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CLEVELAND, Ohio – Ohio deer hunters wrapped up a week-long gun season by tagging 75,408 bucks and does through Sunday. It was a 13 percent decline in the annual harvest and had many sportsmen grumbling, but not deer management head Mike Tonkovich.
“We are absolutely where we wanted to be,” said Tonkovich. “Fewer deer in the state is not a bad thing. In 2007, we ramped up county bag limits and antlerless permits (to increase the harvest). We were clear at that point that it was designed to bring the Ohio deer population down to our goal.”
A smaller deer herd was the intent, even though it would mean a little less venison in the freezer for Ohio sportsmen.
“Hunters who are complaining are not looking at the big picture,” said Tonkovich. “The gun season harvest may have been down 13 percent, but the total harvest this season is only down 5 percent.
“If you’re accustomed to having a lot of deer on the landscape, like we had three or four years ago when we had a record harvest, it’s only natural to be disappointed. Years ago, hunters were very happy to kill 170,000, then 180,000 deer each year. Now they’re unhappy if we only kill about 200,000 deer. “
Tonkovich expects to fine tune the county bag limits in 2014 to shrink the harvest even more. Many counties are still above the population goals established by the deer management team. Tonkovich said that some counties, where the bag limit had been trimmed from six to just three deer this season, might see only a two-deer bag limit next year.
“We might even disallow the antlerless permits in some counties,” he said. “Those permits are designed to encourage hunters to kill does early in the season, and are only good for the first eight weeks (of the bow season, as well as during the newly-approved antlerless primitive weapons season).
“We are absolutely where we wanted to be,” said Tonkovich. “Fewer deer in the state is not a bad thing. In 2007, we ramped up county bag limits and antlerless permits (to increase the harvest). We were clear at that point that it was designed to bring the Ohio deer population down to our goal.”
A smaller deer herd was the intent, even though it would mean a little less venison in the freezer for Ohio sportsmen.
“Hunters who are complaining are not looking at the big picture,” said Tonkovich. “The gun season harvest may have been down 13 percent, but the total harvest this season is only down 5 percent.
“If you’re accustomed to having a lot of deer on the landscape, like we had three or four years ago when we had a record harvest, it’s only natural to be disappointed. Years ago, hunters were very happy to kill 170,000, then 180,000 deer each year. Now they’re unhappy if we only kill about 200,000 deer. “
Tonkovich expects to fine tune the county bag limits in 2014 to shrink the harvest even more. Many counties are still above the population goals established by the deer management team. Tonkovich said that some counties, where the bag limit had been trimmed from six to just three deer this season, might see only a two-deer bag limit next year.
“We might even disallow the antlerless permits in some counties,” he said. “Those permits are designed to encourage hunters to kill does early in the season, and are only good for the first eight weeks (of the bow season, as well as during the newly-approved antlerless primitive weapons season).
