Photo by Billkenney.com

The votes are in, and there's no sense in denying it: Ohio has the best trophy whitetail hunting anywhere. During recent years, more record-class bucks have been taken here than in any other state.

What makes it more amazing is that hunters are killing trophy bucks on public lands or on private lands that are not specifically managed for trophy deer hunting, as is the case in many other states.

During the 2002-03 Ohio deer season, 11 bucks over 200 points were recorded by Ohio's Boone and Crockett scorers. An 11-point Warren County buck killed by crossbow the year before by Brad Jerman is a new record typical for Ohio and should rank as the No. 10 all-time buck, the largest ever taken by crossbow. That incredible buck scored 201 1/8 points.

An astounding 712 entries were made to the Buckeye Big Buck Club during the measuring session last winter. Most of those bucks were taken during the 2003-04 season. All of those bucks scored over 140 points. During the scoring session last winter, 14 bucks were scored at better than 200 points and 117 scored better than 170 points.

"We're also getting a lot of deer that aren't actually going in the record books," said Mike Tonkovich, an Ohio Division of Wildlife deer biologist.

Last year, Ohio hunters took 85,454 antlered bucks. That was just shy of a 2 percent increase from the previous season.

NOT ALL IS ROSY
So far, there's been no letup in Ohio's trophy buck production. However, there's at least some reason to be cautious.

"One of the best determining factors in deer herd health is beam diameter on yearling bucks," Tonkovich explained.

Ohio's deer herd is still healthy, but biologists have detected some decline in beam diameter among the yearling bucks they have examined recently. Average beam diameter in yearling bucks was 2.4 cm/.94488 inch during the 1970s. Now the average is 2.0-2.1 cm/.7874-.82677 inch.

The difference could be linked to nutrition. Older hunters will recall that Ohio had far fewer deer competing for food during the 1970s than we do now.

"Do hunters want to maintain the quality deer herd that we had in the '70s and '80s?" Tonkovich questioned. "If so, you have to do some cutting."

What this means is that if hunters are serious about hunting quality bucks they should also be serious about killing more does.

And there's more. "We're also seeing a decline in the number of fawns that are breeding. The number dropped from about 50 percent in this part of the state (eastern counties) to about 35 percent," Tonkovich said. "Western Ohio has remained stable."

Obviously, Ohio hunters are still harvesting a lot of top-level bucks. But buck hunters need to hear the underlying message.

"The problem is," Tonkovich said, "I don't know if we're getting across to the hunting public."

Here's a look at what hunters can expect across the state this season.

DISTRICT FOUR
For several years District Four has been the hotbed of Ohio deer hunting. Here is where potential problems with the quality of the deer herd are surfacing first. As the deer herd was building, this area had many abandoned farms. Early stage growth could easily support 30 to 40 deer per square mile.

"That's what led to the explosion of our deer population here," Tonkovich explained.

But that habitat has changed. Now, much of it is pole timber, which will not support nearly so many deer, yet the population density remains at about 40 deer per square mile. Keep in mind that a deer herd can increase by 60 percent per year!

To compound the problem, many landowners do not know how many deer their land should support. Tonkovich believes better communication with landowners is necessary to maintain herd quality.

"A general rule of thumb on deer populations is it is best to shoot half of the number of deer you think you have," Tonkovich said, "and three-quarters of those should be antlerless."

Because most people do not know how many deer they have on their land, generally the number of deer is underestimated. So, actually shooting half the deer would likely over-harvest the deer herd.