North Dakota

[Cedarsavage]

I drew a bow any deer tag. I was planning on hunting the west side. Mainly targeting mulies, but I'm a sucker for whitetails. Sounds like EHD was bad last year? How bad are we talking?

 

[Superdoo]

Certain areas were impacted more than others, but we definitely took a huge hit.
A map of the overall impact can be found here:

Deer Mortality Caused by EHD Allows Whitetail Hunters to Seek Refunds | North Dakota Game and Fish

The state Game and Fish Department is allowing hunters with whitetail or “any” deer gun licenses in several units in western North Dakota

gf.nd.gov

 

[MallardSX2]

That looks pretty bad.

 

[WCB]

Some areas 90% by ranchers estimates that I know...the map Superdoo provided is not completely accurate as I know there was an outbreak in NE ND and other sporadic ones as well east of the river. I hunt a unit just bordering where they refunded tags and numbers there seemed to be oddly low on archery opener. Late season when the deer were on there winter grounds the numbers seemed to be more of what I would expect in some place but a couple of wintering herds were almost non-existent compared to the prior year.

Unless you stumble across a very large Whitetail buck while chasing Mule Deer I personally would spend ZERO time trying to find Whitetails.

 

[Cedarsavage]

That looks pretty bad.

lol

 

[william schmaltz]

I'm from the central portion of the state. Where we hunt, and from the vantage points we have, it's pretty typical to easily see 100 deer an evening. And then they're like hundreds of rats all winter coming into the hay yard. I didn't make it back last year, but no one in my family hunted last year to give them a break. They said they maybe saw a handful of deer all year.

 

[NDGuy]

It was extremely bad.

I'd also waste zero time on Whitetails, you can hunt them any year you want to here as a NR.

 

[Warlock]

I drew a bow any deer tag. I was planning on hunting the west side. Mainly targeting mulies, but I'm a sucker for whitetails. Sounds like EHD was bad last year? How bad are we talking?

East river didn't get hit really, I'd maybe take of off year on muley's and hunt whitetail east river this year, personally.

 

[NDGuy]

East river didn't get hit really, I'd maybe take of off year on muley's and hunt whitetail east river this year, personally.

Yeah not sure what area you are exposed to but plenty of deer died East of Bismarck. I have tons of farm friends and my own areas that had dozens upon dozens of dead deer in fields they harvested last year.

 

[Cedarsavage]

It sounds like this is more of a whitetail problem and muleys aren't as badly affected?

 

[Dhosera]

Correct. We were out last year and over the course of the weeks hunt saw pry 100 dead whiteys......Not a single dead mule deer. It was pretty sad. Our yote hunting, which is normally a great backup option, was non existent as well because of their unlimited food source. We didn't even apply for ND this year based on what we saw last year.

 

[NDGuy]

It sounds like this is more of a whitetail problem and muleys aren't as badly affected?

It affects mule deer as well but not near as badly. It affects their hormones, lots of mule deer last year that were shot had velvet which is a sure sign of that damn bug getting at them.

 

[Warlock]

Yeah not sure what area you are exposed to but plenty of deer died East of Bismarck. I have tons of farm friends and my own areas that had dozens upon dozens of dead deer in fields they harvested last year.

Up north? Hadn’t heard anything like that in rural SE Nodak (Red River Valley).

 

[NDGuy]

Up north? Hadn’t heard anything like that in rural SE Nodak (Red River Valley).

That’s not where the deer died. Central and western ND Whitetails got absolutely hammered.

 

[WCB]

Up north? Hadn’t heard anything like that in rural SE Nodak (Red River Valley).

Basically western 1/3 of the state from top to bottom...I also know of pockets in North East ND where dozens of deer were found dead by bird hunters.

 

[Warlock]

Gotcha, that makes more sense. I had assumed it was primarly the western 3rd.

 

[NDGuy]

Basically western 1/3 of the state from top to bottom...I also know of pockets in North East ND where dozens of deer were found dead by bird hunters.

I’m dead central ND lots of deer died there too