ND deer hunters have 60% success

 BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – Fewer than two-thirds of hunters bagged a deer during last year’s gun season in North Dakota.
 
     The state Game and Fish Department says 43,500 hunters killed about 26,300 deer, for a success rate of only about 60 percent. That was up from 55 percent the previous year, however.
 
     The 48,000 deer gun licenses made available by the state Game and Fish Department last year was the lowest since 1980, due to declining habitat and several tough winters that had taken a toll on deer.
 
     Game and Fish is in the process of determining recommendations for licenses in the 2015 deer proclamation. The proclamation will be sent to the governor’s office for approval in late April.