Every deer harvested in Ohio must be registered during that same season. From early October until early February, officials release updated county counts each week. Combining eighty-eight counties over seven seasons provides a weekly view of deer reporting. Statewide reported harvest increases during the November rut weeks of archery hunting, followed by a larger jump when firearms hunting begins in early December.
KEY FINDINGS
- Required deer reporting lets Ohio release county harvest counts each week while hunting remains open. The series covers about 132 bulletins over seven seasons, with 88 counties contributing 11,616 records by county and week. Few Midwest deer datasets provide county counts weekly during the season.
- Two high points define the weekly pattern. As the rut progresses, archery harvest builds toward a mid-November maximum of around 21,000 deer during one week (2024). The opening of gun season then sends reporting sharply upward: the two report intervals surrounding the early-December firearms opener together accounted for 92,388 deer across fourteen days, or 38.8% of the full 2024 season's harvest.
- Harvest reporting stays active after the gun-season surge. Each season brings another firearms increase during the middle to latter part of December (17,000 to 19,000 deer), followed by an early-January muzzleloader increase (13,000 to 14,000). Both return in the same seasonal weeks.
- 213,928 in 2023, 238,137 in 2024, then 232,142 in 2025 were the statewide totals for registered deer. That represents a gain of 11.3% between 2023 and 2024, followed by a loss of 5,995 deer (2.5%) during 2025. Each total can be checked against the weekly reports that built it.
IA DATASET WITH A HEARTBEAT
Why Ohio is the only state with a harvest curve during the season
In many states, deer harvest is reported just once after hunting ends, with an annual total for each county or unit. A handful, including Indiana, release provisional county counts while the season remains open. Ohio follows another approach. Hunters there must register every deer using a phone, website or app. That requirement allows wildlife officials to release updated cumulative harvest totals each week before the season ends. We compiled these bulletins across seven seasons (2019 to 20 up through 2025 to 26), covering 88 counties and about 18 to 20 bulletins each season, for 11,616 records organized by county and week. Since each publication gives the total so far, subtracting the previous report yields the harvest reported during that interval. This calculation must follow the publication schedule: an interval spanning a missed bulletin represents more than a week. It must also accommodate minor decreases in totals when officials reconcile delayed check-ins. Together, these differences describe reported harvest week by week.
- 2023 season
- 2024 season
- 2025 season
IITHE RUT RAMP
The harvest pattern while archery hunting has the season to itself
Only archery deer enter the check-in totals during the season's opening six or seven weeks. That makes the October and November pattern a record of reported bow harvest. Bowhunting effort is not factored into these counts. The start is quiet: Ohio's opening four October weeks accounted for only about 27,000 deer during 2024, roughly a tenth of that season's total. Weekly reporting then rises steadily toward a mid-November maximum of around 19,000 to 21,000 deer during one week, ahead of gun season. That reported-harvest maximum falls within the same period annually. These counts alone, however, do not establish when rut activity peaks. A short-lived decline in harvest reporting follows during the pre-Thanksgiving week (for 2024, the pre-firearms week's count dropped to 5,517).
In many states, February brings a single harvest figure. In Ohio, you can follow the season while it unfolds.
IIIGUN WEEK, AND THE PULSES AFTER IT
Reported harvest is highest during the gun opener
Gun season starts, and harvest reporting shoots upward. Ohio opens its firearms season, which lasts a week, on the Monday following Thanksgiving. Every season's largest weekly harvest coincides with that opener: a single report counted 46,367 deer during 2024 and 49,015 during 2025. When the early-October report interval is labeled week 1, Thanksgiving's date places the opener in week 10 or in week 11. Its scale holds steady: the pair of early-December firearms weeks accounted for 38.8% of all harvest reported for 2024 (92,388 deer), compared with 38.7% for 2025. No archery-season week approaches that level. The surge gives way to smaller increases that return at the same point every year: an extra firearms weekend during December's middle to later stretch (17,000 to 19,000 deer), then an increase under muzzleloader hunting during January's opening week (13,000 to 14,000). These increases identify periods when harvest reporting climbs.
Swipe table to see every column
| Season phase | When | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October archery (wk 1-4) | opening month | 27,287 | 26,914 | 24,354 |
| Rut ramp peak (single wk) | mid-November | 20,506 | 20,901 | 18,336 |
| Firearms opener (single wk) | early December | 39,446 | 46,367 | 49,015 |
| Mid-December pulse (single wk) | late December | 16,929 | 18,748 | 17,236 |
| Muzzleloader pulse (single wk) | early January | 13,364 | 14,314 | 14,173 |
| Full-season total | Oct to Feb | 213,928 | 238,137 | 232,142 |
IVWHY THE CADENCE MATTERS
A season's total leaves the timing unanswered
One total published when hunting ends tells you the amount harvested. It cannot tell you the timing, which accounts for most of what a hunter wants to know. Over seven seasons, these weekly reports locate increases in reported harvest during November and firearms hunting, as well as the smaller counts separating them. Hunters can use that repeating schedule in their planning. The figures also make it possible to audit the data itself. Subtracting successive published cumulative counts produces each weekly figure, so every number used here can be followed back to its specific bulletin. We retain the agency's minor downward revisions exactly as published instead of smoothing them out. A state requiring deer check-ins can provide both timing during the season and records that let readers audit the cumulative reports. A hunter survey conducted afterward gives a single estimate once hunting ends and cannot reveal weekly timing.
VREADING THE 2026 SEASON
The seasonal harvest pattern to anticipate
The pattern repeats reliably enough to help with planning. Look for October harvest to start slowly and build, then archery harvest to reach a rut-driven high during November's second and third weeks. A brief lull precedes Thanksgiving. Gun season then opens with harvest that will be twice the harvest of any archery week. Expect reporting to climb again during a weekend in mid-December and during early-January muzzleloader hunting, with lower late-season totals extending into February. These expectations do not amount to a predictive forecast. They describe what the Midwest's sole in-season deer dataset has recorded over seven seasons: the pattern has returned every year in those same weeks. The chart available to the public displays harvest reporting throughout the hunting season.
NOTES AND SOURCES
- Source: Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), Division of Wildlife. Its weekly reports cover white-tailed deer harvest during the 2019 to 20 through 2025 to 26 seasons. County totals in each bulletin include all reporting up to that point in the season; the weekly values used here subtract the preceding bulletin's totals from the next.
- ODNR sets Ohio's deer hunting schedule each year: archery from late September to early February, a firearms (gun) season lasting a week and starting on the Monday following Thanksgiving, an extra gun weekend during December, and muzzleloader hunting during early January. Calendar changes move the schedule by a few days. Consult ODNR hunting regulations for specific dates.
- Hunters in Ohio must report deer through telecheck, using a phone, website or mobile app. This requirement allows county harvest to be tracked by week during the season. Estimates from hunter surveys afterward arrive only once hunting has ended.
- Limits: these weekly totals count registered deer without adjustments for hunting effort. They mark reporting time rather than the actual moment of harvest. Delayed check-ins are reconciled in later bulletins through minor revisions. There are 11,616 county-by-week rows covering seven seasons; the statewide patterns shown above combine all 88 counties.
Fully Drawn Research is an independent data analysis desk, not affiliated with any state wildlife agency, transportation agency, mapping provider or outfitter. Harvest figures are Ohio Department of Natural Resources public records, reconstructed from published weekly in-season reports and analyzed independently by FDR. Per-week values are derived as the difference of consecutive cumulative tallies and are carried as printed, including agency corrections. The season-to-date weekly total for 2025 (232,142) differs from ODNR’s final certified county-year total (232,227) by 85 deer, the normal preliminary-to-final reconciliation. FDR is an independent data analysis desk, not affiliated with any state wildlife agency. Figures current to the 2025–26 season.
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