Jeff Frischkorn

For the second year in a row, the younger set of hunters showed their adult peers how to shoot deer in Ohio.
During Ohio’s recently concluded two-day youth-only firearms deer hunting season, participants age 17 and under killed 10,449 animals. This take consisted of 6,042 antlered and 4,407 antlerless deer.
“That 10,449 figure is the second consecutive youth-only season that produced over 10,000, which was 15% above the 3-year average and about 5% more than 2023’s harvest of 10,033 deer,” Clint McCoy told Ohio Outdoor News.

Going into the peak of the rut in Ohio, the take (harvest, in wildlife management lingo) of deer has slid when compared to the same period in 2023.
Through Nov. 3, Ohio archery hunters checked in 48,321 deer. That figure includes the first six weekends of bowhunting, which began Sept. 28. The take of deer includes 23,311 antlered animals and 25,010 antlerless deer, a category which includes does and button bucks.