Poor weather condemns Ohio's 2018 gun deer season as worst in many years

Plagued by poor weather for nearly its entire seven-day length, Ohio’s firearms deer-hunting season saw the lowest general gun season harvest since at least 2011.

In all for the season that ran November November 26 through December 2, deer hunters in Ohio recorded a kill of 60,557 animals. The comparable number since 2011 are: 2011 – 90,282; 2013 – 86,963; 2014 – 75,408; 2015 – 73,399; 2016 – 66,758; 2017 – 72,814.

Clint McCoy – the Ohio Division of Wildlife biologist in charge of the state’s deer management program - notes that the drop is most acutely seen in the day-to-day deer kill numbers; “harvest” in the parlance of biologists.

Here, the opening day harvest was down to 35 percent from its three-year average for the day. Typically opening day accounts for 29.8 percent of the week’s total harvest but this year that statistic fell to 22 percent, McCoy says.

This downward trend began to correct itself through the first part of the week, only to reverse itself again by the week’s end, McCoy says.

“We’ve seen bad opening days before but usually we’ve been able to make it up through the rest of the week-long season,” McCoy said. “Not this year.”

On Tuesday, the kill for the day was up 7 ½ percent over its three-year average, while on Wednesday the harvest was up 32 percent over its three-year average for the day, McCoy says.

And Thursday saw its daily average climb a whopping 43 percent over its three-years average, too, says McCoy.

That when things tumbled off the cliff, says McCoy, as Friday’s harvest fell 12 1/2 percent from its three-year average for the day.

“Going into Friday, we had closed the season gap to within five percent of last year but that all-day rain on Saturday saw the harvest for the day down 50 percent from its three-year average, and Sunday was down down 26 percent from its three-year average for the day,” McCoy said.

The bottom line, says McCoy, the 2018 Ohio firearms deer-hunting season was without question, an anomaly.

All of which may be turn out to be a blessing in disguise for deer hunters looking to participate in the up-coming two-day, so-called “bonus” firearms deer-hunting season. This statewide season is set for December 15th and 16th.

“If we can get Mother Nature to cooperate with the weather, we should expect to see a pretty good two-day season,” McCoy said.

As for a look at this year’s gun deer season kill, only two of Ohio’s 88 counties registered gains over their respective 2017 firearms deer-hunting season total harvest numbers. And these are the adjacent counties of Lake and Geauga. The remaining 86 counties each saw declines.

Here are the unofficial county-by-county tallies for the just-concluded Ohio firearms deer-hunting season, held November 26^th through December 2^nd. The 2017 figures for each county is in parentheses: Adams: 955 (1,166); Allen: 250 (341); Ashland: 1,121 (1,363); Ashtabula: 2,022 (2,094); Athens: 1,322 (1,591); Auglaize: 268 (334); Belmont: 1,081 (1,239); Brown: 738 (1,029); Butler: 247 (352); Carroll: 1,449 (1,733); Champaign: 336 (431); Clark: 177 (197); Clermont: 548 (744); Clinton: 185 (303); Columbiana: 1,132 (1,338); Coshocton: 2,174 (2,576); Crawford: 496 (615); Cuyahoga: 39 (52); Darke: 215 (305); Defiance: 582 (745); Delaware: 352 (503); Erie: 222 (272); Fairfield: 618 (776); Fayette: 91 (140); Franklin: 141 (156); Fulton: 290 (322); Gallia: 1,145 (1,318); Geauga: 582 (538); Greene: 193 (229); Guernsey: 1,728 (2,014); Hamilton: 146 (191); Hancock: 403 (529); Hardin: 381 (529); Harrison: 1,285 (1,530); Henry: 258 (371); Highland: 802 (1,076); Hocking: 1,112 (1,370); Holmes: 1,286 (1,592); Huron: 860 (1,148); Jackson: 1,082 (1,230); Jefferson: 698 (832); Knox: 1,509 (1,965); Lake: 180 (163); Lawrence: 812 (907); Licking: 1,421 (1,789); Logan: 614 (754); Lorain: 628 (702); Lucas: 117 (119); Madison: 146 (186); Mahoning: 615 (649); Marion: 335 (432); Medina: 605 (620); Meigs: 1,233 (1,323); Mercer: 228 (310); Miami: 172 (251); Monroe: 1,100 (1,334); Montgomery: 122 (157); Morgan: 1,198 (1,459); Morrow: 547 (657); Muskingum: 1,917 (2,328); Noble: 1,264 (1,391); Ottawa: 111 (120); Paulding: 332 (446); Perry: 1,042 (1,278); Pickaway: 244 (342); Pike: 690 (761); Portage: 558 (560); Preble: 251 (300); Putnam: 230 (359); Richland: 1,137 (1,343); Ross: 937 (1,230); Sandusky: 216 (275); Scioto: 780 (898); Seneca: 733 (868); Shelby: 282 (394); Stark: 810 (881); Summit: 152 (159); Trumbull: 1,119 (1,250); Tuscarawas: 1,991 (2,335); Union: 281 (350); Van Wert: 175 (223); Vinton: 937 (1,234); Warren: 261 (313); Washington: 1,405 (1,572); Wayne: 696 (823); Williams: 543 (691); Wood: 273 (342); Wyandot: 596 (757). Total: 60,557 (72,814).

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net