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The perfect managed and prospering Ohio deer herd

30K views 266 replies 41 participants last post by  Shad Rap 
#1 · (Edited)
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:This thread is for all those tired of the whiners and just want to talk about the great job being done in managing Ohio's deer herd with out sorting through all the negatives in other threads. Have at it guys and enjoy the bountiful deer herd provided to you by the fine efforts of the ODNR. The quality and quantity of the herd is exactly where we want for years and years to come.;););)
 
#70 ·
As I stated, I don't always agree with the ODNR. The management of public versus private lands is one I struggle to underrstand. I am sure however that they don't just blindly set regulation, I'm sure it is a long and thoughtful process, I just dont't know the criteria used to arrive at their conclusions.

I do know that on one of the hunter surveys a couple of years ago there was a question asking about "would you be in favor of limiting access to some public lands to improve the hunting experience" I don't know the outcome of the survey or where they are going in the future with that but I am 100% sure they recognize the disparity between hunting private and public and will try and do something to improve public hunting at some point.
 
#73 ·
Thanks for taking the time to reply. Good input. Helps me understand where folks are coming from on this one. They did a survey again recently regarding public land deer hunting sad part is the survey results are in and the majority of hunters did not agree with the ideas offered to reduce the pressure on public lands. I felt part of that is to be expected (hard to find hunters willing to give up opportunities to hunt) the other part is they did not offer very good options. They then took these results and with them in hand said "hunters don't support changes to public lands". Not a good reason to take no action in my view. All of a sudden they seem to need or want hunter support? Made no sense to me. Bottom line I am doing my part this season. Does are getting a pass so I will be hunting small game only the remainder of the season. Gives me a chance to walk more as god knows I need the exercise.
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
 
#71 ·
Some of you could make up a flyer and drop it in your neighbors mailbox to open discussion to help your individual herd.

Human's are a goofy bunch. I stopped to help one of my neighbors a few years ago and we started talking hunting. I revealed that I'm mostly a trophy hunter and go years between kills. He then explains He used to be that way but the next neighbor down from him was shooting all the deer. So his logic changed to kill them before his neighbor does...lol. Well it took awhile but I think we are all on the same page now and the results are starting to show. Sometimes you just have to get out and open some dialogue.
 
#74 ·
Guys, I have total respect for any one to have their own opinion, but as far as I am concerned the ODNR is out in left field when it comes to game resource management. I don't know if it is the governor, or the head of the agency, or the biologist. I don't mean just deer either. I can take You to public hunting areas that are just appalling. They were purchased and have never been managed. I find the do nothing attitude they have is an insult. I have no confidence in them at all.
 
#76 ·
The perfectly managed deer herd ? Perfectly managed for who, farmers,insurance co or hunters?
If Odnr want's lower deer numbers we'll get lower numbers. If farmers around me want lower numbers there are always going to be hunters willing to shoot deer regardless of what I do. If landowners can't find hunters willing to do the job they will do it themselves or get nuisance/ damage permits, Odnr is in control of deer numbers, sport hunting has always been the most effective and least expensive but there are other ways to control numbers and they will do what it takes to accomplish the task.
GOOD luck and Good Hunting !​
 
#84 ·
I get several surveys from the odnr every year, usually deer and trapping but have also had others for waterfowl etc. And when I'm fishing I always stop for the creel surveys too. If you take the time to answer their questions they will send you more. I grew up with my dad being a hunter & trapper education instructor and now I do nuisance trapping work. I deal with the division 3 office mostly and have had many experiences with the odnr over the past 30 years, all very positive. When I go to the office to tag otters I am usually there quite some time just talking with people there from all facets of the department. Some have the same views as me or eachother and some don't but each time I leave with more than I came with! Once again I highly recommend getting involved in the process. They are just like everyone else there is really no "us" & "them". Of course some people are grumpy a$$ old farts who are incapable of realizing that their opinion may just not be a fact or true??
 
#87 ·
Interesting numbers to be sure! Looks like the record harvest in 2009 saw a success rate of 41.8%. In following years it dropped as low as 35.5% in 2014, but rebounded to a success rate of 40.4% in 2015. It would be interesting to see the success rates of other states .
 
#86 ·
Interesting discussion! The ODNR certainly made it clear their intent was to reduce the deer herd via harvesting does. Being an old school hunter from the days of bucks only I never really bought in, but I do understand we can't have a herd to large for the available food and habitat. There are certainly other factors at play here such as coyote predation. Back in the "70's" & "80's" we never saw a coyote. Even in the "90's" they were much scarcer then now. Also I read an interesting piece in an outdoor magazine that said the prevalent use of roundup ready corn and beans has reduced the amount of weeds found in fields. Some of these weeds are or were important sources of brouse for deer. ODNR has a tough job trying to balance the herd. I would like to see a season or two with buck only again but that's not likely. So it's up to us to try to determine if herd numbers in the area you hunt is sufficient to justify harvesting a doe. I for one have seen too many posts complaining about not seeing any deer for 3,4,5 or more days but then shooting a doe! Just my 2 cents worth!
 
#94 ·
Very well said about harvesting does. By the time gun season rolls around the first stage of the rut has usually come and gone. A lot of the mature does have come into estrus and have been breed, by this time of the year. Now as outdoorsman, it is our responsibility to think before we pull the trigger on that "really nice doe." I have no problems with hunters harvesting whatever deer they see fit and is legal game. We as sportsman should always think twice before pulling that trigger, because it maybe a "really nice doe" but remember it's also carrying next years fawns.
 
#92 · (Edited)
My gripe is the way they let the population be decimated in some areas and some hunting lands, and hardly touched in others. One size fits all in the zone You hunt in. Does anyone realize how long it will take for some areas to have a hunt able population, if ever? I see people on this forum bragging how good the hunting is on their private managed property, well what about the guy that hunts alone on public land that had to sit and watch his deer hunting taken away, or for years does not hunt at all to allow the herd to recoup just to have people from large metro areas to keep killing any deer left. I HAVE NO RESPECT FOR THE ODNR. I want the wrong that's been done fixed now, not after I am dead!
 
#96 ·
My gripe is the way they let the population be decimated in some areas and some hunting lands, and hardly touched in others. One size fits all in the zone You hunt in. Does anyone realize how long it will take for some areas to have a hunt able population, if ever? I see people on this forum bragging how good the hunting is on their private managed property, well what about the guy that hunts alone on public land that had to sit and watch his deer hunting taken away, I HAVE NO RESPECT FOR THE ODNR. I want the wrong that's been done fixed now, not after I am dead!
Welcome to deer hunting, not deer shooting. If your not seeing deer hunt for an area that has some, they're out there.
I'm trusting Odnr and biologist not opinions on a hunting forum, they know what they're doing.
If they sell tags hunters will harvest deer, that's how it is supposed to work.
If we ( hunters)don't harvest the numbers they want Odnr will find other methods to accomplish the task so you may as well kill deer.
Good luck and Good Hunting !
 
#95 ·
If this is directed at me, no I am not bragging. I moved just over a year ago. Did not hunt ohio last year. Also, did not harvest an animal where I live now.
I do like to keep tabs on what's going on "back home" though, and use this site to do so. I just found the numbers Lundy posted to be pretty interesting, seeing that 40% of tags were filled in 2015.
 
#102 ·
I saw the numbers on your spread sheet. Thanks for posting that, it's interesting to see the numbers over the years. Kill permits are down, but those 4244 dead deer could have brought joy to many hunters rather than being executed. The damage kill numbers are not real accurate either. Some shooters prefer to gut shoot the deer so that they run off and die elsewhere. These deer don't get tallied. I'm not saying that all land owners and shooters operate this way, but it's not uncommon.
 
#103 ·
Montana has a block management program where private land owners are compensated financially for allowing hunter access. A win win situation. This also serves to distribute hunting presource more evenly. They also have a lottery to hunt "nuisance " populations on private property with little access. A lot of this is geared toward elk, and may not be an apples to apples comparison.
At any rate, ohio could definitely handle nuisance deer situations in a better way.
 
#109 ·
I'm not going to bash the farmers but... IMO the areas I hunt have seen less farming and more hunting lease posted properly... these same farms that have been compensated for crop loss along with no plant compensation and now huge oil lease money have no interest in sharing anything with the public... hell why would they?
 
#115 ·
Said it before on other threads and gonna say it again...

Remove the many thousands of 'non huntible' deer in the cities, suburbs and parks which are included in ODNR's guesstimate of Ohio's total herd and setting bag limits, remove the thousands of accidents caused by these non huntible deer which is also figured in when setting bag limits, and maybe we can then get a much clearer picture of what's really going on overall.

I will say this...the City of Cols. has a guy that does nothing but pick dead animals off, and alongside the roads inside the 270 interstate corridor. All city area and no hunting. From dogs to cats to raccoons and deer. From the start of the chase phase of the rut till the end of the rut, he'll average anywhere from 5-12 deer a day. The rest of the year he will average 2-5 deer a week.
Again, this is just within Cols. city limits around 270.
No doubt all the drivers turn in insurance claims.
Would be interesting to know the tally of other major city's in Ohio as well.

These non huntible deer, nor the damage they cause should be used by ODNR in the equation when setting bag limits to appease the big insurance machine in Ohio.
 
#116 ·
Fastwater, I agree with you. I had this argument many, many years ago with Mike T, via email, about killing deer in the huntable areas won't help the nuisance areas. I wish I still had his response. But basically they are hoping spill over from hunting areas will help the nuisance areas. I don't think it's working. I am a portage county resident, and for the life of me, can't figure out how this is a 3 deer county. There are not that many deer here. That's what they (odnr) keep doing, they shuffle the regs and bag limits, but really they change nothing. We had bonus gun, they removed it, added early mz, they removed early mz, added bonus gun. It's nothing more than a bunch of bs. I am not sure how things will go in the future, but I'm glad I got to hunt before, and thru the good times.
 
#119 ·
My brother and I seen this coming a long time ago, we are not biolists, not college educated in deer management. Just hunters who see what we see, and our eyes did not lie to us.
A group of us Tried to have the same discussion with Mike as well, some 4-5 yrs back. Just got blown off. Like you, saw this coming as well.
What is really baffling is there are those that still yet today don't see it. Maybe it's cause they still have deer in their own neck of the woods. They can't seem to realize that just like animals follow the food chain, hunters will do the same.
When their areas start drying up, they will realize some of their comments like " you just need to hunt harder" or " quit shooting the deer in your area" was not the answer to the problem.
For many, many years, I've bought my tags but never left my property to hunt deer. Depending on how the freezer looked, killed one or two deer every year here using property owner tag.
Just this past two day shotgun season and Come BP season, I made up my mind to go someplace claiming to have more deer. May as well put those tags to use. And who knows, maybe I'll run into someone that scoffed their comments as I'm dragging my deer out of their hunting area. ;)
Four family members that are neighbors of mine are not hunting their farm but heading down to Athens. They are considering a lease of an 80 acre farm down that way that belongs to a relative of a friend of theirs.

So....just like the migration of animals goes, so goes the migration of hunters.
 
#122 ·
I didn't read all the posts, but I read some of them.

I have been one of the loudest criers against this course of action by the ODNR since approximately 2008 or so. I haven't harvested a doe since then. I don't harvest doe. When the population was high, I would take one per year as that was all I ever needed.

The crux of the problem has always been deer distribution. Where many hunters have access there are few to no deer. Where few hunters have access, the deer are plentiful.

So, what the ODNR has done is fulfill an agenda item of the Ohio Farm Bureau. They wanted higher prices for leasing land in Ohio for deer hunting. Now they have that. They don't care about the population one bit! They can always get damage permits if the deer get out of control. Then, charge the guys from MI thousands to hunt the farm after rifles took out many in August. I know this happened on a couple different properties over in Knox county.

Another thing that bothered me to a degree. I heard from a few hunters that had access to private land that hunted the public grounds in central back when the cheaper $15 bonus doe tags were available for gun season. They were loading up on public land doe while protecting their farm for future years of harvest. That's pretty classless IMO. Legal, but classless!

The ODNR has basically created "the haves" and the "have nots" in the state of Ohio for deer hunting. So, do I think they can manage Ohio's deer herd. Sure, so long as conservation isn't part of the equation.
 
#133 ·
I didn't read all the posts, but I read some of them.

I have been one of the loudest criers against this course of action by the ODNR since approximately 2008 or so. I haven't harvested a doe since then. I don't harvest doe. When the population was high, I would take one per year as that was all I ever needed.

The crux of the problem has always been deer distribution. Where many hunters have access there are few to no deer. Where few hunters have access, the deer are plentiful.

So, what the ODNR has done is fulfill an agenda item of the Ohio Farm Bureau. They wanted higher prices for leasing land in Ohio for deer hunting. Now they have that. They don't care about the population one bit! They can always get damage permits if the deer get out of control. Then, charge the guys from MI thousands to hunt the farm after rifles took out many in August. I know this happened on a couple different properties over in Knox county.

Another thing that bothered me to a degree. I heard from a few hunters that had access to private land that hunted the public grounds in central back when the cheaper $15 bonus doe tags were available for gun season. They were loading up on public land doe while protecting their farm for future years of harvest. That's pretty classless IMO. Legal, but classless!
This guy gets it... My hand up as a little classless... but when we started hunting some of the public wildlife areas we were the only ones we saw for many years... we new that as the packs came the numbers were going to go down and quickly... one deer for us now but watched the multiple tag abuse go on for years... wondering why the state didn't react quicker? It took basically another 5-6 years for the sate to realize "oh know public land numbers have been hammered bad" WHY WHY WHY did it take so damn long? Oh wait for some here it was the hunters fault, I forgot...
The ODNR has basically created "the haves" and the "have nots" in the state of Ohio for deer hunting. So, do I think they can manage Ohio's deer herd. Sure, so long as conservation isn't part of the equation.
 
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