Why Should You Choose To Hunt Ohio?

Ohio deer hunting is now more than ever gaining attention as a trophy buck state due in large part to having an excellent deer management program. Ohio's deer management program is designed to manage for trophy-sized bucks while controlling the state population through the harvesting of does. This allows for the buck to doe ratio to remain balanced while also putting in place the conditions necessary to produce record setting deer.

Ohio is home to the world famous “Hole-in-the-Horn” buck, which is the #2 non-typical of all time, scoring 328 2/8" as well as the Mike Beatty buck which had 39 points and scored an incredible 304 6/8". A few others to make mention of are Jonathan Schmucker's Buck which had 34 points and scored 291 2/8", Mike Rex who took a Huge 218 6/8" buck with 17 points and 15" brow tines. The list goes on and is growing rapidly for this mid western state and is no longer being overlooked by hunters seeking the chance at a record book buck!

Ohio has the right terrain, habitat, crops, genetics, and deer management program to produce trophy class bucks. Ohio has a short gun season (shotgun and muzzleloader only) held after the rut which allows more bucks to escape the years harvest and grow even bigger. Ohio has a one buck limit for the season no matter what weapon it was taken with, again allowing more bucks to mature. According to the Quality Deer Management Association, Ohio ranks 4th in the nation in combined Boone & Crockett and Pope & Young entries. The Buckeye Big Buck Club has recorded apx 144 entries scoring over 200", 92 of which have been killed since 1990.

In comparison with some of your other mid western whitetail hunts such as Illinois and Iowa, Ohio provides Non-Resident Hunting licenses and tags over the counter (no lottery draw) for approximately $150 as opposed to a draw tag & licenses fees nearing $500 in other states. Being as though a large portion of Non-Resident Ohio hunters come from the eastern states, travel expenses to and from Sunset Ridge Outfitters will save hunters even more money.

Something else to consider about Ohio, is the incredible amount of total deer taken in our top counties. In the 2007-2008 season, Licking County harvested 7,523 deer, Knox County produced 6,686 and Muskingum with 6,857 deer taken. By comparison, Illinois only had one county that produced 8000 deer, but many of the other top counties only produced around 4000 deer. Just another reason why Ohio is quickly becoming one of the most popular places to be during the mid western whitetail deer season.