Lonetree WMA is nearly void of deer

[Tom Schauer]

I hunted Lonetree for 2 solid days with my nephew. We set up in the mornings and evenings glassing large draws as far away from the hoards of road warriors as possible. During the days we covered 15 miles on foot (I used my GPS so no exaggeration).

We saw 3 deer and 3 moose the first day (lots of coyotes). The second day we saw 3 deer while on a 3:30 minute walk covering 6.5 miles through the heart of Lonetree (cattails, tree rows, CRP). I killed the only buck I saw, which was small.

We felt a little bad cause the deer don't even get an opportunity to get big. But, I hadn't drawn a tag in 3 years and wanted venison, so I pulled the trigger. I know what you are going to say. Why did you hunt opener? Answer, I am traveling the rest of the season so I had to go on opener.

I am not sure if all the non-residents pound Lonetree for birds early on and push the deer onto private land. But I am thinking that might be the case.

What I can tell you is that there are hardly any deer on that 33,000 acre piece of land. No one was killing deer. We saw massive groups of people walking huge expanses and 1 person killed a deer.

Yeah, I know it was hot and the rut wasn't on, but you would think a deer would move and be seen when massive groups of people are working the land. Also, if there aren't does on Lonetree bucks aren't going to have any reason to wander off private to breed.

I don't know what the solution is. But it wouldn't hurt if they put food plots closer to the border to lure the deer off the bordering private lands. I noticed places near the border, which had food plots in the past, were not planted this year.

If you want a challenge, go and try to harvest a deer on Lonetree.

K bye.

 

[fnznfwl]

I've taken a couple nice deer on Lonetree. You have to hunt it totally different than anyone and different than anyone else. lots of homework. google earth screen time, scouting etc. and the rut is your friend there as well.

But yes it gets pounded.

 

[Tom Schauer]

When; recently or over the past few years? Gun/bow?

 

[fnznfwl]

Gun In the last 10 years. the most recent last season. One years ago with a bow. buddy shot a good one with a muzzy 2 or 3 years ago as well

 

[Duckslayer100]

I bet many folks say the same thing about the big chunk of public property I hunt. At least, the guys who can't sit still. Which are the majority.

If you learn the funnels and are patient, good things come to you.

 

[shorthairsrus]

hunt em like roosters --- you need to walk the cattails / willows / the sh!t nobody goes through. What i base my population count on is sign. If your not seeing sign - then you are probably correct.

 

[dean nelson]

That's straight up normal lone tree story right there. when I hunted 2k2 we referred to that place as the condom since it acts like one for stopping the bismarck hunters. lone tree and south lots of hunters lots of posters and north of lone tree there are less hunters and there is more open ground. lone tree itself has always been a shit show on par with anything you would see in the bottoms south of bismarck. my only question is why didn't you try some other ground as soon as you realized it was a over hunted dead sea?

 

[Ericb]

Yup anyone that only saw 5 or six deer during opener needs to give up. Theres no deer in ND anymore try SD or even MN.

 

[ItemB]

That's straight up normal lone tree story right there. when I hunted 2k2 we referred to that place as the condom since it acts like one for stopping the bismarck hunters. lone tree and south lots of hunters lots of posters and north of lone tree there are less hunters and there is more open ground. lone tree itself has always been a shit show on par with anything you would see in the bottoms south of bismarck. my only question is why didn't you try some other ground as soon as you realized it was a over hunted dead sea?

Now a days north of lonetree in 2k2 is pretty well posted up. Lonetree gets pissed pounded by out of staters from pheasant opener till deer opener. Getting walked that much for roosters scares a lot of the deer out of there till later November. I wish they would make lonetree a separate tag it own unit instead of just 2k2.

 

[Tom Schauer]

I bet many folks say the same thing about the big chunk of public property I hunt. At least, the guys who can't sit still. Which are the majority.

If you learn the funnels and are patient, good things come to you.

We did that. I group of 8 guys dang near ran us over wanting to push the area we were glassing.

- - - Updated - - -

Yup anyone that only saw 5 or six deer during opener needs to give up. Theres no deer in ND anymore try SD or even MN.

Thank you. I am a really stupid human being who knows nothing about hunting or wildlife. You have helped me a lot with your thoughtful post.

- - - Updated - - -

Now a days north of lonetree in 2k2 is pretty well posted up. Lonetree gets pissed pounded by out of staters from pheasant opener till deer opener. Getting walked that much for roosters scares a lot of the deer out of there till later November. I wish they would make lonetree a separate tag it own unit instead of just 2k2.

It would be nice for ND deer hunters if they did something. Not sure what. A separate tag would help like you mentioned. Food plots along the border would also help. If they limited out-of state bird hunters that would help the most, but me being an guy who hunts many other states, that seems chitty.

Years ago I shot a buck that ran into neighboring private land. I asked the landowner if I could retrieve it (don't need permission, but it is the polite thing to do). When I walked on that land, there was a field full of deer. It looked like a flock of mallards.

 

[pluckem]

It would be nice for ND deer hunters if they did something. Not sure what. A separate tag would help like you mentioned. Food plots along the border would also help. If they limited out-of state bird hunters that would help the most, but me being an guy who hunts many other states, that seems chitty.

I wouldn't say this is only a problem with Lonetree. This can be seen on all large tracts of public across the state.
Habitat has been reduced across the state, access to private gets more limited every season, access to public gets easier and easier as technology advances (phone apps, GPS maps, Google Earth, internet forums), and commercialization of the sport (magazine articles, land leases, and property acquisitions solely with deer management and hunting in mind).

North Dakota was lagging most states with all this but we are catching up and I don't see this changing.

I haven't been up there this year, however I don't think food plots next to the property line would do much. Lone tree has food plots all over and the deer still will hit them when they want. Problem is they don't need them in this warm weather and the food plots get hit so hard by hunters the deer figure it out, just like they figure out where the private land is, and feed at night.

I just don't see the access being limited anytime soon, so its like all other types of public ground deer hunting. Its not easy, it takes a lot of work and time to be successful, and you usually have to use different tactics.

 

[pluckem]

The state could and probably should look into raising the cost for non resident deer tags. SD is $286, but Montana is $600 and Iowa is $550. So its cheap compared to them, that would limit some. However I am not up there enough to know if it gets overwhelmed with out of state hunters anymore than the residents.

 

[Nanky]

The state could and probably should look into raising the cost for non resident deer tags. SD is $286, but Montana is $600 and Iowa is $550. So its cheap compared to them, that would limit some. However I am not up there enough to know if it gets overwhelmed with out of state hunters anymore than the residents.

I don't think the 1% of tags allocated to non-residents on a per unit basis is the reason for too many deer hunters in that unit. Plus raising fees would not limit the number of tags available, so it would do nothing to limit the number of non-residents deer hunting.

 

[Tom Schauer]

I don't think the 1% of tags allocated to non-residents on a per unit basis is the reason for too many deer hunters in that unit. Plus raising fees would not limit the number of tags available, so it would do nothing to limit the number of non-residents deer hunting.

Not talking about the NR deer hunters. It is the bird hunters.

 

[Nanky]

Not talking about the NR deer hunters. It is the bird hunters.

My response was to : "The state could and probably should look into raising the cost for non resident deer tags. SD is $286, but Montana is $600 and Iowa is $550. So its cheap compared to them, that would limit some. However I am not up there enough to know if it gets overwhelmed with out of state hunters anymore than the residents."

I believe these are deer hunting rates he was talking about.

 

[campcook]

The amount of habitat that has been destroyed in 2K2 in the last 10 years is short of criminal. However, what I cannot understand are the hunters who show up and drive the roads and section lines while ignoring the plots and wpa land. 2K2 is not what it once was.

 

[guywhofishes]

The amount of habitat that has been destroyed in 2K2 in the last 10 years is short of criminal. However, what I cannot understand are the hunters who show up and drive the roads and section lines while ignoring the plots and wpa land. 2K2 is not what it once was.

we catch a lot of grief on threads for trying to express our dismay about habitat destruction here in the valley - I see it is slowly but surely spreading west

our grandkids WILL NOT have close to what we had and it seems there's nothing anyone can do to stop it - totally blows

 

[pluckem]

I don't think the 1% of tags allocated to non-residents on a per unit basis is the reason for too many deer hunters in that unit. Plus raising fees would not limit the number of tags available, so it would do nothing to limit the number of non-residents deer hunting.

I believe the 1% is a rifle tag allocation. No limit on NR statewide whitetail bow tags. I have been up there in the past where there were many Non-res bowhunters during the month of September.

I spent many opening weekends of rifle season up there and you are correct, very little NR. Lots of residents, because like you said, not much for NR rifle tags.

 

[dean nelson]

There are tons of good open spots in 2k2 you just have to do the leg work and homework on Google maps to figure out where to try. rule number one is unless we are talking the badlands onto go to the biggest chunk of public ground around because it will draw hunters like Flys to shit! just flipped through much of the ground where I've taken some big deer and most of it is still open so good ground is there and far easier to find that then sit in the same area beating our head against the wall.