What do you think of this "second season" this weekend?

[Jal5]

I wonder about the benefits of two extra weekend days for gun season this year.  I am always all for extra gun days but the placement during this month seems odd. Why not give us the weekend right after Thanksgiving, and the whole next week including the next weekend? That would facilitate more people hunting I think vs. this extra two days so close to Christmas with all the holiday activities, family obligations, etc. 

I didn't see many guys hunting today or hear that many shots taken around here either, proving my point I think.

The warm weather is hurting the hunting success rate also both during the regular gun week and today. At least I know I didn't see any deer today even with us putting on drives- I think they went North for weather!
 
Joe

[stimpylu32]

I too am more than a little con-fuzzled by their timing with the extra 2 days , and yes after T-Day would be a better time to add the days , i was out and about the county today and in about 4 hours only saw 2 hunters .

I may have to drop the ODNR an e-mail to ask about thr timing of the extra days .

[GregP42]

Today equals zero seen. We will see what tomorrow brings.  Now what I want to know is why the muzzle loading season is only 4 days, Dec 27 - Dec 30, Why Wednesday through Saturday, why not Thursday through Sunday? I also think it should be before modern firearms season.  Oh well, lets see what tomorrow brings.

Greg

[Hairtrigger]

We had the usual gangs pushing section after section.
After the first week the deer have been run hard and seem to turn a very dark color. I think it makes sense atleast in this area to give the deer a break for a couple of weeks instead of running them hard for  8 to10 days.

[Jal5]

These season dates are supposed to be about game management, so I will be interested in the ODNR response to your email Stimp.

I totally agree Greg- Thurs. to Sun. would equal more opportunities for hunters = management of the herd.

Joe

[stimpylu32]

HT

You do have a valid point about letting the deer calm down alittle , also something needs done about the way some drive the deer from one property to another with out the land owners permision .

[Jal5]

Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources posted this story on its website about the 25,000 deer harvested on this extra weekend.  Guess I just hunted at the wrong places!

See the story-
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/wildlife/Hunting/extraweekenddeer.htm

I do think the warm weather has something to do with seeing fewer deer, same thing happened to my hunting spots yesterday and today, didn't see one deer on two different farms but deer sign was all over the place.

[tgiles69]

Sounds like I didn't miss much, the Wednesday before, I got a call that evening my 14 yr old son was in a car accident with a head injury, I made it to the scene just before they put him on the helicopter, he was awake and says "dad, just take me home I want to go deer hunting this weekend" all I could say is we will, we will, knowing we probably weren't. We didn't get to go and we missed muzzel loader too, but well do it next year. Take your kids hunting every chance you get you never know what tomorrow might bring.

TOM

[Jal5]

Tom,

Sure hope your son is OK.  We worry all the time about our kids young or old.
I agree we must enjoy being with them, we never can predict the future.
Keeping your boy in my thoughts and prayers.

Joe

[tgiles69]

Joe,

Thanks for the thoughts, he's going to be fine with a little time. Not sure why I wanted to throw this out there it just feels right talking with other hunters. He's going to be ok I'm just still having a hard time with it. There's a lot of huntin left to do, not sure what I would have done had things went really bad. There has been days when he wanted to go and I didn't, I'm going to try and not let that happen as much from now on.

[Jal5]

Glad he is getting better!  You have the right idea- take him out as much as you can and enjoy the time spent with him. they grow up way too fast anyhow- I miss those days when the boys were young and we spent the whole day together hunting.