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Ohio Deer Season
Deer Season Ohio Overview
Welcome to the 2020 review of Ohio’s Deer Season. Ohio is the second midwestern state we have covered in our annual deer season overview series. Indiana was the part one in this series. With their deer population well above 750,000, Ohio is quite a whitetail hunting state. In 2019, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Division, there were over 184K deer harvested during the 2019 deer season in Ohio. Clearly there is opportunity in the Buckeye state. There is more than enough deer to hunt, and more than enough public and private land to hunt them on. Ohio is a great state for deer hunting and its rules are favorable for hunters of all kinds.
Deer Season Ohio – Map
In Ohio, there is a statewide bag limit of six deer for the whole season. Only one antlered deer may be harvested by a hunter. Counties have certain bag limits as well, depending on their local deer populations that they host. Some counties are one deer all the way up to five deer counties. If a hunter reaches the bag limit for a county, they can hunt in other counties to get up to the statewide limit of six, if they so please.
The wildlife division have recently made changes to bag limits on public land. These changes are focused on herd growth in Ohio public lands and increasing hunter satisfaction.
- Statewide bag limit of 1 anterless deer on public land.
- No antlerless deer after the close of the 7 day gun season.
The 2020 – 2021 Ohio deer season will be the third year with these public land bag limits changes in place. I am curious to see how that impacts herd size and health after this year. If you are a public land hunter in Ohio, I would love to hear your thoughts on the changes and impact they have had in your eyes.
Season Dates
| Season | Start Date | Close Date |
| Archery | Sept. 26, 2020 | Feb. 7, 2021 |
| Youth Gun | Nov. 21, 2020 | Nov. 22, 2020 |
| Gun #1 | Nov. 30, 2020 | Dec. 6, 2020 |
| Gun #2 | Dec. 19, 2020 | Dec. 20, 2020 |
| Muzzleloader | Jan. 2, 2021 | Jan. 5, 2021 |
Deer Season Ohio – Trophy Potential
The state of Ohio has two entries on the Pope & Young Typical whitetail deer records. Both bucks were over 196 inches as a typical. These are serious antlers for trophy hunters out there.
Ohio Deer Season – Wrap Up
It is important that hunters and potential hunters always check the bag limit and rules for the county or counties that they will be hunting in, as rules can vary from county to county. At the time of this writing, the Ohio DNR does not have their website up and running and there is no information anywhere about any gun or archery restrictions imposed by the state. Please make sure to research laws thoroughly before hunting season this fall, as they will surely have their website up and running before then. As always, check out our Whitetail 101 content where we cover anything and everything for the whitetail deer hunters.