Ohio 2012 Gun Harvest Down 3.7% from 2011

I'm surprised. The weather was great and cooperative.

Honestly, I thought it would be down more. Factor in lower deer numbers, and the fact that the antlerless tags were unusable in zone c, and I thought it would have been even lower than it was. Still, perfect weather for killing deer. I think the remaining season will continue to show decreases from last year.

brock ratcliff said:

Honestly, I thought it would be down more. Factor in lower deer numbers, and the fact that the antlerless tags were unusable in zone c, and I thought it would have been even lower than it was. Still, perfect weather for killing deer. I think the remaining season will continue to show decreases from last year.

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I agree brock, i dont think people will put all that much effort into the late season unless it gets basturdly cold and they can see some deer. If we have a mild christmas, it will get interesting for sure

Milo said:

i dont think people will put all that much effort into the late season unless it gets basturdly cold.

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I really hope we get some nasty, nasty cold weather for the MZ season

I really hope we get some nasty, nasty cold weather for the MZ season

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That makes 2 of us. thats the only thing I still want to try and accomplish this season. i'd like to get one with the muzzy. There arent a lot of does left on the properties I hunt so it would have to come off of one of the public areas around here. I think cold weather is the best chance I would have.
I dont need the meat so I would more than likely donate it

I figured it would be down. When there's less deer, less deer get killed. But the dnr will keep saying there's the same amount of deer year after year.

Deer numbers are way down in SE Ohio where i shotgun. I hunted 3 full days in Athens County and never saw a deer. I think it will be my last year driving down. I used to see 10-20 a day there regardless of where I sat. Thats not the case anymore.

Less deer equal less being killed. There are also many more being killed that are never tagged that is disturbing. I have found 4 does this year that were never recovered. I would think DNR would factor this in to the herd numbers but i'm sure they are not. I would have to say that it would increase kill numbers 10-15% or more if this was a factor. I'm getting to the point where i will only shoot 1 doe a year in Ohio regardless of what county I am hunting in. I don't want to risk shooting a nice mature doe that is pregnant with twins or triplets. Each doe could potential kill 4 deer from my local herd. It is hard to not shoot when they move through but I run video so i just try to capture them on film instead.

I hope things shift and level off so everybody can see more when they are afield, I just do not see it happening.

Did you all notice that some of the counties in the NW part of the state had more kills than usual, due to them being a two deer zone now?

steveOh said:

Did you all notice that some of the counties in the NW part of the state had more kills than usual, due to them being a two deer zone now?

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That is true, and it will be a short-term spike. If they continue with more liberal limits in those areas, they will dwindle down to nothing too. Fayette Co. is very similar in every regard to the counties in the NW. Those areas do not have "high" populations to start with, and simply cannot sustain liberal bag limits. The DOW should know this, they just don't seem to care. I refuse to believe they are as naive as they seem to be. They have to know the herd is well below levels of two decades ago, yet continue to announce 700k+. It's all nonsense.

Nonsense, politics and corruption.

steveOh said:

Did you all notice that some of the counties in the NW part of the state had more kills than usual, due to them being a two deer zone now?

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My county and I think every bordering county was up from last year, but we've been a 2 deer (+ two early antler less) for a quite a while now. I would really like to see the early antler less permits drop off for our zone.

Any more news on the new proposed regs for next year?
Frank