Hunting News

Archery, youth season harvests totaled

Archery, youth season harvests totaled

By Ohio Department of Natural Resources

Ohio’s 2020 white-tailed deer archery hunting season has proven to be bountiful for many Buckeye State hunters, with 74,892 deer taken through Nov. 25. This is an 11% increase from the average harvest total from the same date during the past three seasons, which is 67,318.

The top 10 counties for deer taken by archery hunters so far during Ohio’s 2020 archery hunting season include Coshocton (2,689), Licking (2,232), Tuscarawas (2,146), Ashtabula (2,021), Knox (1,910), Holmes (1,856), Muskingum (1,806), Trumbull (1,748), Guernsey (1,599), and Richland (1,505).

Young hunters harvested 5,795 deer during the youth gun season, Nov. 21-22.

The top 10 counties for deer harvested during the youth season were Coshocton (239), Holmes (223), Tuscarawas (206), Muskingum (172), Knox (168), Guernsey (148), Harrison (133), Washington (121), Morgan (118) and Ross (118).

This year, 40,030 youth deer permits have been issued and can be used during any 2020-2021 deer season. This number does not include young hunters hunting on their family’s land that are not required to have a permit.

The average deer harvest during the past three youth seasons is 5,909. The most deer taken during a two-day youth season was in 2007, when 10,059 deer were checked by young hunters.

Deer tend to be highly active during October and November because of the breeding season, making these months popular for many Ohio bowhunters. The top five days for bowhunter success so far in 2020 were Saturday, Oct. 31 (4,374 deer checked); Saturday, Nov. 14 (3,995); Saturday, Nov. 7 (3,475); Saturday, Sept. 26 (2,687); and Friday, Nov. 13 (2,552). Participation remains high for all hunters, with 299,573 permits sold or issued through Wednesday, Nov. 24. Ohio’s deer-archery season began in September and is open until Feb. 7, 2021.

The deer-gun season is Nov. 30 through Dec. 6, as well as Dec. 19-20. Deer-muzzleloader season is Jan. 2 through Jan. 5, 2021. Find complete details in the 2020-2021 Ohio Hunting Regulations or wildohio.gov.

More information on previous seasons can be found in the Deer Harvest Summary.

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Copyright 2020 by Buckmasters, Ltd