Never actually hunted UN nd. I do however work in nd on the eastern border and live in Western mn. First the bad that came out today: 65,300 deer gun licenses will be available this year, down 42% from last year, lowest since '88. The most ever licenses available in nd history was 140,000 some in '98. Remember that nd g and f has the goal of a success rate around 75%. Last year Sr was52%. What I gather is that a lot of nd deer hunters spend good time doing a variation of deer drives, spot and stalk and road hunting.better put: driving the roads looking for a promising spot, glossing and if there is something you want, you go get it. I'm sure they stand hunt too, but it is so wide open out there that it seems you would want to cover ground. combo? Should be able to set up pheasant or duck or goose hunt to go with deer hunting pretty easy. The look at a duck or pheasant area, and then figure out the type of deer hunt to do in that region..I'm sure nd has some hot spots, for deer, but they will likely be very close to or in a bird area...and I'm sure there are no regions in nd that you could go without a reasonable chance at a deer, long as you hunt it right. This kind of trip sounds fun to me...good luck

A little background on me, I've lived in NoDak off and on since 1972, a lot of family still live, hunt and fish there. I currently live in western Montana. All NoDak big game hunting is done mainly by lottery draw for tags. NoDak's get once in a lifetime draws on elk, moose and bighorn sheep.

This is just a guide, check the regulations for accurate information at the North Dakota Game and Fish website. http://gf.nd.gov/

NoDak had a bad year last year with the deer getting Blue Tongue, the state game and fish had to refund most of the tags for the western 1/3rd of the state. The prior winter was also kind of hard on the birds, deer and antelope in those same areas. The mule deer hunting in 8 SW units has been closed this year, whitetail tags have been reduce in most SW units. Antelope has been closed state wide this year.

For all Fishing, hunting or furbearers you will need a Non-resident fishing, hunting and furbearers Certificate (piece of paper to put all your stamps on) $2.  Non-resident lottery draw for deer is $200, general game and habitat is $13 and furbearer is $25, small game (pheasant, grouse) $85. 

Generally waterfowl and upland bird overlap as you mentioned. Big game archery and rifle season do overlap but you can't carry a firearm while archery hunting. Big game overlaps with fur bearer. My brother and a few of his freinds were out pheasant hunting yesterday in a couple of different areas, they saw only a few birds. They are saying that it may be because of youth hunting for pheasant opened last week.

Fishing license, 3 day $15, 10 day $25 or yearly $35 

Be sure to read the regs! Non-res are not allowed to hunt State Game and Fishing land OR PLOTS land (Privae Land Open To Sportsman). Most licenses are only good for a total of 14 days. Most private land is getting posted now days. Posted land will have post signs at all gates and about every 1/2 mile on unfenced land and should have the name and address and possibly the phone number of the owner/leasee. It's always good idea to ask permission even if it's not posted, all it does if build goodwill between sportsman and landowner. A lot of the land is being posted because of people dumping their trash, leaving fences open, shooting livestock, shooting up equipment, shooting in the wrong direction OR just not asking permission. Most owner/leasees just want to know who's on their land.

If you want to find out about the fishing, hunting and politics of NoDak the NoDak's, SoDak's and Minnituckians mostly hang out at fishingbuddy dot com on the TONN network.

Cliff B.