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Orange Army

Good luck and safe hunting to all Monday morning. Go Buckeyes!!

Alot of corn still standing around Kenton...would think that may make it a tougher year for the gun hunters? Around here they seem to push the wood lots, may not be as effective.

Good news for us bowhunters, if guys have had their eye on a particular buck it sounds like this may have been a good year to let them walk?

Deer numbers been in steady decline close to 15 years now... Gotta luv how the DOW spins it every year blaming it on the weather yet the weather is bad every year... It may take a little while longer, but it may get better after hunters number drop due to low deer numbers... Can't wait... Hunters number drop, permit numbers drop, hit them in the wallet, maybe they'll manage deer again, but likely won't be until the next regime...

Zbone hunter numbers have been dropping for years and it has nothing to do with the deer herd. That drop in hunter numbers has hit them in the wallet for many years. DO YOU REALLY THINK THE ODNR DIVISION OF WILDLIFE WORKS FOR FREE AND THEIR SUPPLIES AND RESEARCH ARE FREE. Their main source of funding comes from hunting and fishing licenses, it does not come from the General Fund. Whether you like it or not WE HUNTERS are not the only group they have to contend with when managing animal species. Do I like some of their decisions NO, but decisions can be changed down the road. For instance many of us hunt public property only. The rule of only Bucks ONLY after the last day of Gun Season, IMHO, should have been only one deer period off of public land, instead multiple deer until the end of gun season, if they really wanted to bring the herd back on Public Land. But that is just me. DANNY

The problem as I see it isn't low deer numbers universally across the state. A lot of private property abounds with deer. Access to private property is extremely tough as (in my area) a majority of landowners simply will NOT permit any hunting, except by direct family or a close friend. Roads which once had a vehicle parked at every wide spot or pull-off now have just a few vehicles visible throughout the firearms season. Some property is leased but it still doesn't amount to 3% of all the private land around here despite what is often said. You can't kill deer if you can't get to them, and that's the truth. My county (Jackson) killed something like 200 fewer deer versus 2017 and I wish the guns had killed 400 more... all does. I'm seeing way larger numbers of antlerless deer and much fewer mature bucks versus 20 years ago.

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