Ohio’s weeklong white-tailed deer gun hunting season concluded on Sunday, Dec. 3, with hunters taking 70,118 deer, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife. Last year, hunters took 71,931 deer during the gun week. The three-year average for deer harvest during the seven-day gun season is 71,322. An additional weekend of deer gun hunting will happen on Dec. 16-17.
During the deer gun week, hunters checked 25,044 antlered deer (36% of the harvest) and 45,074 antlerless deer (64%), a category which includes does and button bucks.
The top 10 counties for deer taken during the week of gun season were: Coshocton (2,441), Tuscarawas (2,260), Ashtabula (2,189), Muskingum (2,076), Knox (1,880), Carroll (1,864), Guernsey (1,798), Washington (1,582), Licking (1,570), and Harrison (1,533). Coshocton County also led the state in 2022 with 2,457 deer checked.
In Adams County, the harvest declined slightly. There were 967 deer checked in during gun week, down from a three-year average of 1,037.
Straight-walled cartridge rifles have become more popular since becoming legal for deer gun hunting in 2014. This year, straight-walled cartridge rifles were used to harvest 60% of the deer checked during the seven-day gun season. Shotguns accounted for 34% of the total. In addition, 4% were taken with a muzzleloader, 1% with archery equipment, and 1% with a handgun.
This year, 389,181 deer permits have been issued through Sunday, Dec. 3. Nonresidents have purchased 37,543 hunting licenses, many of them to enjoy Ohio’s terrific deer hunting opportunities. The most popular states that hunters traveled to Ohio from include Pennsylvania (7,078 nonresident licenses), Michigan (4,733), West Virginia (3,560), North Carolina (3,105), and New York (2,852).
In the 2023 deer season, archery and firearms hunters have taken a total of 167,732 deer through Sunday, Dec. 3. Hunters have another opportunity to harvest a deer with a firearm during the bonus gun weekend, Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 16-17. The muzzleloader season is Jan. 6-9, 2024. The archery season remains open through Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024.
