Hunters Put Down Bows, Pick Up Guns

CENTRAL OHIO -- Ohio's deer-gun season has opened with Ohio Department of Natural Resources' officials expecting hunters to bag at least 115,000 deer during the nine-day stint.

NBC 4's Paul Stelzer reported with the FAST FACTS.

The season that starts Monday will allow the legal hunting of white-tailed deer with a gun from one half-hour before sunrise to sunset through Dec. 7. The Ohio Division of Wildlife also has scheduled an extra weekend of gun hunting Dec. 20-21.

Officials estimated a pre-hunting season population of 700,000 white-tailed deer.

ODNR expected more than 400,000 hunters to participate in deer-gun season ; that estimate included thousands of out-of-state hunters who have come or will come to the Buckeye state.

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Trevor Justice is one of those hunters, and he shot a button buck, or young deer, in the Deer Creek Wildlife Area in Pickaway County Monday.

Justice, a Hillsboro resident, was happy to put down the bow and arrow and pick up a gun for hunting.

He said gun season brings a whole new level of excitement because you can drive the deer, and all the camaraderie makes it a lot more interesting.

Deer-gun season is so big in some parts of Central Ohio that school is closed so children can go hunting, too.

"I've only been hunting for the past two years, and it's better than going to school every day," student Zachary Sampson said.

"We should have really good numbers -- both deer out there and a good number of hunters out there to harvest the deer," ODNR's Ron Carter said.

ODNR partnered with Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry in an effort to encourage hunters to donate deer meat to Ohio food banks and pantries.

MEAT DONATIONS
Click here for information on Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry

Each organization chipped in $100,000 to pay for the donated meat processing. In the past, deer hunters typically paid their own processing costs before donating the meat.

Hunting-safety tips from ODNR:
- Wear hunter's orange.
- Leave a hunting plan with your family.
- Treat every gun as if it's loaded.
- When firing, know what's behind your target.
- Use a full-body harness in your tree stand.

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