Deer hunters in Ohio made great use of generally favorable weather and a woods-full of whitetails to kill more animals during the recent two-day “bonus” gun season than what’s been seen during a three-year average.

In all, 15,203 deer were taken during the December 19th and 2th hunt. That compares to the three-year average of 12,461 animals. The Ohio Division of Wildlife is now employing a three-year average statistic as a more meaningful metric that when it used a previous year’s number.

And in analyzing the bonus season’s numbers Wildlife Division officials unearthed some interesting points. Officials also offered speculation as to what it all may mean for the up-coming statewide muzzle-loading season set for January 2nd through 5th.

“The harvest was better than average, and you’d have to go back to 2011 before seeing a bonus gun season where hunters did as well as this one,” said John “Clint” McCoy, the Wildlife Division’s chief deer management biologist.

“We were predicting an increase in the harvest as we saw an uptick of more deer on the landscape. And there was snow at least on Saturday for a lot of Ohio. That helped.”

McCoy says too that while an examination of the county-by-county deer kill does not point to a universal acknowledgment, the data does show that in more than a few counties where the deer kill was up during the recent seven-day general firearms deer-hunting season it was down during the bonus season.

Or the reverse was seen, McCoy said.

“For example,” McCoy said, “in Lawrence County the deer harvest during the seven-day season was down 20 percent but up during the bonus season.”

McCoy said that situation was also the case the several other southeast Ohio counties. Among them being Athens, Hocking, Meigs, and Washington.

“Washington really stands out,” McCoy said.

Yet in several northwest Ohio counties just the opposite was seen, McCoy said.

“I guess it would be somewhat predictable that when you have fewer deer and thus fewer hunters who were all ready success than the harvest would be down, too,” McCoy said.

In terms of what all this may translate into for the up-coming muzzle-loader season, McCoy says that when fused with the bonus season the two dovetail with a combined deer kill of around 25,000 animals.

Each tend to “balance the other out,” so when one has a higher deer kill the other will likely have a lower deer kill, McCoy also says.

“If that thinking holds true we could see a deer harvest of around 10,000 animals for the statewide muzzle-loading season, though the weather always plays a role,” McCoy said.

Here is a county-by-county list of all deer checked by hunters during the 2020 two-day deer-gun hunting season. The first number following the county’s name shows the harvest numbers for 2020, and the three-year average of deer taken in 2017, 2018, 2019 is in parentheses.

Adams: 214 (168); Allen: 75 (75); Ashland: 331 (276); Ashtabula: 572 (460); Athens: 250 (203); Auglaize: 74 (64); Belmont: 247 (222); Brown: 189 (156); Butler: 108 (71); Carroll: 422 (336); Champaign: 106 (78); Clark: 54 (40); Clermont: 178 (132); Clinton: 48 (54); Columbiana: 367 (281); Coshocton: 521 (399); Crawford: 94 (95); Cuyahoga: 13 (4); Darke: 51 (59); Defiance: 179 (168); Delaware: 88 (77); Erie: 60 (60); Fairfield: 166 (125); Fayette: 19 (21); Franklin: 39 (27); Fulton: 54 (55); Gallia: 189 (141); Geauga: 192 (118); Greene: 77 (52); Guernsey: 421 (268); Hamilton: 58 (37); Hancock: 102 (97); Hardin: 111 (122); Harrison: 369 (259); Henry: 50 (66); Highland: 213 (177); Hocking: 211 (163); Holmes: 355 (307); Huron: 222 (213); Jackson: 175 (180); Jefferson: 222 (148); Knox: 442 (328); Lake: 54 (38); Lawrence: 133 (86); Licking: 442 (299); Logan: 143 (164); Lorain: 184 (175); Lucas: 14 (21); Madison: 51 (44); Mahoning: 181 (144); Marion: 85 (74); Medina: 176 (150); Meigs: 281 (189); Mercer: 57 (57); Miami: 57 (52); Monroe: 201 (174); Montgomery: 48 (34); Morgan: 240 (157); Morrow: 125 (115); Muskingum: 364 (291); Noble: 247 (175); Ottawa: 42 (35); Paulding: 104 (107); Perry: 199 (168); Pickaway: 45 (54); Pike: 110 (103); Portage: 187 (158); Preble: 63 (83); Putnam: 52 (48); Richland: 292 (272); Ross: 212 (166); Sandusky: 64 (65); Scioto: 148 (150); Seneca: 158 (183); Shelby: 83 (78); Stark: 270 (219); Summit: 69 (43); Trumbull: 364 (299); Tuscarawas: 598 (400); Union: 56 (65); Van Wert: 40 (48); Vinton: 162 (151); Warren: 65 (66); Washington: 282 (190); Wayne: 192 (167); Williams: 154 (147); Wood: 69 (68); Wyandot: 112 (109). 2020 Total: 15,203 Three-Year Average Total: (12,461).

By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com