We may be rolling into spring trout season across much of North America, but North Dakota wildlife authorities have just released the numbers from 2024’s deer hunting season. Depending on your perspective, the numbers might be good… and they might not be.
According to the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, deer hunter numbers in 2024 were slightly down from 2023’s, and the number of deer harvested also declined. Their post-season survey numbers say there were 42,416 licensed whitetail deer hunters in North Dakota last year, taking about 23,300 whitetail deer over the season.
North Dakota issues licenses for both mule deer and whitetails. Between those species, the state handed out 50,1000 licenses for gun hunters last year. The success rate for white-tailed hunters was 49 percent for antlered deer and 44 percent for antlerless deer. Those success ratios were much better for mule deer, where buck hunters saw an 80 percent success rate and 78 percent for antlerless mulies. Some hunters get licenses that allow them to harvest any species, particularly in wildlife units that have populations predominantly comprised of whitetails, but with mule deer mixed in. In those cases, hunter success rates were better than whitetail-only units, with 61 percent for antlered deer hunters, 56 percent for antlerless deer hunters.
In 2023, 45,927 North Dakota whitetail hunters killed approximately 25,146 deer. That means the number of deer hunters was down by about 3,700 in 2024, and the number of deer killed also dropped.
As for other hunting licences, North Dakota handed out 11,920 gratis licenses in 2024, down from 12,188 gratis licenses in 2023. The number of actual hunters in the field with those licenses stayed almost the same, right around the 9,500 mark, with the same 44 percent success rate. Muzzleloader licenses also declined slightly, from 1,020 licenses in 2023 to 956 licenses in 2024, with a decline in success rate from 32 percent to 29 percent. Archery licenses stayed almost the same (27,102 in 2024, down about 500 from the year before, with a climb in success rate from 26 percent to 29 percent in 2024, including 5,411 whitetails and 1,025 mule deer.
The overall success rate for gun hunters stayed around 55 percent, though, and once again, the average gun hunter spent about five days afield.
So in the big picture, numbers are more or less stable, and some outdoorsmen will not be disappointed to see hunter numbers declining slightly, as they believe the game fields have been getting a bit crowded in recent years. Still, other hunting and fishing figureheads have warned about the effects of declining participation numbers for years, and any drop might be seen as a step in the wrong direction. Your opinion may fall on either side of the issue, or somewhere in the middle.
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