LIMA — Hunters checked nearly 8,000 more white-tailed deer during this year’s deer-gun hunting season Nov. 30 through Sunday than they did last year.
Hunters checked 73,399 white-tailed deer according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, compared to last year’s harvest of 65,484 deer. That figure represents a 12 percent increase.
The large harvest during the weeklong gun season put this year’s totals for all hunting over last year’s rate. Hunters have checked 152,554 deer in 2015 compared to 148,821 last year. John Windau with the ODNR Division of Wildlife said the significant increase in this year’s deer-gun season can most likely be attributed to better weather conditions compared to the 2014 deer-gun season.
Two days of deer-gun season remain Dec. 28 and 29. The muzzleloader season is Jan. 9 to 12 and archery season remains open through Feb. 7.
Windau said that hunting is the best and most effective management tool for maintaining Ohio’s healthy deer population. Ohio ranks fifth nationally in resident hunters and 11th in the number of jobs associated with hunting-related industries. Hunting has a more than $853 million economic impact in Ohio through the sale of equipment, fuel, food, lodging and more, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Hunting in America.
Harvest totals for local counties, with last year’s numbers in parenthesis, were: Allen: 387 (348); Auglaize: 299 (278); Hancock: 487 (443); Hardin: 542 (487); Logan: 765 (672); Mercer: 235 (206); Putnam: 304 (315); Shelby: 387 (397); and Van Wert: 237 (283).
