COLUMBUS — Ohio hunters harvested 17,373 white-tailed deer from Dec. 21-22 during the state’s additional weekend of deer gun hunting, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Last year, hunters checked 15,470 deer during the gun weekend, with a three-year average of 13,417.
During gun weekend, hunters also tagged 4,491 antlered deer — 26% of the total — and 12,882 anterless deer — 74% of the total. The anterless total consisted of does, button bucks, bucks with shed antlers and bucks with antlers shorter than 3 inches.
The top 10 counties for deer tagged during the 2024 additional gun weekend were: Ashtabula, 580; Coshocton, 574; Tuscarawas, 515; Knox, 491; Licking, 454; Richland, 447; Carroll, 429; Muskingum, 402; Harrison, 400 and Guernsey, 380.
Legal hunting equipment during deer gun season consists of specific shotguns, straight-walled cartridge rifles, muzzleloaders, handguns and archery equipment.
Deer checked during gun hunting season, by hunting equipment, includes straight-walled cartridge rifle, 66%, 11,413 deer; shotgun, 27%, 4,723 deer; muzzleloader, 4%, 706 deer; archery equipment, 2%, 433 deer and handgun, less than 1%, 98 deer.
Hunters tagged 115,014 deer throughout the nine days of gun hunting and two days of the youth season. Youth hunters harvested 10,449 deer on Nov. 16-17. The weeklong gun season total was 87,192.
The season total for deer harvested through Dec. 22 is 209,459, which includes both archery and firearm hunting since the season started in September.
Additionally, nonresident have purchased 39,861 Ohio hunting licenses. The most popular states hunters have traveled to Ohio from are Pennsylvania with 7,643 licenses, Michigan, 4,962; West Virginia, 3,581; North Carolina, 3,191 and New York, 2,996.
Hunters can still participate in the ongoing archery season which ends Feb. 2, and the muzzleloader season which will take place on Jan. 4-7.
An either-sex deer permit is needed after Dec. 22, as deer management permits are no longer valid. The free HuntFish OH app is also available to deer hunters interested in buying licenses and permits, viewing wildlife area maps, checking sunrise and sunset times, learning county bag limits and more. In the app, hunters can verify game without cell signal and display licenses and permits digitally. For more information, visit wildohio.gov.
