North Dakota

[1woolie89]

Hey all!

Finally confirmed, family and myself moving to ND. Got a job and will be planting roots (hopefully).
Anyone give me the quick info on hunting there, (over the counter tags?) (rifle/bow) exc. How’s the hunting community up there exc.

How’s hunting in that cold? I’m used to 20s and up but 70-100+ degrees in hunting season here. Thanks! I appreciate it guys!

 

[dirtytough]

Which part of ND are you moving to?

OTC archery tags for deer. Rifle and muzzy are draw. Depending on unit/species you can draw a rifle tag every year. Muzzy there are very few tags so it take 10ish years to draw a muzzy buck tag. Bonus point system. After 4 years they cube your points.

Elk, moose, and sheep are OIL. No points just a random draw. Not a lot of public land.

Hunting in the cold isn't bad at all.

Lots of residents hunt/fish. Most aren't what I would call serious hunters but you run into a few once in awhile.

 

[Scoot]

Dirtytough, there are about 4 million acres of public land in ND. I consider ND to be pretty darn good WRT public land.

 

[1woolie89]

Which part of ND are you moving to?

OTC archery tags for deer. Rifle and muzzy are draw. Depending on unit/species you can draw a rifle tag every year. Muzzy there are very few tags so it take 10ish years to draw a muzzy buck tag. Bonus point system. After 4 years they cube your points.

Elk, moose, and sheep are OIL. No points just a random draw. Not a lot of public land.

Hunting in the cold isn't bad at all.

Lots of residents hunt/fish. Most aren't what I would call serious hunters but you run into a few once in awhile.

Nice! I will be working in Minot, should good to me I bow hunt mostly!

 

[jmez]

Why not Minot!!!!

You have absolutely no idea what you are about to endure for a winter. Not trying to be an ass, just real. Pretty area. Great fishing. Great upland hunting. Don't know anything about the big game around there. Winter lasts about 9 mos.

 

[1woolie89]

Why not Minot!!!!

You have absolutely no idea what you are about to endure for a winter. Not trying to be an ass, just real. Pretty area. Great fishing. Great upland hunting. Don't know anything about the big game around there. Winter lasts about 9 mos.

Yeah I heard, I’ve had some rough winters but I hear it’s -30+ some times lol - this pic the road leading to my cabin.

 

[kodiak725]

I lived in Minot for a year. Plenty of opportunity for hunting. Definitely cold, very often in the winter dropping into the negatives especially with wind chill (its always windy). PLOTS lands offer a lot of good hunting opportunities

 

[william schmaltz]

Like all “moving to” threads, people love claiming how bad the weather is. ND is cold in winter, but not intolerable. Winter is 4 months with scattered winter-like weather events for a couple months on each end. It snowed last week and they’re already back into the mid 40s-50s. There been plenty of years we were still riding motorcycles around in December- February.

If you predator hunt or trap/snare, the whole place will be opened to you. World class fishing for 12 months of the year. Sak is all time right now. Buy an ice fishing set up from someone that’s PCSing off marketplace and get out! You’re also in world class waterfowl territory.

ND has an excellent balance of outdoor opportunity and accessibility. I do miss it like crazy at times.

 

[elkguide]

Celebrate anywhere that you're going since you're getting out of Kalifornia!

 

[1woolie89]

Celebrate anywhere that you're going since you're getting out of Kalifornia!

Yes, yes indeed!

 

[nodakian]

Why not Minot!!!!

Freezin's the reason.

 

[ND_Hooligan]

Why not Minot!!!!

You have absolutely no idea what you are about to endure for a winter. Not trying to be an ass, just real. Pretty area. Great fishing. Great upland hunting. Don't know anything about the big game around there. Winter lasts about 9 mos.

I have lived here my whole life and yes, winters are brutal but why would you lie to someone? Never in the history of ND has winter lasted 9 months

 

[Scoot]

Depends on what people mean by "winter". When I lived in Southern Indiana I discovered what I called a "cool fall day" was "dead of winter" to the locals. I'll be curious what the op calls winter given he's coming from Comifornia. Dec-Mar usually have weather most would call winter. Oct Nov and April are a crap shoot- can be nice or miserably cold. This Oct was absolutely beautiful and last year it was cold as hell.

 

[jmez]

Because he's from California and has a far different definition of winter. People that move to western SD from south and west think our winter lasts 9 mos.

I live in the banana belt and we have had no open water here for three weeks.

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[1woolie89]

Depends on what people mean by "winter". When I lived in Southern Indiana I discovered what I called a "cool fall day" was "dead of winter" to the locals. I'll be curious what the op calls winter given he's coming from Comifornia. Dec-Mar usually have weather most would call winter. Oct Nov and April are a crap shoot- can be nice or miserably cold. This Oct was absolutely beautiful and last year it was cold as hell.

I lived in Big Bear, CA. 7,500 ft. I plowed snow for 4 years and this last year from January to April, Was a tough one. Summers and Springs are real nice in our mountains but winters can get rough. I was dealing with 10ft snow fall my self. my wife took that photo of me crossing a 6ft fence, water line froze and bursted and I had to go shut it off

 

[magtech]

Coldest real temp where I was outside was -50s when I lived there. Wind chill doesn't count in my book. Dont go out naked and it won't matter.

If you've got the time, the money, AND the drive ND has a lot going for it. Devils lake isn't too far to fish. Lake darling and sakakawea and close enough to fish all the time.

Pheasant can be good, just depends.

In the end. Your experience there will be what you make it. Make it a great time, and it will be one.

 

[1woolie89]

ND is not a bad place for hunting moving to another state makes you gather more experience about hunting!!

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Hopefully! I’m used to super amount of pressure, high altitude, steep, rugged mountains, where it’s 100 during the day and freezing at night. Really tough to tag a buck out here. I got lucky with my bear. Hopefully I can get more experience because I’m all self taught right now what I picked up from the Internet and reading books about Hunting.

 

[dirtytough]

Dirtytough, there are about 4 million acres of public land in ND. I consider ND to be pretty darn good WRT public land.

I guess it depends on what a person is used to. ND is #34 on the list regarding amount of public land. Almost the bottom third in the US.

Hopefully! I’m used to super amount of pressure, high altitude, steep, rugged mountains, where it’s 100 during the day and freezing at night. Really tough to tag a buck out here. I got lucky with my bear. Hopefully I can get more experience because I’m all self taught right now what I picked up from the Internet and reading books about Hunting.

There will still be pressure on public. But you won’t have to deal with the altitude and mountains. It’s easy to fill a tag here. It isn’t easy to fill it on a quality animal.

 

[KurtR]

World class waterfowl. Good retriever training grounds . Fishing all over. You will have more stuff to hunt or fish than you have time. Winter is what it is .

 

[GSPHUNTER]

You may run into some deep snow and real cold days. A lot.