Good muzzle-loading season won't help much with Ohio's bottom line 2018-2019 deer harvest

Muzzle-loading deer hunters in Ohio scored a gain of 914 animals over what was shot during the 2018 four-day hunt but the additional take still put the running to-date kill under where it was at the same time one year ago.

In all, muzzle-loading hunters shot 14,182 deer verses the 13,268 animals that were taken during the statewide primitive weapons (unofficially but most often called, muzzle-loading) season in 2018. Some 62 of Ohio’s 88 counties posted gains over their respective 2018 primitive weapons deer kill numbers.

Much of the credit for the increases went to the same thing that hampered the state’s firearms, general firearms, and two-day bonus firearms deer-hunting seasons – only in the reverse: The weather. While the gun hunters saw terribly wet, windy and dreary conditions, the muzzle-loading hunters experienced favorable conditions for at least the all-important Saturday and Sunday portions of the four-day hunt.

“Looking over the numbers I was a little surprised and I thought they would be a little better,” said Scott Peters, wildlife biologist for the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s District Three (Northeast Ohio) Office in Akron.

The reason, said Peters, was because he figured the nicer weather would have seen perhaps better participation and also because the woods had deer that were not taken during any of the gun hunting seasons.

“On the flip side, it would have been nice to also have seen a couple of inches of snow so hunters could spot deer better,” Peters said. “Maybe the harvest would have been up a few thousand more deer, but when it comes to the weather, no one has control.”

The 14,182 number does fall a little below the 15,843 deer killed during the 2017 muzzle-loading season but is still ahead of the 2016 four-day hunt total of 12,505 animals.

Several counties gained good ground over their respective 2018 muzzle-loading season numbers. And other counties, not so much.

Among counties found in the “up” ledger were: Adams -up 76 animals; Ashland, up 75 animals; Brown, up also 76 animals; Licking, up 50 animals; Medina, up 50 animals; Tuscarawas, up 71 animals; Knox, up 69 animals; and Morrow, up 40 animals.

Among the counties found in the “down” ledger were: Columbiana, down 52 animals; Hocking, down 94 animals; Geauga, down 31 animals; Guernsey, down 29 animals; and Trumbull, down 26 animals.

What all of this means in the marathon weekly to-date tally is that the state’s running deer kill is still 16,886 animals below the number that was shot to-date in 2018: 163,057 to-date thus far, and 179,943 animals taken to-date for the same period in 2018.

Given that only 6,304 more deer were taken between the to-date January 9, 2018 figure of 179,943 deer and the a—seasons’ ending number of 186,247 deer, it is certain that Ohio’s 2018-2019 deer hunting season will see a marked decline in the total number of deer being taken.

Of Ohio’s 88 counties, only two have posted to-date gains: Clark – up 30 animals; and Greene – up 13 animals.

Among the noteworthy counties with to-date declines are: Adams – down 291 animals; Ashtabula – down 286 animals; Coshocton – down 678 animals; Guernsey – down 573 animals; Licking – down 530 animals; and Tuscarawas – down 606 animals.

- By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net