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Area hunters may be able to take more deer close to home

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By Jim Morris, Contributing Writer 2:06 AM Sunday, February 12, 2012

If the Ohio Wildlife Council approves, deer hunters in the west-central part of the state will be able to take more deer during the 2012-13 whitetail season without venturing far from home.

The Ohio Division of Wildlife has proposed moving the following counties from Zone A to Zone B: Auglaize, Darke, Mercer, Miami, Montgomery, Preble and Shelby. Also, Madison County, currently in Zone B, would move to Zone A.

“These are the counties in our district that did not reach their goals (for deer taken) this past year,” said Dave Kohler, acting manager for District 5. “We have goals for each county to control the deer population. Since the goals were not met in these counties, we feel a change in the bag limits could help.”

He said it is possible a county could revert back to a previous zone if population goals are met, but that’s not likely to happen in a single season.

A hunter would be able to take one deer from Zone A, two from Zone B and three from Zone C. Only one antlered deer may be taken regardless of zone.

The Wildlife Council will vote on the proposals at its April 4 meeting in Columbus. Prior to that, open houses will be held March 3  in each of the state’s five wildlife districts to provide the public an opportunity to view and discuss proposed hunting and trapping regulations with wildlife officials.

Those open houses will be followed by a statewide hearing at 9 a.m. March 8 at the District One office, 1500 Dublin Road, Columbus.

Two other changes also have been proposed:

• Antlerless deer permits could no longer be used the first week of deer gun season in Zone C. The antlerless permits would be valid until Nov. 25 in deer zones A, B and C. This is a return to 2007 regulations.

• Hunters would have until noon the following day to complete the automated game check process. The only exception would be on the last day of any season, when automated game check must be completed by 11:30 p.m.

Proposed seasons for 2012-13 are:

• Archery: Sept. 29 through Feb. 3, 2013

• Special area muzzleloader hunts: Oct. 15-20

• Youth deer-gun:  Nov. 17-18

• Statewide deer-gun: Nov. 26 through Dec. 2 and Dec. 15-16

• Statewide muzzleloader season: Jan. 5-8, 2013.

Deer numbers down

The Division of Wildlife announced that 219,698 deer were taken during Ohio’s 2011-12 hunting season, compared to 239,379 in 2010-11.

Poor weather, especially during the week of gun season, was considered the prime reason for the drop in numbers.

Hunters showed support for the two new methods of game-reporting that were made available this year. Since deer season began Sept. 24, 44 percent of hunters called in their numbers, 36 percent reported their numbers online and 20 percent traveled to a license agent’s location to report their game.

Following are the totals for area counties (including last year’s totals in parentheses): Adams 4,208 (3,914), Auglaize 731 (737), Brown 3,068 (3,377), Butler 1,583 (1,650), Champaign 1,613 (1,703), Clark 930 (967), Clermont 3,301 (3,721), Clinton 1,015 (1,101), Darke 819 (842), Greene 1,073 (1,073), Hamilton 2,255 (2,139), Highland 3,304 (3,434), Logan 2,283 (2,315), Mercer 625 (652), Miami 827 (865), Montgomery 676 (663), Preble 999 (940), Shelby 1,008 (1,111), Warren 1,632 (1,691).

Outdoors columnist Jim Morris can be reached through his Website at www.examiner.com/outdoor-recreation-in-dayton/jim-morris or by email at sports@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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