Some bowhunter numbers to browse.... I cannot vouch for how accurate this is as it is also last years records.... (I rounded off the numbers) 1. Ohio - 325,000 2. Michigan 300,000 3. Pennsylvania 286,000 4. Wisconsin 258,000 5. New York 214,000 6. Missouri 177,000 7. Illinois 176,000 8. Kentucky 106,000 9. Indiana 106,000 10. North Carolina 105,000 11. Minnesota 100,000 12. Georgia 93,000 13. Tennessee 90,000 14. West Virginia 81,000 15. Virginia 74,000 The top 5 states total 1,383,000 bowhunters. That means 40% of all bowhunters reside / hunt in only 5 states!
I wonder how many bowhunters Ohio would lose, if you had a rifle season? If states where firearms seasons would lengthen the seasons where firearms were legal? Just for ref........how many of those OH bowhunters are Xbow hunters?
You know I wondered how many more bowhunters some states would have if it were not for the really long gun seasons... EX. Texas, NC etc... Last check a few years ago they said 55% of Ohios bowhunters use crossbows, I feel this is inaccurate and the numbers are higher than that.
I think guys would still shoot 'em from the road with bows, here...................if they had to. But, I digress...... Interesting facts.
Look at the amount of bowhunters in Louisiana. There is a good reason for that number (Long gun season and low deer population per sq mile)
Scott, Has Ohio been increasing in the number of bowhunters, from say 5 years ago? I remember seeing a bowhunter/square mile chart a few years back. I believe the data was a couple years old at that time, and if I remember correctly, Ohio wasn't in the top 5. Does Ohio have a lot of huntable land? At the time I saw that data, I was looking into hunting out of state. Looking at proximity, cost, bowhunter numbers, and P&Y statistics...I had Ohio first on my list. I still hope to hunt there someday.
The chart shows 2004 250,000 bowhunters. 2005-2008 300,000 and 2009 325,000. Yes, there is a ton of hunting land in the southern half, perhaps the southern 2/3's of Ohio....
I assume the total number includes non residents. Do you know if the non resident licenses are increasing? Thats a pretty big jump in 5 years. Just curious as to why. Please do, Josh. Thanks.
What county are you planning on? There is a ton of great public land all over Southern Ohio. Honestly, they are using formulas to determine how many of our deer hunters are bowhunters. We do not have an archery license here so they have no way to know exactly how many bowhunters we really have. Just a guess on the DNR's part really. Just like when they guess what our herd size is... A couple years ago it jumped like 200,000 in one year, those deer didnt pop up over night
This is a trend that seems to be continuing. We can only hope that the popularity of bowhunting starts to wane, or otherwise, our individual slices of the pie will only become smaller, as there will be more mouths to feed with only a limited resource. Simple law of supply and demand. Demand goes up, supply goes down. Things get more expensive and harder to come by. It sounds crude, but I definitely don't bend over backwards to introduce new people to the sport. In fact, when people ask me about archery, the first thing I tell them is how expensive it is, how dangerous it is, and how they will probably never succeed at it. If they're still interested, I send them over to the next county. LOL It's kind of an interesting dichotomy between manufacturers/suppliers/vendors and hunters. Profits for manufacturers are directly tied to bowhunting popularity: More hunters = More sales. They don't give a rat's ass about whether you're having a great season or not. It's all about the Benjamins. For hunters, however, more hunters = more competition for limited resource. Most people sit down and watch episodes of Bucks of Tecomate, or get their fall Cabelas catalog in the mail, and they never give that a second thought. These people are indirectly trying to ruin your hunting. One sale at a time. Good post, Scott. I had no idea that Ohio was the #1 bowhunting state in the Union. Interesting.
You can give yourself and all of your PA buddies who hunt here a pat on the back for helping make Ohio the # 1 bowhunting state :p This is something, that you don't want to be number 1 at To add.... West Virginia dropped from 150,000 in 2008 to 81,000 in 2009.... Very odd.
I would only caution getting to close to Columbus... A lot of people in that immediate area, so the public surrounding Columbus will see heavy pressure. They shoot MONSTERS in the city limits every year... Unreal huge bucks.
It sounds to me just like the Wayne National Forest.... Although, the deer density may be a touch higher than that. In that area of the state, I believe you will have a hard time find densities as low as 20 DPSM.
I almost had permission to hunt a farm near Springfield this past fall. That is not all the far from Columbus, and not that far of a drive for me. I'd defnitely be interested to hear what you find.
The Wayne is around 250,000 acres, although I think like 175,000 of the acres are in Ohio. There are cabins and a lot of lodging in the area as well. There is a lot of other public in that area as well. Shawnee Forest, Mead Paper lands, Coal lands etc etc... Let me know during your research if you have any questions that I may be able to help you out with.
I'm surprised that Tennessee has that many bowhunters. I can honestly say, that Tennessee could have some great potential if our seasons and bag limits were more geared towards quality. I'm not really sure who's in charge of Tennessee's seasons and regulations but I honestly don't understand they're reasoning. For those who aren't familiar with Tennessee, it's broken into 3 units. A, B, and L. Unit B is considered to have fewer deer, and covers mostly eastern Tennessee. Unit L, is exactly the opposite. Unit L, is basically scattered throughout the state, and the deer population in this unit is said to be substantially more. I live in Northeastern Tennessee, which is Unit L. Up until two years ago, in Unit B you could kill 2 bucks for the year, and 3 in the other units. Well, now, it's 3 bucks statewide and you can kill them at any point during the season, except not in the same day. Now I can't grasp WHY that bag limit is so high, but it is. Pre-1998, you could kill 11 bucks in some parts of the state.That's not the end of it. If a person was to "tag out" in unit B, they would kill their 3 bucks, and could kill 2 does during bow season, 1 during muzzleloader, and 4 during rifle. So there's the potential to kill 10 deer in a hunting season in the Unit they consider to the deer population to be the lowest. Unit A's bag limits are the same. However, in Unit L, on any given hunting day, you can kill 3 does PER DAY, everyday if you wanted to, and there's no total limit. There's NO need for that, here. This is an exerpt straight from the TWRA website, Current & Projected Status The range of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in Tennessee has expanded from a few counties in east Tennessee in the 1940's to all 95 counties in the state. Herd growth has been such that hunting is allowed in all Tennessee counties with the Tennessee deer herd numbering approximately 900,000 animals. Growth of the Tennessee deer herd is expected to continue to increase at 1-2 % per year for the near future with most expansion occurring in the Mississippi River counties and in eastern Tennessee. Due to less productive habitat and other factors, eastern Tennessee has been the slowest area of the state for deer population growth. The deer herd in middle and west Tennessee has reached the point in some areas where management efforts are focused at slowing or stabilizing herd growth, and sometimes reducing the overall size of the herd. These population trends and goals should continue into the near future. Past, Present, & Future Use The white-tailed deer is Tennessee's most popular big game animal. The Agency's white-tailed deer program began in the 1940's with the initiation of deer restoration activities. From 1940 to 1985 over 9,000 deer were released into various counties and wildlife management areas of Tennessee. Coverage of the state was relatively complete during this effort, and deer populations were successfully established statewide (Tennessee Wildl. Res. Ag. 1991). Because of restoration initiatives, effective game laws, and wise management, the deer herd in Tennessee has increased dramatically from approximately 2,000 deer in the 1940's to an estimated 900,000 animals in 2005. To date, the majority of the herd exists in middle and western Tennessee, while densities in the Mississippi River counties, the Cumberland Plateau, and far eastern portions of the state remain below desired levels. The increasing deer population has been reflected in an increasing harvest, which was a record 179,542 deer during the 2004/05 season. Hunter success has grown with the increasing harvests, hitting an all-time high in 2004 with 46% of deer hunters harvesting at least one deer. Although hunter numbers have declined slightly since their peak of 242,000 in 1999, they have remained relatively stable since the turn of the century, averaging 217,400 deer hunters per year. The economy of Tennessee has benefited from the rise in deer numbers in terms of increased revenues to small businesses in rural areas, sporting goods businesses, hotels and restaurants, etc. In 1991, hunting related expenditures had an overall impact of over $405,238,000 to Tennessee's economy. This number doubled over five years and in 1996, hunters poured in over $909,687,000 to the local economy. Unfortunately that number decreased in 2001 due to the slight decline in hunter numbers. Hunting expenditures in 2001 resulted in an economic impact of $654,682,000 (USFWS 2001). In recent years, the Agency's attention has turned to increasing and maintaining the doe harvest in order to control herd growth. This has been accomplished through liberalized antlerless bag limits, liberalized deer tagging regulations, increased seasons, and increased non-quota antlerless hunting opportunities. Overall, this strategy has worked relatively well, as most areas are harvesting the desired number of does (Tennessee Wildl. Res. Ag. 2005). The percentage of does in the overall harvest has increased steadily from 19% in 1984 to 32% in 1994 to 45% in 2004. In response to the growing popularity of quality deer management (QDM), the Agency has continually researched QDM initiatives. QDM is generally defined by three principles; •improving or providing optimum deer habitat •adequate doe harvest •maturation of the male segment of the herd Although the State does not argue the importance and legitimacy of all three practices, QDM can not be practiced on a statewide basis since it is impossible for the Agency to provide optimum habitat statewide due to the expanse and physiographic variability of the land. Therefore, QDM is best left as a management tool utilized by individual hunters and/or landowners. Statewide regulations have allowed QDM practitioners to implement their strategies with great success, while also keeping non-QDM practitioners happy. Human dimension studies conducted by the University of Tennessee show a deer hunting satisfaction rate of approximately 80% between the years 2000-2004. Historical data from Tennessee suggests that there has been no negative impact on the herd due to lower buck limits (11-buck limit pre-1998, 3-buck limit post-1998). A comparison of buck age structure from annual deer harvest suggests that the Tennessee deer herd compares favorably with those states with more restrictive buck regulations. It is the Agency’s belief that hunting opportunities should be as liberal as possible without having a negative impact on the herd; therefore, more restrictive regulations should not be adopted unless it is the will of the majority of the hunting public. The Agency’s deer management program has achieved an 82% approval rate utilizing this philosophy (University of Tennessee 2004). By all means, I'm not complaining, I love this area. I love the hunting that I'm fortunate enough to have here. I've learned a lot about hunting and how "to get it done" in the past few years by hunting different terrains here. I've cut my teeth on the hunting here, and it's always going to be what I'm used to, but my point is, Tennessee has the platform to have some quality deer within the state but as things stand, it's not going to change. Don't get me wrong, I've seen several 120-140 inch deer taken here but a buck of that caliber here, is the equivilent of a 160+ anywhere else IMO. I guess we all have opinions on what needs to be done in our own state, but that's just my view on the status 'here"
I would be interested to see the bowhunting harvest totals by state compared to the number of bowhunters. Then I would like to see the harvest numbers for bowhunters here, compared to the harvest totals taken during gun season, especially here.
