North Dakota, come and gone!!!

John Van Houten

Active member
Well, drove to ND for non resident opener, had 6 days of duck and goose. The hunting was great. I ended up selling my house in ND, this past summer to a friend so I have an open invitation anytime. Kind of miss it but on the good note bought a place in Steinhatchee, Fl., brought down my diver decoys, got a layout boat, starting a new journey. Should be in the new place in 2 weeks. Can't wait for those reds.vmacocss05_1336942855174-1-0.jpgIMG_1732.jpg
 
John

Did you run into any issues with land being posted or farmers declining your request to hunt their land? I've been hearing rumblings ND is becoming hit and miss for freelancers and large tracts of land have been leased by guides in addition to farmers not giving access due to problems with non-residents who do stupid stuff.

Looking forward to hearing about your FL duck hunting transition.

Eric
 
Good morning, Eric. I don't have any problems with farmers because for 10 years I helped them with chores.i was always there to help them. But I must say there are some bad actors. In ND your allowed to shoot off the gravel roads. This past week I watched 4 non residents step out of there trucks and swat ducks on sloughs, with no way to retrieve them. I spoke to a warden he said there was nothing he could do. On the other hand the public land, wma s and plots hold plenty of ducks. 3 of our bests hunts were on public lands. Also a reminder ND has electronically posted land. Do ur homework on that one. It also helps to bring some shrimp and fish to trade.
 
Nice John!

Welcome back to FL. Steinhatchee is about two hours south of me. I have had GREAT turkey hunting down your way. Fishing is awesome. I hear the redheads can be found on the Gulf down that way, sometimes in quite large numbers. You should likely enjoy that area of FL. Steinhatchee can flood easily though...I love the town of Steinhatchee.
 
John

If someone didn't have a long-term relationship like you, would it be an uphill battle to get permission? I'll look into ND electronically posted land. Thanks.

Eric
 
Eric Patterson said:
Eric Patterson said:
If someone didn't have a long-term relationship like you, would it be an uphill battle to get permission? I'll look into ND electronically posted land. Thanks.

Eric


I haven't freelanced ND in 2 decades, but were I to do it now, I'd use onXmaps (or similar pay service). They have the electronically posted layer along with all the other sorts of public access. The electronically posted layer is undoubtedly available free, but integrating all the layers (public, private posted, WPAs etc...) is key to not going crazy when freelancing a place the first time. onX also provides landowner names if you want to knock on doors.

Here is a shot, red is posted, green is WPAs:

vHjulzE.jpg

 
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Tod

Thanks. The reason I ask is Thomas and I are toying with the idea of buying/renting a place in ND after he graduates and gets a career underway. Either that or maybe a place in Arkansas (which doesn't seem to be headed in the right direction given warmer winters). All just dreams right now but he will be done with school soon enough and a lot of things will happen quickly. We can see a day when we seldom hunt in Alabama and travel to hunt with a place to stay nearby. Not trying to get into all the details but our state keeps moving towards more restricted access which means less hunting/scouting and more lottery with assigned spots. Not something I want to do. Scouting, exploring, searching, finding, and hunting is the experience we enjoy. Going to some pre-defined location because we got lucky in a computer draw just doesn't work for us.

Eric
 
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Eric Patterson said:
Tod

Thanks. The reason I ask is Thomas and I are toying with the idea of buying/renting a place in ND after he graduates and gets a career underway. Either that or maybe a place in Arkansas (which doesn't seem to be headed in the right direction given warmer winters). All just dreams right now but he will be done with school soon enough and a lot of things will happen quickly. We can see a day when we seldom hunt in Alabama and travel to hunt with a place to stay nearby. Not trying to get into all the details but our state keeps moving towards more restricted access which means less hunting/scouting and more lottery with assigned spots. Not something I want to do. Scouting, exploring, searching, finding, and hunting is the experience we enjoy. Going to some pre-defined location because we got lucky in a computer draw just doesn't work for us.

Eric

Interesting on your plans, I see the utility in that, ND would be awesome. The trend towards restrictions and that is exactly why we are moving to WY. The limits on nonresidents makes hunting big game in the west really tough and expensive anymore and the restrictions are accelerating very quickly. I'm planning on basing in a state with big game access since that is the most restrictive and then travelling to upland and waterfowl hunt because they are less restricted. I'm all for you guys getting a place in ND! :)
 
Eric,

Steve and I toyed with the buying thing for a couple years before he croaked. We looked at buying land and putting electric, a slab, septic and water on it for parking the RV. We also looked at buying houses. Unfortunately, prices for everything were still going up and up and up and we found the various RVs "better" for our purposes at that time. We could usually find land to park the RV on, sometimes free, sometimes pay for sites that were close to where we wanted to hunt. If the hunting was bad or we wanted to explore, it was just easier to up and move than to drive hours and hours each way to hunt an area because we were stuck in one location with our choice of housing. I think we likely would have bought a parcel or two of land in a couple of our favorite locations rather than a house. Parcels with the very basics set up on them are much easier to maintain from a long way away than a home that may sit unused for months. Something to think about.

Last year when I went to MT, I looked into various Air BnB type rentals and was surprised with what I could find. Just by myself or with a friend or two, the rental makes more sense than buying. It might not be "cheap" for staying for a week or two but compared to the year-round maintenance and taxes and mortgage payments, it is a deal.

I feel your pain about the direction Alabama is going regarding duck hunting. It sucks.

I also put a vote in for OnX. It is an incredibly handy tool. It makes tracking down landowners a lot easier than the old days of search property records (which I did spend a lot of time doing).

I like the idea still of having land somewhere. Maybe someday for me...Good luck if you guys make it work

Dani
 
Dani

Thanks for that idea. An Air BnB hadn't even occurred to me. Like I said this is all in the very early stages, but the writing is on the wall, we are getting out of Alabama public hunting.

Eric
 
Eric, it is very doable, ND has some good public land hunting. I would suggest a 14 aluminum and small out board to hunt. Most of the non residents just wade out and those sloughs get deep fast. Like I said earlier had some of my best hunts on public land. The picture I posted was public land. Todd is right ND is not friend for non residents big game hunting, and 2 weeks of waterfowl cuts it short for me. But don't for get ur swan and sandhill tags. If u want give me a call. Might be able to set u up on a rental.
 
John

Probably a year or two away from any movement but I reserve the right to call you at that time. Thanks for the offer to help.

Eric
 
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