A post-season assessment by the state Game and Fish Department shows that more than 42,000 North Dakota hunters harvested over 23,000 deer during the 2024 firearms hunting season.
Given an average hunter spending four to five days in the field, hunters who took part had an overall success rate of 55%. That’s the same success rate as 2023, when about 46,000 hunters claimed almost 25,000 deer.
Total Harvest and Success Rate
- More than 42,000 hunters participated in the season.
- They harvested over 23,000 deer.
- The overall hunter success rate was 55%, which was the same as in 2023.
- The number of hunters in 2024 was lower than in 2023 (46,000 hunters in 2023).
- The total deer harvested in 2024 was also lower than in 2023 (25,000 deer in 2023).
By kind of deer, what was the success rate?
For antlered white-tailed deer, hunters had a 49% success rate; for antlerless white-tailed deer, that figure was 44%.
For antlered mule deer, hunters had an 80% success rate; for antlerless mule deer, that figure was 78%.
By kind of license, what was the success rate?
With a success rate of 44%, the state awarded 11,920 gratis licenses—a free license issued to landowners—and 9,484 hunters harvested 4,199 deer.
With 956 muzzleloader licenses issued by the state, 790 hunters took 232 white-tailed deer—116 antlered and 116 antlerless—for a success rate of 29%.
The state issued 27,102 archery licenses—3,109 for nonresidents and 23,993 for citizens. With a success percentage of 26%, the hunters gathered 5,794 deer—4,484 white-tailed deer and 910 mule deer.
Key Takeaways
- The overall success rate for all hunters remained at 55%, unchanged from 2023.
- Mule deer hunters had significantly higher success rates (78–80%) compared to white-tailed deer hunters (44–49%).
- Gratis licenses had a 44% success rate, which is comparable to regular firearm hunting.
- Muzzleloader and archery hunters had the lowest success rates (29% and 26%, respectively), likely due to the difficulty of using these weapons.