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Hunters Harvest 471 Deer During 2012 Gun Season




Hunters in Fulton County harvested 471 white-tailed deer during both the regular and extra weekend deer-gun seasons in 2012.

The deer gun-hunting season was from Nov. 26 to Dec. 2. The extra weekend of deer-gun hunting was Dec. 15-16.

During the deer-gun season, hunters use shotguns of 10-gauge and smaller, firing “slugs,” or single projectiles. Muzzle-loading guns of .38 caliber or larger also may be used.

Over the Nov. 25-Dec. 2 deer gun season, hunters in Fulton County claimed 413 deer, an increase of 111 over the 2011 total of 302.

Their luck didn’t hold out over Dec. 15-16, as 58 deer fell, down 27 from the 85 that were taken in 2011.

That puts the Fulton County total harvest for 2012 at 471, an increase of 83, or 21.7%, from 2011 harvest of 387 white-tailed deer.

The largest harvest over the two gun seasons in the four-county area was in Williams County, where hunters bagged 1,035 deer, up 51, or 5.2%, over the 2011 total of 984.

There were 1,024 deer taken in Defiance County, almost 14% over 2011. Henry County saw 411 total deer harvested in 2012, up 9.9%.

Across Ohio, the deer harvest was down. During the regular deer gun season, 86,964 deer were harvested, down 3,318, or 3.7%, from 2011.

The extra weekend hunt added 14,365 to the 2012 harvest. That harvest total was down 2,401 from 2011, a difference of 14.3%.

During both deer-gun hunting seasons in 2012, there were 101,329 deer harvested, down 5,710 from the 2011 total of 107,048, a decline of about 3.7%.

Hunters may continue to hunt deer with bows through Feb. 3, 2013. Muzzleloader season is Jan 5-8, 2013.



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