UPDATED THROUGHOUT Ohio's 2017 gun deer season marred by a fatality

(Immediately below the main blog story are the complete Ohio county-by-county 2017 seven-day firearms deer-hunting season results, and followed by the complete 2017 Ohio fall wild turkey-hunting season results)

A 62-year-old Florida man – and former Ashtabula City resident - was shot and killed November 27^th in Ashtabula County during the opening day of Ohio’s seven-day firearms deer-hunting season.

Shot while legally hunting on private land in Ashtabula County’s Monroe Township was Randy Lee Gozzard of St. Petersburg, Florida. The incident – as hunting accidents are called in the vernacular of Ohio’s wildlife agency officials – occurred about 2 p.m. off Horton Road, located just to the west of the Conneaut Creek’s West Branch.

Gozzard was hunting with three other persons. His was the first hunting-incident/accident-related fatality in Ohio since 2014.

A 1973 graduate of Edgewood Senior High School in Ashtabula, Gozzard retired to Florida in 1996 with his wife of 26 years, Judee. Besides his wife, Gozzard is survived by five children, four siblings, a father, and 13 grandchildren.

The Gozzard matter is being conducted via an investigation by the Ohio Division of Wildlife with agency officials stating at press time that they are yet unsure of how the fatal shot was fired or who fired it.

“We’ll be trying to recreate the incident scene, figure out where everybody was standing, what happened as well as why it happened,” said Jarod Roof, the law enforcement supervisor for the Wildlife Division’s District Three (Northeast Ohio) office in Akron.

Assisting in the investigation was Pennsylvania Game Commission Wildlife Conservation Officer Lawrence Hergenroeder and his nearly three-year-old Labrador retriever, “Storm.”

Hergenroeder and Storm are one of three Game Commission canine-forensic special investigative teams trained in locating such things as cartridges and shotshells, along with evidence and wildlife detection as well as human tracking, said Commission communications manager Travis Lau.

The Wildlife Division will have such a team established in each of the agency’s five wildlife districts by next summer, agency officials say.

John Windau – media spokesman for the Wildlife Division – said also that his agency follows a strict set of standards and procedures for conducting such investigations.

“In addition, our investigators have attended the International Hunter Education Association training academy on handling hunter incidents,” Windau said.

“We also work in cooperation with local law enforcement agencies, as well as with other state agencies, including the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.”

Asked how long it takes to conduct such investigations, Windau said “it varies from case to case, depending on the facts and circumstances.”

“Investigations on hunter incidents are given the highest priority,” he said.  

Following the investigation the evidence is then turned over to the county prosecutor for a determination of whether charges, if any, will be filed, Windau said as well.

Ohio law does stipulate that all hunters participating in any firearms deer-hunting season must wear as an outer garment a vest, coat, jacket or coveralls made from solid blaze orange or camouflaged blaze orange material.

The state also recorded four non-fatal hunting-related incidents, a dip from last year's seven such incidents.

As for the number of hunting incidents in Ohio since 2013, these are the statistics provided by the Ohio Division of Wildlife: 2013 – 4 non-fatal and 3 fatal; 2014 – 3 non-fatal and 1 fatal; 2015 – 4 non-fatal and zero fatal; 2016 – 7 non-fatal and zero fatal.

As for the number of hunting licenses sold and deer tags sold for the past two years in Ohio, the details are: For 2016, the number of hunting licenses sold was 388,036 and the number of deer permits sold was 445,166. For 2017, the number of hunting licenses to-date is 345,532 and the number of deer permits sold to-date is 374,011.

2017 FIREARMS DEER-HUNTING SEASON RUN-DOWN

With the 2017 gun deer-hunting season now assigned to the files of Ohio’s hunting history, the state experienced a nearly 10 percent increase in the deer kill from that seen in 2016.

A total of 72,814 deer were shot during Ohio’s just-concluded 2017 firearms deer-hunting season compared to the 66,758 animals that were taken during the state’s 2016 firearms deer-hunting season. During Ohio’s 2015 seven-day deer-hunting season, hunters shot 73,392 white-tails.

Also, only 11 of Ohio’s 88 counties failed to increase the number of deer killed in their respective counties during the state’s 2017 gun deer-hunting season when stacked up to their respective 2016 gun deer-hunting season totals: Allen, Belmont, Defiance, Franklin, Fulton, Harrison, Jefferson, Lake, Lucas, Meigs, and Summit.

The 2017 Top Ten leader board (with their respective 2016 total gun deer-hunting season figures in parentheses) were: Coshocton – 2,576 (2,325); Tuscarawas – 2,335 (2,035); Muskingum – 2,328 (2,112); Ashtabula – 2,094 (1,946); Guernsey -2,014 (1,885); Knox – 1,965 (1,942); Licking – 1,789 (1,609); Carroll – 1,733 (1,494); Holmes -1,592 (1,484); Athens – 1,591 (1,377).

Here is the list of all white-tailed deer checked by hunters during the just-concluded week-long 2017 firearms deer-hunting season with their respective 2016 numbers in parentheses - Adams: 1,166 (1,082); Allen: 341 (363); Ashland: 1,363 (1,225); Ashtabula: 2,094 (1,946); Athens: 1,591 (1,377); Auglaize: 334 (268); Belmont: 1,239 (1,360); Brown: 1,029 (823); Butler: 352 (289); Carroll: 1,733 (1,494); Champaign: 431 (356); Clark: 197 (184); Clermont: 744 (542); Clinton: 303 (260); Columbiana: 1,338 (1,307); Coshocton: 2,576 (2,325); Crawford: 615 (569); Cuyahoga: 52 (47); Darke: 305 (259); Defiance: 745 (773); Delaware: 503 (411); Erie: 272 (206); Fairfield: 776 (681); Fayette: 140 (108); Franklin: 156 (157); Fulton: 322 (362); Gallia: 1,318 (1,211); Geauga: 538 (479);

Greene: 229 (203); Guernsey: 2,014 (1,885); Hamilton: 191 (155); Hancock: 529 (454); Hardin: 529 (477); Harrison: 1,530 (1,573); Henry: 371 (345); Highland: 1,076 (948); Hocking: 1,370 (1,288); Holmes: 1,592 (1,484); Huron: 1,148 (1,074); Jackson: 1,230 (1,031); Jefferson: 832 (1,138); Knox: 1,965 (1,942); Lake: 163 (167); Lawrence: 907 (795); Licking: 1,789 (1,609); Logan: 754 (639); Lorain: 702 (683); Lucas: 119 (129); Madison: 186 (158); Mahoning: 649 (594); Marion: 432 (403); Medina: 620 (604); Meigs: 1,323 (1,373); Mercer: 310 (262); Miami: 251 (196); Monroe: 1,334 (1,131); Montgomery: 157 (103); Morgan: 1,459 (1,178); Morrow: 657 (626); Muskingum: 2,328 (2,112); Noble: 1,391 (1,271); Ottawa: 120 (105); Paulding: 446 (425); Perry: 1,278 (1,156); Pickaway: 342 (270); Pike: 761 (753); Portage: 560 (559); Preble: 300 (235); Putnam: 359 (274); Richland: 1,343 (1,228); Ross: 1,230 (1,102); Sandusky: 275 (219); Scioto: 898 (890); Seneca: 868 (835); Shelby: 394 (334); Stark: 881 (798); Summit: 159 (174); Trumbull: 1,250 (1,144); Tuscarawas: 2,335 (2,045); Union: 350 (271); Van Wert: 223 (211); Vinton: 1,234 (1,111); Warren: 313 (236); Washington: 1,572 (1,502); Wayne: 823 (730); Williams: 691 (655); Wood: 342 (286); Wyandot: 757 (716). Total: 72,814 (66,758).

OHIO’S 2017 FALL TURKEY SEASON KILL BY THE NUMBERS 

Ohio’s fall turkey hunters did not bring home many birds for their Thanksgiving day dinners. 

Indeed, the decline in the total season kill from the fall 2016 season was precipitous: Try more than one-half. The total kill for the just concluded fall season was 1,053 birds of either sex – a decline of 1,115 turkeys from 2016’s total fall turkey kill of 2,168 birds.

Excluding the 11 counties open for the their first-ever fall wild turkey-hunting seasons, of the remaining 56 counties open to the fall venture only two – Delaware and Morrow – posted gains while two other counties – Hamilton and Williams – posted respective identical fall season kills.

Some of the declines were dramatic as well. Examples included Hocking County which went from a fall kill of 57 turkeys in 2016 to just eight birds for the entire 2017 fall season; Ashtabula County, which droppd from 66 birds in 2016 to 46 birds this past season; Guernsey County which saw its fall turkey kill drop from 79 birds in 2016 to 31 birds this past season; and Monroe County which experienced a tumble of 86 birds in 2016 to just 22 turkeys this time around.

Ohio Division of Wildlife biologists were anticipating a decline. The reason was that in the spring of 2016 there was a massive emergence of 17-year cicadas, which are high in protein and eagerly sought out by adult and growing poult wild turkeys. This factor allowed for both higher than average turkey production and power than usual poult turkey mortality.

What resulted was a huge crop of turkeys for hunters to take advantage of in 2016 and which went missing this year, Wildlife Division officials say.

Not lost either, says these same officials, the number of fall turkey permits being sold continues to slip as well. For many hunters buying a fall turkey tag is an insurance policy that if a bird is encountered during the fall season while the sport is out for something else the bird can then be legally shot, Wildlife Division officials contend.

Here are the total figures for Ohio’s 2017 fall wild turkey-hunting season with their respective 2016 figures in parentheses. Those new counties open for the first time are noted with an asterick.

Adams: 20 (30); Allen* : 4 (0); Ashland: 15 (25); Ashtabula: 46 (66); Athens: 15 (63); Belmont: 23 (47); Brown: 9 (20); Butler: 6 (13); Carroll: 19 (30); Champaign*: 3 (0); Clermont: 15 (28); Columbiana: 22 (31); Coshocton: 54 (94); Crawford*: 3 (0); Cuyahoga: 2 (9); Defiance: 9 (26); Delaware: 11 (10); Fairfield: 6 (24); Fulton*: 6 (0); Franklin: 13 (2); Gallia: 31 (57); Geauga: 16 (32); Guernsey: 31 (79); Hamilton: 11 (11); Hardin*: 3 (0); Harrison: 28 (68); Henry*: 3 (0); Highland: 25 (34); Hocking: 8 (57); Holmes: 26 (74); Huron: 5 (13); Jackson: 18 (50); Jefferson: 19 (39); Knox: 17 (43); Lake: 9 (12); Lawrence: 12 (32); Licking: 30 (54); Logan*: 4 (0); Lorain: 16 (19); Mahoning: 11 (27); Medina: 17 (28); Meigs: 20 (79); Monroe: 22 (86); Morgan: 12 (52); Morrow: 19 (8); Muskingum: 20 (64); Noble: 19 (74); Paulding*: 8 (0); Perry: 19 (62); Pike: 12 (39); Portage: 15 (31); Preble*: 10 (0); Putnam*: 8 (0); Richland: 28 (31); Ross: 13 (25); Scioto: 7 (23); Seneca: 9 (11); Stark: 25 (41); Summit: 13 (16); Trumbull: 28 (42); Tuscarawas: 25 (92); Vinton: 18 (47); Warren: 6 (9); Washington: 18 (54); Wayne: 8 (10); Williams: 25 (25); Wyandot*: 5 (0); Total: 1,053 (2,168). 

- By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net