North Dakota bars antlerless white-tailed deer harvest in four units

North Dakota Game and Fish immediately barred the harvest of antlerless white-tailed deer in four hunting units on Oct. 19, 2026. The restriction applies to units 3C, 3E1, 3E2 and 3F2 and to youth, muzzleloader, deer gun, deer bow and gratis licenses.

Antlerless deer gun licenses for those units are no longer valid and will be refunded automatically, the department said. The restriction applies specifically to antlerless white-tailed deer; it does not prohibit hunting antlered white-tailed deer, according to North Dakota Monitor. About 350 previously issued antlerless licenses in the four units were reported affected by North Dakota Monitor and KFGO.

Separate return option covers 13 units i

Game and Fish also opened a voluntary license-return option for eligible whitetail licenses in 13 units: 2H, 2I, 3B3, 3C, 3D1, 3D2, 3E1, 3E2, 3F1, 3F2, 4D, 4E and 4F. The option also applies to muzzleloader license holders.

Hunters who use the voluntary option must return their license before deer gun season and choose whether to receive a refund with bonus points restored, or donate the license fee and receive a bonus point if applicable. The department’s four-unit harvest prohibition and the broader return option are separate: being eligible to return a license in one of the 13 units does not, by itself, extend the harvest restriction to that unit.

North Dakota’s 2026 deer gun season is scheduled for Nov. 6–22. The department said other units may qualify for voluntary license returns if further disease reports arrive before the season. Its announcement does not say that additional units would automatically be subject to the antlerless-harvest prohibition.

Officials cite disease reports and herd conditions i

The department said it had received nearly 160 reports of epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD, since early August, tallying nearly 350 ungulate deaths, mostly white-tailed deer. North Dakota Monitor separately reported officials’ figures of about 170 reports and around 400 dead deer. Those are differently attributed counts, not a single reconciled total.

Game and Fish says EHD is transmitted by biting midges and is often fatal to white-tailed deer. The department identified 2021 as North Dakota’s last severe EHD outbreak. It described this year’s reports and mortality as considerably lower than in 2021, while also saying the deer population was lower at the start of this year.

Gov. Kelly Armstrong said the changes were intended to be targeted while protecting herds still recovering from losses in 2021. Game and Fish Director Jeb Williams said the current reports and observed mortality remained concerning in light of the lower number of deer on the landscape at the start of the year.

The October restriction affects a limited number of licenses compared with the statewide allocation: North Dakota set its 2026 deer license total at 39,100, down 3,200 from 2025 and the lowest in more than 50 years, according to a separate May announcement. That statewide figure is not the count of licenses affected by the four-unit restriction.