Numbers don't lie, Ohio deer hunting has never been better

By Art Holden, Outdoor Editor
(Wooster) Daily Record

Before we know it, it'll be deer hunting season. It's barely more than 30 days before bow hunters will be in the woods, and the serious whitetail enthusiasts are already patterning deer, setting stands and going over equipment.

Why all the early fuss?

Plain and simple, deer hunting in Ohio has never been better.

Oh, there's some old-timers out there that'll tell you stories about how good it used to be, but it's a statistical fact -- deer hunting has never, let me repeat that, NEVER, been better in the Buckeye state.

From hunting opportunities to your chances of harvesting a whitetail, the numbers show a windfall for not only the Ohio outdoorsman, but for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources as well.

Deer hunting pumps more that $26 million into the Ohio Division of Wildlife's budget from hunting license fees and deer permits each year. What Ohioans get in return is a deer herd like none ever seen before and success rates that have gone through the roof.

Each year when the DOW's Waterloo Wildlife Research Station puts out the summary of the previous deer hunting season, I spend some time trying to figure out what exactly the many numbers and graphs actually tell us.

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