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ODNR Deer Harvest comparison

I feel for you, Chuck. My dad and yours sound a lot a like. My dad always tells me "You have to many rules". My dad is a good hearted guy and when someone says they could use some venison he is gungho to shoot one for them. I'm good hearted too, but I feel if you want some venison, get off the couch, knock on doors, burn some gasoline, buy a tag, sit in the cold, wind and rain and go shoot one yourself.

If you come to hunt my place you hunt by my rules, plain and simple. I do allow one doe for my stepsons freezer each year. Sometimes he shoots it and sometimes I shoot one and give it to him. I only own ten acres and think a bit like your dad in one respect. One of the neighbors will probably kill the doe anyways.

Whether I kill a buck or not has no bearing on the measure of my success. Some of us do hunt hard most of the season and don't kill a deer. This doesn't mean we are doing things wrong or don't know how to hunt. Some of us set goals higher than others. I don't need to strap a 50 pound fawn across the hood of my Jeep and parade around town to stroke my ego.
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
If you want to sit in the woods and do nothing, get in to bird watching. I don't deer hunt to stare a leaves, watch squirrels, listen to birds, or wish that I would see a deer. Hunting my ass off just to see a deer? Fugg that. Hunt my ass off just to have one chance a year to shoot the first thing I see? Fugg that. You old timers than give the same song and dance about the 70's and 80s can have it back. If things get that bad again, I won't be a deer hunter any more...
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
I don't have to shoot to be happy. I simply want to enjoy deer in their natural environment. Some of you guys sound like my dad, probably because you're his age with similar perspectives on things. I get it. I'm a spoiled ass kid that grew up in the hay day of deer hunting. I'm an instant gratification kind of person; just comes with being in this generation. There are several ways to be in nature other than deer hunting. I have ZERO desire to waste time "hunting" deer when there are none to be hunted. More power to those of you happy to "waste" your time doing so.

"Time well wasted is not wasted time."

I don't ever see a scenario where my idea of time well spent is sitting in the woods seeing nothing but squirrels and birds unless I'm there to kill them. It has little to do with the kill and every thing to do with the enjoyment of my time. I need to see deer to enjoy my time deer hunting. That's just all there is to it...
 

Milo

Tatonka guide.
8,184
157
I don't have to shoot to be happy. I simply want to enjoy deer in their natural environment. Some of you guys sound like my dad, probably because you're his age with similar perspectives on things. I get it. I'm a spoiled ass kid that grew up in the hay day of deer hunting. I'm an instant gratification kind of person; just comes with being in this generation. There are several ways to be in nature other than deer hunting. I have ZERO desire to waste time "hunting" deer when there are none to be hunted. More power to those of you happy to "waste" your time doing so.

"Time well wasted is not wasted time."

I don't ever see a scenario where my idea of time well spent is sitting in the woods seeing nothing but squirrels and birds unless I'm there to kill them. It has little to do with the kill and every thing to do with the enjoyment of my time. I need to see deer to enjoy my time deer hunting. That's just all there is to it...

Exactly why I don't duck hunt anymore.
 
Give Jesse a few years of duck hunting and he will enjoy the peace and quiet of the deer woods. I hunted waterfowl for 27 years and had to quit due to the idiots that blew on calls til my ears hurt and thought any bird within 150 yards was killable.

I want to see deer also Jesse, we all do. I don't think the time will come that the state is devoid of deer. But, if things don't change soon seeing them will get more infrequent.
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
See I have no expectations with ducks. I'm just happy to be there. Knowing me, I will find a way to mess that up. However for the time being, I'm happy hunting ducks in my shitty part of the flyway. Hunting ducks here is like hunting deer in Morrow County, yet I'm still happy to be doing it. But if I had to hunt where Huck, Adam and Dante are at, I'd be a bear to live with! I really feel for those guys. Regardless of how crappy I think things are in my block of the woods, I know it gets worse.
 

yotehunter

Member
1,527
36
spencerville oh
Don't worry. When those farmers get tired of saving the deer the county warden will write them a permit to shoot and throw them in a ditch. It's my theory that most don't even bother with a permit. We talk about poachers all the time but I bet there are plenty of farmers who gut shoot them with a 22 and don't bother with damage permits. I don't believe the DNRs numbers on damage permits and deer kills are accurate. I remember one year a farm down the road from out lease in Vinton county got a permit. They were bragging about having shot close to 40 deer. When the numbers came out from the DNR for Vinton county the total wasn't above 40. The problem is they just get a permit that allows them to kill X amount of deer. But I don't believe they only kill X amount of deer. They'll gut shoot 3-4 then drop one and and only the 1 gets counted. Once they have a permit they're legal. But like I said. I believe most don't even bother with a permit.
Its already happed here two years ago. They had twelve nuisance tags on twelve hundred acres. Only because the gw didn't know the difference between coon damage between deer. And now the deer are scarce. I agree. But in my option that is odnrs fault.
 

Ohiosam

*Supporting Member*
11,708
191
Mahoning Co.

huntn2

Senior Member
6,090
157
Hudson, OH
The latest #s have us down only 4.9% for the first 74 days. http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=cCmEUCi9YDg=&tabid=24154

If you go back 2 weeks (to get before either year's gun season) we were down 11.6%. http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=RT8pW45Y1fE=&tabid=24154

To close the gap by 6 percentage points when gun week was off 16% there had to be a huge bow kill the week of thanksgiving this year. :smiley_confused_vra

The decrease will jump again next week after last years bonus gun cycles through. That will then be a more telling snapshot.
 

brock ratcliff

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
24,834
247
The decrease will jump again next week after last years bonus gun cycles through. That will then be a more telling snapshot.

Actually, the DOW and the OFB will point out how badly we need that bonus weekend to kill the numbers the DOW thinks is necessary. I suspect we may wind up with both seasons next year. More opportunity=more kills, until there are not enough to justify hunting them. Then, with less interest, the herd will recover, and again people will flock to the woods to kill them off.
 

Schu72

Well-Known Member
3,864
113
Streetsboro
I wouldn't be shocked to see the cheap tags come back into play in the 4-deer counties. Throw everything at the wall and see what sticks....