ND Hunting Applications For Big Game Now Available Online

Applications for elk, moose, and bighorn sheep are available online at the North Dakota Game and Fish Department's website. The application deadline is March 29. Click here to fill it out online.

This fall, hunters can purchase 603 elk licenses, an increase of 40 from last year. Because of a stable, or even increasing elk population, licenses in units E1E and E1W increased. Elk licenses in elk units E2, E3, E4, and E6 remain unchanged from 2022. There are 257 moose licenses available, 147 fewer than last year.

Units M6 and M8 licenses remain unchanged because the moose population appears to be stable, with good hunter success in these units. M5 licenses increased slightly due to a stable population and several years of success for all hunters in this unit. Licenses in M9, M10, and M11 have been reduced due to a population decrease observed during winter aerial surveys, a decrease in hunter success, and a winter tick outbreak the previous spring that impacted the population in these areas. Moose units M4 and M1C will remain closed due to the state's northeastern population's continued decline.

Depending on the sheep population, a bighorn sheep hunting season is tentatively scheduled for 2023. After summer population surveys are completed, the status of the bighorn sheep season will be determined on September 1.

Applicants for bighorn sheep must apply for a license at the same time as moose and elk, but not for a specific unit. Once the total number of licenses for each unit is determined in late summer, the bighorn lottery will be held, and successful applicants will be contacted to select a hunting unit.

Because the bighorn sheep application fee is not refundable under state law, applicants will not receive a refund if no bighorn season is held. In North Dakota, elk, moose, and bighorn sheep lottery licenses are issued as once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Hunters who have received a license through the lottery in the past are not eligible to apply for that species again. Click here to fill it out online. North Dakota offers some of the best hunting opportunities. Good luck to all hunters on a possible hunt of a lifetime!

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