Bird/Deer Hunt SW ND

boomerdawg13

boomerdawg13

Member
Hello all,

Headed out to SW North Dakota this coming Wednesday - our group usually goes up there for bird hunting but this year 2 guys pulled antlered muley tags. Half the group is going to deer hunt with the other half pheasant/sharpie hunting. I have seen threads commenting on the high number of sharpies, but how have the pheasants held up this season? Also how many deer hunters have you been seeing out there?


Any info helps,

Boomdawg
 
While I didn’t hunt the southwest corner this year I just came back from NODak last week. Spoke with several locals where we were staying and hunting and they all referred us to Mott area and said the bird numbers were great. We did notice the central part of the state below Minot was much drier than last years. Still found birds there just had to hunt a bit harder. We did spend a few days hunting up north near the Canadian border and found lots of wild birds to fill our game bag.
back home in Washington state now and already missing NODak.
 
Hunted within 6 miles of Mott on opening weekend. Three of us only shot 8 birds in two days after walking approximately 12 miles of private land. Very few birds seen.
 
Ref said:
Hunted within 6 miles of Mott on opening weekend. Three of us only shot 8 birds in two days after walking approximately 12 miles of private land. Very few birds seen.
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Sorry to hear this. While we didn’t sleigh em we hunted the northwest corner of the state. It wasn’t unusual to see 50-100 pheasants a day. If anything the younger birds prevented us from taking many shots due to coloration. never see so many hens that looked like roosters.
note: the majority of lands we hunted were also private but not posted.
 
Ref said:
Hunted within 6 miles of Mott on opening weekend. Three of us only shot 8 birds in two days after walking approximately 12 miles of private land. Very few birds seen.
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Hmmmm, good insight - like tuckr was saying how was this years brood in that area?
 
Tuckr2 said:
Sorry to hear this. While we didn’t sleigh em we hunted the northwest corner of the state. It wasn’t unusual to see 50-100 pheasants a day. If anything the younger birds prevented us from taking many shots due to coloration. never see so many hens that looked like roosters.
note: the majority of lands we hunted were also private but not posted.
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Ran into this problem around Crosby a few years back - wonder why this is the problem in that corner. Hoping we dont run into that problem bringing a couple work friends who haven't been out before. Going to be that annoying guy screaming cock in the field for em.
 
We hunted near Crosby. The cover was great. OnX has lots of open private land in or near the area as well as plots lands. Saw more hunters in the field this year than I’ve seen in the last 5. With the weather changes recently I would expect birds to be holding tighter by now. Looking forward to hearing how it works out for ya.
 
We have hunted these private farms for the past 30 years around Mott. The past couple years have had extremely poor bird numbers.
 
NW ND is a favorite of those living in Minot and Williston and in between when numbers are above average.
 
I was in the SW the week before last. Pheasant numbers seemed about the same as last year, but they were hard to get close to. Saw more Sharptails than ever in that area. I have not been there during deer season, but the number of Mule deer we saw was amazing. They seem to be taking over from the Whitetails again. Saw a couple of nice bucks that I would have been throwing lead at if I was deer hunting.

I'm not sure what technique you would use to hunt them. Probably a lot of glassing and stalking. I think it is illegal to coordinate with pheasant hunters while you are deer hunting.

Jerry
 
Jerryv said:
I was in the SW the week before last. Pheasant numbers seemed about the same as last year, but they were hard to get close to. Saw more Sharptails than ever in that area. I have not been there during deer season, but the number of Mule deer we saw was amazing. They seem to be taking over from the Whitetails again. Saw a couple of nice bucks that I would have been throwing lead at if I was deer hunting.

I'm not sure what technique you would use to hunt them. Probably a lot of glassing and stalking. I think it is illegal to coordinate with pheasant hunters while you are deer hunting.

Jerry
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Good info Jerry - we applied this year because so many farmers already had deals with other pheasant groups but would allow deer hunting "to get rid of all those damn mule deer." Seems like locals have had enough with them. I am hoping that snow forecasted for thursday comes in, always seems a bit easier to hunt out there. I will send an update Friday - focus at the office is at an all time low with this trip coming up.
 
Just got back from ND. Had our 4 man thurs/friday - killed our 3 does saturday and worked up a few birds on the drive home sunday. Sharptail numbers were crazy but very jumpy, still managed quiet a few. The partridge numbers were up like crazy this year which was a blast as well. Ill post some photos later.
 
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