Ohio deer gun season

[mike.dawson]

Hunting for the 6th year in Meigs county, no acorns, very few shots very few deer. The population in this county has been declining for years. All I saw all week was one doe with her two yearlings still with her. One large doe was shot on Sat, next to last day. Small fork horn was seen . Tag soup for me in Sunny FLa. Sorry for you guys up north with the weather

[Deleted]

Lundy, I see where you are coming from and understand why you disagree. ODNR does a lot of good and the tasks they face are huge and not everyone will be happy, I get that. But, an antler restriction by no means that everyone is forced to shoot a mature buck, there are TONS of 2 1/2 year old 8 points and so on, this restriction simply only increases that number by 2 fold, which in hand also raises the number of bucks that slip by and make it to maturity. I know some PA hunters and have seen what their antler restriction has done for them, its incredible.
It will likely never happen anyway, it was merely a thought.
Wisconsin saw their buck to doe ratio getting way lopsided and the action they took to remedy it has worked very well for them, they are keeping the deer population in check this way and there buck to doe ratio is rebounding, it as well was just a thought and will likely never happen here.
There will always be debate, ideas and opinions, that's what makes the world go round, you should of heard the "talk, debates, ideas and arguing" going on at the deer expo this past spring.....

[jims]

lundy: Thanks for the information.

[rossman40]

It seems in Ohio the major force is the bowhunters. I attended the DNR Open House in Xenia last year that was getting opinions on the proposed rule changes. The bowhunters were there in force and whined about the early ML season. And then wanted the youth gun season moved from the weekend before Thanksgiving (usually at the tail end of the prime rut) to the weekend after the week long gun season (the week after Thanksgiving). They won at least in making the early ML season antlerless only and it seemed enough of us stood up for the youth gun season to keep it the same.

The Open House is usually held in March at/near regional offices and it is a good time to ask those questions you always wanted to ask. The one I attended had a couple members of the Wildlife Council, the head game warden and several higher ups from the DNR. I learned they basically determine the number of the deer herd by the number of auto/deer accidents and crop damage. This year they were wanting to do a more accurate survey.

You have to remember that deer were declared extinct (the term they like to use is "extirpated") in Ohio in 1904. In 1922 200 deer were brought into the state and kept in a 700 acre pen (located in Scioto County). There were a few escapes and then in 1932 a full release of the then 1000 deer in the pen. We didn't have a statewide deer season till 1956 and then it was one deer and with limited doe permits. Your deer permit was only good for a certain county. You couldn't bag more then one deer till 1988 IIRC.

[fishhawk]

I don't know what the acorn crop was like, but I have seen way more turkeys and signs of turkey foraging. Could turkeys eating what acorns might fall affect what is going on with the deer population and patterns? I wonder how many are hunting deer vs the population of deer. More hunters killing less or even as many deer as past years spell lower population to me

[Deleted]

Fishhawk, I believe you are definitely touching on something of importance there. At least in the area we hunt, there are 'GOBS' of turkeys I as well have wondered what impact that has on the deer herd (natural and first thought is it has to be affecting and impacting the deer, especially their food sources). Not to mention the coyotes, seems like we just keep getting more and more coyotes, and turkeys, and fewer deer.

[rossman40]

Personally I think coyotes have a bigger impact then turkeys. Usually of the 6 guys in our hunting group we used to have maybe one sighting of a coyote during gun week. Last year was two and this year we had three sightings. Turkey seems to have different foods. Sawtooth oak which produces smaller acorns, that deer eat as a last resort, turkeys love. One thing I did notice down at the cabin is the deer have ate all the honeysuckle pretty much as high as they can reach

It still seems the deer are out there. Our personal survey is to check the fields at night. The hay field across the road from the cabin still had as many as 20 deer in it at night. But we have a new owner of the property and can't hunt it now.

[lundy]

I have been seeing less and less fawns with the matures does for a few years now where I hunt.

They either aren't getting pregnant or the loss of the fawns is high from coyotes, weather, or what ever else can cause them to die.

I see bunches of coyotes

[vtecgsr95]

Brother lives up northern WI, and saw 1 deer throughout the 9 day hunt. Said the local "big buck" contest was won by a 1 point spike, as it was the only entry. I don't think WI has their deer population under control......unless they are going for NO deer!

I KNOW for a fact the herd around me has declined over the last few years. Be it the coyotes, blue tongue, cars hitting them, or the fact that anyone who watches the outdoor channel for an hour decides they want to be a hunter, and is out wounding deer every weekend, things are headed down a dark road!

On a positive note, I did kill 2 coyotes yesterday while deer hunting. 275MH's are NOT very nice to a little coyote carcass!!

[12ptdroptine]

That's a nice deer! Congrats!

[mike.dawson]

I agree on the dark road. My brother who lives in Huron County, usually has tons of deer on his farm, he did not see one the whole gun week. ODNR either has over estimated the herd size or the self check in is a joke and hunters are taking them and not reporting them for statistics. deer harvest is down pretty much in the whole state.

[lundy]

Looks like Ohio will most likely permit PCR's (pistol caliber rifles) for the 2014 deer hunting season.

I was going to have another MZ built for my DIL but now I might just get here a PCR. She will never shoot over 125-150 yds

Now all I have to do is decide on which one, this is all new to me.

[fishhawk]

I heard from my taxidermist, he has had about a 30% drop in deer brought in for mounting.

[Deleted]

Don't want to start a conspiracy theory but to chime in on the deer numbers in NW Ohio, I have hunted more this year than any other year for at least the last 10 years and was only able to put eyes on three deer TOTAL this year and none were does. Luckily I was able to take a nice 10 point with my bow just before gun season. A couple of years ago my dad was approached to sign a petition for the farm bureau to allow them to put a treatment in the watering holes to sterilize the already sexually mature deer. They claimed that it would not be widespread enough to damage the herd just to manage it. Needless to say we did not sign the petition and dropped our membership with them. The state was suppose to be in on it and I would bet that they did whatever they wanted even if they didnt get enough people to sign on. All I know is that there have been many years of diseases wiping out the deer on land we hunted on AEP and other state ground and now the numbers seem to be dwindling on our private lands too. Not swearing anything like this happened behind our backs but we were 100% approached to ask for our backing.

[deadeer]

Probably a lot more of things going on that we don't realize in the world.