Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Ohio - How'd you do?

Gotta say I was disappointed again this year where we hunted. My buddies family has property 20 miles SE of Cleavland. We hunted M/T/S dawn to dark and half a day today. I saw 6 doe and one small buck opening day. I "think" I saw one yesterday slipping through the thick stuff. That was it. My buddy who owns the place never saw a deer this year.

Here's the thing - Opening day we heard 7 shots. Total. Saturday I heard 4, possibly 5 just before dark, and today by 11:30 I heard 2. WTH? Do you guys all fill your freezers with Xbows early or what?

I think I'm going back to PA next year.

I hunted SE Ohio. Hunted Mon-Thurs and saw 2! Heard very little shooting. Last year was the first in years that I didn't get one with a gun, and I didn't fire a shot this year either. Outside of the initial volley on opening morning, Ohio gun season is becoming a waste of time unless your doing organized deer drives (not my thing). Bow hasn't been much better in terms of seeing deer.

I think deer numbers are WAY down and that the deer have become almost totally nocturnal where hunted.

I hunt southern Ohio near the Jackson/Ross/Pike county area. Shot a 6 point at 07:15 opening morning. In years past, like the mid 1980's and into the 1990's, I used to hear 500+ shots every opening day. Last year maybe 50 shots. This year, while I was only out there for a few hours, I heard 10 shots max. Of course the fact that everything was wet and there was a cold drizzle all day had something to do with it I'm sure.

Is your deer population down up there? Do you have fewer hunters in the woods?

I'm thinking deer hunting might be on the decline, or at least in gun season according to several articles I've read, but I'm not sure. Here is a link to a typical article.

Link: http://www.outdoornews.com/December-2014/Gun-deer-kill-down-nearly-10000/

I have noticed the drop in gun shots on opening morning for the last 15-20 years. I know that number of bow hunters is going up too. I think last winter was hard on the deer populations. That is my opinion. I have not seen the numbers of deer at my house that I normally do this past summer.

Edit - And I got nothing in the freezer so far.

I would agree with Micky. I hunt in Wayne NF (ironton Unit). Fewer hunters every year. We did see more deer this year than past few years but still sightings and kills way off from 15-20 years ago. Weather played a role this year with rainy days tested out my new new rain gear during a southern ohio three hour down pour Tuesday morning.

I don't have the "good ol' days" to refer to as I've only hunted SE Ohio for the past three years, but there seems to be as many deer this year as the past two.

Weather played a big part this year as it rained five out of the six days of gun that I hunted. One thing I noticed was that mid-day movement was MUCH better than mornings and evening, so I switched to all day sits in the stand. One day I saw 20 does and a shooter 9-point between 11:00 and 1:45.

On Friday afternoon at 4pm I killed my best buck yet.


I'm thrilled overall with this farm. The first year I could have killed three bucks bigger than anything I had killed 2 mins after sunset and had a misfire on a 10 pointer. The second year I killed my biggest buck at the time on opening day. BUT, I don't have the frame of reference of years ago to compare.

Number of hunters seems up where I'm at, especially out of state hunters. Everyone seems to think they are going to shoot a 150" buck. I only had Monday to hunt so shot the first deer I saw. Weather definitely sucked. Most folks I know had already taken a deer with archery or in that early muzzleloader so weren't real enthusiastic about sitting in the rain.

That's what happened to me, I shot my buck with a bow and didn't feel like sitting in the rain for a doe.

I think number of shots is related to magazine plugs and slug/muzzleloader technology. 20 years ago we pushed deer and shot at them like rabbits with at least 5 slugs in the gun. Now sabots, scope, etc. seem a lot more prevalent. Land access is also quite different. I still hunt the same place I did 20 years ago but all the adjoining places we used to hunt are now posted, used to be more of a community property feel. Don't know if it's better or worse, just different.