Ohio's proposed new rules would simplify check-in life for successful deer/turkey hunters

The latest deer-hunting regulation proposals contain language that is intended to make life easier for successful hunters; not to make life more productive for Ohio’s deer herd.

And the same goes or turkey and turkey hunters, too.

Presented to the eight-member Ohio Wildlife Council on February 14^th, the request is to allow hunters to transport to their residence or temporary lodging their deer or turkey without a game tag being attached to the animal or bird, so as long as the necessary permit is properly filled out and the hunter remains with the animal.

Among the other additional rule changes up for consideration is one that allows hunters to carry either a printed or an electronic version of their valid deer or turkey permit.

In each case the purpose is an incremental step toward further utilizing electronic methods for buying, accessing and recording license and tag sales as well as required data submission and collection, says Ken Fitz, the recently re-installed wildlife law administrator for the Wildlife Division.

Of particular interest to hunters, says Fitz, would be that hunters no longer would confront the requirement of tagging a deer or a turkey at the point of kill. Only after the deer or turkey is delivered to some destination would a tag have to be attached, Fitz says.

“The idea actually came from our District Four (Southeast Ohio) wildlife officers as part of a working group discussion on proposals,” Fitz said. They were seeing that tags were getting lost on deer that were being dragged from where they were shot, or hunters were field dressing a deer, moving it a few feet and than the animal being tagged.”

While such activity is a violation of proper tagging requirements, Fitz said his law enforcement staff was reluctant to write tickets for a simple lapse in judgment or because a hunter was unfamiliar with the nuances of following the rules to its letter.

However – and this is a huge however, says Fitz – an animal or bird still must eventually bear some form of tagging that includes the hunters, name, county of kill, as well as the date and time of kill.

Thus, once a successful hunter has gotten back to the vehicle, garage, home, barn, game processor, or wherever the animal – be it bird or beast – better have the proper paperwork, Fitz said.

“A hunter just can’t drop off a deer and leave it untagged and then go back out into the field to keep hunting or to assist; it must be tagged first,” Fitz said.

In effect, the Wildlife Division wants to ramp up the opportunity for electronic savvy hunters to utilize their equipment by not only buying their licenses and tags via so-called “smart phones” but also recording that data which then can be accessed by Wildlife Division officers, Fitz said.

Not to worry, though, hunters who do not own a smart phone or those persons who simply prefer to continue using some form of paper documentation. That method will continue, Fitz said.

“We recognize that not everyone has a smart phone,” he said. “It would be an option, just like the paper tag hunters use now will be an option.”

As for that infernal 18-digit number a successful deer or turkey hunter must obtain via a telephone call or on-line with a computer, tablet or other such device, the Wildlife Division very much wants to cut it, Fitz said.

Hopefully by one-half,” he said.

It was also proposed to change the name of the antlerless deer permit to deer management permit. Another proposal is to require hunters who harvest a deer within a disease surveillance area (DSA) to deliver the head to an inspection station only during the seven-day gun season rather than all firearm seasons.  

Overview of proposed deer hunting seasons for 2019-2020:

• Deer archery: Sept. 28, 2019-Feb. 2, 2020
• Youth deer gun: Nov. 23-24, 2019
• Deer gun: Dec. 2-8, 2019; Dec. 21-22, 2019
• Deer muzzleloader: Jan. 4-7, 2020

- By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net