Hunters hit the fields this week
Published 12:00 am Saturday, November 29, 2003
Nearly a half million hunters are expected to be in search of "the big one" Monday,
the opening day of deer-gun season in Ohio.
With a predicted 450,000 people in the woods and fields next week, the Division of Wildlife is projecting
a good harvest.
"With a white-tailed deer population estimated around 681,000, we anticipate a harvest of between 120,000 and 125,000 during this time period," said Mike Tonkovich, a forest wildlife biologist with the ODNR.
Last year,
Ohio hunters killed 133,163 deer during the gun season, including 902 in Lawrence County. The record for a gun season was set in 1995, when 137,811 whitetails were taken. But that was a two-week season. During the first week of the 1995 season, hunters harvested 115,063 deer.
Hunters will have more opportunities in a number of counties to take antlerless deer this year because of the expanded hunting zones.
Ohio is divided into three deer hunting zones.
A limit of one deer may be taken in Zone A (29 counties) or Zone R (5 counties). Hunters may take a second deer in Zone B (54 counties) by purchasing additional deer permits. Hunters may purchase up to four urban deer permits to take antlerless deer only within the urban deer zones, which are located around the Columbus, Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown, Toledo, Dayton and Cincinnati areas.
Hunters may take a deer of either sex during the deer-gun season, except in the five-county Zone R, where a deer of either sex may be taken during the first two days of the season and antlered buck only during the remaining five days. Zone R lies primarily in northwestern and western Ohio.
A deer permit is required in addition to a valid Ohio hunting license. Hunters may take on antlered deer, regardless of zone, hunting method or season.
During the gun season, hunting is permitted from one half hour before sunrise until sunset.
Deer season not only a puts hunters in the fields throughout the state, but it also provides an economic boon for many of Ohio's smaller, rural communities, such as those in Lawrence County. Hunters eat out, buy gasoline, sporting goods and pay for lodging during their hunting trips. According to the Ohio Division of Wildlife, deer hunting contributes some $266
million into the state's economy each year, and helps support thousands of jobs.