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North Dakota 2006 Deer Hunting As the 2006 North Dakota Deer Season comes to close, it is safe to say it was a good year for the taking of whitetail deer here in Southeast North Dakota. I was lucky enough to bag my 5X4 just 1/2 hour into season. Here in North Dakota we have a 16 !/2 day season, starting on a Friday at noon. I guess you could say we were lucky enough to have had an unseasonably cool October, helping getting the "rut season in full gear. Just like the last few years, come November the temperature rises into the 40's - 50's even the 60's for record highs this year. This years crops corn and sunflowers had all been harvested by the time hunting rolled around and this is a great advantage for us hunters. Years past, there were many corn and flower fields waiting to be harvested because of wet conditions, but the last 2-3 years have been dry and harvest has gone well. With all the crops off the fields gives the deer less places to hide there fore easier to hunt. I hunt the same area here in S.E. North Dakota each year, there fore I go to my reliable spot, sit - wait and be patient, because I know there will be action soon. Hunting in a oak forest near a river bottom, we are lucky to get a 100 yard shot off at any time. But this year I did just that and bagged a pretty nice buck. The Hunt Begins It all started a few minutes after noon when I seen couple does below in the wooded area on the lower trail. Where I sit I am with in 80 - 100 yards of up to 5 trails that are regularly used by these white tail deer. After watching these doe wander around slowly looking for food, I noticed out of the corner of my eye another deer over yonder in the brush. I got looking a little closer and I noticed another deer, both being bucks. A spike with spikes about 8 - 10 inches long, and with him a 3 X 3 sniffing after the doe. All these deer were headed up the hill towards where my hunting partner ( a 16 year old who has never shot a buck) was sitting. I was hoping he would get a shot off at that 3X3 but he didn't. About 125 yards back down the trail where I first noticed these deer, along comes the deer I wanted to take home. A nice 5X4 sniffing along looking for them females ahead. He sure was a nice buck standing there his head held high, occasionally leaning down to eat some grass. Being in this oak forest there were lots little trees all around . What I had to do was look for opening and just hope the buck would bend down and eat again. I found a perfect spot right between 2 trees and all I needed was for the big whitetail deer to bend down and eat. Low and behold, I no longer said that and he did just that, and the rest is history. He went down like a ton of bricks, got him in the neck with my 30.06. He never knew what hit him. I waited for few minutes and then headed down to see this nice sized buck. Weighing in a little over 225, this was no picnic getting him back up to the road. Must have been about 200 yards up hill dragging this guy. After 4 - 5 breaks and some pics we finally got him to the truck to haul home. All out of breath it was now we would take our lunch break and get ready for the afternoon ahead, not knowing what to expect after such good start to the season. We still needed 2 more bucks and 3 doe to fill out our tags. After a half hour or so we headed back down the hill and sat in our favorite perches, waiting for more action to take place. It turned out to be a very boring afternoon not seeing much after I got my big buck. Just before time to call it quits, 3 deer came running across highway behind us and down into the area we hunt. All three being does and figured no bucks following behind, after waiting for few minutes, we ended up bagging one of these deer, turning out to be a button buck, but we tagged as a doe cause antlers barely were even visible. So as far as opening day went we had what we called a very successful day. We headed home and planned our next days adventure out in the wilderness of North Dakota. You never know what the great outdoors has in store until you live it. Day 2 Here we are Saturday morning sitting in our favorite spots waiting for that big buck to come in to our area. Well we waited and waited and about 11 AM I seen a couple deer walking up the trail. All I seen were doe, at least that is what I thought. They wandered up the hill toward my hunting partner and I seen him raise his firearm just in time and low and behold seen the deer tumbling down the hill. It turned out to be a very nice buck, a 4X4 and this would be my partners first buck of his young life. I yelled over at him "nice shot Chris" as the deer tumbled even further down the hill. We hunted for a couple more hours and decided that was probably all the action to be had here this day, so we loaded up the buck and headed home. The Hunt Goes On This would turn out to be a very tough hunt after the first weekend. The deer all decided it was time to head into the cat-tails and CRP land and lay down. We were lucky enough to bag one more small buck, but that was it, and had to work real hard to get him. Today is the last day of the season and I just got back in from my morning hunt. I was able to get off a shot this morning but I should have known better than to take it. The whitetail deer was 250 yards or more away, when I shot, it was low and hit below the deer. On the way home I did see about a dozen deer out in the fields but was unable to get off any more shots, they were way to far out in the fields or on posted land. So tonight I am going to go out for the late afternoon hunt and hopefully bag my doe. The Last Day The North Dakota 2006 Deer Hunting Season is officially over. I went out this afternoon for the last few hours of the deer hunting season. To no avail I was unable to find my doe this year. Not to worry though, I did bag a very nice buck and as far as I am concerned the hunting season was a big success. This will wrap it up for this years deer hunting season. Time to clean-up the firearms and put away till next year. Hope everyone had a safe and fun hunt this year, and I can't wait till the next season rolls around. You muzzle load hunters get ready because your season starts this coming Friday, 12 noon, December 1, 2006. I hope everyone enjoys what our great state has to offer the avid outdoors man. The winter recreation time of year is upon us and now is the time to make plans to get out in the "Great Outdoors of North Dakota". So until next time Happy Hunting everyone and be safe! North Dakota Canoeing and Kayaking North Dakota Fishing North Dakota Hiking Trails North Dakota Hunting North Dakota Mountain Biking North Dakota Snowmobiling North Dakota Winter Recreation North Dakota Golf Courses My 2006 Deer Hunt Home Page So did everybody have a successful hunt this year? I think for the most part it has been a very successful season for us whitetail deer hunters here in North Dakota. For those of you who were not as successful with this years hunt, I found a real cool site that has info about bagging that big buck. Learn the ins and outs from this great e-book. Tells you what you need to know to make your hunt more successful in future years. I read this book and "WOW" the info here is priceless. Anything and everything you need to know about bagging the buck of your dreams. Click the following link and check out this great book. And find out for yourself, something for the novice hunter to the well seasoned hunters. What a deal this is.Click Here! If anyone out there has any good hunting or outdoor stories you would like to share with our readers, just use the form below and e-mail to us. |
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