Despite apparent lag in Ohio's to-date deer kills, expect catch up from on-going gun deer season

Everything is going to change – and radically so – with the next installment of the weekly to-date deer kill.

With the seven-day statewide firearms deer-hunting season underway that has so far seen a very respectable kill, the numbers will no doubt jump and the leader board almost certainly will undergo revision. It’s kind of the way that early returns on election night must be consumed with a grain of salt.

Upheaval is almost assured. Thus we won’t dwell too deeply on the to-date as of November 21^st figures.

What we do see is that to-date as of November 21st, 67,291 deer were taken, including 34,930 antlered deer verses 32,361 antlerless deer.

That is correct, more antlered than antlerless deer have been shot, which goes against conventional wisdom that says more does and button bucks are killed than are antlered deer. Which is true but only after the various gun seasons are included. What we see here is the selectivity of archery hunters who often place a premium on deer with antlers.

Again, anticipate a reversal for the next two weekly to-date tallies. This is when the impact of the seven-day firearms deer-hunting season are factored into the numbers.

In any event, for comparison purposes – and once again for emphasis sake, statistics are meaningless unless they can be compared to and against other statistics - the comparable 2016 November 22^nd to-date figures showed that 72,483 deer were shot. Enfolded into that total were 38,378 antlered deer and 34,105 antlerless deer (does, button bucks and bucks with short antlers less than three inches long).

As noted, both the number of antlered and antlerless deer shot has fallen to-date this season when compared to the same period in 2016. Ah, but understand that for opening day of this year’s firearms deer-hunting season the number of animals killed was roughly 4,000 critters more; which very possibly could translate into the next to-date 2017 tally catching up to the comparable 2016 to-date tally.

Or not, depending on how the rest of this year’s seven-day gun deer season shakes out.

In a quick run-down of the this year’s to-date – as of November 21^st – deer kill we see that 29 of Ohio’s 88 counties are now members of the One Thousand-Plus Club, or those counties which have experienced deer kills exceeding one thousand animals each.

That 29 figure is pretty cool, too, given that the compared 2016 to-date ledger listed just 23 counties in this group.

Based on the data gleaned and distilled from the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s computerized game-check system, the Top Ten Counties (with their comparable 2016 to-date figures in parentheses) are: Coshocton – 2,439 (2,318); Licking -1,948 (2,157); Tuscarawas – 1,882 (1,752); Ashtabula – 1,769 (1,761); Muskingum – 1,713 (1,773); Holmes – 1,576 (1,548); Knox – 1,590 (1,745); Guernsey – 1,533 (1,543); Trumbull – 1,470 (1,645); Richland – 1,307 (1,301).

Only two counties have failed to see November 22^nd 2017 to-date kills exceed at least 200 animals. They are Fayette County with 139 deer and Van Wert County with 176 deer.

Once again, importantly and however, the real switcher-o will come with the next two weekly reporting periods.

- By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net