OHIO — Ohio's week-long deer gun hunting season is underway, and opening day showed a strong start with 19,539 white-tailed deer being checked, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

What You Need To Know

  • The season opened on Monday, Nov. 27, and remains open until Sunday, Dec. 3

  • Opening day harvest includes 7,676 antlered deer and 11,683 antlerless deer, a category including does and button bucks

  • Last year, hunters took 17,197 deer on opening day of the gun season

  • Throughout this year's deer season archery and firearms hunters have taken 116,995 deer through Nov. 27

The season opened on Monday, Nov. 27, and remains open until Sunday, Dec. 3. A two-day gun season re-opens from Dec. 16 to Dec. 17.

Opening day harvest includes 7,676 antlered deer and 11,683 antlerless deer, a category including does and button bucks. Last year, hunters took 17,197 deer on opening day of the gun season. On average from 2020 to 2022, hunters checked 16,616 deer during the season opener.

The top five counties for deer harvests were:

  • Coshocton (858)
  • Tuscarawas (712)
  • Muskingum (630) 
  • Ashtabula (618)
  • Knox (587)

Other counties placing within the top 11 were Carroll, Guernsey, Harrison, Holmes, Licking and Ashland, according to ODNR. 

Throughout this year's deer season archery and firearms, hunters have taken 116,995 deer through Nov. 27. The archery harvest includes 87,369 deer while youth hunters took 10,039 in the youth gun season.

A combined 349,313 deer permits were purchased this year by residents and nonresidents. Permits are still for sale at license vendors, on the HuntFish OH mobile app, and at wildohio.gov. The most popular states nonresident hunters visited form include Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia, North Carolina and New York.

Archery season remain open statewide until Feb. 4, 2024 and the state will host a muzzleloader season from Jan. 6 to Jan. 9, 2024.

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