Originally Posted by
Lanse couche couche
I think that it is safe to assume that if outfitters control several hundred thousand acres of land in Ohio that they have some impact on harvests. The magnitude of that impact is what I would question, as well as the impact of out-of state hunters in the greater scheme of things given the size of the state and the numbers of deer involved. Your original post spoke to the issue of continued high numbers for deer harvests and specifically referenced outfitters and their out of state clients. I'm simply telling you that when you have around 700K deer in the state of Ohio you are going to have very good harvest rates. I don't agree that most deer go nocturnal or move into land that is not hunted as soon as the gunfire starts the first day of firearm season. They might be harder to hunt, but they can certainly be killed. My land has been hunted regularly since midway thru bow season and first gun season and a person can still see bucks on it during the day if they put their time into it.
I'm not trying to defend outfitters, just trying to help answer your question about deer harvest rates. I think that if you check, you will find that your typical outfitter in Ohio has as many or more clients from Cincinnati, Cleveland, etc. as out of staters.
I agree that SOME of those deer could be killed, especially the yearlings and 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 year old bucks but the more mature deer,not so easy. As far as the large mature bucks,4 1/2 years old and older, I have to base my opinion on my 41 years of hunting, they become nocturnal and most will only show themselves in daylight when driven out of their hiding places.Even at deer feeders, most mature bucks only get photographed by deer cameras after darkness falls.That may be true of some outfitters having local clients. I don't disagree at all.My point is, it doesn't matter who their clients are, they still only have a limited number and those clients are usually only hunting for 1 week at a time. They have seen the big bucks that come from our Buckeye state and that's usually what they want to spend their week hunting.Not all, but alot. If an outfitter just leased 300 acres that used to be hunted day in and day out for the entire season by say, 15 local hunters, and now the outfitter that leased the property has 15 clients come in, each for 1 week at time, I don't believe that those clients are going to have the success of the hunters who used to hunt it year round.It's possible, but not likely and not consistantly.So, if they don't then the harvest for that 300 acres just went down. Now if all 250 outfitters only leased 300 acres each, ( which is definitely not the case), and that same scenario occurred, the remaining areas of the state would have to increase there deer harvest by a large margin, to make up for that, and show an increase in deer harvest for the state. I do not believe that that happens every year, nor do I believe that it happens very often.