Tuesday, November 11, 2003
North Central North Dakota
Busting cattail sloughs, sweet clover and shelterbelts on private, CRP and PLOTS lands produced five bucks and eight does for a hunting party of nine. My host passed on this one twenty minutes before I shot it.

Jackfish,

Congratulations! That is a very nice flatland buck. I'll bet your host regreted his decision.

Ski+3

Great deer. What did your host get?

Jackfish,

Great Deer! I have done quite a bit of hunting in North Dakota and really miss it. I went to college in Grand Forks and took 6 years to graduate. Alot of critters were relieved to see me get that diploma. ND is in my opinion one of the best kept secrets for Whitetails in the country. I have hunted around Dickinson in the west and around Cooperstown in the East. Both were fantastic hunts, but just as I was getting to really know the country and some really good spots, the late April storm of 97' killed off over 50% of the population

I moved out of the state in 98' to Montana, but have often thought about going back to hunt ND for a season. There are some really big bucks there. From the looks of things, they are one less than before. Great Buck! Why did your host pass on him? That should be a shooter by almost everyone's standards.

-Autumn Pulse

Earlier in the week my host shot at a buck that was estimated by slack-jawwed observers as around 170 class. He said afterwards that just seeing that buck and getting a shot after him made his season, even if he did not see another deer. The deer I got is probably 140 class, hence not up to his standards. Plus, I have a feeling he was just being a good host, thinking one of his guests might get a chance at him later in the drive. Last I heard he did not get his buck, but has plenty of venison for the larder.

Here's another ND whitetail that my wife took on the opener.


[ 12-08-2003, 05:36: Message edited by: JD ]

Nice deer!! I live, farm, and hunt on the eastern border of ND right on the Red River. This is the first year since the '97 flood that I have seen any large deer of speak of. It was a good year for deer also. If the winter can stay mild we will have a lot of deer in the large size slot in '04. I hope we can manage the deer herd in ND so that we will always have deer that get your heart pumping when you see them. After '97 I still hunted on my land, but did not shoot any deer because the flood had reduced the herd down to very low numbers. Now with the last few winters being mild and lots of food, the numbers are very high, verging on too many. But, now we can concentrate for now on quality because we have quanity.