In addition to passing a written exam, qualifications for becoming a guide include a background check for criminal and game and fish violations; certification in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and standard first aid; and employment by or contract with a licensed hunting outfitter.

Hunting outfitter eligibility requirements include the guide qualifications, as well as an individual must have held a hunting guide license for two years; and must have proof of liability insurance.

Interested individuals are required to preregister by calling the Game and Fish Department’s enforcement office at 328-6604.

North Dakota MULEY Day Camp Slated for July 14

The North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s Encouraging Tomorrow’s Hunters program is a primary sponsor for an outdoor learning event in the Bismarck area on Saturday, July 14.

Put on by the Mule Deer Foundation, the MULEY Day Camp runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Moffit Gun Range. It includes rifle and archery target shooting, hunting and safety information and demonstrations.

All equipment is provided, along with a free lunch and door prizes. To preregister, email ndchair.mdf@gmail.com, or call Ryan Krapp at (701) 471-8788.

The Game and Fish Department’s Encouraging Tomorrow’s Hunters program provides grant dollars to help local communities and organizations fund events that promote youth hunting and shooting sports. For more information, contact outreach biologist Pat Lothspeich at (701) 328-6332.

North Dakota: Nonresident Any-Deer Bow Licenses

The North Dakota Game and Fish Department will have 682 any-deer bow licenses available to nonresidents in 2012. However, pending the final proclamation, antlerless mule deer may not be legal to harvest within a large area of western North Dakota.
The deadline for applying is April 1. A lottery will be held if more applications are received than licenses available. If licenses remain after April 1, they will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis. Applicants can apply together as a party. A separate check is required for each application.
The nonresident any-deer bow application is available at the Game and Fish website, gf.nd.gov. The application must be printed and sent in to the department.
The number of nonresident any-deer bow licenses available is 15 percent of the previous year’s mule deer gun license allocation. The Game and Fish Department issued 4,550 mule deer licenses in the 2011 deer gun lottery.

North Dakota: Public Asked to Report Violations

The North Dakota Game and Fish Department encourages hunters, anglers and landowners who have witnessed a fish or wildlife violation to file a report with the Report All Poachers program.

RAP is a cooperative project between the Game and Fish Department, State Radio Communications and the North Dakota Wildlife Federation. The RAP line offers rewards – from $100 to $1,000 depending on the nature and seriousness of the crime – for information that leads to conviction of fish and wildlife law violators. Reports can also go directly to game wardens or other law enforcement agencies. Callers can remain anonymous.

Witnesses should note vehicle description, including make, color, license plate number and state issued. Description of the violator should also be considered.

Witnesses should report a violation by calling the RAP telephone number at (800) 472-2121. RAP will then contact the local game warden immediately. If the witness gives the RAP operator a phone number, the witness will be contacted right away.

North Dakota Motorists Warned to Watch for Deer on Roads

Motorists are reminded to watch for deer along roadways, especially this time of year, because juvenile animals are dispersing from their home ranges.

Late October through early December is the peak period for deer-vehicle accidents. Motorists are advised to slow down and exercise caution after dark to reduce the likelihood of encounters with deer along roadways. Most deer-vehicle accidents occur primarily at dawn and dusk when deer are most often moving around.

Deer-vehicle accidents are at times unavoidable. However, motorists should be aware of warning signs signaling deer are in the area. When you see one deer cross the road, look for a second or third deer to follow. Also, motorists are urged to pay attention on roadways posted with Deer Crossing Area caution signs.

If an accident does happen, a local law enforcement agency should be contacted. Also, a permit is required to take parts or the whole carcass of a road-killed deer. Permits are free and available from game wardens and local law enforcement offices.

A few precautions can minimize chances of injury or property damage in a deer-vehicle crash.

• Always wear your seat belt.
• Don’t swerve or take the ditch to avoid hitting a deer. Try to brake as much as possible and stay on the roadway. Don’t lose control of your vehicle or slam into something else to miss the deer. You risk less injury by hitting the deer.
• If you spot deer ahead, slow down immediately and honk your horn.
• No published research supports the effectiveness of deer whistles on vehicles. 

Hunting Information

North Dakota Upcoming Outdoor Events

Outdoor Information Supersite: Family-Outdoors

Upcoming Events:

Oct. 14: Public sight-in day, BMRPA Moffit Range.14: Bighorn sheep bow only season opens. 8-14: Nonresidents may not hunt state wildlife management areas and Private Lands Open To Sportsmen (PLOTS) areas.15: Pheasant delayed season opens.

21: Bighorn sheep regular season opens.22: Public sight-in day, BMRPA Moffit Range.22: Mink, muskrat, and weasel trapping seasons open.23: Fall crow season closes.23: Sandhill crane zone 2 closes.

Complete List of Schedule of Events

North Dakota: First-come, First-served Deer Licenses Issued Sept. 14

More than 8,000 antlerless deer gun licenses are still available after the North Dakota Game and Fish Department recently completed its third lottery drawing. These remaining licenses will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis beginning Sept. 14. There is no limit to the number of licenses a hunter can receive.

Hunters will be able to apply online, or print out an application to mail, at the Game and Fish Department website, gf.nd.gov. Paper applications will also be available from Game and Fish offices, county auditors and license vendors. Hand delivered applications will not be processed at the department while the applicant waits. Residents and nonresidents are eligible to apply.

Remaining antlerless licenses in units 3E1, 3E2, 3F1, 3F2 and 4F can be used during the special herd reduction season (Sept. 23 – Oct. 7).

Additional concurrent season doe licenses can be used during the archery season with a bow; the deer gun season with a bow, rifle, or muzzleloader; or during the muzzleloader season with a muzzleloader. These licenses must be used for antlerless deer only, and hunters must stay in the unit to which the license is assigned.

In addition, hunters ages 14 and 15 who have special youth season licenses may purchase additional concurrent season doe licenses to use during the youth season.

The archery season opens Sept. 2, youth deer Sept. 16, regular deer gun Nov. 4 and muzzleloader Nov. 25.

(B = Any Antlerless  D = Antlerless Whitetail  F = Antlerless Mule Deer)

Unit	Type	Available	Unit	Type	Available
1	B	189	3E1	D	437
2C	B	1098	3E2	D	319
2D	B	764	3F1	B	336
2F1	B	681	3F1	D	1047
2K2	B	666	3F2	B	294
2L	B	794	3F2	D	1036
3D1	D	31	4F	D	301
			4F	F	28

North Dakota: Third Lottery Deer Application Deadline Aug. 10

Deer hunters interested in applying for a first, second, third or fourth license have to submit a third lottery application no later than Aug. 10.

Successful applicants in the first lottery will receive their license in mid-August.

Hunters can apply online, or print out an application, at the North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s website, gf.nd.gov. Paper applications are also available from Game and Fish offices, county auditors and license vendors. Residents and nonresidents are eligible to apply.

After the third lottery drawing, Game and Fish will issue any remaining licenses on a first-come, first-served basis.

Hunters can use additional concurrent season doe licenses during the archery season with a bow; the deer gun season with a bow, rifle, or muzzleloader; or during the muzzleloader season with a muzzleloader. These licenses are for antlerless deer only, and hunters must stay in the unit to which the license is assigned.

In addition, youth deer license hunters ages 14 and 15 may purchase additional concurrent season doe licenses to use during the youth season.

Last year, licenses were sold out in all but three units prior to opening day of deer gun season. Hunters are encouraged to apply early if they have a specific unit in mind.

The regular deer gun season starts at noon Nov. 4 and continues through Nov. 20.