Ohio's hunters chipping away at deer kill numbers but figures still lag behind the three-year averages

 

Some six weekends into Ohio’s 2021-2022 deer-hunting season and the to-date count of animals taken continues at a snail’s pace.

However, that snail has begun shifting into the next gear.

Yet for a number of Ohio’s deer hunters now is more of doing some window shopping rather than any actual buying. These participants are being selective – at least for the moment – of what they want in the way of a white-tail.

Data shows that as of November 2nd, 36,206 deer had been taken That figure represented an 11.2-percent drop over the three-year average.

Broken down further, the to-date antlered deer kill as of November 2nd was 17,241 animals. This figure represents a 7-percent drop from the same to-date three-year average of 18,548 animals.

Regarding antlerless deer, the November 2nd to-date deer kill was 18,965 animals, representing a 14.6-percent drop from the same to-date three-year average of 22,215 animals.

By way of comparison to show the narrowing of the deer-kill gap, for the period through October 17th, the statewide total archery-associated deer kill was down 16.8-percent verses the three-year average.

“Looks like hunters have started to chip away at the deficit a bit,” said Clint McCoy, the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s chief deer biologist.

The Wildlife Division prefers – and rightfully so – comparing one set of numbers against its three-year average. This makes for a better apples-to-apples look at numbers, McCoy has said.

Data supplied by McCoy also shows that only three of Ohio’s 88 counties were ahead of their respective three-year average as of the November 2nd report: Butler – up 3.3-percent; Crawford – up 1.2-percent; and Summit – up 1-percent.

Among the counties demonstrating steep declines were: Pickaway – down-38.4 percent; Ottawa – down – 30.2 percent; Lucas – down 29.2-percent; Clinton – down 25.9 percent; and Defiance – down 25.7 percent.

Even so, at least for a couple of hunters helping to erase any deficit will come, just not at the moment.

“I’ve been out perhaps six times and I’ve seen deer – including a nice buck the other evening – but so far they’ve all been out of range,” said outdoors writer Tom Cross of Adams County.

Cross also says he will pass on any doe for now in part because this is the rut and the females are being chased by the bucks. Consequently, Cross says he doesn’t want to “mess up the woods” by shooting a doe at the moment.

“That’ll change during the gun season and especially the muzzle-loader season,” Cross said.

Similarly, John Grantham of Geauga County has avoided shooting not only antlerless deer but even a 10-point buck during more than 20 sits thus far in his tree stand.

“I’ve probably seen deer two-thirds of those evening hunts. I’ll keep passing on the does until after the rut,” Grantham said.

Much of Ohio’s deer hunting lies ahead, of course. The state’s archery season extends through February 6th. The statewide firearms- season is set for November 29th through December 5th, with the two-day “bonus” firearms season being December 18th and 19th. Ohio’s statewide muzzle-loading season is January 8th through 11th.

- By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn

JFrischk@Ameritech.net

JFrischk4@gmail.com