Ohio's deer hunters now taking huge advantage of species' annual autumn rut

In the see-saw swing between Ohio deer hunter success and white-tails giving the slip, the state’s sportsmen came out ahead in the latest weekly deer kill report when stacked up against the same data-collecting period in 2017.

Based upon figures available via the Ohio Division of Wildlife, as of November 6th, 2018 Ohio’s deer hunters had killed 38,326 animals. Among them were 17,683 antlered deer.

For the comparable period ending November 7th, 2017, Ohio’s deer hunters had shot 37,861 animals, of which 17,354 were antlered deer.

Also in further mining the data, between the October 30t, 2018 and the November 6^th, 2018 reporting periods, Ohio hunters had killed an additional 11,621 animals – or about 30 percent of the 2018 to-date total. This almost certainly indicates the vulnerability of deer during the rut.

And of Ohio’s 88 counties, 48 saw increases in their respective to-date deer kills when the November 6th, 2018 and November 7th, 2017 reporting periods are examined side by side. Three counties saw identical reporting period kills while the remaining counties experienced declines.

That 48 figure likewise is a huge jump from the October 30th, 2018 reporting period where just 26 counties had seen increases from the respective October 31st, 2017 deer kill numbers.

Among the beneficiaries of increases in their respective November 6^th, 2018 kills when laid side-by-side with their comparable November 7^th, 2017 kills (with their corresponding November 7^th, 2017 numbers in parentheses) were: Carroll – 614 (560); Coshocton – 1,431 (1,305); Gallia – 422 (350); Jackson – 600 (549); Knox – 953 (894); Media – 571 (515); Meigs – 534 (462); Mercer – 176 (154); Muskingum – 891 (859); Portage – 705 (589); Scioto – 409 (377); Seneca – 417 (367); Stark – 727 (698); and Wayne – 533 (485).

Among the counties with decreases in their November 6^th, 2018 kills when compared to their respective November 7^th, 2017 kills (with their corresponding November 7^th, 2017 numbers in parentheses) were: Adams 651 (676); Ashtabula – 1,059 (1,171); Butler – 357 (410); Erie – 233 (255); Fayette – 56 (68); Geauga – 451 (506); Holmes – 940 (972); Lake – 252 (300); Lucas – 235 (278); Morrow – 330 (358); Richland – 733 (788); Summit – 491 (517); Trumbull – 1,022 (1,040); and Williams – 362 (382).

The three counties posting identical numbers were: Guernsey – 766; Montgomery – 224; and Union – 249.

- Jeffrey L. Frishkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net