2015 to-date archery deer kill closing in on 2014's figure

With Ohio’s rut approaching its zenith, the state’s archers chalked up another 9,530 deer with the to-date total kill of whitetails now standing at 35,633 animals.

The weekly tally is presented each Wednesday and is established by the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s mandatory deer check-in process, based on total figures as of the appropriate Tuesday’s registration cut-off.

Last Wednesday’s recorded kill stood at 26,103 deer.

But the 9,530 animal kill figure is telling for a particularly noteworthy reason: It represents the highest figure for any of the comparable week-to-week kill differences. So far the Wildlife Division has generated six deer kill reporting periods.

Even in spite of some testy out-of-ordinary warm weather Ohio’s deer hunters are still taking to the fields and forests. For the first three days in November, temperatures have been the warmest in 12 years.

Yet more than a few hunters are reporting heightened buck activity while other archers are lamenting that snapshots provided by trail cameras overlooking bait stations show much reduced deer movement.

Both credit and blame can trace their existence to Ohio rut, a period when does come into heat and bucks often times abandon their normally skittish ways in order to find a receptive female ready to be bred.

By comparison, last year’s comparable to-date deer kill stood at 42,775 animals while its 2013 counterpart’s to-date tally was 44,891.

However, that being said, both the 2013 and 2014 to-date totals included figures brought to the discussion via their respective two-day/antlerless-only/muzzle-loading-only hunting seasons. No such season was held this year.

Consequently, if one were to remove the 5,608 deer killed during the 2013 early antlerless-only/muzzle-loading-only season; and the 6,613 animals killed during the 2014 early antlerless-only/muzzle-loading-only season their respective to-date deer kills would be 39,283 and 36,162 animals.

Thus, when laid side-by-side with 2013 the to-date 2015 archery kill is lower, by 3,650 animals.

Placing the 2014 to-date archery/only deer kill next to the 2015 to-date deer kill the difference is a statistically insignificant 529 animals in favor of the 2014 to-date kill.

The current leader board’s top deer-kill counties – in alphabetical order - are (with their previous week’s tally in parentheses): Ashtabula – 1,046 (770); Coshocton – 943 (631); Hamilton – 721 (599); Holmes – 818 (579); Knox – 885 (627); Licking – 1,166 (851); Lorain – 713 (552); Richland – 727 (522); and Trumbull – 998 (793).

Also, there are just two counties which have yet to cross the three-figure to-date deer kill: Fayette – 56; and Van Wert – 78. Their previous week’s to-date figures were 39 (Fayette County) and 50 (Van Wert County).

 - Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

 

Jeff is the retired News-Herald reporter who  covered the earth sciences, the area's three county park systems and the outdoors for the newspaper. During his 30 years with The News-Herald Jeff was the recipient of more than 100 state, regional and national journalism awards. He also is a columnist and features writer for the Ohio Outdoor News, which is published every other week and details the outdoors happenings in the state.