Ohio’s deer archery hunting season begins Sept. 28

Ohio’s deer archery hunting season will begin Saturday, Sept. 28, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife. Deer are Ohio’s most sought-after game animal and an important food source for families across the Buckeye State.

Ohio has an extensive archery season, open from Saturday, Sept. 28 through Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025. Hunters may use crossbows, compound bows, recurve bows and longbows to pursue deer during the archery season.

Bow hunting continues to be popular in Ohio, as shown by the record 100,951 deer taken during the 2023-24 archery season. Overall, hunters checked 213,928 deer in 2023-24.

October and November are the most popular months for hunting because of increased deer activity during their breeding season. More than two-thirds of all deer harvested in the 2023-24 season were checked in October and November. You can keep track of Ohio’s deer season harvest totals at www.wildohio.gov, with new totals posted each Wednesday of the deer season.

Ohio has additional deer hunting options to accompany the archery season. The two-day youth gun season is Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 16-17. The statewide seven-day gun season will begin Monday, Dec. 2 and continue through Sunday, Dec. 8. An additional two-day gun season for all hunters is Dec. 21-22, followed by late-season muzzleloader hunting Jan. 4-7, 2025.

Hunters are required to have a valid hunting license and deer permit before heading into the field. The deer-management permit, used for antlerless deer only, is now valid until the close of the bonus gun hunting weekend on Dec. 22. Deer-management permits, which offer cost savings over either-sex permits, can only be used on private land, in select public hunting areas and during controlled hunts. Either-sex permits can be used to harvest antlered or antlerless deer and are valid statewide until Feb. 2, 2025. Find more details in the 2024-25 Hunting and Trapping Regulations.

Hunting licenses and deer permits can be purchased on the free HuntFish OH mobile app. App users also can view maps of public hunting areas, see the current hunting regulations, view sunrise and sunset times, and check game without a cellular connection. The app is available for Android and iOS users in the app store. Nonresident students who are actively enrolled full-time in an Ohio college or university can purchase Ohio resident hunting licenses and permits. Licenses and permits also can be purchased online through the Ohio Wildlife Licensing System or at any license sales agent.

Through license and permit sales, hunters fund much of Ohio’s conservation work. Those funds, combined with sales taxes on hunting equipment administered to the Division of Wildlife, make possible Ohio’s wildlife research, wildlife management, habitat restoration, land acquisition and wildlife education work.