Ohio’s popular deer archery hunting season begins on Saturday, Sept. 28, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife. Deer are Ohio’s most sought-after game animal and an important food source for families across the Buckeye State.
Ohio has an extensive archery season that is open Saturday, Sept. 28, through Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025. Hunters may use crossbows, compound bows, recurve bows, and longbows to pursue deer during the archery season.
Bowhunting continues to be popular in Ohio, as shown by the record 100,951 deer taken during the 2023-24 archery season. Overall, hunters checked 213,928 deer in 2023-24.
October and November are the most popular months for hunting because of increased deer activity during their breeding season. More than two-thirds of all deer harvested in the 2023-24 season were checked in October and November. You can keep track of Ohio’s deer season harvest totals at wildohio.gov, with new totals posted each Wednesday of the deer season.
Ohio has additional deer hunting options to accompany the archery season. The two-day youth gun season is Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 16-17. The statewide seven-day gun season begins on Monday, Dec. 2 and continues through Sunday, Dec. 8. An additional two-day gun season for all hunters is Dec. 21-22, followed by late-season muzzleloader hunting Jan. 4-7, 2025.
Hunters are required to have a valid hunting license and deer permit before heading into the field. The deer management permit, used for antlerless deer only, is now valid until the close of the bonus gun hunting weekend on Dec. 22. Deer management permits, which offer cost savings over either-sex permits, can only be used on private land, in select public hunting areas, and during controlled hunts. Either-sex permits can be used to harvest antlered or antlerless deer and are valid statewide until Feb. 2, 2025. Find more details in the 2024-25 Hunting and Trapping Regulations.
Hunting licenses and deer permits can be purchased on the free HuntFish OH mobile app. App users can also view maps of public hunting areas, see the current hunting regulations, view sunrise and sunset times, and check game without a cellular connection. The app is available for Android and iOS users in the app store. Nonresident students who are actively enrolled full-time in an Ohio college or university can purchase Ohio resident hunting licenses and permits. Licenses and permits can also be purchased online through the Ohio Wildlife Licensing System or at any license sales agent.
Through license and permit sales, hunters fund much of Ohio’s conservation work. Those funds, combined with sales taxes on hunting equipment administered to the Division of Wildlife, make possible Ohio’s wildlife research, wildlife management, habitat restoration, land acquisition, and wildlife education work.
In 2022, hunters generated $1.9 billion in economic spending in Ohio, according to a recent report released by the Wildlife Management Institute, Responsive Management, and Southwick Associates. The research found that 5% of Ohio’s adults, about 500,000 individuals, participate in hunting, with 91% of those hunters taking part in deer hunting.
• Picking and planting milkweed seed pods this fall can help future eastern monarch butterflies, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife. These butterflies are currently migrating through Ohio on their way to Mexico, where they spend the winter.
Various species of milkweed are the only host plants for monarch caterpillars. Each spring, eastern monarchs lay eggs on milkweed as they migrate north from Mexico. Monarchs travel between 50 and 100 miles per day on a journey that may cover several thousand miles in total. After several generations, monarchs reach their northernmost range in southern Canada. In the fall, a super-generation migrates all the way to southern overwintering sites.
All Ohioans can play a role in supporting monarchs by planting milkweed. Milkweed is the sole host plant for monarchs and is beneficial at every stage of the insect’s life cycle. Early fall is a great time to gather milkweed pods from the landscape and plant the seeds to add valuable habitat for monarchs. For those with an abundance of milkweed, the Ohio Pollinator Habitat Initiative is coordinating pod collection through local Soil and Water Conservation District locations. Go to ohiopollinator.org to find a nearby drop-off site.
Thirteen of Ohio’s 17 native species of milkweed are essential host plants for monarch caterpillars, although all of them provide nectar for adult butterflies. Milkweed seeds form dense clusters in green seed pods. In late summer and early fall, these pods dry out and turn gray or brown. When this happens, or the pods begin to split, you can harvest milkweed seeds for planting. Separate the seeds from the attached silky fibers. The Monarch Joint Venture, an organization dedicated to conserving monarchs, provides guidelines for collecting and planting milkweed pods.
Monarch butterflies are in decline across their range, as are many other pollinating insects, because of the loss of prairie and grassland habitat. One of the most important ways to help declining butterflies and other pollinating insects is by conserving tracts of unmown grasslands. Until next time, Good Hunting and Good Fishing!
Ken Parrott is a retired Northmor High School Agricultural Science teacher.
