By Tom Cross
With less than 20 days left in the 2019/2020 deer season this is where things stand. As of Jan 12, 2021, 189,447 deer have been taken by Ohio hunters statewide; of that number 86,456 have been taken by bow hunters.
Locally, in Adams County, 2,864 deer have been tagged; of that number bow hunters in Adams County accounted for 1,381, or 48.22 percent of the harvest. That percentage reflects across the state as slightly over 45 percent of the total deer harvest in Ohio was taken with bow and arrow. Archery season extend through Feb 7 making Ohio having the longest bow season in the nation. By the time Feb. 7 rolls around you can add a few more deer to that total number but my gut tells me most bow hunters have hung it up for the season.
During Ohio’s just completed four-day muzzle loading season Adams County hunters tagged 166 deer, down slightly but I’ll attribute that to the weather and deer hunter burnout.
The “Bonus” gun season, held Dec. 19-20 saw a modest increase in the deer take locally and statewide as well. Adams County hunters bagged 214 deer which is up over 25% from previous “Bonus” weekends. Statewide the number of deer taken was up to by over 20 percent with 15,203 deer tagged during that extended gun season weekend.
Ohio’s deer gun season came in with a storm front that kept many, like myself, sheltered in place. However the brave did make it out and the rest of the week was productive for gun season hunters which tagged 71,650 deer statewide, which averages out to almost a 10-percent increase over the last few pervious gun seasons. In Adams County’s gun season, 1,026 deer were tagged, up just a notch from previous years.
Taking a second look at the Adams County archery season, by the time Thanksgiving rolled around, 1,227 deer had already been tagged by bow hunters, or to put it another way nearly 89 percent of the total archery kill for Adams County had been accounted for by the time you sliced the turkey. Proving an old point, if you don’t have a deer in the bag by late November the pickings get slim for a bow hunter.
In other news, hearing from my friend Jim Samuel, who is on the Ohio Wildlife Council, he tells me that ODNR/ DOW has already had engineers on site at the Tranquility Wildlife Area shooting range and construction at the range is expected to start soon. No word if it will be completed during 2021.
Part of the rehab process is removing all the lead from the soil from spent rounds and reengineering the road leading to the range. The price tag for this update comes in at around two-million and some change with 75 percent of the funding coming from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service the rest from the state controlling board.
In 2001 the Tranquility shooting range received a much needed upgrade but barelyy 15 years later in had fallen into such a state of disrepair that it was closed in 2016. It was questionable if it would ever reopen again. Apparently it will. Jim Samuel is going to try to get it re-certified as Class A range which would basically mean certain hours of operation and supervision at the range which is badly needed. Previously the Tranquility range was classified as a Class B range which allowed it to be open daily but without any supervision which resulted in neglect and misuse of the facility.
In other news, Wildlife Officer Kevin Behr, who once served as Adams County Wildlife Officer, is still in ICU at University Hospital as the result of a gunshot wound he received while investigating a poaching complaint in Clinton County. From what I understand it will be a long road to recovery. Officer Behr has had had to date seven surgeries, and more are almost expected. He also has received many units of blood. His wife, Kathy, who also works for ODNR, frequently signs off on her updates with “Give the gift of life, give blood.” For those wanting to contribute financially you may do so by writing a check to and sending it to Ohio Wildlife Officer Lodge 143, denoting Kevin Behr in the memo and mailed to: Tim Rourke, P.O. Box 4333, Sidney, Ohio 45365. To keep up on officer Behr’s condition updates are posted regularly on <www.caringbridge.org/>. Cards and well wishes may be sent to Wildlife District Five, c/o Kevin Behr, 1076 Old Springfield Pike, Xenia, OH 45385.