Sorry to hear that you can't make it out anymore. Know what you're saying about the amount of hunters and deer population but they did say that opening day this year was the largest kill since 2012. Somebody must be getting them.

 

You are correct. I saw that good number, so kudos to those guys. Wonder how that compares to the hey days of the 80's and 90's. Some of it too is the increased difficulty in getting access. Places we used to hunt have all been sold off and now it is just a few hunters on them a few days.... or cleared for farming or built houses on.

 

I hunted the opener in Ashtabula county (near North Bloomfield). Between shooting light and 11a I counted 28 shots. On Tuesday morning I hunted a friend's property in Medina County (Valley City). And I counted 1 shot.

Take that data for what you will, but I was expecting way more. The numbers don't lie - highest opener volume since 2012.

 

I hunted the opener in Ashtabula county (near North Bloomfield). Between shooting light and 11a I counted 28 shots. On Tuesday morning I hunted a friend's property in Medina County (Valley City). And I counted 1 shot.

Take that data for what you will, but I was expecting way more. The numbers don't lie - highest opener volume since 2012.

28 shots. You near the state grounds?

 

I don’t trust the DNR numbers any more than I trust my dog to forecast the weather.
I’ve talked to several people who hunted prime areas and all have commented on how little shooting was heard.
same BS as every other year

 

I don’t trust the DNR numbers any more than I trust my dog to forecast the weather.
I’ve talked to several people who hunted prime areas and all have commented on how little shooting was heard.
same BS as every other year

Kinda like the pheasant stockings they probably put 2 birds in a field and 30 guys hunting them lol. The people that have friends or good property to hunt deer are blessed now a days because finding somewhere is very difficult. I remember the good old days also hunting up around the Kinsman area. You had people hunting to the North, South, East and West. I will say it's not just here in Ohio that the hunting has dropped, I've been hunting WV for 38 years and even there the hunting pressure is down a bunch. After the first hour and half you are hunting naturally moving deer.

 

It’s definitely crazy and processors will say how’s many deer hunters are bringing in

 

The trend nationally has been shifting towards archery hunting. As for gun season, it is not the same. How many of us used to get together with families to hunt opening day that we no longer do? Groups of friends that used to get together to hunt local farms but now they are all leased and don’t allow permission. As a teenager I remember walking up to houses with my uncle to get permission and it was easily given. Yes gun season is not the same and I think it will never be the same as it was. And for those of us who enjoyed it, all we be able to pass down to our kids will be the stories of how it used to be. Good luck to anyone out there still grinding.

 

this pretty much sums it up, I loved gun season when I was younger. Friends and family all getting together and enjoying the outdoors. Now the farms are all leased up or have been turned into housing developments, I’m stuck on a 10 acre piece by myself and don’t even enjoy going.

 

I was thinking about this while we were out hunting in southern ohio for deer camp. When I started going in late 90s and early 2000s the camps were jam packed and it was normal to hear steady shooting monday and Tuesday often in 3 shots at a time I'm assuming at deer that were bumped.

Now you hear single shots in the mornings and evenings. Deer are out feeding on the natural patterns and the rifles are way more accurate. But like everyone else man do I sure miss the hey days of gun season. I don't think guys can even fathom hownit was at those times.

 

My nephew dropped off a deer at the processor midday Monday. The floor was covered with deer to the point they were double stacking them. My son scored this evening, so I called ahead to the processor. They said they were not accepting any more deer today. They are so backed up they are only takng 60 per day. She said they had their 60 by 9:00 yesterday. They open at 8:00 there will be a line. However, I agree it's still not like the old days.

 

My bud from Pa. says the same. Just not enough hunters moving the deer around anymore. He says it's harder to find a processor too. Myself, I don't deer hunt (except for a few times 20 years ago) but most of my friends who do have hung it up because of age or harder to access land.

 

Yeah day of deer drives are over

 

In this state the weapon of choice is the crossbow. This has been the case for decades and it's becoming more true with each passing season. You get 4 months of opportunity with a crossbow as opposed to 9 days with a firearm. You get to hunt the warmer bow opener or the rut. With less free time to hunt, more people hunting solo, and hunters aging, I only see this trend continuing. ..

 

In this state the weapon of choice is the crossbow.

After 43 years of hunting and bow hunting all but the last 5 or 6 maybe, I had to switch to a crossbow. I have to say, I never did enjoy using that thing. It just seemed so heavy and awkward. That light slim compound hanging on my hip became this heavy bulky mass hanging from my shoulder. I know a lot of people like them, I just could new get used to it.
A few years after giving up hunting, I passed that crossbow on to a fellow hunter so he could take his kids out with him.

Clermont county has always been a big archery hunting county but even here gun season has really declined. I usually fish at East Fork Lake several times a week during gun season and it's rare to hear many or even any shots over there.

 

Yes also with youth , it’s very easy to for them to shoot a crossbow accurately

 

Nothing is to say you can't keep traditions alive or re-birth them. Might be not as good as it once was but it doesn't sound like a deer problem. I am by all means not the most successful deer hunter, but I enjoy gun week, bonus weekend, and ML days for the comradery. I go with my father-in-law every year and its something we can bond with. My son and daughter will join us when their old enough and ready. My brother-in-law just got introduced into it as well. Won't be before long we'll have our camp set up with the families and generations to take part in a great American past time.

 

I hear this. There could be deer galore, but if there aren't enough hunters in the woods to boot them around, they have no reason to leave their beds. I'm now 72 and would love to go, but I had a heart attack in 2023 and the blood pressure meds, especially the blood thinner, make it impossible for me to fight off the cold no matter how warm I dress. I really do miss having some venison in the freezer!

And then there's the situation I witnessed when I first accompnied my friend to PA to his Uncle's deer camp. IIRC, it was near Allegheny State Forest, and there was orange behind every other tree! We saw better than 100 deer a day! Herds of little, runt doe and not a buck among them. This was back when it was considered heresy to shoot a doe. And everybody in the camp was from somewhere other than PA. PA was where you went back then because that's where the deer were. Hardly an ideal situation either.

Once bowhunting started to get popular I took that up, progressed from recurves through a series of compound bows until my shoulders fell apart and bought a cross bow. I thought it would be easy since the season was so long but I was wrong. I had a lot to learn, and it took me 4 years to take my first doe. I solved the front heavy crossbow problem by buying a reverse limb bow. It balances perfectly with my left hand directly under the yoke of the limbs.

 

I started hunting deer in Ohio in 1967 in southern Ohio, Hocking County off of Hwy 188. You could hunt all week and MAYBE see 4-5. There were just not many deer at that time. Just seeing tracks was a big deal. I hunted Ohio gun season for over 50 years. There were certainly a bunch of changes over all of those years. I miss hunting in Ohio. I come here to read these threads every year just to relive the deer hunting experience through all of you a little.

 

We used to have about 18- 20 in our group doing drives 20 years ago. Today we had just 7 of us and harvested 6 deer. in Ashtabula. I have to say today was some of the hardest hunting we have done. Snow in some areas of the drive was balls deep. Two nice bucks 4 doe with plenty of shots taken and missed. I took a descent 8 point big body deer and was very great full to hunt with these guys that i have been hunting with for 30 plus years. Gun Season not what it once was but today was a whole lot of fun. Good luck to everyone hunting tomorrow think I'm taking tomorrow off.

 

I think driving deer in groups should be outlawed. No sport in it. Just a bunch of bad hunters that can't hunt on their own

 

The season is not what it once was. In years past people would hunt. now, most want to sit by a feeder. Years ago, it was 1 deer per hunter, we saw pleanty of deer. I, always enjoyed the archery season the best. Years ago, you did here pleanty of shooting. now only a shot here and there. At 76, my hunting days are over. I, was 20, now, I am 76. Where did the time go.

 

In 1976, I was 25. We started in southern Ohio and didn’t miss a year till 2018. at that start had 10 contiguous tracks with different owners that totaled probably 1500 acres. We could hunt anywhere any time. Today it is down to 40 acres.

I can remember almost every deer I shot and where I shot it (ha, maybe it wasn’t that many). Actually, from 76 until I got sick in about 2018, I added them up and I averaged right at a deer every other year. Most of those were shot with a 20 gauge and open sites too. ( course I can remember every deer I missed too, but sure wasn’t going to add those up)

The first day you sat on stand (not in a tree) until you got cold, moved up or down the hill a bit, and sat some more. After the first day and a half, you had to move during the middle of the day. had a buddy that lived there and we would take off and roam. One would work the ridge and one would work the draw. We’d alternate sitting and still hunting. I’d sit and he’d move and then he’d sit and I’d move. Saw a lot of deer and got a lot of shots that way, not as productive as sitting in a tree with a scent under you in the rut,, but sure was real hunting. at 73 and ill now couldn’t do that even if I had the access. But lots of great memories including teaching my son to hunt. Just wish I could pass all that access onto him.

 

Not all memories are good though, and some are bittersweet. In 1982 on the last morning of our hunt my dad shot a huge buck. He couldn’t find it. It took four of us an hour, and I was eventually the one that found it lying dead. He had hit it going away in the back up high, and it had bled out inside, and there was not a drop of a blood trail. I lucked on it. Turned out to be a 14 point official Ohio Big Buck. My dad was so proud and showed that dear to everybody.

We broke camp and the next time I would see my dad would be Christmas Eve when we arrived home to spend the holidays. At 6 PM, on Christmas Eve, a half hour after we had been home, I heard a huge thud. My dad had hit the floor and was dead of a heart aneurysm. So my last best memory of my dad is that hunt and finding his deer for him.

Two years later, we were at same camp hunting opening day. Dark came and one of my buddies didn’t show up at the house. We waited and called around the neighbors to see if he’d come out a different direction. By 830 we knew something was up and called the sheriff. They brought the fire department out, and at 9 PM in a pouring rain, they formed a line and we headed out through the woods. After about an hour and a half someone found my friend. He too had passed from a heart attack. At that point, I was real close to giving up hunting and it took a lot to go back into the woods that next time

So lots of good memories, but some bittersweet ones too.

 

Hold on to those good memories. I hope you are feeling better

 

Way back in 1993 my brother and I were gun hunting. When I came out to the car my brother was already there waiting. I asked him what was up, as he never came out till the bitter end. He told he was not feeling well. Didn't see him again till Christmas and he said he was still feeling poorly. On New years day I learned he was in the hospital and exploratory surgery had found he had lymphoma. On January 18th he passed away. Gun season has never been the same since.

 

Not the old deer drives are bad again...LOL

It certainly not the same, but down here in Wayne it was pretty busy. I drove through burr oak campground Monday and it was packed with hunters every single spot. I know the hotels were all booked in Athens because I had a friend from NY come down last minute to hunt the Athens district and he could not get a room. Lots of shooting Mon/Tuesday then picked up again Friday. The processors were full and the one my buddy takes his too could only accept 15 deer Sunday morning. They opened at 9am and he got in line at 7am and was the second truck. They had even rented an extra refrigerated semi-trailer and it is full.

I will say there were a lot of guys hunting that were not actually going to shoot anything. All my local buddies hunted and only 1 had not tagged a buck already. It's tradition and we hunt regardless, and we went out and sat even on the cold mornings. And as luck would have it one of us had a whopper 10 point Tuesday cross at 45 yards and he just watched him go through his scope (no buck tag). There were more deer on Wayne in my area this season than any of the previous 3 I can tell you that for sure. And more deer period we were all saying it this summer as we were seeing a ton of deer.

Obviously quite a few deer are tagged by bow before gun season starts. Our opinion here is not popular, but we feel the extended bow season, baiting and cheap bows/xbows are the recipe for way more deer killed than reported. Down here I know of a bunch of deer shot and not found during bow....far too many. Every gun season we find several deer unrecovered dead from bow.....3 bucks and 2 does Saturday on a 240 acre piece (9 and 10 point) for example. I had a guy at a deer camp here telling me his friend had shot 5 bucks up north during bow season this year before finally recovering one (most extreme I have ever heard). It's the nasty thing bow hunters don't want to talk about.....instead they want to blame "slob" gun hunters. The state is well aware, but they just want deer dead so they are pleased either way. And before anybody jumps on me - yes I have bow shot deer and been unable to recover them. I'm not in a glass house, but also not afraid to discuss the reality of the situation. There is no doubt there were more deer alive during firearms seasons hence better hunting years ago before the bow explosion that started in the 90s.

 

Not the old deer drives are bad again...LOL

It certainly not the same, but down here in Wayne it was pretty busy. I drove through burr oak campground Monday and it was packed with hunters every single spot. I know the hotels were all booked in Athens because I had a friend from NY come down last minute to hunt the Athens district and he could not get a room. Lots of shooting Mon/Tuesday then picked up again Friday. The processors were full and the one my buddy takes his too could only accept 15 deer Sunday morning. They opened at 9am and he got in line at 7am and was the second truck. They had even rented an extra refrigerated semi-trailer and it is full.
I had a guy at a deer camp here telling me his friend had shot 5 bucks up north during bow season this year before finally recovering one (most extreme I have ever heard). It's the nasty thing bow hunters don't want to talk about.....instead they want to blame "slob" gun hunters. The state is well aware, but they just want deer dead so they are pleased either way. And before anybody jumps on me - yes I have bow shot deer and been unable to recover them. I'm not in a glass house, but also not afraid to discuss the reality of the situation. There is no doubt there were more deer alive during firearms seasons hence better hunting years ago before the bow explosion that started in the 90s.

Here's another one. Years back I was friendly with a guy who worked either in an archery shop or the archery department of a larger sporting goods store. I honestly don't remember which, but I do remember that this was back when Ohio's deer population was just booming! The guy saw me in there and said to me that I wouldn't believe what happened to him a few days earlier. A man had come in a few days earlier complaining that he had put a ton of arrows into various deer that year, but couldn't find a blood trail or any other sign that the deer had been hit. Needles to say he hadn't recovered a single one. My friend asked him what kind of broadhead he was using and the guy said, "Broadhead? What's a broadhead?!"

Further questioning revealed that this guy had been shooting deer with field points! My friend said that it took every ounce of his willpower to keep from punching the guys lights out! At least the doofus was repentant after my friend explained to him what he was doing wrong. He asked what broadheads my friend would recommend, and asked what he thought might have happened to those deer that he shot with field points. My friend said he hoped that most might survive given not much blood loss and, hopefully, no infection.

I can honestly say that every deer I have ever shot has been recovered, althought not all by me. But that's another story. I was extremely picky about the shots I would take with either gun or bow. That probably cost me some deer over the years, but that's how I played the game. And yes, the state does want a certain number of deer dead, and have fudge factors installed in their population estimates to account for unrecovered deer and deer dead of old age, Winter kill, etc. I can distinctly remember my first trip to my BIL's hunting cabin in SE Ohio. There was a stretch of I77 that looked like a long, skinny deer graveyard! There were deer carcasses everywhere.

You have to keep the consequences of all those dead deer in mind, and the dead deer might be the least of it. There is vehicle damage for sure, and maybe human injury. At that time I knew the local game protector quite well. We were both on the local Ducks Unlimited committee, and he helped me with a pheasant stocking program that the ODNR was doing back then. At one time he told me that the insurance companies were threatening to "redline" the entire state of Ohio unless the ODNR got the deer herd under control.

 

"I had a friend from NY come down last minute to hunt the Athens district and he could not get a room."

That brought back some old memories of staying in the Budget Host hotel in Athens on Route 50 all week every gun season for over 40 years. I see it is called the Hometown Inn now. It is good to hear it still gets good business from deer hunters.

 

And another really large change. The large property that I hunted in Athens for over 30 years was sold to a ex major league baseball player and is now a high fence hunting preserve with genetically modified deer, buffalo, rams, fallow deer etc. LOL

 

Just looked up the double play ranch. Yikes!

 

Nothing is as it once was....including my body ,I just make the best of it ....what it is now .

 

I would have to say a deer wounded by an arrow has a much greater chance to survive than one hit by a bullet.A broadhead cuts cleanly and doesn't destroy tissue or bone as much as a bullet.A bullet shock wave destroys surrounding tissue and easily breaks bone.I would say more deer die unrecovered by gun hunters than by bow.You can add deer killed by car that kills plenty also.A patient came in yesterday and said he ran into two bucks in the last 2 months.Said ran into road both times and no chance to avoid.