Deer Gun Season Begins Monday

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources estimates 300,000 hunters will make their way to Ohio’s forests and fields as this year’s deer gun hunting season kicks off.

In 2020 hunters harvested over 92,000 deer during the gun season. The 2020 statewide gun season total increase nearly 10 percent from the three year average of 83,000 deer.

Last year, nearly 410,000 deer permits were purchased or issued. This year’s week long deer gun season starts Monday, November 29 and runs until December 5 and again on Saturday December 18 and Sunday December 19.

While, deer hunting is widespread throughout Ohio, harvest hotspots are found mostly in the eastern half of the state. Coshocton, Tuscarwaras, Ashtabula, Muskingum and Knox counties led the state in gun harvest in 2020.

Hunters may take only one antlered deer. Legal hunting equipment for all deer gun season includes specific shotguns, muzzleloaders, handguns, straight-walled cartridge rifles and archery equipment.