what is ohio dnr thinking ?
 

last week odnr came out with their proposals for 2016-17 deer hunting regs. they can't get people to hunt during the middle of the week & hardly see anybody anymore after the first day of gun season . they interduced a 2nd gun season on weds dec 28th & thursday dec 29 & they have put the fall 2 day muzzleloader season on suspension. what gives.. do they really think people are going to waste there time on a weds & thursday ? if you look at the statigistics those are the 2 slowest or lowest kill days. put back the fall early muzzleloader days on the 2nd weekend in oct.

Why don't you ask them?

i have all intensions doing that on the open house on sat march 5 2016
between noon & 3 pm but will they listen of coarse not

most people don't have the paid time off like they use to after the 2008 crash it took a lot of benefits away from people along with the pay scale which has been driven down into the ground that coupled with all the other everyday living expenses going up it's no wonder people can't go anymore oh and i almost forgot the ridiculous cost's of ammo and hunting related items most people just can't afford to go anymore luckily the gas prices are coming down so that will help but when gas was 4 plus a gallon who could afford to drive around to hunt and scout all the time ! they should definitely do the early muzzleloader and a late muzzleloader season if you ask me even if you make them doe only if that will get the numbers down.

You ask them why they set the seasons the way they did and they give you an answer as to why they did it. Better yet, don't wait til March, write a letter and ask them the question and you will get an answer in writing. Better because I suspect after your two posts here regarding the Ohio dept, the other regarding the past seasons harvest you are geared up to argue instead of hear their reasons. You say they won't listen. What do you mean by listen? When I hear someone say they don't listen to me or us it usually means "they won't do what I, we, want them to do" There is a big difference between asking a question and getting an answer to that question as to why something was done, and arguing that they don't know what they are doing and expecting them to change what they did. Usually when a game dept make a radical change there are news releases with an explanation to the hunting public.

attened montly sportsman club meeting& had a quest speaker our own county game warden & pretty sad when he even says he won't attend a local open house due to the division of wildlife won't budge on any up coming changes. & what they will do next year if there are any decent proposals they will bring them up next year like they thought of them themselves. he even admitted that having a 2nd gun season on a weds & thursday is really a bright idea since those 2 days usually very few hunters are out & studies show those 2 days have the lowest kill rate of all 7 days

If the local officer really said that he should be fired. He is not helping the sportsmen or the agency by publicly undermining the agency and what it is doing. That will bite him on the butt one day. I remember when PA made the killing of bear cubs legal, I was 100% opposed to doing that but I supported it in public and gave the reasons it was being done. Many hunters were up in arms over it so it would have been easy to be one of the boys and agree with them. Turns out it was the right thing to do and PA now has more bears than we ever did.

it seems to me that hunting when fewer hunters are out would be the best time to hunt.
could it be that fewer numbers are killed on those days, simply because fewer are hunting?

it sounds to me that you are against these hunts simply because the hunt you like was cancelled.
while I feel your pain the dnr was not created to pander to you alone, or any hunter for that matter. I would hope they are trying to do what is best for the herds. if they do that ,they create more hunting opportunities in the future.

it is a bummer your hunt was suspended , and I encourage you to question them and provide your input. in the meantime it is what it is. do what hunters do and adapt. I myself have had hunts that I loved suspended but it is usually because the status qou ain't working ,so they try something else.

Yep, very few of us like change, change makes an unknown out of something we are comfortable with.

no i'm not against these hunts but the fewer hunters out the less deer are likely to move. get a few dozen guys out & some won't sit for long & move & get the deer also to move. i lucky if i have seen a dozen people out on weds & thursdays in the last deer years. i've got the whole woods to myself during those 2 days i just spot & stalk. but really had any luck thoses days killed everyday except weds & thursdays. but when it comes to gun seasons i'm out there . cause you sure as hell can't kill them if you aint out there

Very seldom do you hear of a guy moaning and groaning like this because there aren't enough hunters in the woods to suit him, LOL! Maybe you should learn how to hunt on your own better and not rely on someone to run them by you while you're drinking your coffee!

I think what you have just said is the truth pretty much everywhere. It is the same in PA. It used to be our hunters hunted from opening hour to closing hour and for at least the first week and if you didn't get to a game lands early you couldn't find a parking space. Now days the parking lots are pretty much cleared out by 1pm on opening day and Saturdays. No doubt that the more people in the woods the more the deer move. But I don't think it matters much any more except for opening day and the first Saturday in PA. I think the problem in PA is that there are too many hunters who never had to hunt when they started out we had far too many deer and it was easy to just go out, sit down and wait for a deer to come by. Generations saw that from the time they started to hunt and considered that number of deer the way it should be. When PA finally gathered the stones to cut back hard on the population to let the damaged habitat recover those hunters thought the end of the world had come because they actually had to hunt and they didn't like it and many didn't know how to hunt. Now they go out for a couple of hours, quit and complain to everyone who will listen that there are no deer, they were all killed. Mean while, the hunters were and are still killing deer. Lets face it, hunter skills have gone down hill the last several decades and there are a lot of people in the woods with guns, but a lot fewer hunters than there used to be. As you said, you can't kill one if you aren't out there.

Did you make it? How 'bout an update if you did.

yes i did & what a joke out of around 25 game wardens i think i counted 8 there & yes there was other odnr officials there &i asked them to show me the lowest day to kill was & they said thursday & second was wedsday. so i asked ? then why are you having it on those 2 days & the aswer i got was that was the best 2 days between christmas & new years being christmas is on a sunday & monday being the official day to be off & tuesday was a traveling day & fridayday& saturday everybody is getting ready for new years eve & days parties. oh well i'll
gun hunt any given day & try to kill something on weds & thurs because those are the only 2 weekdays i've never killed deer on so i will try to break the jinks.

lol.this has got to be one of the silliest threads I've encountered.

the deer are out there ,just waiting to be killed.it's not like they head to vegas on wed and thurs

Those deer are more advanced these days. They have calendars marked and go on break due to funding issues W & T. It's in their contract clause.

8 officers out of 25 doesn't seem an unreasonable presence to me. Wildlife officer's duties don't stop just because there is a public meeting, one third of them being present seems very reasonable to me. You went to the meeting and ask your question and got an answer, whether or not you agree with the answer is not the issue, that was pretty much a given based on your first post on this issue. The issue is now you know why. If states waited to act until they had a consensus from hunters to do what they wanted to do, nothing would ever get done because there is no more contentious and hard to convince group that is sure they have a better idea than we sport hunters. Good luck in rifle season.

I hope those officers were thanked for their time & efforts. Game Officials are pulled in many directions. A little appreciation goes a long way. Hunters shouldn't lose sight of that.

I take it as a win if I see no other hunters on opening day. I have hunting spots far out the way I reserve for the opening week of firearm season. I basically back down from the usual places and retreat to areas where I will not run into a bunch of hunters.

I don't mind if another hunter accidentally runs a deer to me but it is shouldn't be the main plan of anyone's hunt. I am sure the OP has others reasons to be upset but I am addressing the issue of other hunters right now.

Wow! Now a complaint because only 1/3 of the staff showed up at the meeting! It shows you can't please a lot of people no matter what you do.

The majority of Ohio hunters that I know are unhappy with this midweek late season. I hunted it, enjoyed it, and saw some deer on state land. It definitely limits who can hunt, most people are not off those days.

I think the MAIN reason people are upset is how they've played with that extended season over the last several years. If I remember correctly it was initially the middle of December, then it was moved to Oct, then cancelled, then moved to between Christmas and New Years. I supposed they're trying to find a time for it that works. I liked it best when it was a weekend in the middle of December.

I've come to realize that having a career really gets in the way of my hunting.....:bash:

yes the orginal extended gun season was the weekend b 4 christmas & 1 season i remember the 2 day extened kill was aprox 25,000 ( twenty-five thousand ) deer. look i'm not complaining but when nobodys out it seems to me the deer are not moving except for early moring & late evening's. i'll hunt every chance i get. & yes there were alot of upset hunters there showing dismay about the mid week hunt. the odnr even admitted they may change the 2 days will will see on 3/17/16 when the wild life council meets

HOORAY the wildlife council listened to the peoples complaint about the late season & will probably move to the 17 & 18 of december & move the muzzleloader season to 1st weekend in janauary 7 thru the 10 recieved a e mail from the wildlife council & said it pays to beef about dates. enough hunters told them about there dismay for weds & thurs day hunt date & they have proposed those 2 new dates for late season & state wide muzzy season. for those who kinda poke fun at this thread. pays to visit & show your displeasure about dates council reported that they had only 2 people show they recommended weds & thursday to well over 200 people recommended a saturday & sunday late hunt dates. finally odnr is listeneing to the hunters.

congrats! an that's all I got ta say bout that.