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Most Online1,131 Jan 21st, 2024
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 6,980 Likes: 396
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 6,980 Likes: 396 |
How big of an area if affected by the oil field work in regards to to lodging, food etc? I am considering a trip north with the bird dog next year if bird populations are decent. I have hunted the Dickinson area of ND and The Glascow/Plentywood are of MT in the past. I have heard lodging can now be a real problem around Dickinson. Any input greatly appreciated. Steve
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Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 55 Likes: 1
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 55 Likes: 1 |
My experience in NE Montana over the last 3 years is that Bakken related activity is increasing a lot. To the point where we are considering looking for a quieter area to hunt.
Forester
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,600 Likes: 13
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 1,600 Likes: 13 |
Not only will there be a problem finding lodging etc., but I suspect a lot of those Bakken workers might like to find some hunting while they are staying in the area.
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 582
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 582 |
My friend RCC can speak more directly to it, but think "Gold Rush": prices and people. Five dollars for a tomato, four or five bucks for a gallon of gas, and not a place to stay for 500 miles. Bob moved out of Eastern Montana because he was sick of the oil boom, and I flew there to chase roosters with him one more time a year and a half ago.
Your biggest challenge will be lodging- there isn't any. Drive up in a motorhome or pulling your camper- about the only way to insure you'll have a place to lay your head when the birds are cleaned and the dogs are asleep.
Tolerance: the abolition of absolutes
Consistency is the currency of credibility
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Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 3,216 Likes: 120
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 3,216 Likes: 120 |
Hi Mark, I'm just going to address your question as my feelings on the oil boom here will turn into a rant and how it's been a curse for my beloved state.
So.....
1) Place to stay: Good luck finding any decent place to stay, there just isn't any. The places you may find are flea traps and they will charge you an arm and a leg. Better to bring camper or stay in Bismarck and drive a hour or two to hunt.
2) Food: The prices do reflect a "gold rush" attitude. A 20oz bottle of pop here in central ND is about a $1.29 or so, out in the patch it's close to $4.00 Cost of food in a store is also high as is cafes or other eating establishments. Much higher than normal.
3) Place to hunt: Still some areas, but a lot are getting harder to get on to due to oil leases, roads tore up by trucks, man camps. It's a different world there now.
4) Personal Safety: Be damn careful. The crime rate has gone thru the roof. There are a lot of dead beats, crooks and slimy people who came out here to work thinking it was easy. Couldn't hack it...so they do what they did best before they came here....prey on other people.
The best thing you can do is to start to plan now or hunt in the central part of the state, untouched...... so far!
It's not a pretty picture, those are the facts. I do wish you the best of luck and if you need any help, let me know.
Best!
Greg
Gregory J. Westberg MSG, USA Ret
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 6,980 Likes: 396
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 6,980 Likes: 396 |
Thank you all for the input. I did speak to a couple of motels in Plentywood and they do have rooms. I'm thinking that might be an option, or more central ND. Thank you all for your input. Steve
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Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 271
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Jan 2014
Posts: 271 |
Drag a camper. I did this a year and a half ago. You pay a bit usury rates to camp in a public hookup, but that's just part of the game. Taking your own housing is the safest option, PLUS, and this is a tremendous benefit - you can hook up and leave an area without having to worry about finding a new place for your head.
Still plenty of places to hunt. Still plenty of birds. We based out of Stanley.
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Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 424
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 424 |
I will second what Greg offered you for advise, Steve. I will add to it that the hunting around Plentywood and Froid is much tighter now than it was as recent as two years ago.
Vandalism from those parasites that have followed the money to the Bakken has caused a huge number of local landowners to either shut down their grounds or limit access to those who have hunted on them for years.
That has forced the huge number of Canadian hunters who hunt that region the first couple of weeks over on to the blocks. Between the normal pressure on the blocks and the added pressure of those hunters and those who work the Bakken hunting the blocks, the hunting to say the least is discouraging.
Two years ago, I took Daryl Hallquist, Dr. Bob and another gentleman into that area. All morning long, across maybe a dozen blocks, we found two or more rigs of hunters already pounding the cover in every block we looked at in a 60 mile radius.
I finally call a landowner I know and was able to get us on his farm where we shot a limit or two of roosters.
Finally let me warn you of staying in a camper. The occupants of such are principle targets for armed robberies. The parasites capitalise on the isolation of a camper from help and the lack of cell service to call for help.
Since June of 2013, in the little town of Sidney, MT, the FBI, the DEA and the MBI have all opened full service field offices.
That many major law agencies being put into a town of 5,500 residents should tell everyone something. BTW, Sidney has and has had for decades, both a very good police force and a sheriff's departments.
bc
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Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 6,980 Likes: 396
Sidelock
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OP
Sidelock
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 6,980 Likes: 396 |
So how far east does someone need to drive into ND to miss the madness of the oil patch?
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Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 424
Sidelock
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Sidelock
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 424 |
Roughly? Bismarck. The pay to play grounds around Mott, Regent and New England are more or less insulated from the madness, as are some areas north of Hettinger and around Stranton.
I will tell you for certain, that other than the pay to play operations in SD, ND now has the best pheasant hunting. MT has never had pheasant hunting on the same level as SW ND. Less so now, what with the patch madness.
Ethanol has caused the SD East River farmers to drain every slough and bulldoze every shelterbelt that will give them another acre for corn.
As such, it is just a matter of time before the flood of people going into ND causes landowners to drop out of their PLOTS program and go to daily fees.
Lots of out of staters are in large part what caused ND to go to a specific number of days permitted on a non-resident license about a decade ago and it is what grew the play for play status of SD.
Please! Let no one go ballistic over that last paragraph, but the truth is that the pheasant cover that is productive is no where near the miles and miles of prairie on the High Plains and being finite it will only accommodate so many hunters. As the traveling hunter finds less in SD and MT he will concentrate on ND and ND will respond to the pressure.
bc
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