? changes to bow/mule deer ?

[Obi-Wan]

I would like to see changes made as the amount of bow hunters has drastically increased on the national grasslands in the 30 plus years I have been hunting out there and when that is added to the decline in overall mule deer population something has to give .

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sp...pressure-takes-center-stage-as-outdoors-issue

 

[lunkerslayer]

People have said that if the gnf increased the price of resident fees, North Dakota wouldn't need to rely so much on non resident fees.

Another is the survey percentage of people who didn't bother to fill our or go online, I would like the gnf to make it an incentive to sportsman to fill these out. As far as what that incentive would be that is something more discussion would be needed.

Next the gnf should be informing the public on how they are able to determine with any accuracy to the number of fawns for each year class. Teach the public what's being used as far as the technology that goes into providing the data to make a scientific guess.

I'm surprised the article didn't bring up the fact their was huge numbers of deer especially in the badlands that were caused by disease like cwd or EHD bluetongue.

Does the gnf have a way for property owners that can call in or go online to report sightings of dead deer on their land?

The news articles on wildlife in north dakota leave me asking more questions when they need to atleast post a hyper links for additional information on a specific statistic that is posted. They really do suck and that's becuase sportsman and landowners obviously are not interested in those kind of information.

So the remedy to the prior years gun tag numbers and the gathered of fawns numbers need to allow for a special provision that allows the gnf to decrease numbers in bow tags for that season instead of waiting for the following year, well as we can all see that seems to be the consensus with gun tags for a upcoming deer season.

 

[Davey Crockett]

I couldn't read the article without a subscription so I'll hip shoot. If you have low deer population in your unit it might be worth suggesting in the comment section of the deer survey
that you would like to see bucks only for 2024 in that unit.

 

[lunkerslayer]

https://web.archive.org/web/2023121...pressure-takes-center-stage-as-outdoors-issue
There you go

 

[ndlongshot]

I think non resident tags should be more limited, and prices increased.

I also think resident muley bow tags should be a draw, either badlands wide, or for specific units. It would spread out alot of the pressure in my opinion.

If you dont draw a muley tag, fall back to the statewide whitetail tag.

I am not in favor of restrictions for the sake of restrictions. Less restrictions the better, but I do think the badlands having been getting hammered since the oil boom.

 

[MuleyAssassin]

I think non resident tags should be more limited, and prices increased.

I also think resident muley bow tags should be a draw, either badlands wide, or for specific units. It would spread out alot of the pressure in my opinion.

If you dont draw a muley tag, fall back to the statewide whitetail tag.

I am not in favor of restrictions for the sake of restrictions. Less restrictions the better, but I do think the badlands having been getting hammered since the oil boom.

Where would a guy go to hunt the whitetail with as much of an opportunity of land access?

 

[bucksnbears]

Where would a guy go to hunt the whitetail with as much of an opportunity of land access?

Mn.

 

[1lessdog]

Mn

Don't let them know about a good thing.

As we don't really restrict numbers of bow hunters.

 

[KDM]

Allowing the houndsman to hunt mountain lions year round would be a good start. Just my .02

 

[jdinny]

I’ll be honest I personally rip any survey up I get from the game and fish. I did fill one out about deer this year left everything blank and wrote in the comments section if they put more money to habitat and quit fucking around with CWD we would all be better off. The reason I don’t fill surveys out is i no longer trust how they will skew the results to the public .
It’s no secret the badlands get murdered we’ve been telling the game and fish for over a decade to limit NR mule deer tags or manage the badlands for quality rather than quantity and it falls on deaf ears . To proud to admit they were wrong

 

[bucksnbears]

Don't let them know about a good thing.

As we don't really restrict numbers of bow hunters.

Indeed.
We do have Purdy good jet skiing lake though.

Hard to glass/hunt from a truck and no baiting so....
That's weed out the vast majority.

 

[Big Iron]

Indeed.
We do have Purdy good jet skiing lake though.

Hard to glass/hunt from a truck and no baiting so....
That's weed out the vast majority.

Very true.

 

[bravo]

I’ll be honest I personally rip any survey up I get from the game and fish. I did fill one out about deer this year left everything blank and wrote in the comments section if they put more money to habitat and quit fucking around with CWD we would all be better off. The reason I don’t fill surveys out is i no longer trust how they will skew the results to the public .
It’s no secret the badlands get murdered we’ve been telling the game and fish for over a decade to limit NR mule deer tags or manage the badlands for quality rather than quantity and it falls on deaf ears . To proud to admit they were wrong

I wish they’d put more money to habitat as well but A.) It takes landowners giving up acres that could be in production and a shit ton of money, so - B.) Where do they get that money? It was asked at a advisory meeting where CWD awareness funds came from and how they are allocated and it was something like a $75k grant from usda specifically for ads and awareness. So it’s very little money and they can’t use it for anything else anyway. The lions share of conservation dollars are going to habitat, but only on about 2% of the land in the state. As for managing for trophys instead of quantity that is not their job.

For non-res mule deer tags, that’s set in stone by century code (number is 15% of the total mule deer gun licenses from the year prior) and the game and fish can’t do anything about that without legislators changing law, and they won’t do that because “it will impact tourism”.

 

[MuleyMadness]

As an avid deer hunter, archery and rifle from SW ND this is what I am seeing from a hunters perspective. I have always applied for a 4D Muley buck tag since I was 20 (now 40). Used to bow hunt in the badlands quite a bit when I was a little younger. Quite doing that for lack of success and too many people. Also was granted permission on very good private land for hunting closer to home with better success and quality Mule deer and WT. The badlands gets smashed by people because of 1 simple thing......posting and access to thousands of badlands acres filled with mule deer. I for one after my next mule deer buck tag am changing rifle units because I am tired of waiting 5+ years to get a tag. The amount of tree rows and crp type habitat I have seen pulled out of private land for farming in the last 6 years is crazy. I understand it is their land and they can do what they want but that is not helping deer numbers.
A lot of things lead into this mess and I for one think raising prices for both resident and non res tags is a start to put that money towards habitat. It just seems like over the last 5 years the NDGF has been so stuck on the CWD train that they do not care about anything else.

 

[Zogman]

MM, your post is spot on! It will only get worse, MHO.

 

[Lycanthrope]

As an avid deer hunter, archery and rifle from SW ND this is what I am seeing from a hunters perspective. I have always applied for a 4D Muley buck tag since I was 20 (now 40). Used to bow hunt in the badlands quite a bit when I was a little younger. Quite doing that for lack of success and too many people. Also was granted permission on very good private land for hunting closer to home with better success and quality Mule deer and WT. The badlands gets smashed by people because of 1 simple thing......posting and access to thousands of badlands acres filled with mule deer. I for one after my next mule deer buck tag am changing rifle units because I am tired of waiting 5+ years to get a tag. The amount of tree rows and crp type habitat I have seen pulled out of private land for farming in the last 6 years is crazy. I understand it is their land and they can do what they want but that is not helping deer numbers.
A lot of things lead into this mess and I for one think raising prices for both resident and non res tags is a start to put that money towards habitat. It just seems like over the last 5 years the NDGF has been so stuck on the CWD train that they do not care about anything else.

They just raised the price on tags a couple years ago... I mostly hunt for food and that is a good way to make it unaffordable to residents who rely on deer to fill their freezer. I think out of state tags could be increased to match whatever they are in surrounding states, maybe average all of them and set it at that. Also allowing one person to draw 3 tags in a year is overkill. Im thinking a single tag, any season using any legal weapon during that season is probably the way to go, to make it more fair for everyone.

 

[1lessdog]

A lot of things lead into this mess and I for one think raising prices for both resident and non res tags is a start to put that money towards habitat. It just seems like over the last 5 years the NDGF has been so stuck on the CWD train that they do not care about anything else.



The state could raise the Nonresident by 200.00 even 500.00 and you will still get the same amount of bowhunters. That 15% is a fraction of how many that apply for the tags.

 

[Wall-eyes]

With deer numbers so low their should be no double tags. If get bow tag cannot draw for gun for mule bucks or other way around. More bow hunters too because takes 8 to 10 years to draw buck for gun, and hell ha jack non resident tags to $2,500 those buying have the money.

 

[MuleyAssassin]

possible option would be having the Badlands archery tag $500.00 for residents and $1,500.00 non-residents? Still no lottery for resident but you have the choice to purchase a badlands tag only for archery or you purchase a state wide archery tag for white tail. Not sure if this make any sense?

 

[1lessdog]

With deer numbers so low their should be no double tags. If get bow tag cannot draw for gun for mule bucks or other way around. More bow hunters too because takes 8 to 10 years to draw buck for gun, and hell ha jack non resident tags to $2,500 those buying have the money.

And anything you do out of state should be multiplied by 10.