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Outdoors

Youth deer season starts Sept. 19

Friday, Sept. 19, at noon signals the start of a nine-and-a-half-day deer hunting season for licensed youth hunters. The youth license is valid during the youth deer season that closes Sunday, Sept. 28, and the regular deer gun season running from Nov. 7-23. After opening day, hunting hours are a half-hour before sunrise to a half-hour after sunset. Orange clothing is required for youth hunters and mentors. Each young deer hunter must be under direct supervision of an adult. The adult is prohibited from carrying a firearm or bow while accompanying the youth hunter in the field ...

Youth, military waterfowl weekend set

Introduce a youngster to duck hunting during North Dakota’s two-day youth waterfowl season Saturday-Sunday, Sept. 20-21. In addition, the special veteran and active military personnel waterfowl season is set for the same weekend. Legally licensed resident and nonresident youth waterfowl hunters 15 and younger, and veterans and members of the Armed Forces on active duty, including members of the National Guard and Reserves on active duty (other than for training), may hunt ducks, geese, coots and mergansers statewide. All waterfowl hunters must possess a waterfowl habitat ...

Sandhill crane season begins Sept. 20

North Dakota’s sandhill crane season opens Saturday, Sept. 20, and runs through Sunday, Nov. 16. Limits are three daily and nine in possession in unit 1 (west of U.S. Highway 281), and two daily and six in possession in unit 2 (east of U.S. Highway 281). Shooting hours are 30 minutes before sunrise to 2 p.m. each day, with extended shooting hours to sunset on Saturdays and Wednesdays beginning Sept. 27 through the end of the season. Hunters are urged to use caution and identify birds to prevent shooting at endangered whooping cranes as they begin their fall migration. In addition ...

Remaining fall turkey licenses available Sept. 17 beginning

The fall wild turkey lottery has been held and more than 1,200 licenses remain in 10 units. Beginning Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 8 a.m., all remaining licenses will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis. Hunters are allowed a maximum of five licenses for the fall season. Resident and nonresident hunters must purchase a license from the Game and Fish online. The fall turkey season runs Oct. 11-Jan. 4. Licenses remain for the following units: Unit 04, portions of Billings and Golden Valley counties, (39); Unit 13, Dunn County, (619); Unit 19, Grant and Sioux counties and ...

Upland game brood survey results

North Dakota’s roadside surveys conducted in late July and August indicate pheasant numbers are relatively the same as last year, while gray partridge and sharp-tailed grouse numbers were down. Total pheasants observed (91.6 per 100 miles) are down 3% from last year and broods (11.4) per 100 miles are down 1%. The average brood size (5.1) is down 6%. The statewide number of pheasants observed per 100 miles is 48% above the 10-year average. The final summary is based on 285 survey runs made along 100 brood routes across North Dakota. Observers in the northwest counted 14.7 broods ...

Submit wing envelopes

Hunters can help in the effort to manage upland game birds in North Dakota by collecting feathers from harvested birds and sending in wing envelopes. Birds included in the North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s upland game wing survey, which has been in practice for decades, are ring-necked pheasants, sharp-tailed grouse, Hungarian partridge, turkeys and ruffed grouse. Collecting enough pheasant samples is typically never a problem, but securing enough sharptail and partridge feathers can be. Game and Fish biologists will take as many sharptail and partridge feathers as they can ...