This is North Dakota's published 2026-27 season, the whole state at once. A pin reads its deer gun unit off the map and cuts this to the seasons, arms and limits that apply there.

North Dakota deer seasons

2026-27

1 antlered deer per licence year. One deer per licence, of the type the licence describes, and party hunting is not allowed. Any deer with at least one visible antler counts as antlered. Guide p. 3.

Deer Bow
Bow of at least 35 lb draw, arrows 24 inches with a metal broadhead of at least 3/4 inch cut
Four months, from the first Friday of September to the third of January.
Statewide
Sep 4 – Jan 3Either sex
One deer of the type the licence describes. Party hunting is not allowed.
- Opens at 12 noon Central time on 4 September — this app's calendar shows whole days and cannot show that. Guide p. 1.
- A resident bow licence is valid for any deer, statewide, with no unit restriction, and is not limited in number. Guide p. 1.
- Non-residents may hunt only private land, PLOTS excluded, for the first nine and a half days; from 14 September they may hunt public land too. Non-residents are also barred from Game and Fish wildlife management areas and PLOTS from 10 to 16 October. Guide pp. 1 and 4.
- Orange is required of all bow hunters while the regular deer gun season is running. Guide pp. 1 and 2.
- Concurrent special herd reduction bow seasons run for any antlerless deer in named city and management zones, closing half an hour after sunset on 3 January. Guide p. 5.
- A compound bow needs 35 pounds of draw at 28 inches or less; recurves and longbows 35 pounds at 28 inches. Barbed arrowheads are illegal; mechanical broadheads are legal. Guide p. 3.
Youth Deer
Whatever the youth licence allows
Ten days in late September, for residents aged 11 to 15.
Statewide
Sep 18–27Either sex
One deer. Party hunting is not allowed.
- Opens at 12 noon Central time on 18 September. Guide p. 1.
- Residents turning 11, 12 or 13 may take any antlerless deer, statewide — but an antlerless mule deer in units 4A to 4F needs a special unit-specific licence. Guide p. 1.
- Fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds may take any deer, statewide — but an antlered mule deer in units 4A to 4F needs a special unit-specific licence. Guide p. 1.
- The youth must be under direct supervision — unaided verbal contact — of an adult, and that adult may not carry a firearm or bow during the youth season. Guide p. 1.
- An unfilled youth licence is also valid during the regular deer gun season. Guide p. 2.
- Orange is required of the youth hunter and the mentor. Guide p. 1.
Deer Gun
Firearm, as the licence allows
Seventeen days in November, in the unit the licence names.
All units, as the licence names
Nov 6–22Either sex
One deer of the type the licence describes. Party hunting is not allowed.
- Opens at 12 noon Central time on 6 November. Guide p. 1.
- A gun licence is drawn by weighted lottery for one species, one sex and one unit, and no more than 39,100 are issued in total. Guide pp. 1-2.
- White-tailed deer licence holders in units 4B and 4C, and in 4D and 4E, must hunt their assigned unit for the first two and a half days — 6 to 8 November — and may then hunt either or both of the pair. Guide p. 2.
- A resident holding a lottery licence may also hunt the same species and sex in an adjoining unit where they would qualify for a gratis licence. Guide p. 2.
- Orange is required of every hunter, and of anyone accompanying an apprentice or youth licence holder. Guide p. 1.
Muzzleloader
Muzzle-loading firearm
Seventeen days from the end of November, white-tailed deer only, statewide.
Statewide
Nov 27 – Dec 13Either sex
One white-tailed deer of the type the licence describes.
- Opens at 12 noon Central time on 27 November. Guide p. 1.
- White-tailed deer only, antlered or antlerless as the licence says, and valid statewide with no unit restriction. Guide p. 1.
- State law caps muzzleloader licences at two per cent of the white-tailed gun licences: 750 this year, half antlered and half antlerless, drawn by weighted lottery. Guide pp. 1-2.
- A gratis or non-resident landowner licence holder may not take a mule deer during the muzzleloader season. Guide p. 3.
- Orange is required. Guide p. 1.

Legal Arms

2026 North Dakota Deer Hunting Guide weapon specifications, as the digest prints them.

Bow

Guide pp. 3-4

A compound bow of at least 35 pounds of draw at 28 inches or less; recurves and longbows at 35 pounds at 28 inches.
Arrows at least 24 inches, tipped with a metal broadhead of at least two sharp cutting edges and a cutting diameter of at least 3/4 inch.
Mechanical or retractable broadheads, hand-operated releases, lighted nocks, and battery-powered sights that project no light.

Barbed arrowheads — anything whose trailing edge meets the shaft at less than 90 degrees.
Any device that projects light while locating or hunting big game.

Firearms

Guide p. 1

As the drawn licence allows during the deer gun season.

Muzzleloader

Guide pp. 1 and 3

A muzzle-loading firearm during the muzzleloader season, for white-tailed deer only.

Mule deer, on any muzzleloader licence.

Hunting Hours and Orange

What the state defines as legal light, and what has to be worn in it.

Legal Shooting Hours

Guide p. 2, "Hunting Hours"

Thirty minutes before sunrise to thirty minutes after sunset — except on an opening day, when the season itself does not start until 12 noon Central time.

Fluorescent Orange

Guide p. 2

A head covering and an outer garment above the waistline, both solid daylight fluorescent orange, totalling at least 400 square inches. Required of every big game hunter, bowhunters included, while the regular deer gun season is running — and of every hunter during the youth and muzzleloader seasons. Anyone accompanying an apprentice licence holder wears it too.

Sundays

Guide, which prints no Sunday exception for deer

North Dakota sets no Sunday restriction on deer hunting: every season runs each day it is open.

Standing Rules

The parts of the digest that are true every day of the season.

Bag limits

Guide p. 3

Party hunting is not allowed: one deer per licence, of the type the licence describes.
Any deer with at least one visible antler counts as antlered.
A gratis or non-resident landowner licence holder may not take a mule deer during the muzzleloader season.

Where non-residents may hunt

Guide pp. 1 and 4

Non-residents may hunt only private land — PLOTS excluded — for the first nine and a half days of the bow season; from 14 September public land opens to them as well. Separately, non-residents may not hunt Game and Fish wildlife management areas or PLOTS from 10 to 16 October. A PLOTS landowner may always hunt their own enrolled property.

Tagging

Guide p. 4

Immediately after the kill, cut the month and day out of the tag and attach it to the base of the antler on an antlered deer, or through a slit in the ear on an antlerless one. The meat tag stays with the edible flesh through transport and until it is cut and packaged. Tags are not transferable and may not be reused. If the animal is mounted and the tag comes off, fasten it to the back or bottom of the mount.

Baiting

Guide p. 2

Bait includes grain, seed, minerals, salt, fruit, vegetables, hay or any other natural or manufactured food.

Hunting over bait or placing bait for any purpose on Game and Fish wildlife management areas.
Hunting over bait on national wildlife refuges, waterfowl production areas, national grasslands, Corps of Engineers land, and all state trust, state park and state forest service land.

Carcass transport

Guide p. 2

Carcasses may not be brought into North Dakota except as boned-out meat, quarters with no spine or head, cut and wrapped meat, hides without heads, clean skull plates or skulls, separated antlers, upper canines, and finished taxidermy. Carcass waste leaving its gun unit of origin must go to a landfill or waste hauler — heads dropped at a CWD collection site are exempt.

A deer carcass or boned-out meat must be accompanied by the head to its final place of storage, unless the hunter photographs the tagged animal at the kill site and the tag close-up, drops the head at a CWD collection site or leaves it in the field, and carries the tagged ear or antler with the meat.

Special herd reduction bow seasons

Guide p. 5

Concurrent bow seasons for any antlerless deer run in named city and management zones — South Bismarck/Mandan, Morton County, Grand Forks Air Force Base, Watford City, Portland, the Missouri River Correctional Center and the Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory among them. They open with the bow season and close half an hour after sunset on 3 January, one antlerless deer per licence, and most need an access permit as well as landowner permission.

Tagging and Reporting

The clock that starts the moment the deer is down.

Guide p. 4

Every deer must be reported immediately after the kill — cut the date from the tag and attach it before moving the animal.

Cut out the month and day on the carcass tag
Attach it to the base of the antler, or through a slit in the ear of an antlerless deer
Keep the meat tag with the edible flesh until it is cut and packaged
North Dakota runs no separate harvest report for deer

Where This App Is Coarser Than the Digest

Said plainly, because an absence is easy to read as a permission.

Every North Dakota deer season opens at 12 noon Central time on its first day. This app's calendar works in whole days, so an opening day shows as open from first light when the season is actually shut until midday.
Deer gun units follow section lines and rivers, not counties, so this state is resolved against a shipped boundary layer — the state's own NDGISHUB_Deer_Units, generalised to about 200 metres. If it will not load, the pin falls back to its county and finds no unit: there is no county-to-unit crosswalk published to fall back on.
What you may shoot is printed on the tag, not set by the season. A gun licence is drawn for one species, one sex and one unit; a muzzleloader licence is white-tailed deer only; a resident bow licence is any deer. The harvest columns here describe what the season allows, not what your licence does.
The special herd reduction bow seasons in the Bismarck-Mandan, Morton County, Grand Forks Air Force Base, Watford City, Portland, Missouri River Correctional Center and research laboratory zones are not in the season table. They run concurrently with the bow season for antlerless deer only, and most need an access permit.
North Dakota's peak breeding date is the middle of Game and Fish's own window for whitetails, 15-20 November; the rut meter uses 17 November. The department gives no separate figure for mule deer.
North Dakota publishes no open statewide parcel service, so there are no property lines on the map here.

Useful Numbers

The agency, when the app cannot answer it.

Game and Fish Department: 100 North Bismarck Expressway, Bismarck ND 58501
Report All Poachers (RAP): 701-328-9921

Transcribed from the published 2026-27 North Dakota digest. Where this app and the digest disagree, the digest is the law. Read the North Dakota Game and Fish Department digest.