UPDATED with kill stats. A gun deer season that didn't go "bang"

Three counties, four trips, 20.5 hours, and 238 miles.

And zero deer. That’s not as in the number of deer shot; rather, in the number of deer not even seen.

Yep, zilch, naught, nadir, nil.

So is “zero” a positive number or a negative number? Since there are no Mayans or Babylonians around to argue “natural number” or “placeholder,” I’m going to chime in and say “negative.”

All for a very simple reason, too. That being, during the just-concluded statewide firearms deer-hunting season the number of deer that crossed my visual range was in the aforementioned placeholder status.

Of course the failure to see a deer was not of my choosing. Nor was it an integral part of my game plan prior to the season’s start a little more than one week ago.

Back then the idea was to cherry-pick the most likely locale where a deer would saunter by. This site was a grove of red oaks where I had placed a ground blind and augmented it with a game feeder filled with $40 worth of shelled corn.

When that idea didn’t pan out the next try was to occupy another ground blind. That station is anchored to a spot in a Lake County community where firearms are not permitted. Again, the results were the same, no deer seen.

A third go-round found me back where I was on opening day. Ah, once again, no deer. Which was a bit surprising and even a little more disappointing.

Especially given that a couple of hunting buddies had storm-trooped their way through the woods in an effort to dislodge a deer that wasn’t there.

By the time the season’s main spring was very nearly unwound Sunday even I was in familiar territory. As much to do with results as with the location.

As the last hour of the season faded into history a heavy mist hissed through the woodlot. The somberness of the woodlot only helped to stall the deer-activity meter from registering.

If I’m sounding disappointed, well, of course I am.

But if you also think that I’m complaining; really, not so much.

I’ve hunted deer enough to understand that every hunter is going to experience a dry stretch. It happens to the best of us.

And yet - as the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset opined in his “Meditations on Hunting” - success every time out is not a desirable thing.

Neither, however, is a continual thread of unhappy failures as this course will surely lead to abandonment.

So sometime later this week I will occupy my archery hunting ground blind and not only hope but expect that deer will come within missile range of my crossbow.

And if that doesn’t work then I’ll be somewhere during the Dec. 15-16 statewide bonus firearms deer-hunting season.

Likewise, if THAT two-day opportunity fails to generate a deer I can look forward to January’s four-day muzzle-loading season. Plus knowing that the archery season doesn’t shutter the windows until Feb. 3.

It’s a long road, this deer hunting thing. And I fully understand that at some point the highway will level out and all the potholes will be paved over.

Until then, well, maybe I’ll just slow down and try to enjoy the view.

After a fast start on opening day, the kill total for the state’s just-concluded seven-day firearms deer-hunting season sputtered some.

When compared with 2011’s final seven-day gun deer hunt, the total number of animals killed was off 3.7 percent for the just-concluded 2012 hunt version.

In all, says the Ohio Division of Wildlife, 86,964 animals were shot for the season sandwiched between Nov. 26 to Dec., 2, inclusive. In 2011, Ohio’s hunters killed 90,282 deer for the one-week hunt.

Here is the list of deer checked by hunters during the just-concluded 2012 deer-gun hunting season. The 2011 numbers are in parentheses with figures supplied by the Ohio Division of Wildlife:

Adams: 1,554 (1,727); Allen: 393 (293); Ashland: 1,240 (1,096); Ashtabula: 2,052 (1,777); Athens: 1,983 (2,059); Auglaize: 362 (192); Belmont: 2,127 (2,431); Brown: 1,094 (1,229); Butler: 350 (345); Carroll: 2,062 (2,252); Champaign: 487 (554); Clark: 226 (276); Clermont: 835 (980); Clinton: 348 (373); Columbiana: 1,686 (1,738); Coshocton: 3,119 (3,690); Crawford: 543 (441); Cuyahoga: 30 (37); Darke: 312 (223); Defiance: 882 (725); Delaware: 620 (594); Erie: 171 (137); Fairfield: 1,040 (1,152); Fayette: 111 (104); Franklin: 176 (170); Fulton: 413 (302); Gallia: 1,747 (1,844); Geauga: 598 (623); Greene: 318 (287); Guernsey: 2,620 (2,982); Hamilton: 244 (298); Hancock: 558 (402); Hardin: 512 (354); Harrison: 2,370 (2,772); Henry: 347 (279); Highland: 1,347 (1,432); Hocking: 1,966 (2,184); Holmes: 1,837 (2,013); Huron: 1,006 (925); Jackson: 1,439 (1,515); Jefferson: 1,830 (2,044); Knox: 2,159 (2,480); * Lake: 207 (185); Lawrence: 1,286 (1,574); Licking: 2,271 (2,678); Logan: 755 (760); Lorain: 764 (739); Lucas: 158 (129); Madison: 141 (167); Mahoning: 664 (563); Marion: 410 (320); Medina: 596 (556); Meigs: 1,764 (1,974); Mercer: 318 (203); Miami: 241 (194); Monroe: 1,695 (1,960); Montgomery: 162 (144); Morgan: 1,712 (1,804); Morrow: 844 (851); Muskingum: 2,927 (3,223); Noble: 1,647 (2,028); Ottawa: 86 (81); Paulding: 551 (416); Perry: 1,726 (1,832); Pickaway: 500 (466); Pike: 973 (1,077); Portage: 608 (644); Preble: 323 (267); Putnam: 327 (238); Richland: 1,418 (1,714); Ross: 1,512 (1,723); Sandusky: 224 (195); Scioto: 1,138 (1,224); Seneca: 803 (603); Shelby: 456 (305); Stark: 833 (661); Summit: 163 (151); Trumbull: 1,237 (1,060); Tuscarawas: 2,860 (3,180); Union: 352 (354); Van Wert: 290 (194); Vinton: 1,583 (1,577); Warren: 406 (412); Washington: 2,163 (2,225); Wayne: 784 (644); Williams: 906 (787); Wood: 254 (208); Wyandot: 812 (661). Total: 86,964 (90,282).

*Lake County - Note than figures for Lake County would include any deer taken in Mentor during that community’s first-ever archery deer hunt.

 - Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischkorn@News-Herald.com
Twitter: @Fieldkorn