This fall, the outlook for trophy buck hunting in Ohio looks tremendous, and by no stretch of the word.

"I expect that we would see a buck harvest on a par with last year or slightly higher," said Dr. Mike Tonkovich, Ohio Division of Wildlife deer biologist.

"More importantly, I expect to see a few more older bucks in the harvest this year, simply because of all the bucks that hunters passed on last year to shoot antlerless deer."

Last year's outlook for was also "good," yet there was a drop in the total deer harvest.

Does this mean that deer outlooks are not very accurate?

Of course, no forecast can be expected to be 100 percent accurate every year. In this case, last year's lowered buck harvest can be blamed on the terrible weather -- and this is no cop-out.

According to Tonkovich, a combination of factors caused the buck kill to be lower than anticipated. On the opening day of the statewide firearms season, heavy rains cut the opening-day harvest by about 50 percent.

And then on the opening day of the two-day December firearms season, miserable weather moved through the state, hitting sometime between midmorning and noon.

"I was in southeast Ohio and remember it vividly," Tonkovich said.

"I was getting a Christmas tree that day. Around 10 a.m. it started snowing, and the woods were completely white for about two hours.

"On the drive home, we counted six cars in the ditch. Then around noon or one o'clock or thereabouts, it turned into a rain-sleet-snow mix. And that's pretty much what it did for the rest of the day.

"It was just miserable! The harvest was down fairly significantly, and I blame that on the weather."

The new antlerless license tags that were valid during only the first eight weeks of archery season probably also cut down the buck take: Many hunters took advantage of those tags while they were still valid.

During the statewide muzzleloader season, held between Christmas and New Year's last year, participation was down as well, probably due to holiday demands.

All told, the buck kill was reduced significantly during the three main firearms seasons.

Throughout all of last year's deer seasons, the antlered deer kill was down 16 percent. The antlerless kill was up 2 percent. Combined, the deer take was about 2 percent lower than the previous year.

WAS 2007 A DISAPPOINTMENT?
Maybe to deer managers, who had hoped for a greater harvest. But from a historical perspective, it was Ohio's second-largest deer harvest on record: 87,648 antlered deer and 145,206 antlerless deer, for a total harvest of 232,854.

This fall, that lower overall might turn out to be the best possible news for buck hunters -- specifically for trophy buck hunters. (Continued)

"One philosophy of liberalizing antlerless opportunities is that if you're successful in increasing the antlerless harvest, it will take some pressure off the antlered deer population," Mike Tonkovich pointed out.

"In fact, recent research out of Pennsylvania shows that 90 percent of the bucks still alive at the end of the hunting season will be around the next year.