Jeff Frischkorn

Now that the shooting’s over, Ohio deer hunters can spin tall tales and tell great lies. But for the state’s deer biologists, the work has just begun.
“There is very little time between the end of the deer hunting season and regulation proposals for the following season,” Clint McCoy, the Ohio Division of Wildlife’s deer biologist, recently told Ohio Outdoor News.
However, McCoy says, the wildlife division has enough information by the close of muzzleloader season “to satisfy the harvest data needs that we have for making any regulation changes”

Deer hunters in Ohio are approaching the finish line, and the last baton hand-off saw a seamless transfer.
During the recently concluded four-day statewide muzzleloading deer hunting season (Jan. 4-7), hunters killed 13,476 white-tailed deer. That figure is 712 more animals then were reported during the 2024 statewide muzzleloading season (12,714 animals), and 395 more deer based on the three-year average (13,081 deer).

Deer hunters flocked to Ohio’s fields and forests Dec. 2 through Dec. 8 to help put a dent in most of the state’s 88 counties.
Based on data provided by the Ohio Division of Wildlife, hunters checked in 87,192 deer during the week-long gun season. This is the highest total since 2011 when 90,282 animals were taken. During the 2023 Ohio firearms deer hunting season, hunters reported killing 70,103. Likewise, the the three-year average is 70,806 animals.

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.