Hunting season has wrapped up in Ohio with a marked dip in the number of antlered quarry brought home by hunters. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife clocked in 85,448 deer during the week-long gun season, falling short of last year's 87,191 deer tally. The numbers reported on the ODNR website show this year's harvest didn't quite match the three-year average of 76,409 either.
Notably, as the guns fell silent on December 7, the season saw 27,934 antlered deer and 57,514 antlerless deer counted, speaking to the shift in the trophy balance. With nearly 33% of total reported being antlered deer, it offers a glimpse into hunter preferences or population patterns. Stricken by a surge of the Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) over the summer, areas such as Athens, Meigs, Morgan, and Washington counties witnessed reduced bag limits and correspondingly lower harvest totals.
Ostensibly gunning for a fruitful season, the hunter's armament included a variety of implements, with straight-walled cartridge rifles leading at 67% (57,623 deer) of the deer checked. With shotguns, muzzleloaders, archery equipment, and handguns completing the arsenal mix, it was clear that rifles remained the top choice for Ohio's hunters this season. The firearms and archery hunters combined have bagged 187,283 deer since the archery season kicked off in September, showcasing a sustained appetite for deer hunting across the different modes.
Heading into the final stretches of the hunting calendar, deer managers are keeping an eye on the permit tally, with 397,907 deer permits issued, which includes a combination of deer management permits and either-sex permits available until February 1, 2026. Among the perks of hunting in Ohio, out-of-state hunters snagged 34,147 licenses, showing the state's magnetic pull on neighboring states' hunting enthusiasts, with Pennsylvania and Michigan at the forefront.
The Ohio Wildlife Licensing System continues to be the backbone for tracking and managing the health and distribution of the deer population. Hunters are doing their part for data collection, checking their game with a tap on their screens or a click online with gun weekend December 20-21 and muzzleloader season January 3-6 on the horizon.
