Ohio's 2016 to-date deer kill continues to lag behind 2015's comparable numbers

Ohio’s deer kill continues to sputter and spit as the latest to-date tabulation indicates that 4,767 fewer animals have been taken through October 25^th when stacked up against the roughly parallel period in 2015.

To-date and as of October 25^th, Ohio’s deer hunters have killed 21,336 white-tails. For the comparable to-date period through October 27^th of last year, Ohio hunters had killed 26,103 deer.

Broken down a little further the current to-date antlered deer kill – based on the weekly raw tabulations provided by the Ohio Division of Wildlife - stands at 6,948 animals. For the roughly same to-date period last year the number of antlered deer killed was 8,679. Doing the math this means that Ohio hunters had bagged 1,731 more bucks for the same time frame last year than hunters have killed thus far in 2016.

However, looked at from a different angle and we see that Ohio deer hunters shot an additional 5,736 deer between the October 18^th, 2016 reporting period and the October 25^th reporting period. Just for comparison, the kill differential between the October 11^th, 2016 reporting period and the October 18^th, 2016 reporting period was 3,576 deer. Thus it could be interpreted that hunters are beginning to catch up.

In examining the most recent tabulations, here – in alphabetical order - are some of the noteworthy statistics for specific counties (their respective and comparable 2015 to-date figures are in parentheses): Adams – 378 (541); Ashland – 362 (427); Ashtabula – 641 (770); Athens – 316 (393); Brown – 255 (317); Carroll – 292 (401); Clermont – 364 (496); Columbiana – 360 (439); Coshocton – 666 (631); Cuyahoga – 294 (229); Delaware – 269 (355); Franklin – 166 (177); Geauga – 323 (404); Guernsey – 360 (458); Hamilton – 424 (599); Hancock – 147 (160); Harrison – 319 (417); Hocking – 274 (400); Holmes – 492 (579); Huron – 255 (308); Jackson – 308 (306); Knox – 515 (627); Lake – 201 (228); Licking – 643 (851); Lorain – 445 (552); Lucas – 157 (217); Medina – 318 (373); Meigs – 272 (334); Morgan – 226 (263); Muskingum – 421 (465); Noble – 237 (284); Perry – 249 (287); Portage – 376 (436); Richland – 431 (522); Ross – 293 (386); Seneca – 220 (295); Stark – 414 (503); Summit – 326 (381); Trumbull – 682 (793); Tuscarawas – 474 (568); Vinton – 206 (269); Washington – 237 (254); Wayne – 282 (331); Williams – 274 (304); and Wyandot – 161 (194).

From the figures it shows that the leader board’s present to-date Top Five are Trumbull County – 682; Coshocton County – 666; Licking County – 643; Ashtabula County – 641; and Knox County – 515.

Note that last year for the same period the success was much greater. The tally shows that in 2015 there was one county with a to-date kill of at least 800 animals (Licking - 851), two counties with respective to-date kills of at least 700 animals each (Trumbull – 793, and Ashtabula – 770); and also two counties with respective to-date kills of at least 600 animals each (Coshocton – 631, and Knox – 627).

In terms of the counties bringing up the rear, there are 12 to-date counties which have yet to break the triple-digit threshold. Last year for the roughly same to-date period there were only six such counties.

In alphabetical order the present (and as of October 25^th) double digit reporting counties in alphabetical order are: Auglaize – 92 ; Clinton – 83; Darke – 98; Fayette – 26; Henry – 67; Madison – 50; Marion – 86; Mercer – 89; Ottawa – 65; Paulding – 85; Pickaway – 71; and Van Wert – 58.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net