ND pheasants

[ERSS]

Decided to go back to school after 17 years and have started a Nurse Practitioner program at Univeristy of North Dakota in Grand Forks. Most is online, but I have to go back there once or twice a semester. Was looking at the ND regs and found that pheasant opens the 8th of October and I have to be in Grand Forks the 10-15th, and will probably drive. Definitely plan on some bird hunting during that trip. Anyone have any general suggestions as to good public land options for pheasants in this area? or good areas along I-94 I could hit going in and coming out?

 

[upper deck]

The central to western part of the state will be your best bird hunting. You may want to double check but usually the first week of season non res can't hunt the public land. That may only include plots but you will want to read up on this.

 

[warmer]

I have cousins in the sw corner who would love to have someone shoot every pheasant on their land. Cause lot of trouble in the spring digging freshly planted seeds out of the ground!

 

[Flatrock]

Hunting around Grand Forks is terrible. And by terrible I mean absolutely pitiful. I went to UND and deer hunted a little bit and just finding a doe was a challenge. As you mentioned, I-94 is closer to better hunting for pheasants. There are absolutely zero pheasants within 50 miles of Grand Forks. Generally, anywhere south of I-94 is decent pheasant hunting. South of Jamestown and west is best.

I did quite a bit of hunting in the far southwest part of the state 2 years ago by Hettinger and just slaughtered the pheasants. I only hunted public land. The past 2 winters since then have been tough though but I'm sure that there are still lots of birds there. PM sent as to where I hunted.

Devils Lake can have some fantastic waterfowl hunting, 90 miles west of Grand Forks. Never really hunted there much though. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[Hatchie Dawg]

This year will be the 17th trip in a row to ND for me. The eastern part of the state is very wet. They had a very wet spring and it seems the pheasants took it on the chin. They were already down from two tough winters in a row. You might find birds but I would expect hunting to be tough, even south of 94. My reports south of Jamestown are not good. Non residents cannot hunt PLOTS or WMAs the first week of season but you can hunt WPA's and Waterbank land.

I would suggest a try at waterfowl. Even the ducks seem to have been hurt by the excessive water, and I suspect early nesting attempts were flooded out in many cases, but that may be your best bet. Giant Canadas will be around but they have been hunting them a couple of weeks already and they get spooky by Oct but can still be hunted.

Sharptails will be here and there. They are hardier than the pheasant and the populations don't fluctuate as dramatically. They are however dirty birds and will be wild as bucks by Oct. You can wear a pair of boots thru to your socks chasing those dang things.

Ducks and Geese. Ducks and Geese.

The PLOTS guides are great. They will show the WPAs along with the PLOTS. Just remember you cannot hunt PLOTS as a nonresident even for waterfowl the first week of pheasant season.

 

[1_pointer]

Decided to go back to school after 17 years and have started a Nurse Practitioner program at Univeristy of North Dakota in Grand Forks.

My wife's doing the same thing, but different university. I'm patiently waiting for the this time next year when its over... Good luck to you on the school and bird fronts.