At this pace, Ohio’s hunters will cross the finish line with a total deer kill north of 200,000 animals.
Possibly well, north, too, all though an asterisk or two is necessary when examining the current figures at least.
Even so, the Ohio Division of Wildlife biologist in charge of crunching the numbers says this “pace is unsustainable.”
As of October 11th, the to-date deer kill total stands at 20,487 animals. The comparable 2021 to-date figure was 12,607 animals. Now this is where the numbers must undergo some nuance.
The most recent to-date county-by-county totals are calculated under two headings: “Archery Harvest” and “Total Harvest.” That latter title includes deer taken during controlled hunts, and importantly, deer shot during the Ohio Division of Wildlife’ disease surveillance early gun season.
That surveillance area consists of Hardin, Wyandot, and Marion counties. And the differences between their respective to-date archery kills and their to-date all-implement kills are significant.
In Marion County, the to-date archery deer kill totaled 69 deer while the to-date all-implement kill totaled 215 deer. For Hardin County, those figures were 102 and 315, respectively. Meanwhile, for Wyandot County, the respective statistics are 121 and 434.
The only other county with a different to-date archery deer kill figure and a to-date all-implement deer kill figure is Trumbull County. Here, the to-date archery deer kill figure was 716 animals while the to-date all-implement figure was 772 animals.
Even so, the combined increase of deer killed for all four counties totals only 728 animals. That figure is less than 10 percent of the 7,880 number when the 2022-2023 season to-date all-implement total is stacked up against its 2021-2022 season counterpart.
However, noteworthy also is that three counties went from having a one-deer to a two-deer deer bag limit. Those counties being Pickaway, Clinton, and Fayette. Meanwhile, Washington and Darke saw their respective bag limits increases from two deer to three deer. All saw significant gains in the number of deer killed.
Regardless, in virtually every respect, Ohio’s 2022-2023 deer-hunting season has the left foot on the brake and the right foot working the gas pedal at the same time.
Of Ohio’s 88 counties, fully 86 show increases in their respective 2022-2023 season to-date deer kill figures when compared to their comparable 2021 season to-date deer kill numbers. And one of those remaining two counties – Warren – posed identical to-date deer killed while the only county showing an actual comparable to-date deer kill decline was Vinton.
In looking at the numbers, Clint McCoy, the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s lead deer management biologist, said that what stands out to him as a major factor has been “nearly ideal for early season archery hunting.”
“I remember dealing with some fairly high temps early on last season, but that hasn’t been the case so far this year. Hunters are likely less hesitant to harvest a deer in these cooler temperatures,” McCoy says.
McCoy tossed out some more numbers to illustrate this year’s gangbusters beginning.
“The total harvest after the first 19 days is sitting 32 percent above the three-year average while the buck harvest is up 40 percent and the antlerless harvest is up 28 percent,” McCoy said.
A speed bump to this momentum, McCoy says, is that “this pace is unsustainable.”
“We predicted a larger harvest this year than we’ve seen in almost a decade, but not quite this much. I expect that as we get further along into the season, these numbers will fall into the more reasonable 5-percent to 10 percent range,” McCoy says.
Another footnote likewise is necessary. Less of a factor it would seem was the appearance of Epizootic hemorrhagic disease, or EHD.
Fully 40 of the state’s 88 counties saw outbreaks of this disease. Which hit some counties more than it did others. Among serious EHD outbreak counties were Warren, Vinton, Hamiliton, Hocking, Butler, and Greene, McCoy says.
“If you’ve ever heard the phrase ‘a mile wide and an inch deep’, I think that would generally apply to the impact of EHD this year,” McCoy says.
Consequently, some areas in some counties “were hit really hard” and thus “hunters may want to carefully consider their harvest decisions there for a year or two until the local population bounces back,” McCoy says.
- By Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
JFrischk4@gmail.com
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