Gotta Love North Dakota

Brought a pard up from TX last fall on a combo Antelope/Pheasent hunt.  He gave up his lease in TX when he got home with the idea of hunting DIY for whatever he can draw tags for on public ground throughout the plains and western states.  It was an eye opening experience to say the least.

Now, if we could just get the landlocked issue out of the way in SD, MT and WY we'd have even better expeirences .

North Dakota has a great outdoor environment.  I don't really care if posted signs are required or not but having public right of ways is something we must never loose.

SD's landlocked land in Harding Co doesn't even matter.  The people that have their land in Lockout never let people hunt anyways and the amount of quality public land in Harding co is amazing.  I have hunted areas in Harding and Butte Counties that have 20 to 30 square miles of public land most of which is Walk-In (your PLOTS).  The states are doing very well promoting public land.

This is God's Country.....

All except for elk.  I read a state-by-state article in Bugle.  SD hunters want more elk on their public land, so they reduced tags to grow the herd.  ND hunters want more elk on their public lands, so ND G&F issues more tags to appease private landowners.  ND gives out enough tags to kill 1/2 of our elk population each year.

I retired in May of 2008 and moved to South Carolina.  Thought it would be a good place to be.  The winters are great but the summer is pure hell.  The fishing and hunting is really different.   I am going to be spending this winter here and then moving back to North Dakota in the spring.  Good old North Dakota never looked so good. Wide open spaces and not so darn many people to contend with. 

I always enjoyed living here with all the hunting and fishing opprotunities but my eyes were really opened when  I joined the Army.

I was stationed at Ft. Benning, Georgia for 8 years and the hunting & fishing experience is different. The fishing was great and I still miss the largemouth bass but the hunting was a totally different game.

There is no public land in Georgia or Alabama to speak of and everything is hunt clubs on leased land or paid hunting. I was fortunate enough to be at Benning where they had a great game manager and we at least had access. It was on a call in system to designated areas and you had to stay in those areas. The MP's ran roadblocks everywhere during deer season and checked you for legal ammo, your orange safety vest (square inches were measured), that you were in the area that was approved and any game you harvested.

I am very thankful for what we have and thats the reason I moved back.

Yeah, pretty great here. I can shoot a limit of ducks/geese/pheasants, catch a limit of walleyes and bowhunt all within 15 miles of my house.  Oh, and I almost forgot, walmart is only 5 miles away also. ;-)