Local hunters hit the jackpot on opening day

JOHNSTOWN - Maybe Daniel Almendinger should have bought a lottery ticket.

The 21-year-old former Johnstown football player had a successful duck hunt in the morning, then shot an 11-point trophy buck (and a coyote) in the afternoon Monday during the opening day of deer gun season. He brought the big buck in for processing at A'mays'ing Meats in Johnstown.

"It was a little cold out, but beautiful today as far as I was concerned," said Almendinger, who landed his trophy from a tree stand. "It went by three people. Two of them weren't paying attention and a third missed him. I just happened to be the last in line."

Despite a stabilized deer population that has dropped back to more normal levels after hitting a peak eight to 10 years ago, Almendinger reported seeing a lot of deer. So did John Wyman, of Johnstown, who reached Licking County's three-deer bag limit in one day.He shot a button buck and two does, all about six months old.

"The rain yesterday made the woods quiet," said Wyman, who will keep the meat from one deer for himself, and probably give the others to his son and sister. "The leaves didn't crunch. You really had to watch for them. You couldn't hear them coming, but they couldn't hear you coming."

Jason Starr, of Centerburg, who brought in his deer from Morrow County to A'mays'ing Meats, said he saw only three deer in the morning and just one in the afternoon. But the one was a 16-point buck that he was able to shoot.

"It was great hunting weather, but I think the deer herd has definitely thinned," Starr said. "I didn't see any at my normal hunting spot."

With the lower numbers, the statewide deer bag limit was reduced to six, bag limits were reduced in many counties, and antlerless permits were removed in all but 10 of Ohio's 88 counties. Whereas Licking and Knox counties had three-deer bag limits, it was just two for neighboring Muskingum, Perry, Fairfield and Coshocton counties.

"Very few people kill three deer. About three percent," said Bill Bullard, of Johnstown, Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife officer supervisor. "With the new bag limit and use of antlerless tags, we've been able to influence what hunters do. Licking County will kill 3,000 deer less than it did in 2008, 2009, with the same number of hunters. We have the deer population just about where we need it."

Division of Wildlife Director Ray Petering, who tagged along with Bullard on opening day, said it's a fine line to walk in determining where the deer herd should be.

"The herd peaked eight to 10 years ago, and anything less is a disappointment to some," he said. "Some want more deer, others want less. We're trying to get locked in on a number and be consistent with it."

Division of Wildlife biologists Karen Norris and Ray Cuellar were at A'mays'ing Meats on Monday, checking the age of deer, antler beam diameter and the ratio of bucks to does. If a deer has less than six teeth, it is declared six months old.

"It's been a lot of year-and-a-half-year-olds, bucks and does," Norris said.

There were a few older deer, including a 4 1/2-year-old doe.

The Division of Wildlife is considering a new setup for Ohio in the 2017 deer season. Instead of dividing the state up by counties, it would be done by land or habitat types, in Deer Management Units.

"On a scientific basis," Cuellar said.

"For example, Licking County is half forest, half agriculture," Norris said. "So it would be in two different management units. Basically, they are overhunting half of Licking County and underhunting the other half."

Petering admits it would be a drastic change from the way things are done now.

"That's why we're going to take our time with it," he said. "The science part of it absolutely makes sense. But we're going to let all the guys and gals who buy those tags tell us what they think."

dweidig@newarkadvocate.com

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Twitter: @noz75