Hiccups delay release of Ohio's first-ever doe-only blackpowder season harvest

A computer glitch and a nearly forgotten federal holiday tripped up releasing the harvest figures for Ohio's first-ever antlerless-only/muzzle-loading-only deer-hunting season.

This season ran this past weekend, October 12 and 13, and was implemented amongst much pro and con fanfare.

When the pall of black-powder (or its substitute) smoke cleared, the two-day season’s hunters killed 5,608 antlerless deer; button bucks plus adult does and fawn does.

On top of the heap with a reported harvest of 200 deer was Ashtabula County, followed by Licking County with 163 harvested deer, then Guernsey County with a reported kill of 144 antlerless animals, and just ahead of Muskingum County with 143 reported harvested deer.

Every one of Ohio's 88 counties saw a recording of deer killed during the two-day season, too.

Among the counties with the fewest number of deer reported harvested were Cuyahoga County (5), Fayette County (7), and Franklin and Summit counties (9 each).

Also, 16 counties saw harvest figures in triple digits.

In the end the actual total harvest fell within the crystal ball prognostications of the state's leading deer-management supervisor.

“I anticipated we'd see a harvest of between 5,000 and 8,000 deer,” said Mike Tonkovich, the Ohio Division of Wildlife's deer management administrator.

Even so, Tonkovich admitted there were some issues. Not with the season, per say, but with the system designed to provide timely statistical results.

Among them was some sort of computer software hiccup exchange between the state's computer and the Missouri-based server the agency relies on to manage, record and tabulate.

“Initially, according to our records we didn't kill any deer,” Tonkovich said with a chuckle. “But our Office of Information and Technology got it all sorted out.”

An issue that wasn't factored into the equation when the Wildlife Division's leaders and eight-member Ohio Wildlife Council approved the new hunt was that the Monday following the two-day season also happened to be Columbus Day.

And Columbus Day is a federally declared holiday whereby most state and federal employees enjoy a paid day off from work.

That perk applies to those folks who work for the Wildlife Division.

Consequently, said Tonkovich, no one was in the office on Monday (October 14) either to straighten out the computer glitch or to provide the media and others with the season's harvest figures until today, Tuesday, October 15.

And hunters can anticipate that in the future this same back-to-back antlerless-only/muzzle-loading-only-season/Columbus Day scenario will become the norm and not the exception.

That is, so long as the Wildlife Division believes such a season is useful in promoting a reduction in the state's deer herd, Tonkovich says as well.

Yet it's going to take time before this newly established strategy will play itself out, says Tonkovich.

“There are no guarantees that this antlerless-only, muzzle-loading-only season will become part of our long-term deer management program,” Tonkovich says. “We'll have to look at the overall antlerless harvest in February to see how things stack up and how it may or may not have changed the dynamics of our management plan.”

At the core too will be how many of the season's successful hunters will continue to go afield in an effort to legally shoot their second, third – or more – deer, says Tonkovich.

Which is asking a lot from hunters.

A cold, hard look at deer harvest statistics and hunter participation shows that last year 73 percent of successful Ohio deer hunters killed only one animal while 20 percent harvested two deer.

After that, the figures of hunter harvest plummet. Only five percent of Ohio's successful deer hunters shot three animals last year while only two percent harvested four or more deer, says Tonkovich.

“We want hunters to stay out there in the field,” Tonkovich said.

 

The county-by-county breakdown is:

 

County YR 2013 YR 2012 % Change

 

Adams 135 0 /0

Allen 46 0 /0

Ashland 111 0 /0

Ashtabula 200 0 /0

Athens 117 0 /0

Auglaize 39 0 /0

Belmont 99 0 /0

Brown 94 0 /0

Butler 57 0 /0

Carroll 120 0 /0

Champagin 36 0 /0

Clark 28 0 /0

Clermont 91 0 /0

Clinton 34 0 /0

Columbiana 128 0 /0

Coshocton 138 0 /0

Crawford 32 0 /0

Cuyahoga 5 0 /0

Darke 26 0 /0

Defiance 48 0 /0

Delaware 38 0 /0

Erie 25 0 /0

Fairfield 51 0 /0

Fayette 7 0 /0

Franklin 9 0 /0

Fulton 29 0 /0

Gallia 60 0 /0

Geauga 63 0 /0

Greene 26 0 /0

Guernsey 144 0 /0

Hamilton 18 0 /0

Hancock 31 0 /0

Hardin 43 0 /0

Harrison 115 0 /0

Henry 14 0 /0

Highland 79 0 /0

Hocking 103 0 /0

Holmes 89 0 /0

Huron 80 0 /0

Jackson 62 0 /0

Jefferson 82 0 /0

Knox 141 0 /0

Lake 18 0 /0

Lawrence 54 0 /0

Licking 164 0 /0

Logan 77 0 /0

Lorain 83 0 /0

Lucas 28 0 /0

Madison 19 0 /0

Mahon1ng 75 0 /0

Marion 27 0 /0

Medina 68 0 /0

Meigs 88 0 /0

Mercer 26 0 /0

Miami 20 0 /0

Monroe 68 0 /0

Montgomery 18 0 /0

Morgan 65 0 /0

Morrow 53 0 /0

Muskingum 143 0 /0

Noble 83 0 /0

Ottawa 10 0 /0

Paulding 56 0 /0

Perry 54 0 /0

Pickaway 18 0 /0

Pike 51 0 /0

Portage 64 0 /0

Preble 41 0 /0

Putnam 33 0 /0

Richland 105 0 /0

Ross 85 0 /0

Sandusky 27 0 /0

Scioto 64 0 /0

Seneca 69 0 /0

Shelby 63 0 /0

Stark 66 0 /0

Summit 9 0 /0

Trumbull 117 0 /0

Tuscarawas 115 0 /0

Union 32 0 /0

Van Wert 19 0 /0

Vinton 79 0 /0

Warren 39 0 /0

Washington 72 0 /0

Wayne 83 0 /0

Williams 93 0 /0

Wood 16 0 /0

Wyandot 58 0 /0

 

Statewide Totals

 

5,608 0 /0