MyOutdoorTV.com

If you live inside the city limits of Sioux Falls, S.D., you can sign up for a deer hunt. The idea is so popular that a lottery style drawing will be held to choose the hunters.

More than 100 people have applied to hunt deer within Sioux Falls city limits beginning this month, ensuring there will be a lottery to decide who gets licenses, according to the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.

Seventy bow hunting licenses are available for northeast Sioux Falls as a way to control a large deer population responsible for car accidents and property damage. Signups started last week and are open until Sept. 14.

Ron Schauer, regional Game, Fish & Parks wildlife manager, said last week the agency was confident more than 70 hunters would sign up. Those chosen from the lottery will be assigned two weeks from Sept. 29 to Jan. 4. They also will be assigned to one of 10 designated hunting areas.

Only bow hunting is allowed, and those with licenses can hunt antlerless deer in the area from Interstate 229 to the eastern edge of Sioux Falls, primarily north and east of Rice Street and the Big Sioux River and south of Benson Road. Officials estimate 300 to 400 deer live there.

Sioux Falls resident Kevin Haberman signed up last week and is looking forward to hunting close to home.

"There's not a whole lot of public hunting close to Sioux Falls," he said. Interest has been high since city councilors approved the permits Aug. 16. The local GF&P office has fielded about half a dozen calls a day.

It will be the first time the city has enlisted the help of private hunters to thin the herd. Earlier this year, Sioux Falls Animal Control officers combed the area and shot 15 deer in two months.
The stretch of Rice Street is one of the highest car-deer accident areas in the state, Sioux Falls Police Chief Doug Barthel said.

Since 2008, deer have been responsible for more than three dozen car accidents in that section.