COLUMBUS — Ohio’s weeklong deer gun hunting season began on Dec. 2 and ends on Dec. 8, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife. The gun season traditionally starts the Monday after Thanksgiving. An additional deer gun weekend will also take place this year on Dec. 21-22.
Eastern Ohio counties typically see the highest harvested deer during gun season, and led the state in numbers last year: Coshocton, 2,440; Tuscarawas, 2,260; Ashtabula, 2,189; Muskingum, 2,076, and Knox, 1,878.
Last year, Ohio hunters harvested a total of 95,606 deer, which includes 70,103 deer taken during the seven-day gun season, 10,033 deer from hunters ages 17 and younger during the 2023 youth weekend and 15,470 deer in the December gun weekend. The three year gun season average is 93,207.
During Ohio’s youth hunting season this year, hunters ages 17 and younger harvested 10,449 white-tailed deer on Nov. 16 and 17.
Chronic wasting disease surveillance areas include all of Hardin, Marion and Wyandot counties and Auglaize and Jackson townships in Allen County. Successful hunters in the disease surveillance area must submit harvest samplings on Dec. 2 and 3.
Self-serve kiosks are available for mandatory sampling until Feb. 2, 2025. Staffed sampling and the kiosks can be found at the Division of Wildlife’s CWD database. The database also shows current and historical CWD test results where hunters can look up their harvest sample results.
Additionally, the disease surveillance area has special regulations regarding the use of bait and transportation of carcasses. Hunters outside of the disease surveillance area can have their deer tested by the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory. For more information on CWD, visit ohiodnr.gov/cwd.
