That being said, I cringed last week when I saw a bill had been introduced in the North Dakota Senate that would have allowed any certified hunter education instructor who had taught in the past calendar year to receive a license to hunt any legal deer without having to go through the lottery. In addition, any hunter education instructor who had taught each of the preceding five years would be issued one bighorn sheep, elk or moose license.
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Often referred to as “the big three,” bighorn sheep, elk and moose in North Dakota all are once-in-a-lifetime hunting licenses issued by lottery, with demand far exceeding available supply. As an example, nearly 17,000 North Dakota residents applied for one of the five bighorn sheep licenses available in 2020; a sixth tag fetched $83,000 last March in an auction sponsored by the Midwest Chapter of the Wild Sheep Foundation.