Oho's archers are battling both the cold and clock as deer season's end draws near

The on-going nasty cold spell is chilling the remainder of Ohio’s archery deer-hunting season.

However, archers continue to climb into tree stands and take up residence in ground blinds where they are still finding accommodating deer to hunt.

 Thus by the numbers the to-date tally, as of January 16^th, the kill stood at 181,688 animals; of which 73,832 were antlered deer. The comparable January 10^th, 2017 to-date kill was 177,111 deer, of which 74,396 were antlered deer.

In looking at the numbers from a different angle, for the 2017-2018 combined deer-hunting seasons, hunters have killed 4,577 more animals to-date this year than for the same time frame during the 2016-2017 combined to-date deer-hunting seasons.

And while the 4,577 animal figure sounds impressive, had the muzzle-loading season produced a deer harvest more in line with that experienced in 2017, Ohio likely would have been looking at a to-date kill approaching 184,000 to 185,000 animals.

Buoyed by a slow and steady climb in the to-date deer kill, wildlife biologists with the Ohio Division of Wildlife at one point several weeks back were talking that the all-seasons’ deer kill might range from 187,000 to 190,000 animals. Let’s see if they’re still on the money.

Historically, from following the conclusion of the statewide muzzle-loading season to the end of the archery-hunting season in early February, Ohio sees only a few thousand to several thousand additional animals being taken.

For example, last year between the-then to-date/post muzzle-loading season deer kill and the final all-seasons’ tally as of February 5^th, 2017 only 6,337 additional deer were checked in (182,169 verses 175,832, respectively).

So tack on something along the lines of 6,300 additional deer to the current to-date figure and a rough guess of around 187,000-plus animals may appear as the 2017-2018 all-seasons’ total. Consequently, the total number is going to closely match the biologists’ original estimate.

“Certainly if we continue to see snow that makes deer more visible along with the bitterly cold temperatures that helps drive deer to feeders we could see a very good harvest by the end of the archery season,” said Allen Lee, wildlife biologist with the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s District Three (Northeast Ohio) Office in Akron.

“Snow almost always helps, and the guy who baits is in a better position during the latter part of the archery season.”

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net