looking to hunt ohio

[joe munno]

hey guys I'm looking into hunting Ohio anybody have a good outfitter in south east Ohio or any good stateland thanks joe

[aim small...release]

Pm sent

[BrushWolf]

There isn't anything left to hunt here might as well look elsewhere.            

There's a lot of Wayne National forest in the area. Bunch of good hunting in it.

[curlis]

All the deer have left the state.

[dbd870]

Good area for deer; I have family in SE Ohio. Always see plenty of deer driving through there. Sure wish granddad's farm was still in the family.

[J-dog]

They say there is a 140 class buck behind every tree in Ohio!

J

[Zbone]

J-dog... Correction - There are Booners behind every tree don't ja know...  

[George Vernon]

Joe,
I know a number of articles have been written over the years about big bucks in Ohio.  That was true in the '80's and a bit in the 90's, but not now.  I've quit hunting public areas in southeast Ohio.  I see less than 1% of the deer vs. 25 years ago in places like the Zaleski State forest.

Ohio DNR has spent lot of effort over the past 25 years to reduce the overall herd.  Very successful.  Especially hard hit have been the public hunting areas in the state.  It's difficult to get permission to hunt private land.  Hunting leases are all over the place, etc.

You have to drive through Pa to get here.  Consider Pa. has 4,170,000 acres open to public hunting.  Ohio has 651,000.  Pa, in my opinion, has done a much better job with herd management with point restrictions and other tools.

I'd hate to see you miss a better herd in Pa to come to Ohio.  But if you have a lease or other access to private land, you'll do just fine.  It's no fun to travel this far for public land hunts that won't be very good.

[Buckeye1977]

I'll second what George said. I don't see half the deer I did 10 years ago and I'm hunting private land. Way too many antlerless tags issued for too many years. In some counties you could kill 6 deer for a number of years. That and poachers have taken a toll on the herd

[actionjackson22]

I will add to what is said above I would have to look for the numbers in my hunt journal but we went to lake hope(zealski) for 12 years and it really went down hill about 5-6 years ago to the point we're we aren't going down this year. My dad brother and I are going to Kentucky and then I have a small cabin in Pennsylvania I'll be hunting. Private land in South eastern Ohio might still be good but public got really tough to see deer. We went six years in a row where we all had shots and or killed one to being lucky if one of us saw one.

[59Alaskan]

I have lived here in Ohio for 10 years.  The number of deer I see has declined steadily.  The DNR is pretty open about their goal - reduce herd size.

I contend that OH still has great bucks because of the one buck rule.   Good luck seeing a good buck in the daylight near me though.

I have hunted MI, SC, NC and Ohio for deer.  Of those, if I had to pick a state land hunt, even though numbers are down here I would still pick Ohio.  The three main reasons for this are 1) Ohio has very short gun seasons. 2) Ohio has big deer 3) Ohio has good state land

[hitman]

A lot of the big bucks in Ohio are around the small wooded rural areas close to the most populated towns. Private land is a must to get permission to hunt.

[postman]

If your going to hunt public land in Ohio its tough, but its still better than hunting here in Eastern N.C. where they think deer hunting is running deer with dogs and shooting with rifles, we only have a 3 week bow season before the gun season starts.

[bucknut]

I know the population is down, but I still see plenty and have opportunities to kill deer nearly every outing hunting primarily public land(90%). I've been hunting it all my life too though. It's hard to just walk into an area on public ground and expect to be on deer immediately. You have to be willing to get off the beaten path and look for little pockets away from everyone else. I'm not saying you will kill a P&Y deer, but in a good week hunt you should have an opportunity to shoot a decent buck. Just my observation though.
JOHN

[J-dog]

Originally posted by postman:
If your going to hunt public land in Ohio its tough, but its still better than hunting here in Eastern N.C. where they think deer hunting is running deer with dogs and shooting with rifles, we only have a 3 week bow season before the gun season starts.

Can't compare the two! Thick as Cambodia here, hot all season, lucky to see a deer period.

I like them running dogs though, I find they keep the deer up and moving and more likely I see them. Have shot a couple off of dogs with recurve. Have had a deer being pushed go by, hounds shortly after of course punching the deer, and then shortly deer come out feeding? Dogs don't bother them unless they are being pushed by them. Does make them nocturnal as hades,