Recommendations for ND Archery Hunt

[DroptineDC18]

Does anyone have any recommendations for outfitters for a North Dakota archery hunt? Or anyone have any experience with a DIY public land hunt?

I would prefer central to eastern ND, and possibly early season.

Websites are fine and I can do the rest.

Thanks!

[corny13]

DIY archery hunts are pretty easy in ND for whitetail, no need for a outfitter IMO.  Tag is over the counter,  if you want to hunt muledeer in the badlands you have to buy tag in feb when they first come out. There is a limit on those almost always gone by march.  The majority of public land is in the badlands.  NDGF has a plots book that shows all open land to hunting though that is helpful for finding access.  But private lands usual better.  A weekend scouting trip in early august for finding were you want to hunt and getting permission is a good idea. A little PR will help for access for bowhunting.  You can PM me if more specific questions.  Most of the archery outfitters are over in western ND btw.  A lot of the outfitter hunts are on Bait btw.  First day of sept is the usual opener or friday closest... lots of mosquitos still but most deer in velvet.

[DroptineDC18]

Thanks Corny.  I am not sure how much time I will have to scout, that is why I mentioned an outfitter. I am not at all interested if I will be sitting over bait, however.  I will look into the Plots map and see if I can find anything worthwhile.

[Swany]

Corny is spot-on in his post.
The few things I would add is that there are some nice chunks of public land in Eastern ND as well as significant chunks in Central ND around Bismarck and Mandan. The areas that are public around Bismarck and Mandan are river bottoms and have REALLY nice bucks roaming around. I have hunted them many times. There may be a fair amount of hunters, but there is a lot of land to go around.
The are thousands of public acres in the Badlands if you want to go that far. It would be a great hunt for you, but I know things have changed a little out that way since the oil boom picked back up.