2026 Deer Season Set

[luvcatchingbass]

Great idea, as long as that land I would be paying for is open to public hunting...

I think open to public hunting does need to be part of it, hence why I put PLOTS in there, but I think that once a piece of crop land goes into say CPR that area cannot be hunted for 2-3yrs in order to give the wildlife time to move in, if an area is already established as hay or grassland maybe that is 1yr. Also weed control NEEDS to be managed much better and if the landowner chooses not to do a decent job of maintenance then their payment will be greatly reduced.

 

[Ruttin]

I really believe this will be the new normal for ND Deer hunting. I do not see a scenario where we get much above 40,000 tags issued per year ever again. Sucks, but the habitat is never coming back to support a large deer herd.

 

[Eatsleeptrap]

If it is, then shut it down to non-residents. Archery too. North Dakota first shouldnt be thought of any differently than America first right? And off we go.....

 

[wslayer]

CRP or Soil Bank will "never" come back again in ND. Would never be able to pay near enough to compensate for letting land sit idle compared to crop production.
G&F will not omit nonresident licenses for anything as I'm sure they have small town breathing down they're necks about the loss of dollars spent in the establishments if it were eliminated. ( and we all know, minimal is spent).
I don't hunt out of state but about the time we lock out the nonresidents, similar states may do the same to us, so their goes your Montana deer,elk,antelope, muley hunts. Wyoming, Colorado, etc possibly the same.
The biggest nonresident issue I have is for fishing. If your state is not open for the season, ours is closed to you also "until" your season begins. My2¢

 

[lunkerslayer]

CRP or Soil Bank will "never" come back again in ND. Would never be able to pay near enough to compensate for letting land sit idle compared to crop production.
G&F will not omit nonresident licenses for anything as I'm sure they have small town breathing down they're necks about the loss of dollars spent in the establishments if it were eliminated. ( and we all know, minimal is spent).
I don't hunt out of state but about the time we lock out the nonresidents, similar states may do the same to us, so their goes your Montana deer,elk,antelope, muley hunts. Wyoming, Colorado, etc possibly the same.
The biggest nonresident issue I have is for fishing. If your state is not open for the season, ours is closed to you also "until" your season begins. My2¢

Didnt i read here that's what happened in Montana to non resident tags already?

 

[Kurtr]

Didnt i read here that's what happened in Montana to non resident tags already?

They lowered the tags in certain units. Which is just good management. And if every yahoo didn’t go out and blast 2 and 3 year old mule deer might help. That goes for both r and nr

 

[Tinesdown]

They lowered the tags in certain units. Which is just good management. And if every yahoo didn’t go out and blast 2 and 3 year old mule deer might help. That goes for both r and nr

Been checking this since the tags came out only thing I can say is Im not liking that they decided to make certain units any antlered?? I think it puts undue pressure on a single species i have not seen that in my unit for 25 years or better if ever!! Fucking dumb imo! I get it the gnf is all for opportunity but wtf, this unit has been very hard to draw a whitetail buck tag for years now its all lumped together I don't understand the reasoning behind it whatsoever??

 

[Kurtr]

Been checking this since the tags came out only thing I can say is Im not liking that they decided to make certain units any antlered?? I think it puts undue pressure on a single species i have not seen that in my unit for 25 years or better if ever!! Fucking dumb imo! I get it the gnf is all for opportunity but wtf, this unit has been very hard to draw a whitetail buck tag for years now its all lumped together I don't understand the reasoning behind it whatsoever??

Isn’t Montanas goal to get rid of a bunch of white tails so they quit pushing the mule deer out

 

[CatDaddy]

Contacted G&F to see about rifle tag availability in 2G1. There were pretty good odds with 1,2,3 points in 2024 and previous years. Last year - no non-gratis tags given out. Wanted to know what to expect this year.

He told me that last year gratis tags in 2G1 went into a drawing because there weren't enough allocated to guarantee every landowner a tag. No general tags available this year, said deer numbers are down. Not what my eyes are seeing, but I'm not a biologist I guess.

 

[Traxion]

And is it a fair assumption that no one in your family is farming that land? CRP, while great for wildlife, stopped a whole generation from getting a chance to farm. Their parents put it in CRP and left it there for the check and their kids left the farm and got jobs in town. I can show you numerous farms around here where that happened. It wasn't the whole reason, as the 80s were tough and many young people didn't want the struggle like their parents had.
It is crazy though that for almost half my life, all the tillable acres around where I live were in CRP and now there is hardly any CRP, its all farmed. But we still have deer and birds as there is still rangeland and sloughs around here.

CRP saved a bunch of farms….though the kids left. It was still there after that 10 year contract was up, ready to farm again. I’d still view it as a positive as a whole, it put up a back wall for a lot of places to just survive. Most didn’t want to try to survive in that financial environment anyway…and this includes my family.

It’s hard to think of normal when it comes to wildlife. The good old days are always 20x better than today, at least in our minds. But normal has changed so much with farming practices. I feel for you with a 50 year low in tag numbers. Keeping folks in the field is difficult enough with access issues but it’s 10x worse when you can’t even get a tag.

 

[Eatsleeptrap]

Plenty of states have at one time or another severely restricted or outright banned non-resident hunters. Kansas became a state in 1861 and did not have a deer season for anyone from 1915 to 1965, and did not allow nonresidents to hunt deer until 1994. It does not have to be permanent. One would hope nonresidents would understand. Five to ten years for us to get our shit together or put our deer season on hospice, because it is going to die. We have pretty much lost one generation already. I'd rather see 549 friends, neighbors and fellow North Dakotan's get a chance to hunt here, where they reside, work, pay taxes and raise their families than one nonresident.

 

[Bacon]

CRP saved a bunch of farms….though the kids left. It was still there after that 10 year contract was up, ready to farm again. I’d still view it as a positive as a whole, it put up a back wall for a lot of places to just survive. Most didn’t want to try to survive in that financial environment anyway…and this includes my family.

It’s hard to think of normal when it comes to wildlife. The good old days are always 20x better than today, at least in our minds. But normal has changed so much with farming practices. I feel for you with a 50 year low in tag numbers. Keeping folks in the field is difficult enough with access issues but it’s 10x worse when you can’t even get a tag.

Nope. Was a slow death for most. Now those are swallowed up by the bto’s. That’s why you guys can bitch about farmers now. Your crp You love so much was the catalyst for the conditions you find now. Those big guys give two shits whether they leave habitat.

 

[Traxion]

Nope. Was a slow death for most. Now those are swallowed up by the bto’s. That’s why you guys can bitch about farmers now. Your crp You love so much was the catalyst for the conditions you find now. Those big guys give two shits whether they leave habitat.

It could be in some areas. Where our farm is, there have been more retirements in the last 15 years due to kids not wanting to stay in the area than there were around CRP. The CRP program really helped float a lot of people in our area. Keep in mind this is low grade N SD farmland. The rates paid helped get some acres out and pay a few bills. Most of the farms are still there. The wave is coming though….lots of folks too old to keep going and kids gone. Nobody wants to live out there anymore.

I agree the big operations don’t care about habitat, which I get. In my wife’s area, you can’t find a small farm anymore. Big transition there.

And I don’t bitch about farmers. Tough business and making it work as a smaller operator is hard. You have to love wildlife to give up acres that feed the family and I don’t judge if they chose not too.

 

[Ruttin]

The NR tags are very limited. I say start with a point system for them and charge them accordingly, start at $100/yr for a point.

I would also say start a NR boat license fee. $250/yr. Heck, when i go out to MT, ID, WY to snowmobile they nail me with a NR OHV permit...return the favor.

 

[1lessdog]

The NR tags are very limited. I say start with a point system for them and charge them accordingly, start at $100/yr for a point.

I would also say start a NR boat license fee. $250/yr. Heck, when i go out to MT, ID, WY to snowmobile they nail me with a NR OHV permit...return the favor.

Do you really think a 250/yr NR boating license is going to stop people from coming to N.D. to fish. They will still come. It's unreal how many N.D. boats were in MN. this past weekend.

 

[ndlongshot]

Do you really think a 250/yr NR boating license is going to stop people from coming to N.D. to fish. They will still come. It's unreal how many N.D. boats were in MN. this past weekend.

Thats the point, if they are coming anyway, might as well generate some revenue.