Ohio's deer management leader critiques the state's 2020-2021 deer-hunting season

 

Deer hunters in Ohio split the goalposts in the state’s estimate of the number of animals that would fall to arrows, shotgun slugs and bullets during the several-month long deer-hunting season.

In all, 197,735 animals were killed – combined – for Ohio’s archery, firearms, youth, muzzle-loading deer-hunting seasons. That figure is the highest since the 218,910 deer that were killed during the 2012-2013 all-deer-seasons.

Still, 13 of Ohio’s 88 counties record declines in the number of deer taken in each of them when compared to their three-year average.

“We figured there would be between a five and 10 percent increase in the deer harvest from the previous year,” said Mike Tonkovich, the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s deer management administrator. “It was close to seven percent.”

The top 10 counties for deer harvested during the 2020-2021 deer season include: Coshocton (6,791), Tuscarawas (6,158), Ashtabula (5,662), Licking (5,549), Knox (5,247), Muskingum (5,172), Holmes (4,833), Guernsey (4,809), Carroll (4,123), and Trumbull (4,015).

Other statistics provided by the Wildlife Division shows that 48 percent of the deer were taken with archery tackle. Broken down further, 33 percent of all deer checked in were taken via crosssbows and 15 percent longbows.

The deer kill by firearms was the remaining 52 percent. This percentage is further divided by 22 percent with shotguns, a near identical 21 percent with straight walled cartridge rifles, eight percent with muzzleloaders, and less than one percent with handguns.
 
Across all of the various 2020-2021 deer-hunting seasons, hunters took 80,003 bucks, accounting for 40 percent of the total kill. Does represented 48 percent of the kill with 94,771 taken, while 19,629 button bucks were taken, for 10 percent. The rest were not posted.

Interestingly, says the Wildlife division, bucks with shed antlers and bucks with antlers less than 3 inches long accounted for 3,332 deer, or only two percent of the total deer kill.

Still, the several gun seasons were really the highlight of the overall 2020-2021 season, Tonkovich said.

In focusing on those several deer-hunting segments, and when one “considers the seven-day gun seasons from 2010 forward, the average annual change through the 2019 season has been minus-five percent,” Tonkovich said.

“Yes, we have averaged a five-percent decrease per year over the last 10 seasons, and since 2010, there have only been three increases, dnd those averaged 8.5 percent,” Tonkovich said. “But this year’s gun season was up 9.3 percent!”

What’s more, Tonkovich said, the increases continued into the December two-day, so-called “bonus gun season.”

“Bonus season hunters took nearly 20 percent more deer this year compared to the average of the past three seasons,” Tonkovich said.

In answering his own question as to “why,” Tonkovich said it was “largely due to the power of snow.”

The cold weather forced hunters to move, which in turn led to deer movement and ultimately improved hunter success, Tonkovich said.

“Let’s face it, hunting in the snow is fun, even for us old guys,” Tonkovich said.

Here is the county-by-county list of all white-tailed deer checked by hunters during the all-2020-2021 deer hunting seasons. The first number following the county’s name shows the kill numbers for 2020-2021, and the three-year average of deer taken from 2017 to 2019 is in parentheses.

A three-year average provides a better overall comparison to this year’s deer kill numbers, eliminating year-to-year variation because of weather, misaligned season dates, crop harvest, and other unavoidable factors..

All numbers are raw data and subject to change.

Adams: 2,947 (2,989); Allen: 1,075 (992); Ashland: 3,698 (3,195); Ashtabula: 5,662 (4,970); Athens: 3,185 (3,511); Auglaize: 1,006 (877); Belmont: 2,932 (2,827); Brown: 2,683 (2,369); Butler: 1,617 (1,375); Carroll: 4,123 (3,748); Champaign: 1,397 (1,192); Clark: 785 (730); Clermont: 2,717 (2,393); Clinton: 649 (761); Columbiana: 3,453 (3,075); Coshocton: 6,791 (6,438); Crawford: 1,363 (1,200); Cuyahoga: 997 (955); Darke: 883 (742); Defiance: 2,228 (1,650); Delaware: 1,641 (1,500); Erie: 996 (1,065); Fairfield: 2,179 (1,873); Fayette: 328 (327); Franklin: 901 (752); Fulton: 924 (749); Gallia: 2,438 (2,426); Geauga: 2,229 (1,863); Greene: 960 (808); Guernsey: 4,809 (4,522); Hamilton: 1,498 (1,575); Hancock: 1,654 (1,252); Hardin: 1,507 (1,291); Harrison: 3,647 (3,489); Henry: 910 (730); Highland: 2,910 (2,503); Hocking: 2,634 (3,093); Holmes: 4,833 (4,177); Huron: 2,578 (2,256); Jackson: 2,595 (2,881); Jefferson: 2,229 (1,886); Knox: 5,247 (4,554); Lake: 1,046 (844); Lawrence: 1,695 (1,713); Licking: 5,549 (4,820); Logan: 2,222 (2,054); Lorain: 2,513 (2,154); Lucas: 831 (749); Madison: 622 (515); Mahoning: 2,029 (1,938); Marion: 1,009 (869); Medina: 2,715 (2,078); Meigs: 3,187 (3,032); Mercer: 880 (721); Miami: 845 (800); Monroe: 2,494 (2,456); Montgomery: 882 (724); Morgan: 3,130 (3,040); Morrow: 1,860 (1,539); Muskingum: 5,172 (4,950); Noble: 3,189 (2,951); Ottawa: 617 (491); Paulding: 1,336 (1,034); Perry: 2,630 (2,592); Pickaway: 625 (783); Pike: 1,763 (1,902); Portage: 2,501 (2,360); Preble: 1,076 (993); Putnam: 936 (775); Richland: 3,937 (3,409); Ross: 3,071 (2,925); Sandusky: 1,154 (871); Scioto: 2,110 (2,170); Seneca: 2,073 (1,906); Shelby: 1,090 (993); Stark: 3,238 (2,836); Summit: 1,732 (1,479); Trumbull: 4,015 (3,586); Tuscarawas: 6,158 (5,575); Union: 1,117 (940); Van Wert: 623 (515); Vinton: 2,110 (2,540); Warren: 1,243 (1,175); Washington: 3,233 (3,239); Wayne: 2,626 (2,239); Williams: 1,952 (1,604); Wood: 1,142 (963); Wyandot: 1,919 (1,523). 2020-2021 total: 197,735. Three-year average: (180,921).

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com